Sony Xperia 1 VIII is official, Xiaomi 17 Max is coming – week 20 in review

Sony unveiled its Xperia 1 VIII flagship with a new design, but the old core specs and idea. There’s a new 1/1.56-inch telephoto camera – a four times larger sensor with four times the resolution compared to what’s in the Mark VII.

The new 48MP tele is locked at 2.9x (70mm). The other two cameras are the same – 24mm f/1.9 and 16mm f/2.0. Add a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, just 12GB of RAM, and a 5,000mAh battery.

The Xperia 1 VIII is on sale from €1,500/£1,400 for the base 12/512GB config.

Xiaomi confirmed that we’re getting a 17 Max. The phone will launch later this month in China. It will have a flat 6.9-inch screen, a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 SoC, and an 8,000mAh battery with 100W charging. It is said to get a triple-rear camera setup with a 200MP 1/1.4-inch main sensor, a 50MP periscope telephoto, and another 50MP ultrawide camera.

A fourth Gold color option is expected to arrive later.

The handset is currently available for pre-order in China.

This is just a pre-order – the phone won’t actually ship until June 19.

A fourth Gold color option is expected to arrive later.

Samsung began seeding the One UI 8.5 to the Galaxy S (S23, S24, and S25), Fold, Flip (6 and 7), and Tab (S10 and S11) series globally. The firmware brings a lot of AI.

Meanwhile, Samsung announced the One UI 9 beta for the Galaxy S26 series. Based on Android 17, the beta will be up in Germany, India, Korea, Poland, the U.K., and the U.S starting this week. They can apply to join the beta program via the Samsung Members app.

Samsung also began selling refurbished phones in India. Right now, you can buy a Certified Re-Newed Galaxy S25 Ultra with 256GB of storage for INR 97,499, a Galaxy S25 with 256GB of storage for INR 58,749, a Galaxy A56 with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for INR 31,499, a Galaxy A56 with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for INR 32,749, and a Galaxy A36 with 128GB of storage for INR 23,249. They have the same 1-year warranty as new phones.

Samsung brings a lot of new AI features and improvements to its older models.

It will be available to Galaxy S26 users in select markets, including Germany, India, Korea, Poland, the U.K. and the U.S starting this week.

They come with the same warranty as new devices.

Check out our comprehensive comparison between three over-head active noise cancelling headphones – the Apple AirPods Max 2, the Sennheiser HDB 630, and the Sony WH-1000XM6.

It’s set to debut the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Leading Version chipset.