Sony Xperia 10 VIII costs €599

A double press of the power button will open a “Rewards & Pay” menu for payments and loyalty cards directly on the Sony Xperia 10 VIII in the future. At the same time, Sony is setting the price of its new mid-range smartphone at €599—€150 more than the Xperia 10 VII. The device is expected to be available in Germany and Austria from late September.

Technically, much remains unchanged. The Snapdragon 6 Gen 3, a Qualcomm processor from 2024, is once again paired with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of flash storage. New is the ability to use 6 GB of the storage as virtual RAM. A microSDXC card can also expand the storage by up to 2 TB—an option that has become rare in smartphones.

The most visible improvement is in the display: According to Sony, the 6.1-inch OLED with 1080 × 2340 pixels and up to 120 hertz is supposed to be around 50 percent brighter than its predecessor. This should improve readability in direct sunlight. The cameras, on the other hand, remain unchanged: Sony is carrying over a 50-megapixel wide-angle camera, a 13-megapixel ultrawide camera with a 123-degree field of view and an 8-megapixel selfie camera.

The battery and ports are also unchanged. The 5000-mAh battery, 3.5-millimeter headphone jack and IP68 protection against water and dust remain part of the package. According to the manufacturer, the front-facing stereo speakers are supposed to play around 15 percent louder, while the bass is said to be more than 30 percent stronger. These are manufacturer claims; heise online does not cite any independent measurements.

What about the rest? For buyers, the Xperia 10 VIII primarily means a more readable display, expandable storage and a more convenient shortcut—but no new processor and no new camera. The steep price increase makes the offer harder to assess, especially since Sony preinstalls Android 16 even though Android 17 is already current. Sony promises four major Android updates and six years of security patches; according to heise online, the period for major Android updates could be reduced to three years because of the older starting version.