Sony has stopped selling Xperia 1 VII due to a technical malfunction

On paper Xperia 1 VII looks like a great smartphone for fans of photos, videos, and everything related to the Sony brand. It offers a powerful chip Snapdragon 8 Elite and other flagship features. But something went wrong. The phone just started suddenly turning off or rebooting. For no apparent reason, no warning, just as it pleases.

At first, it seemed that this problem only affected Japanese models. A few days ago, Sony officially announced the discontinuation of Xperia 1 VII sales in Japan, pointing to four specific models. All four versions are Japanese. This potentially indicates that the problem is limited to Japan. It could have been a localized glitch related to a specific feature — for example, the Japanese payment system Osaifu-Keitai. However, it now seems that these conclusions were wrong.

Sony has subsequently expanded the «turbulence zone» — and temporarily stopped sales of the Xperia 1 VII in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Moreover, the texts of the press releases were — word for word the same as in Japan.

The situation became even more alarming when all variants of the Xperia 1 VII model disappeared from Sony’s European online stores — in the UK, Germany and Spain, the phone is now listed as «Out of stock».

There are no official statements for Europe yet, but it seems that Sony has silently removed the smartphone from sale, perhaps in order not to inflame the scandal. The sudden shutdowns could be not only a localized problem, but something deeper — for example, a hardware malfunction.

The company has not yet explained what exactly is wrong with the Xperia 1 VII. But even for the conservative Sony, if the situation has reached the point of massive sales suspensions, this is a signal not in favor of the device. It’s especially disappointing that this is a flagship, and not a cheap one. This story is at least a slap in the face to the reputation.

For now, we have to wait for Sony’s official explanation. And hope that the owners of the Xperia 1 VII that have already bought it will not be left face to face with the smartphone turning into an expensive brick. If you’ve been eyeing the new device, it’s better to wait. Because so far, the impression of the flagship is not «wow», but rather «ouch».

Source: notebookcheck