The Xperia 1 VIII may be thicker than Sony has advertised it to be

If you thought that the abysmal sales are the only issue with Sony’s flagship smartphones, you may be wrong. After the AI Camera Assistant controversy, the Xperia 1 VIII may hold another surprise.

Thicker than the specs sheet

On its website, Sony says its latest flagship is 8.3 mm thick, but that may be a misleading statement. A measurement taken by leaker OnLeaks shows that the device is actually 8.59 mm thick.While the difference of 0.29 mm, which equals just a bit over 0.01 inches, is nothing the vast majority of users would even notice, the discrepancy doesn’t look good. However, the photo of the way OnLeaks measured the phone may have revealed why Sony’s spec sheet differs from reality.

It’s about how you measure it

Looking at the image, it is obvious that OnLeaks has measured the thickness between the glass on the front and the glass on the back of the Xperia 1 VIII. For most users, that would be the correct thing to measure, but apparently Sony didn’t measure its device in the same way.

Instead, the company has chosen the thinnest point possible, which is probably the frame of the device. The glass on the back of the Xperia 1 VIII is slightly protruding from the frame, which is likely true for the glass on the front. That should be enough to add up to a 0.29 mm difference.

All phones are thicker than advertised

Sony is far from the first company to face scrutiny for measurements that don’t match reality. 

Last year, Honor’s claim that its Magic V5 was the thinnest foldable in the world was challenged by a measurement with a card and a ping-pong ball by leaker IceUniverse. They claimed that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 was thinner, and Honor may have lied about the thickness of its foldable.

One thing that no smartphone manufacturer seems to measure is the thickness of their devices with the camera bump included. Even the iPhone Air, lauded as the thinnest iPhone ever, features a camera housing that’s as thick as the device itself, but Apple still advertises it as 5.6 mm thick.

Little real-life impact

Thin smartphones feel very slick and nice in the hand, but I’m firmly against the industry’s obsession with thinness. I’d rather get a chunky phone with a long-lasting battery and great thermals than a slim phone that’ll die on me in the middle of the day. Still, I’d prefer to spend my money with companies that tell the truth in their spec sheets.

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