TL;DR
- The Xperia 10 VIII is official with the exact same hardware as the Xperia 10 VII.
- It comes with the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage.
- The cameras are also exactly the same as the Xperia 10 VII, and the display is 50% brighter.
After a couple of leaks, Sony has finally announced the new Xperia 10 VIII, and it’s basically the same phone as the Xperia 10 VII, bar one small upgrade and a new paint job.
Design
The Xperia 10 VIII looks almost exactly the same as the Xperia 10 VII. There’s the horizontal camera bar on the back, “Sony” branding on the camera island, and a front that looks remarkably out of date with thicker bezels on the top and bottom. It also retains the fingerprint scanner and the 3.5mm headphone jack, and Sony claims that the stereo speakers are now 30% louder.
Performance and Storage
Under the hood, the phone still comes with the aging Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 processor paired with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. It also has a dual-SIM slot and supports a microSD card, allowing storage expansion up to 2TB. MicroSD card support is a genuine plus, but it’s one of the few redeeming factors of the Xperia 10 VIII.
Display
The display is also mostly the same: a 6.1-inch FHD+ OLED screen with a 1,080 x 2,340 resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. The only notable difference from the Xperia 10 VII is that the new phone has a 50% brighter screen, according to Sony.
Cameras
On the back, the phone features a dual-camera setup with a 50MP primary camera and a 13MP ultrawide-angle camera — exactly the same configuration as the Xperia 10 VII. There’s also an 8MP selfie camera on the front.
Colors
At least the colors are new. Sony is offering the Xperia 10 VIII in three options: Frozen White, Misty Lilac, and Frosted Gray. However, even here, the Frosted Gray looks almost identical to the Xperia 10 VII’s Charcoal Black color, at least in official pictures.
Price and Availability
The Xperia 10 VIII is priced at €599 ($698) and will be available sometime in mid- to late September. By comparison, the Xperia 10 VII launched at €449 ($520), making Sony’s latest release feel more like a price hike on an existing device than a genuinely new one. Since the Xperia 10 VII never launched in the US, it’s highly unlikely the Xperia 10 VIII will either — Sony will most likely stick to its usual markets in the UK, Europe, and Japan.
