The Sony Xperia 1 VIII is the anti-flagship flagship: headphone jack, microSD, and thick bezels in 2026

[DragonSlayer101]

What just happened? Sony exited the global smartphone market several years ago, but it continues to launch new models annually in Japan and Europe. The company has now unveiled its latest flagship smartphone, the Xperia 1 VIII, featuring a retro-inspired design and several once-popular features that have largely disappeared from modern smartphones.

The Xperia 1 VIII features a 6.5-inch LTPO AMOLED display with a 2,340 × 1,080 resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate, and Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection. It retains Sony's trademark thick top and bottom bezels, which house the selfie camera, sensors, and front-firing stereo speakers. Other nostalgic features include a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a hybrid slot supporting both a nano SIM and a microSD card.

While some of these features still appear in mid-range and entry-level devices, they have largely disappeared from flagship smartphones as consumer electronics brands increasingly prioritize form over function across their product portfolios – much to the frustration of enthusiasts and power users.

Nostalgia aside, the new Xperia features top-tier hardware worthy of a flagship device. It is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 SoC, paired with either 12GB or 16GB of RAM and 256GB or 1TB of storage. The device also includes a 5,000mAh battery with 30W wired charging, 15W wireless charging, and reverse wireless charging support. Additional features include a dedicated camera shutter button and IP65/IP68 water and dust resistance.

Imaging duties are handled by a triple-camera setup on the rear, headlined by a 48MP 1/1.35-inch primary sensor with 1.12µm pixels. It is paired with a 24mm wide-angle lens featuring an f/1.9 aperture, along with PDAF, OIS, and EIS assisted by a 5-axis gyroscope. The camera is also capable of recording 4K video at up to 120 fps.

The other two rear cameras include a 48MP 1/1.56-inch ultrawide sensor with 1.0µm pixels, a 16mm focal length, an f/2.0 aperture, and PDAF support, as well as a 48MP 1/1.56-inch telephoto sensor with 1.0µm pixels paired with a 70mm periscope lens offering 2.9x optical zoom, an f/2.8 aperture, dual-pixel PDAF, and OIS.

On the front, the new Xperia features a 12MP selfie camera with a 1/2.9-inch sensor, 1.22µm pixels, and a 24mm wide-angle lens with an f/2.0 aperture.

On the software side, the Xperia 1 VIII runs Android 16, featuring a clean AOSP-based build with a handful of additional features including an AI camera assistant similar to Google's Camera Coach. Sony has committed to four years of Android updates and an additional two years of security patches.

The Xperia 1 VIII is available for pre-order in the UK at £1,399 (around $1,889) and in select EU markets for €1,499 (around $1,743). The pricing is higher than that of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra or Google Pixel 10 Pro XL, but Sony is sweetening the deal by offering a free WH-1000XM6 headset with all pre-orders.

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The Sony Xperia 1 VIII is the anti-flagship flagship: headphone jack, microSD, and thick bezels in 2026

 

[polord]

Nice phone, but 6 years security updates for that price…pff

 

[guillejp]

Sony is completely out of their mind with their prices while having a market share of 0.01% worldwide.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Sony should have the best cameras since they sell the sensors to other phone manufacturers.

But I can't do Android (at least until Apple ruins their OS a bit more).

 

[The Talking Tech]

They had me interested until I read "and it costs more than Samsung's best phone"

Then I said "No Thank you"...It's so Sony to try to scrap every penny out of everyone.

 

[guillejp]

Sony should have the best cameras since they sell the sensors to other phone manufacturers.

But I can't do Android (at least until Apple ruins their OS a bit more).

Watch out, no... Cameras today are about the postprocessing much more than the hardware. And it's not like either they could do something with the experience of manufacturing just the hardware, or they could build themselves top-secret sauce cameras. It's about the ISP software capabilities and tuning. That's why they don't have the 'best cameras'.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Watch out, no... Cameras today are about the postprocessing much more than the hardware. And it's not like either they could do something with the experience of manufacturing just the hardware, or they could build themselves top-secret sauce cameras. It's about the ISP software capabilities and tuning. That's why they don't have the 'best cameras'.

If only Sony had access to pro grade cameras... oh wait. They are the dominant player globally for that too.

 

[airbornex]

Nice phone, but 6 years security updates for that price…pff

Four years of Android updates on a nearly $2,000 phone in 2026 is genuinely embarrassing.

 

[Alpine7995]

The 3.5mm jack, microSD slot, front-firing speakers, dedicated shutter button, clean Android — this is basically a greatest hits album of features that other manufacturers killed off one by one while telling us we didn't really want them anyway.

The problem is Sony kept all the features and also kept the price. Including a free pair of $400 headphones with a $1,700 phone is a neat trick, but still overly expensive.

 

[ActualViking]

I'm very happy with my Sony Xperia 1 V , great screen, great camera, fast fingerprint sensor... and it has a camera button with a partial click like on classic cameras.
Compared to my Samsung work phone, the Sony is much more substantial feeling to use.

My next phone is likely to also be a Sony, but so far I am happy with the one I have despite it being 2½+ years old.

 

[opckieran]

If only it were $1000 cheaper...

 

[p51d007]

Sony Sony Sony...DO YOU NOT understand how the (so called) free market works?
All everyone sees (America) when they walk into a carrier store, big box store etc
is APPLE, SAMSUNG, GOOGLE maybe a few Motorola & OnePlus etc.
It's not the 80's when the Sony Walkman was king and everyone had one. It's not
the 90's when the Sony VCR's, TV's, then the CD, blueray's were king.
Yeah, people know Sony, but ask the kids/young adults what they are buying and it
will mostly be Apple, Samsung, Google.
If Sony REALLY wanted to climb out of the cellar, they should price the phone as a loss
looser or break even.
Remember when NO ONE had heard about (outside the USA) of Oppo? Then they came
up with the OnePlus phone, had a crazy marketing scheme, sold the phone CHEAPER
that most flagships and they gained market share and now a lot of people (in the west)
know who Oppo/OnePlus is.
Sony Sony Sony...not a bad phone. I LOVE the idea of removable SD card and headphone
jack, but that price isn't going to get a lot of people to buy it.

and it costs more than Samsung's best phone

 

[SRB]

If only Sony had access to pro grade cameras... oh wait. They are the dominant player globally for that too.

Yeah, but those cameras are designed to reproduce what we see as closely as possible. Not make smoothed oversaturated images that attract viewers on Tic-Tok and instagram.

 

[guillejp]

If only Sony had access to pro grade cameras... oh wait. They are the dominant player globally for that too.

Again, NO, unrelated; Postprocessing is much more about tuning towards certain goals and overall resulting look, whatever you start with. That target look and the logic in between to achieve it is what you have to mature now, not the hardware and raw image quality.

 

[IMABEARLOL]

Needed removable battery, MicroSD EXPRESS, and to cost LESS than other flagship phones...

That update schedule makes this DOA for anyone that cared about the throwback features too.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Sony should have the best cameras since they sell the sensors to other phone manufacturers.

But I can't do Android (at least until Apple ruins their OS a bit more).

If only Sony had access to pro grade cameras... oh wait. They are the dominant player globally for that too.

None of that matters, as Sony has long had the worst post processing of any android phone outside el cheap no name $100 phones. It has been a chronic weakness that Sony, bafflingly, has refused to fix.

Sony Sony Sony...DO YOU NOT understand how the (so called) free market works?
All everyone sees (America) when they walk into a carrier store, big box store etc
is APPLE, SAMSUNG, GOOGLE maybe a few Motorola & OnePlus etc.
It's not the 80's when the Sony Walkman was king and everyone had one. It's not
the 90's when the Sony VCR's, TV's, then the CD, blueray's were king.
Yeah, people know Sony, but ask the kids/young adults what they are buying and it
will mostly be Apple, Samsung, Google.
If Sony REALLY wanted to climb out of the cellar, they should price the phone as a loss
looser or break even.
Remember when NO ONE had heard about (outside the USA) of Oppo? Then they came
up with the OnePlus phone, had a crazy marketing scheme, sold the phone CHEAPER
that most flagships and they gained market share and now a lot of people (in the west)
know who Oppo/OnePlus is.
Sony Sony Sony...not a bad phone. I LOVE the idea of removable SD card and headphone
jack, but that price isn't going to get a lot of people to buy it.

and it costs more than Samsung's best phone

Sony has lost money on their mobile division for 15 years. It didnt get them the marketshare you think it would.

The 3.5mm jack, microSD slot, front-firing speakers, dedicated shutter button, clean Android — this is basically a greatest hits album of features that other manufacturers killed off one by one while telling us we didn't really want them anyway.

The problem is Sony kept all the features and also kept the price. Including a free pair of $400 headphones with a $1,700 phone is a neat trick, but still overly expensive.

If they threw in a removable battery and 8+ years of security updates I'd be just fine with paying that much. But not only is it only 4 years of feature/6 years of security, its also not officially available in the US which means support with carriers would be absolute hell.

 

[J95qRP7]

Honestly, the way Android seems to be heading, I'd be happy with the 6 years of security updates this phone offers. You can keep the new android versions. It is a shame about the price. I loved my old Experia phones and the finger print sensor in the power button. LOVED IT.

 

[Jack77]

The worst thing here that if it fails because of bad pricing, someone higher-up at Sony will say: "See, told you it did't work. No-one wants a phone with such outdated features."

 

[Thatsdisgusting]

Remember when NO ONE had heard about (outside the USA) of OPPO

I’ve heard…cuz owned one. HA2-SE was the best DAC among all, before I got mojo2
It was rude for oppo to stop producing dacs like that

 

[VariableSpike]

Monstrously expensive though, with slow charging and cameras that don't exactly knock the ball out of the park in features, quality, functionality etc. vs what you'd expect from Sony as a camera maker, so while having no headphone jack or expandable storage is a pain if you have a high end smartphone, I'm not sure this is a solution either (from memory, Sony's phones like to run hot and downgrade performance too, so its not like you get 100% of that either)

 

[Anton Longshot]

One day we'll laugh at ourselves for considering the latest & greatest smartphones of 2026 (and earlier) actually great.

As for myself...sure I really like my SE but not because it's great but because it's useful for my use case. Other products in the category aren't 'better' as they're way more expensive and come with features I don't want. Or Android haha.
A headphone jack would be nice-ish but the little dongle that replaces it works too.

I think I'll live to see the screened metal rectangles disappear from our daily lives.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Again, NO, unrelated; Postprocessing is much more about tuning towards certain goals and overall resulting look, whatever you start with. That target look and the logic in between to achieve it is what you have to mature now, not the hardware and raw image quality.

Again. Sony sells alpha full frame digital cameras to pros and hobbyists like myself. It has advanced processing. And skin smoothing plus pump the vibrance and contrast are baby level processing even if the social media obsessed love it.

 

[guillejp]

Again. Sony sells alpha full frame digital cameras to pros and hobbyists like myself. It has advanced processing. And skin smoothing plus pump the vibrance and contrast are baby level processing even if the social media obsessed love it.

Again x2, guess what's missing on their phones that everyone else is doing? Yep. Not hardware, but "good" postprocessing for phones.

 

[Gars]

Its so SONY....

 

[TouCane]

Did some research. In the Netherlands, this phone will cost a whopping 50 euros more than the Galaxy s26 ultra if I buy it on Samsung's website. Now, that is for the 12gb/512gb option, and they didn't mention whether the 1500 euros sony is for the 12tb/256gb or 16gb/1tb version. Still cheaper than some Iphone 17 pro max models, so I dont really get the point of it being that bad.