Sony will launch its new top phone, the Xperia 1 VIII, on May 13, 2026 at 11:00 AM Japan time. The company shared the date with a “Next ONE is coming” video on YouTube and social media.
This phone is Sony’s main model for 2026 and comes after the Xperia 1 VII from May 2025. Leaks and store listings say global sales should start around June 26, 2026.
The Xperia 1 VIII keeps Sony’s tall and narrow shape but changes the back camera look. It no longer has the long vertical strip from older phones. It now uses a square camera box. The main and ultra-wide cameras are at the top of the box, and the zoom camera is below them. Zeiss branding is on the back, so Sony is still working with Zeiss.
The phone will come in Graphite Black, Iolite Silver, and Garnet Red. A gold color is also rumored but was not in the leaked images. The front still has borders above and below the screen, with the selfie camera in the top border instead of a hole. There is a camera button on the side, a flat screen, and a metal frame. Sony keeps the 3.5mm headphone jack, which is rare for 2026 top phones.
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The screen is a 6.5-inch OLED with Full HD+ at 1080 x 2340 pixels and a 19.5:9 shape. It has 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touch response. The screen uses Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and Sony says about 86.5% of the front is screen.
For speed, the phone uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip with a 4.6 GHz eight-core CPU and Adreno 840 GPU. It has 12 GB LPDDR5X RAM and 256 GB storage, plus a slot for microSD cards. It runs Android 16 and has Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, USB-C 3.2, NFC, and IP66 water and dust protection up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes.
The camera setup has three rear lenses. Leaks show a 48 MP main camera at 24mm, a 48 MP ultra-wide at 16mm, and a 48 MP zoom at 70mm with periscope zoom. The zoom sensor is bigger than before, between 1/3.0-inch and 1/2.0-inch, to help in low light.
Features include Zeiss T* coating, color sensor, Eye Tracking, HDR, and manual photo and video controls from Sony’s Alpha cameras. Video can record in 4K at 60 fps and 1080p at 60 fps. The front camera is 12 MP and also records 4K at 60 fps. Sony adds new “Xperia AI” tools for photos and videos.
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Battery life is up to two days with a 5,000 mAh battery. The phone supports 45W fast charging, and a 5-minute charge gives about 90 minutes of use. Other features are stereo speakers, a side fingerprint sensor, face unlock, barometer, and the headphone jack. Leaked Amazon Germany pricing shows EUR 1,868.99, which is about Rs 2,08,000. In the UK the price is £1,728, about Rs 2,22,000.
In Germany the price is around $2,196. The listings suggest Sony may include WH-1000XM6 headphones, so the phone-only price could be lower. The Xperia 1 VIII will be sold in Japan, Europe, and Asia based on model number XQ-GE44 found in the IMEI database. No US release is planned according to the model codes seen so far.