Sony has just unveiled two new premium mid-range smartphones at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017. Named as the Xperia XA1 and XA1 Ultra, the mobiles come with an excellent design language. Sony’s latest smartphone duo sports some of the best selfie cameras in the industry. Sony had also launched its flagship Xperia XZ Premium and Xperia XZs earlier today.
Sony Xperia XA1: Specifications, Pricing, Availability
The Sony Xperia XA1 is the smaller of the two. It rocks a 5-inch HD (1280 x 720) IPS LCD panel. Compared to last year’s Xperia XA, the screen has lesser bezels. The build quality of the XA1 is top notch, and the looks and feel of the device are just perfect.
Speaking of the internals, the Xperia XA1 is powered by the MediaTek Helio P20 SoC. The 64-bit Octa-core chip comes with eight Cortex A53 CPUs clocked at up to 2.3 GHz each. The graphics are handled by a dual-core Mali T880 GPU. While this may not be a spectacular hardware by any means, it is quite decent for a mid-range smartphone.
Moving on to the memory division, the XA1 has got 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of onboard storage. The phone also has a micro SD card slot. Software-wise, the handset runs Android 7.0 Nougat.
The camera is one of the strongest parts of the newest smartphone. At the back, there is a 23 MP shooter powered by a huge ½.3 Sony Exmor RS sensor. The selfie camera is a decent 8 MP unit with autofocusing capability. Even though the camera hardware is pretty impressive, the Xperia XA1 misses out 4K video recording.
A 2300mAh battery juices up the latest device. The XA1 is going to be available in four different color options, namely Black, Gold, Pink, and White. The phone has all necessary connectivity options built into it, including NFC, 3.5 mm audio jack and micro USB 2.0.
Coming to the pricing, the Xperia XA1 is going to cost $299.99 (Rs. 20,000 approx.) in the USA. The phone will be available on April 26th, 2017 is some selected countries.
Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra: Specifications, Pricing, Availability
This is the bigger sibling of the XA1. The Xperia XA1 Ultra comes with a larger 6-inch display with Full HD (1080 x 1920) resolution. The designing scheme is the same here. The phone looks just like a larger XA1.
The same MediaTek Helio P20 sits inside the XA1 Ultra. The handset comes with 4 GB of RAM and 32 BG or 64 GB of internal storage. A micro SD card slot is there too. Android 7.0 Nougat is the operating system.
Coming to the camera, the rear camera remains the same as the XA1. However, the front camera of the Xperia XA1 Ultra is a 16 MP autofocus unit with OIS (Optical Image Stabilization). This is one of the best selfie snappers in the entire mobile industry. Unfortunately, here too, the 4K video recording is absent.
The Xperia XA1 Ultra is powered by a larger 2700mAh battery. The connectivity options are slightly upgraded too. The smartphone supports dual-band Wi-Fi and boasts a USB Type-C port. Sadly, both the Sony Xperia XA1 and XA1 Ultra misses out the fingerprint scanner.
The Japanese manufacturer hasn’t yet disclosed the pricing and availability info of the XA1 Ultra.
