Sony has opened pre-orders for the Xperia 1 VIII in Europe, but as usual with Xperia flagships, this is not an instant-buy-today-get-it-tomorrow situation. The phone is available to order now through Amazon UK and Amazon Germany, with shipping only expected from June 19.
That timing is a bit later than Sony’s recent Xperia 1 launches, which usually landed closer to early June after a mid-May reveal. Still, for fans who have been waiting for Sony’s very specific flavour of flagship phone, at least the buying window has officially started.
The big sweetener here is the pre-order bundle: Sony is throwing in a free pair of WH-1000XM6 wireless over-ear headphones. These are Sony’s premium ANC cans, with a listed price of €450 / £400 in Europe. Yes, headphones can always get discounted later, but getting them bundled free with a flagship phone is still a strong bonus — especially if you were already planning to upgrade your audio setup.
For Malaysian and SEA readers, the important thing is this: there is no local pre-order detail in this report yet. So don’t treat the Europe pricing or bundle as a confirmed Malaysia deal. Sony’s mobile presence here has always been more niche compared to Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, HONOR and ASUS, so local availability, warranty support and pricing will matter a lot if the Xperia 1 VIII eventually reaches our side of the world.
Right now, Amazon is only listing the base 12GB RAM + 256GB storage model. The higher-end 16GB RAM + 1TB version will be exclusive to Sony’s own stores, so don’t expect that monster config to appear everywhere. Outside Europe, third-party retailers are also expected to carry 12GB + 512GB and 16GB + 512GB variants.
The nice part? Sony is still keeping the microSD slot alive. In 2026, that is genuinely rare for a flagship phone. For creators, anime hoarders, mobile photographers, emulator fans and anyone who keeps huge offline libraries, expandable storage is still a very practical feature. Cloud storage is fine until your hotel WiFi is trash or your data plan kena throttled.
Colour options are Graphite Black, Iolite Silver and Garnet Red. Classic Sony naming, honestly — a little dramatic, but clean.
The Xperia 1 VIII remains a very Sony kind of device: premium, unusual, probably expensive, and built for people who care about camera control, display quality, audio and storage flexibility more than just chasing the most mainstream phone. For Malaysia, the question is whether Sony can make the package competitive once import costs, local warranty and retail support come into the picture.
If the free WH-1000XM6 bundle makes it to SEA, that could make the deal much more tempting. If not, the Xperia 1 VIII will likely stay as a hardcore enthusiast pick — the kind of phone you buy because you know exactly why you want it.
Source: GSMArena