If there is one smartphone brand that has confused everyone with the naming style of its smartphones, then that’s Sony. For example, the Sony Xperia 1 is a flagship from the company, whereas the Sony Xperia 10 is a mid-range phone. Sony Xperia 5 is a flagship while the Sony Xperia 8 launched today in Japan, which is a mid-ranger. So yes, it’s pretty confusing & in future, Sony might have to start a whole new series to bring this confusion to an end.
Anyways, this article is about the latest addition to Sony’s smartphone lineup, the Xperia 8. It is a mid-range device will some new stuff like a 21:9 display but also some old stuff like the Snapdragon 630 SOC. And in typical Sony fashion, it is quite an overpriced phone as it starts at JPY 54,000 which translates to around $500!
SONY XPERIA 8 – DESIGN & SPECIFICATIONS
The design is pretty similar to the Sony Xperia 10 Plus as it has the same design from the front & the rear. So, there is a 21:9 display on the front with a big top bezel, a dual-camera setup on the rear placed in the middle, a side-facing fingerprint scanner, USB Type-C port on the bottom, & headphone jack on top. The design is premium with Corning Gorilla Glass 6 on the front as well as the rear & a metal frame.
The display on the front is a 6.0-inch Full-HD+ LCD panel with 21:9 aspect ratio. Under the hood, there is an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 SOC clocked at up to 2.2GHz, 4GB RAM & 64GB internal storage. You can add a microSD card up to 512GB to expand the storage further. Android 9 Pie runs out of the box with Sony’s custom skin on top.
Coming to the cameras, there is a dual-camera setup on the rear that includes a primary 12-megapixel camera with f/1.8 aperture & a secondary 8MP telephoto camera with f/2.4 aperture & 2X Optical Zoom. On the front, there is an 8 Megapixel selfie camera with f/2.0 aperture. The main camera can shoot 4K videos while the front camera can shoot up to 1080p videos.
There is a 2,760mAH battery underneath with 18W Fast Charging via USB Type-C port. The Sony Xperia 8 does have a headphone jack & for better audio output, there is LDAC & Hi-Res Audio support. The device is also IP65/68 rated for dust & water resistance.
SONY XPERIA 8 – PRICING & AVAILABILITY
The Xperia 8 launched exclusively in the Japanese market & as mentioned in the beginning, the price is 54,000 JPY that translates to around $500. It comes in Black, White, Orange & Blue colour options & would be available to buy in Japan from Late October.