Save the date: Here's when Sony will officially unveil the Xperia 1 VII
Despite being incapable of making much any progress in the global handset market over the last few years, Sony is still not ready to throw in the towel, instead gearing up to unveil yet another somewhat unconventional alternative to the best phones from brands like Samsung and Apple.
Revealed pretty much in full in a number of recent reports, the Xperia 1 VII has an official launch date attached to its (annoyingly convoluted) name today. This is right around the corner, and it largely falls in line with everyone's expectations after last year's Xperia 1 VI flagship came out on May 15.
If you're into boxy smartphones with trend-defying screen bezels, lots of physical buttons, and an "outdated" way to connect to your good old fashioned wired headphones, you may not want to make plans for next Tuesday. On May 13, at 11am Japan time, Sony will show off the "next ONE" on its Xperia-dedicated YouTube channel, most likely confirming all the rumors that have floated around the interwebs these past few weeks and hopefully hinting (at the very least) at US availability.
11am JST, mind you, means 4am CEST, so the Xperia 1 VII is probably not designed with the old continent in mind. But that also means 10pm ET and 7pm PT (on Monday, May 12), so at least in theory, Sony could be targeting a US audience here in addition to its hardcore domestic fans.
The Xperia 1 VI, remember, was never officially released stateside, contrasting with 2023's Xperia 1 V and many other high-end Sony phones from the past. But the Xperia 1 VII could be different in a few key ways from its 2024 predecessor, bringing back the Xperia 1 V's cutting-edge 4K screen resolution while also embracing the same state-of-the-art Snapdragon 8 Elite processor as virtually all the best Android phones available today.
In many ways, unfortunately, the Xperia 1 VII is likely to look (a little too) familiar to Sony's long-time aficionados, which is going to make it mighty hard for the disappointing sales figures of the last few years to noticeably grow. Unless, of course, the company learns something from its past pricing mistakes, which sadly seems unlikely.
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