Sony officially reveals the Xperia 1 VII's launch date, and it's close

Yesterday a rumor out of Japan told us to expect Sony to announce the Xperia 1 VII on May 15, and today the company itself has finally come out and shared the actual official unveiling date.

It's two days earlier than rumored: May 13. As you can see, the event will take place at 11 AM Japan time, which is 4 AM CEST, 3 AM in London, and 7:30 AM in India. The launch will be livestreamed on Sony's YouTube channel, and we'll embed the stream on the day of the event for your viewing pleasure.

New Xperia is coming on 13 May!

Get ready for the Xperia New Product Announcement, exclusively on @SonyXperia YouTube: https://t.co/FrBWgOMjcq

13 May (TUE), 2025 11:00 Japan time / 04:00 CEST#SonyXperia #ProductAnnouncement #NextXperia

— Sony | Xperia (@sonyxperia) May 7, 2025

According to past leaks and rumors, the Xperia 1 VII looks nigh-on identical to its predecessor, but is slightly shorter, wider, and thicker, while expected to keep the same 6.5-inch screen size.

It will reportedly be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, paired with 12GB of RAM. It will run Android 15 from day one, but that 'day one' could be a long way away if you're not in Japan - yesterday's rumor told us the phone would become available in Japan on launch day but would only make it to international markets in July. Hopefully that was inaccurate just like the actual unveiling date was, but we'll have to wait and see.