Xperia 1 VIII Official at €1,499, Xiaomi 17 Max With 8,000mAh Confirmed, Samsung One UI 9 Beta and Refurbished S25 Ultra in India

Sony Xperia 1 VIII — New Design at €1,499

Sony unveiled its Xperia 1 VIII flagship with a new design, but the old core specs and idea. There's a new 1/1.56-inch telephoto camera — a four times larger sensor with four times the resolution compared to what's in the Mark VII. The new 48MP telephoto is locked at 2.9x (70mm). The other two cameras remain the same — 24mm f/1.9 and 16mm f/2.0.

Add a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, just 12GB of RAM, and a 5,000mAh battery. The Xperia 1 VIII is on sale from €1,500/£1,400 for the base 12/512GB configuration.

UK pre-orders are open from £1,399 and Germany from €1,499 with a June 19, 2026 release date. Pre-orders include the Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones as a free bonus.

Xiaomi 17 Max — 8,000mAh and 200MP on the Way

Xiaomi confirmed that we're getting a 17 Max. The phone will launch later this month in China. It will have a flat 6.9-inch screen, a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 SoC, and an 8,000mAh battery with 100W charging.

At the back: Leica-engineered 200MP main camera with a 1/1.4-inch sensor, a 50MP ultra-wide camera, and a 50MP 3x periscope telephoto. Colors: White, Clear Blue, and Pixel Black.

The telephoto camera loses its continuous focus abilities compared to the predecessor.

Samsung — One UI 9 Beta and Refurbished Galaxy S25

Samsung announced the One UI 9 beta for the Galaxy S26 series. Based on Android 17, the beta will be available in Germany, India, Korea, Poland, the UK, and the US starting this week. Users can apply to join the beta program via the Samsung Members app.

Samsung also began selling refurbished phones in India. Right now, you can buy a Certified Re-Newed Galaxy S25 Ultra with 256GB of storage for INR 97,499.

Xperia 1 VIII Tops Trending Charts

The Xperia 1 VIII shot straight to the top of GSMArena's trending chart this week, dethroning the Samsung Galaxy A57 and pushing the Galaxy S26 Ultra to third place.