Sony’s Xperia 1 VIII continues 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 final 4 generations of Xperia cellphone.

It’s not all completely 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 bold 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’d like 1TB of storage.

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

Sony’s Xperia 1 telephones have regarded virtually similar to 1 one other since 2020. It was a fairly good-looking design, to be truthful, however most likely overdue sprucing up. The 1 VIII does simply that, shifting to a blocky new digicam island and an uncommon textured end that make the cellphone really feel very completely different to each earlier Xperia.

I’m an enormous fan of the design, which has a stark, brutalist high quality. The barely grippy texture — a bit like an extremely advantageous nail file — was designed to differ subtly between the again and body, which helps forestall the cellphone from feeling like a monotone slab. The texture helps promote the cellphone’s excessive worth 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 satisfy the body. Sony’s regular knurled two-stage digicam shutter button returns, including one other textural aspect and improved digicam controls. Unfortunately, so does the recessed energy button and fingerprint sensor, which is much less dependable than fashionable under-display choices. It fails a couple of third of the time I attempt 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 type of antenna cutout? I’ve requested Sony.

Sony way back gave up on utilizing its distinctive 21:9, 4K shows on the Xperia lineup. The 1 VIII makes use of a much less spectacular 1080p show in an ordinary smartphone side ratio. The decision is low for this grade of cellphone, however in any other case I can’t complain concerning the panel, which is a 6.5-inch, 120Hz OLED with first rate brightness. I do nonetheless miss the taller screens Sony telephones used to supply, although. Unlike most rivals, the show can be completely uninterrupted by a digicam cutout, notch, or Dynamic Island. The tradeoff is the moderately thick bezel above and beneath the display screen, 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, crimson, 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 cellphone’s lustrous end and built-in headphone jack can take pleasure in the identical luxuries right here for quadruple the worth.

What is outstanding is that Sony has managed to make the 8 Elite Gen 5 carry out fairly poorly. While the cellphone runs easily nearly all of the time, I’ve run into repeated stuttering and slowdowns, particularly within the digicam or whereas switching between apps. It will get scorching, too. Using 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 scorching 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. This will final the day except you push it arduous, however count on to cost each 24 hours. That would possibly take a while too, given the 30W max velocity, considerably slower than most rivals. Only Google’s Pixel 10 Pro fees fairly so slowly.

I’ve higher information on the digicam entrance. After years of carving its personal path, Sony has taken the “in the event you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” approach to its Chinese flagship rivals, abandoning its clever continuous zoom lens and instead packing the 1 VIII with the biggest telephoto sensor it could fit. That Sony dropped continuous zoom in the same year Xiaomi finally copied it and did it better feels like a cruel twist of fate.

Still, what the 2.9x (70mm-equivalent) telephoto lens here loses in versatility by giving up continuous zoom it more than makes up for in quality. That’s pushed principally by the transfer to a big 48-megapixel, 1/1.56-inch-type sensor — the identical measurement because the ultrawide’s and virtually as huge because the 1/1.35-inch-type fundamental digicam sensor. Those different cameras, together with the 12-megapixel selfie shooter, are unchanged from final yr.

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 larger distinction and barely extra muted colours than another telephones, and nighttime photographs come out sharp and well-exposed too, although nonetheless wrestle with brilliant streetlights. This is unquestionably Sony’s finest cellphone digicam but and holds its personal towards the competitors.

That is, apart from the egregious new AI Camera Assistant. More typically than not, whenever you’re attempting 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 images, 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. Occasionally one will embody algorithmically generated bokeh, and Sony claims it could possibly additionally recommend lens swaps for higher framing, however this has but to occur to me. Every 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. Fortunately, you may flip it off, and if I wasn’t reviewing the cellphone, I’d have executed so instantly.

The AI digicam options really feel emblematic of Sony’s Xperia line, which at all times 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 new design language is putting and distinctive. The digicam is the most effective it’s ever been. Sony’s comparatively easy, streamlined tackle Android 16 has its enchantment too, however a meager promise of 4 OS updates and 6 years of safety assist provides me pause. It has its irritating quirks too: it retains insisting on creating dwelling display screen folders, including Facebook to my Instagram icon to make a Meta folder, and throwing a complete host of Google apps on high of Google Maps. Throw within the middling battery, efficiency issues, and excessive worth, and the 1 VIII is difficult to suggest to the typical 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 at all times was: a cellphone for the fanboys. The remainder of us can do higher.

Photography by Dominic Preston / The Verge