No joke: Sony could make some drastic changes to the Xperia 1 VIII's design

Sony’s Xperia 1 series has hardly changed over the years, with each iteration adopting the same or similar design language as the model before it. However, that may not be the case for the Xperia 1 VIII. Renders of the device have recently been circulating around, and they hint at some major changes compared to the Xperia 1 VII.

Over on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, user Super_Freak_ shared renders of what’s claimed to be the Xperia 1 VIII. The renders reveal a drastic departure from what we’ve come to expect from the Xperia 1 line. In fact, the design is so different that it led many to question the legitimacy of the renders.

The biggest and most noticeable change is the camera module, which is no longer vertically aligned. These three cameras now sit in a square-shaped camera island. Something strange about this island is that there appear to be several holes surrounding the sensors, which only contributed to the belief that these renders may not be real.

Another change is the location of the selfie camera, which is now positioned in the center. This camera was previously situated closer to the left side. It’s also notable that there appears to be a cutout for this camera. In earlier iterations, Sony opted to put the front camera in the top bezel of the display.

While one could easily dismiss this as an April Fools’ Day prank, a Sony Fans Vietnam admin with a positive track record for leaks lends some validity to the renders. The Facebook post mentions that this is not the final design of the Xperia 1 VIII. However, the device could feature a redesigned camera module. It’s also suggested that the phone will have a physically larger sensor, which may be the reason for the redesigned island.

Despite all of the changes, it looks like the headphone jack is sticking around. So the Xperia 1 VIII will still be the best smartphone you can get with a headphone jack.