Amazon leak reveals Sony Xperia 1 VIII price and June 26 launch date

Sony's next flagship phone has been priced and dated by Amazon before Sony said a word. Listings on Amazon UK and Amazon Germany show the Xperia 1 VIII going on sale June 26, 2026, in a bundle priced at €1,868 / £1,728. That bundle appears to include Sony's WH-1000XM6 wireless headphones — which retail for around €400 — putting the phone itself somewhere in the €1,400–1,500 range, per Notebookcheck. Sony has not confirmed any of this officially.

The redesign

The biggest story here is not the price — it's the camera block. Sony is ditching the tall vertical camera strip that defined the Xperia line for years and replacing it with a square camera island, similar to what Apple and Google use. CAD renders that leaked earlier this year show three 48MP sensors in that new arrangement, with a telephoto lens among them.

The rest of the phone follows familiar Xperia logic: a flat 6.5-inch 4K OLED display at 120Hz and a 19.5:9 aspect ratio, Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and two physical SIM slots. Sony is also adding a feature it calls Xperia AI, aimed at photo processing and battery management — though exact capabilities have not been detailed. One notable uncertainty: microSD card support, a staple of previous Xperia flagships, has not been confirmed in any leak so far.

The competition

At €1,400–1,500, the Xperia 1 VIII lines up directly against the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and iPhone 16 Pro Max — neither of which is a comfortable opponent. The Galaxy S25 Ultra streets at around £1,199 in the UK, and both rivals benefit from broader carrier support and faster post-launch discounting.

Sony's own track record adds context: the Xperia 1 VII launched at £1,399 in June 2025 but dropped 10–15% within three months. The bundled-headphones pre-order strategy is the same one Sony used for the VII, which means the true device cost is partially obscured at launch. The Xperia 1 VII also did not launch in the United States — a gap that has persisted for three consecutive years — and there is no indication yet that the VIII will change that, per IBTimes AU.

What to expect

UK and EU availability is confirmed via the Amazon listings, with pre-orders expected around the June 26 date. If Sony follows its recent pattern, wider retail availability — and meaningful price cuts — should follow within the summer. The square camera redesign is the clearest sign yet that Sony is trying to broaden the Xperia's appeal beyond its core enthusiast base, though with under 1% global smartphone market share, it has a steep hill to climb.