The ‘New’ Sony Xperia 10 VIII Is Basically the Same Phone At a Higher Price

Aug 25, 2026 - 19:23

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The ‘New’ Sony Xperia 10 VIII Is Basically the Same Phone At a Higher Price

Four Sony Xperia smartphones are displayed against a white background, with one showing the front screen and three standing upright showing their rear camera modules in white, lavender, and black.

Sony has announced the Xperia 10 VIII, its latest midrange smartphone. In many ways, it’s a familiar phone to the redesigned Mark VII released last November. One key difference, though, is that it costs a lot more this time around.

The new phone has mostly the same 6.1-inch OLED screen as last year’s model, although Sony claims it is about 50 percent brighter than before, promising improved visibility in daylight. Sony doesn’t say precisely how bright the screen is, though.

Sony adds that the phone’s audio is improved, boasting “clearer and more powerful sound with improved overall volume and stronger bass.”

The chip inside is the same this go around, with Sony sticking with the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chip with 8GB of RAM. It is at least an efficient chip, as the Xperia 10 VIII promises up to two days of use based on the “standard battery usage profile of Xperia users.”

Three Sony smartphones in charcoal, mint green, and light purple are arranged diagonally against a white background.

As for cameras, the Xperia 10 VIII sports the same two-camera setup as before. The main camera has a 50-megapixel Type 1/1.56 image sensor paired with a 24mm equivalent f/1.9 lens. This camera uses a 2x digital crop to deliver a 48mm equivalent field of view in lieu of a dedicated telephoto camera.

The second rear camera is an ultrawide module. It has a relatively small 13-megapixel Type 1/3 image sensor and a 16mm equivalent focal length.

Three Sony Xperia smartphones in light purple, light green, and black are arranged diagonally against a white background.

By far the biggest change with the Xperia 10 VIII is its price tag. The Xperia 10 VII launched for just £399 in the United Kingdom last autumn, which is a reasonable price for its specs. The Xperia 10 VIII is arguably less reasonably priced, this time starting at £549 in the United Kingdom, a 38 percent increase without any commensurate performance or feature upgrades.

There’s good reason to believe the Xperia 10 VIII is just the latest victim of the AI data center-driven inflation in the memory market, and it will be very interesting to see what other new phones this year are affected in similar ways.

As has been the case with all recent Sony Xperia smartphones, including the relatively interesting Xperia 1 VIII released in May, the Xperia 10 VIII won’t officially be coming to the United States.

Image creditsSony