Sony Stopped Making Phones, But There's A Catch

Ah, Sony — a company known the world over for its long-lasting PlayStation consoles and Walkman music players. Its TV production arm, Sony Pictures Television, is even the distributor behind Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. But did you know that Sony has a large product line of Android phones?

Years following the Sony Ericsson days, the company's Xperia phones sat alongside its Samsung and LG counterparts on shop displays in the early 2010s. Then, starting in 2015, it spent a good few years in the realm of unlocked, direct-to-consumer phones until it stopped selling Xperia phones at U.S. retailers in 2024. While Sony has made them available to U.S. residents via online marketplaces like Amazon, the company has focused on positioning itself in the European and Japanese mobile markets, plus those in Taiwan and Hong Kong. So, yes, Sony is still releasing smartphones — but, purportedly, it's also no longer manufacturing them.

In May 2025, Japanese outlet Smartphone Digest noticed that Sony had updated some documentation about the types of products it manufactures at its various factories. Two Thai plants and one Chinese plant that were previously listed as smartphone producers were no longer listed as such. At the time, Sony was selling the Xperia 1 VII — which happens to be one of the best Android phones you can get that still has a headphone jack — and that model marked the beginning of the product line being assembled by a third party. During Sony's August 2025 earnings brief, the company's CFO, Lin Tao, told investors that Sony remained committed to its smartphone line, but she made no mention of production details.

When it comes to the uniqueness of its Android phones, the Japanese multinational's approach was not unlike that of Korea's own LG, which went after curved chassis, modular design, and even one oddball concept phone with a rollable screen that popular tech reviewer Marques Brownlee demonstrated on YouTube. Given fierce competition in the space, LG quit the smartphone business entirely back in 2021 — Sony hasn't, but the company is more reserved on the features front.

Sony's Xperia Compact series spanned six models that launched between 2014 and 2018, with screen sizes limited to 5 inches or smaller. They were arguably more capable, powerful options worth buying compared to the contemporary iPhone SE, and they were even slightly smaller than both the iPhone 12 Mini and the iPhone 13 Mini. During the same period, Sony also released the X-, Z-, and XZ-series Premium phones that morphed into the early entries of the current Xperia 1 line. On these phones, 4K panels were the name of the game. In fact, Sony was the first manufacturer to have shipped a smartphone with a 4K display.

Sony's modern-day cellular offerings, however, are comparatively more pedestrian than their predecessors were; recent models in the Xperia line are no longer niche compact devices with flashy 4K displays. The Xperia 1 VI of 2024 brought the flagship line back down to earth with a 1080p display and a focus on triple-threat cameras powered by Exmor sensors. The company also produced the more affordable Xperia 5, but Sony gave up on that specific line entirely as of 2023. However, Xperia fans do have some good news to look forward to: per recent Sony claims, the mid-range Sony Xperia 10 VIII is set to launch the week of August 23, 2026.