Sony Xperia 1 VIII rears its head with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 teased

The dust has now settled on the launch of Qualcomm’s latest flagship mobile chipset. To that end, Xiaomi has already put the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 to use inside the Xiaomi 17, Xiaomi 17 Pro and Xiaomi 17 Pro Max. Also, Qualcomm indicated that Xiaomi is one of many Android OEMs signed up to base their next-generation flagships around the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, too.

As we discussed at the time, Honor and Samsung are onboard, as are Asus and RedMagic for future successors to the ROG Phone 9 and RedMagic 10 Pro series (curr. $899 on Amazon). Additionally, Qualcomm confirmed that Sony would be using the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 as well, despite the latter scaling back its smartphone ambitions in recent years.

Typically, Sony introduces new flagships at the start of the year. Nonetheless, early evidence relating to the Xperia 1 VIII had already emerged online. Initially, two proposed model numbers appeared as PM-1522-BV and PM-1523-BV on eSIM databases.

Now, the Hot Mobile database has added a reference to a third. Listed as PM-1521-BV, it is currently unclear to which regional variant this model number relates. With that being said, The Walkman Blog indicates that Sony has assigned ‘SO-51G’ to the Docomo carrier version of the Xperia 1 VIII that will be available in Japan. Unfortunately, full specifications, pricing and the design of the Xperia 1 VIII are likely a way off from surfacing. Likewise, it is unclear whether the Xperia 1 will return to North America for its eighth-generation release.