The Sony Xperia 1 VIII feels like it’s from a different timeline – one where smartphone makers didn’t remove the microSD slot and the 3.5mm headphone jack, where they didn’t adopt punch-hole displays… or big, fast-charging batteries.
We’re not going to sugarcoat it, the Mark 8 flagship has a hefty starting price of €1,500 / £1,400 and the inclusion of a free pair of the excellent WH-1000XM6 doesn’t quite make up for the fact that you are only getting a 5,000mAh battery with 30W wired and 15W wireless charging (no magnets either). A lot of people in the comments under the announcement news were upset about that.
The 6.5” 1080p+ display is not as sharp as the 1440p+ panels typically found on €1,000+ phones. The list of issues continues – cooling for the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip could have been better. Having only 12GB of RAM and only 256GB of storage for this price is less than ideal too – yes, you have the option to add extra storage, but microSD cards aren’t as cheap as they used to be. You can check out our detailed review for more.
We want to focus on the new telephoto camera a bit – in a way, it’s boring since it’s a high resolution sensor behind a lens with a fixed focal length, not unlike most flagships out there. Yep, the continuous zoom mechanism is gone. That said, the new 48MP 2.9x/70mm module produces sharper images than the Mark 7 camera did at 70mm. And it’s better in low-light scenes too.
Xperia 1 VIII: microSD slot • 3.5mm jack • shutter key • new telephoto camera
In fact, all three rear cameras produced good results in all lighting conditions. And all three support 4K videos at 120fps. Even so, you can get better cameras on a similarly priced Ultra phone from other makers. Those boast the camera pedigree of brands like Hasselblad, Zeiss and Leica – there’s more out there than Sony Alpha is what we’re saying. And the AI features that Sony integrated into the camera left a lot to be desired.
How do you feel about the Sony Xperia 1 VIII? We know that the series has its die-hard fans and that it’s a niche product that most people ignore. Which group do you belong to?
