Sony’s Xperia 1 VIII remains to be a cellphone for the followers

The Xperia 1 VIII marks an try at a step change for Sony’s flagship cellphone line. Not solely has it had an aesthetic overhaul, however Sony has additionally revamped the digicam system, dropping the continual optical zoom telephoto that’s outlined the last four generations of Xperia phone.

It’s not all totally different. Sony staples like a 3.5mm headphone jack and microSD card slot stay, and some particular design touches, like a thick entrance bezel that matches stereo audio system, have stayed intact. Sony’s formidable pricing hasn’t modified both: The Xperia 1 VIII isn’t launching within the US, however within the UK and Europe, it begins from £1,399 / €1,499 (about $1,850), rising to £1,849 / €1,999 ($2,450) if you need 1TB of storage.

For Sony diehards, this delivers the flagship necessities, together with a succesful digicam, and appears good doing it. For everybody else, you’ll find higher Android telephones at this value, like Xiaomi’s 17 Ultra or the Vivo X300 Ultra.

Sony’s Xperia 1 telephones have seemed nearly equivalent to 1 one other since 2020. It was a reasonably good-looking design, to be honest, however most likely overdue sprucing up. The 1 VIII does simply that, transferring to a blocky new digicam island and an uncommon textured end that make the cellphone really feel very totally different to each earlier Xperia.

I’m a giant fan of the design, which has a stark, brutalist high quality. The marginally grippy texture — a bit like an extremely wonderful nail file — was designed to differ subtly between the again and body, which helps stop the cellphone from feeling like a monotone slab. The feel helps promote the cellphone’s excessive value even higher than ultrasmooth glass would possibly (not that this isn’t glass, with Gorilla Glass Victus on the rear and Victus 2 on the entrance).

I like the small print, like how the digicam island’s edges drop off steeply on three sides, whereas on the final it angles down to fulfill the body. Sony’s ordinary knurled two-stage digicam shutter button returns, including one other textural factor and improved digicam controls. Sadly, so does the recessed energy button and fingerprint sensor, which is much less dependable than trendy under-display choices. It fails a few third of the time I strive it. I’m additionally confused by the odd rectangular patch above the amount button, which has an particularly tough texture and appears prefer it ought to do one thing, however doesn’t. Is it some kind of antenna cutout? I’ve requested Sony.

Sony way back gave up on utilizing its unique 21:9, 4K displays on the Xperia lineup. The 1 VIII makes use of a much less spectacular 1080p show in a typical smartphone side ratio. The decision is low for this grade of cellphone, however in any other case I can’t complain in regards to the panel, which is a 6.5-inch, 120Hz OLED with respectable brightness. I do nonetheless miss the taller screens Sony telephones used to supply, although. Not like most rivals, the show can also be totally uninterrupted by a digicam cutout, notch, or Dynamic Island. The tradeoff is the fairly thick bezel above and under the display, which homes the digicam and a pair of stereo audio system (good for cellphone audio system, however nonetheless cellphone audio system).

The Xperia 1 VIII’s internals are unremarkable, with the identical Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset you’ll discover on most comparable handsets. It’s paired with both 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage — out there in black, purple, or silver variations of the cellphone — or 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. That mannequin is simply out there in gold, which means that anybody tempted by the Trump phone’s lustrous end and built-in headphone jack can get pleasure from the identical luxuries right here for quadruple the worth.

What is exceptional is that Sony has managed to make the 8 Elite Gen 5 carry out fairly poorly. Whereas the cellphone runs easily the vast majority of the time, I’ve run into repeated stuttering and slowdowns, particularly within the digicam or whereas switching between apps. It will get sizzling, too. Utilizing the cellphone to file the audio of a latest press occasion, with real-time AI transcription operating, it turned worryingly heat after simply half-hour or so, and because the hourlong name ended, it was sizzling to the contact.

I don’t love the battery both. Sony claims you’ll get two days of life out of the 5,000mAh cell, however I don’t see how. I’m a light-to-moderate person more often than not, and I’ve dipped into single-digit territory by bedtime greater than as soon as. It will final the day except you push it exhausting, however anticipate to cost each 24 hours. That may take a while too, given the 30W max velocity, considerably slower than most rivals. Solely Google’s Pixel 10 Pro prices fairly so slowly.

I’ve higher information on the digicam entrance. After years of carving its personal path, Sony has taken the “should you can’t beat ‘em, be a part of ‘em” strategy to its Chinese language flagship rivals, abandoning its intelligent steady zoom lens and as an alternative packing the 1 VIII with the most important telephoto sensor it may match. That Sony dropped steady zoom in the identical yr Xiaomi finally copied it and did it higher seems like a merciless coincidence.

Nonetheless, what the two.9x (70mm-equivalent) telephoto lens right here loses in versatility by giving up steady zoom it greater than makes up for in high quality. That’s pushed principally by the transfer to a big 48-megapixel, 1/1.56-inch-type sensor — the identical dimension because the ultrawide’s and nearly as huge because the 1/1.35-inch-type important digicam sensor. These different cameras, together with the 12-megapixel selfie shooter, are unchanged from last year.

The telephoto and the ultrawide are the 2 standouts, each utilizing comparatively massive sensors in comparison with the competitors. I’m a fan of Sony’s daytime processing, which leans towards increased distinction and barely extra muted colours than another telephones, and nighttime pictures come out sharp and well-exposed too, although nonetheless battle with shiny streetlights. That is positively Sony’s greatest cellphone digicam but and holds its personal towards the competitors.

That’s, aside from the egregious new AI Camera Assistant. Most of the time, if you’re making an attempt to take a shot with the rear digicam (not selfies — don’t ask me why), a pop-up seems with 4 AI-suggested edits to your pictures, earlier than you even take them. The overwhelming majority of those are merely overaggressive filters, both ramping up distinction or dialling again saturation, typically to comically unhealthy impact. Often one will embody algorithmically generated bokeh, and Sony claims it will probably additionally recommend lens swaps for higher framing, however this has but to occur to me. Each single suggestion has been markedly worse than the default digicam settings, and the pop-up alone is a distracting annoyance that appears to make the digicam app sluggish. Happily, you’ll be able to flip it off, and if I wasn’t reviewing the cellphone, I’d have achieved so instantly.

The AI digicam recommendations really feel emblematic of Sony’s Xperia line, which all the time delivers a formidable quantity on paper after which contrives to journey itself up. The headphone jack, expandable storage, and stereo audio system are nice. The brand new design language is placing and distinctive. The digicam is the most effective it’s ever been. Sony’s comparatively easy, streamlined tackle Android 16 has its attraction too, however a meager promise of 4 OS updates and 6 years of safety assist offers me pause. It has its irritating quirks too: it retains insisting on creating residence display folders, including Fb to my Instagram icon to make a Meta folder, and throwing an entire host of Google apps on high of Google Maps. Throw within the middling battery, efficiency issues, and excessive value, and the 1 VIII is difficult to advocate to the common flagship purchaser.

All of which leaves Sony again the place it began. It redesigned the Xperia, rethought its digicam, and simplified its software program, however that is nonetheless what it all the time was: a cellphone for the fanboys. The remainder of us can do higher.

Images by Dominic Preston / The Verge