Sony’s Xperia 1 VIII is still a phone for the fans
Sony’s Xperia 1 VIII is still a phone for the fans
索尼 Xperia 1 VIII：依然是一款为粉丝打造的手机
A new look and an upgraded telephoto aren’t enough to make this a mainstream contender. 全新的外观和升级的长焦镜头，依然不足以让它成为主流竞争者。
The Xperia 1 VIII marks an attempt at a step change for Sony’s flagship phone line. Not only has it had an aesthetic overhaul, but Sony has also revamped the camera system, dropping the continuous optical zoom telephoto that’s defined the last four generations of Xperia phone. Xperia 1 VIII 标志着索尼旗舰手机产品线的一次重大变革尝试。它不仅进行了外观上的全面翻新，还彻底重构了相机系统，放弃了过去四代 Xperia 手机标志性的连续光学变焦长焦镜头。
It’s not all different. Sony staples like a 3.5mm headphone jack and microSD card slot remain, and a few specific design touches, like a thick front bezel that fits stereo speakers, have stayed intact. Sony’s ambitious pricing hasn’t changed either: The Xperia 1 VIII isn’t launching in the US, but in the UK and Europe, it starts from £1,399 / €1,499 (about $1,850), rising to £1,849 / €1,999 ($2,450) if you want 1TB of storage. 当然，并非一切都变了。索尼的经典配置，如 3.5mm 耳机孔和 microSD 卡槽依然保留，一些独特的设计细节，例如容纳立体声扬声器的厚实前边框也得以保留。索尼那“雄心勃勃”的定价策略也没有改变：Xperia 1 VIII 不会在美国发售，但在英国和欧洲，起售价为 1,399 英镑 / 1,499 欧元（约合 1,850 美元），如果需要 1TB 存储空间，价格则会升至 1,849 英镑 / 1,999 欧元（约合 2,450 美元）。
For Sony diehards, this delivers the flagship essentials, including a capable camera, and looks good doing it. For everyone else, you can find better Android phones at this price, like Xiaomi’s 17 Ultra or the Vivo X300 Ultra. 对于索尼的死忠粉来说，这款手机提供了旗舰机应有的核心体验，包括出色的拍照能力，且外观设计也相当亮眼。但对于其他人而言，在这个价位段，你可以找到更好的安卓手机，比如小米 17 Ultra 或 Vivo X300 Ultra。
Sony’s Xperia 1 phones have looked almost identical to one another since 2020. It was a pretty handsome design, to be fair, but probably overdue sprucing up. The 1 VIII does just that, moving to a blocky new camera island and an unusual textured finish that make the phone feel very different to every previous Xperia. 自 2020 年以来，索尼 Xperia 1 系列手机的外观几乎如出一辙。平心而论，那确实是一个相当美观的设计，但确实也到了该翻新的时候了。1 VIII 正是这样做的，它采用了全新的块状相机模组和独特的纹理饰面，让这款手机在手感上与以往的任何 Xperia 手机都截然不同。
I’m a big fan of the design, which has a stark, brutalist quality. The slightly grippy texture — a bit like an incredibly fine nail file — was designed to vary subtly between the back and frame, which helps prevent the phone from feeling like a monotone slab. The texture helps sell the phone’s high price even better than ultrasmooth glass might (not that this isn’t glass, with Gorilla Glass Victus on the rear and Victus 2 on the front). 我非常喜欢这种设计，它带有一种冷峻的粗野主义风格。这种略带磨砂感的纹理——有点像极细的指甲锉——在背板和边框之间有着微妙的差异，这使得手机不会给人一种单调平板的感觉。这种纹理比超光滑的玻璃更能体现出手机的高昂售价（当然，它依然是玻璃材质，背面采用了大猩猩 Victus 玻璃，正面则是 Victus 2）。
Sony’s usual knurled two-stage camera shutter button returns, adding another textural element and improved camera controls. Unfortunately, so does the recessed power button and fingerprint sensor, which is less reliable than modern under-display options. It fails about a third of the time I try it. I’m also confused by the odd rectangular patch above the volume button, which has an especially rough texture and looks like it should do something, but doesn’t. Is it some sort of antenna cutout? I’ve asked Sony. 索尼标志性的滚花两段式相机快门键回归了，增加了质感并提升了拍摄操控性。遗憾的是，凹陷式的电源键兼指纹传感器也保留了下来，其可靠性不如现代的屏下指纹方案。在我使用时，它大约有三分之一的概率会识别失败。此外，音量键上方那个奇怪的矩形区域也让我感到困惑，它的纹理特别粗糙，看起来应该有某种功能，但实际上却什么也没做。它是某种天线开口吗？我已经向索尼询问了。
Sony long ago gave up on using its unique 21:9, 4K displays on the Xperia lineup. The 1 VIII uses a less impressive 1080p display in a standard smartphone aspect ratio. The resolution is low for this grade of phone, but otherwise I can’t complain about the panel, which is a 6.5-inch, 120Hz OLED with decent brightness. I do still miss the taller screens Sony phones used to offer, though. Unlike most rivals, the display is also entirely uninterrupted by a camera cutout, notch, or Dynamic Island. The tradeoff is the rather thick bezel above and below the screen, which houses the camera and a pair of stereo speakers (good for phone speakers, but still phone speakers). 索尼很久以前就放弃了在 Xperia 系列上使用其独特的 21:9 4K 显示屏。1 VIII 使用了一块表现平平的 1080p 标准比例显示屏。对于这个级别的手机来说，分辨率确实偏低，但除此之外，我对这块 6.5 英寸、120Hz OLED 面板的亮度表现并无怨言。不过，我确实怀念索尼手机曾经提供的修长屏幕。与大多数竞争对手不同，这块屏幕没有任何摄像头开孔、刘海或灵动岛。代价就是屏幕上下方较厚的边框，里面容纳了摄像头和一对立体声扬声器（作为手机扬声器表现不错，但终究还是手机扬声器）。
The Xperia 1 VIII’s internals are unremarkable, with the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset you’ll find on most comparable handsets. It’s paired with either 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage — available in black, red, or silver versions of the phone — or 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. Xperia 1 VIII 的内部配置平淡无奇，搭载了与大多数同类机型相同的骁龙 8 Elite Gen 5 芯片组。它提供 12GB RAM + 256GB 存储版本（有黑、红、银三种颜色），以及 16GB RAM + 1TB 存储版本。
What is remarkable is that Sony has managed to make the 8 Elite Gen 5 perform quite poorly. While the phone runs smoothly the majority of the time, I’ve run into repeated stuttering and slowdowns, especially in the camera or while switching between apps. It gets hot, too. Using the phone to record the audio of a recent press event, with real-time AI transcription running, it became worryingly warm after just 30 minutes or so, and as the hourlong call ended, it was hot to the touch. 令人惊讶的是，索尼竟然让这颗 8 Elite Gen 5 的表现相当糟糕。虽然手机在大多数时候运行流畅，但我还是遇到了反复的卡顿和掉帧，尤其是在使用相机或切换应用时。它发热也很严重。在最近的一次新闻发布会上，我用它录音并开启实时 AI 转录，仅仅 30 分钟后机身就变得令人担忧地烫手，当一小时的通话结束时，手机已经烫得难以触碰。
I don’t love the battery either. Sony claims you’ll get two days of life out of the 5,000mAh cell, but I don’t see how. I’m a light-to-moderate user most of the time, and I’ve dipped into single-digit territory by bedtime more than once. This will last the day unless you push it hard, but expect to charge every 24 hours. That might take some time too, given the 30W max speed, substantially slower than most rivals. 我也不喜欢它的电池表现。索尼声称 5,000mAh 的电池可以提供两天的续航，但我实在看不出怎么实现。我大多数时候是轻度到中度用户，但有好几次在睡前电量就掉到了个位数。除非你高强度使用，否则它勉强能撑过一天，但你得做好每天一充的准备。考虑到 30W 的最高充电速度，这可能还需要不少时间，比大多数竞争对手慢得多。
I have better news on the camera front. After years of carving its own path, Sony has taken the “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” approach to its Chinese flagship rivals, abandoning its clever continuous zoom lens and instead packing the 1 VIII with the biggest telephoto sensor it could fit. That Sony dropped continuous zoom in the same year Xiaomi finally copied it and did it better feels like a cruel twist of fate. 在相机方面，我有一些好消息。在坚持走自己的路多年后，索尼终于对中国旗舰竞争对手采取了“打不过就加入”的策略，放弃了其巧妙的连续变焦镜头，转而为 1 VIII 配备了其能塞下的最大的长焦传感器。索尼在小米终于模仿并做得更好的同一年放弃了连续变焦，这感觉真是一个残酷的命运捉弄。