Unveiled at the Mobile World Congress earlier this year, the Sony Xperia X range is, it seems, attempting to cater to all tastes. Flagship handsets have decent specs, high-performance phones and more budget friendly alternatives.
Available in Ireland now is the Xperia XA, which, at €280, caters to more price-conscious consumers.
The XA is exactly what you’d expect from a Sony phone: a 5-inch screen with a familiar design, a 13-megapixel camera and dedicated button to launch that function. Sony isn’t reinventing the wheel here.
Having said that, the first thing that catches your eye is the edge-to-edge screen. It’s practically bezel-less at the sides. It certainly gives it a more premium feel than you’d expect, but that’s let down by the rear casing, which is distinctly plastic-feeling and quickly picks up debris and smudges as you use it.
That plastic backing does mean the phone is light – so light, in fact, that I automatically went to the box to hunt down the battery. You’ll barely feel it in your pocket, which is either good because your trousers aren’t weighed down, or bad because you will be panicking every 10 minutes that you’ve lost it.
The display is where the XA’s budget come out. It looks fine at first glance, but the screen is only 720p, rather than the full 1080 we’ve gotten used to. Pulled up to full brightness, the XA seems a little dim.
That may be okay in a low-priced phone, but the XA is competing with the likes of Vodafone’s Smart Ultra 7, which has similar specs but a better screen. There’s also the Moto G4 to contend with, which improves on Sony’s spec and manages to do so at a reasonable price as well.
The fingerprint sensor has also fallen victim to keeping costs down. You will have to make do with passwords, patterns or PINs here. Again, Moto’s G4 retains the fingerprint reader.
There is nothing offensive about the Xperia XA. The camera performs reasonably well, although there was sometimes an odd stutter as the software kicked in. The 13-megapixel camera takes care of selfies, with the appropriate settings shifts such as “beauty face”, and the images are more than passable. Still, the rear-facing camera felt like it should have performed better. You can swipe between automatic controls, manual shooting and video, but it all felt a bit slow.
Sony has an impressive array of technology at its fingertips, but it doesn’t feel like it’s been used to the best of its potential here.
There is the ability to expand storage with a removable memory card. You will need it: there is only 16GB of storage built in. On opening the box, nearly half it was taken up with system software.
The 64-bit octacore processor didn’t noticeably strain itself trying to run games or perform everyday tasks. The XA, it seems, is thoroughly middle of the road.
The good
If you ignore the back of the phone, the XA is a nicely designed handset. That edge-to-edge screen elevates it above rival budget-friendly phones and gives it a premium look. The camera is decent, although not the best performing smartphone camera I’ve used.
The not so good
The screen is lower res than I’d like, and when you put it up against similarly priced rivals, the XA falls short. Also, Sony hasn’t made this model waterproof, which is puzzling.
The rest
The system runs its pre-installed software well, so no complaints about the processor. However, the on-board storage is poor, so invest in a memory card as soon as possible.
The verdict
A decent phone, but in terms of budget must-have, it falls just wide of the mark.
