Sony has announced the Xperia 1 VIII, its latest flagship smartphone, and once again, the emphasis is firmly on photography with hardware upgrades for the cameras and an interesting, perhaps controversial, new AI Camera Assistant feature that thinks it can make you a better, or at least, less involved, photographer.
Let's start with that new AI Camera Assistant, powered by Sony’s Xperia Intelligence. When you open the camera, it can analyze a scene and suggest one-click creative options, including color tones, lens choices, and bokeh effects. Sony says the recommendations are based on its Creative Look system, drawing on imaging ideas developed through its Alpha camera line, with the aim of helping you get more creative results without having to actually manually do any settings or editing.
I get that some people just want photos without the photography – and this is perfect for that, but firstly, I’m just not sure those people are buying an Xperia phone, which are generally renowned for their often quite geeky cameras. But also, it is a strange move from the world’s largest photography company to want to encourage people to do less actual photography. I know no one is forcing you to use these AI features, but it just feels like another little step in AI devaluing the skills of photographers.
But onto the phone hardware, and the telephoto camera has had a significant update, dropping the interesting, but expansive, 85-170mm mechanically zooming lens for a fixed 70mm equivalent focal length. The Xperia 1 VIII telephoto uses a new 1/1.56-inch sensor, which Sony says is around four times larger than the sensor used in the Xperia 1 VII – although not quite as large as many rival Ultra phones. But it should be a step forward for better long-range shooting in lower light, where telephoto cameras on phones often struggle most.
Sony says all three rear cameras, covering 16mm, 24mm, and 70mm focal lengths, deliver low-light performance comparable to a full-frame sensor in terms of noise reduction and dynamic range – on which I eagerly await our review (coming soon). The phone also applies RAW multi-frame processing across all lenses, combining HDR expansion with noise reduction to preserve detail in both highlights and shadows.
Style-wise, the Xperia 1 VIII also has had a significant redesign – introducing a new “ORE” design, inspired by natural textures and gemstones. It will be available in Graphite Black, Iolite Silver, Garnet Red, and a limited Native Gold, with tactile surface textures intended to improve grip. Sony’s dedicated camera shutter button remains, as does the 3.5mm headphone jack – a rarity on modern flagship phones.
Otherwise, the phone is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 platform, with Sony claiming a 20% performance boost over the previous model. Sony rates battery life at up to two days and four years of battery health. There is also a Bravia-branded screen and Sony Walkman audio.
The Xperia 1 VIII is available to pre-order now, priced at £1,399 / €1,499 for the 256GB model, and during the pre-order period, Sony is bundling its WH-1000XM6 headphones.
A 1TB Native Gold version will be sold exclusively through Sony online stores in select countries for £1,849 / €1,999.
