Sony Xperia XA1 Plus In-Depth Hands-on

Sony has released their newest mid-range smartphone, the Xperia XA1 Plus, along with its flagship brother, the Xperia XZ1. This mid-range smartphone has almost the same design as the recently released models from the Japanese company.

The Sony Xperia XA1 Plus was announced in August and is one of the latest addition to the XA1 series. It has a 5.5-inch screen size with a Helio P20 processor and the fingerprint scanner.

The smartphone has round edges which make it sexier to look at. On hands, it feels smooth and premium with its all-metal unibody design. It is slightly heavy but still manageable.

Its 5.5-inch Full HD IPS screen with 1920 x 1080 resolution gives the smartphone rich and vibrant colors. The company is adamant with their thick top and bottom bezel design that could probably divide users’ judgment on the smartphone, however, its slim side-bezels makes it really appealing to look at.

We have compared it to its flagship sibling, the Xperia XZ1. It is relatively thinner and smaller as compared with the Xperia XA1 Plus. It is also lighter but its overall design is not that far from each other.

On the front panel, we see the 8MP front camera shooter with the LED notification light on the left, sensors on the right, speakerphone above. It has on-screen navigation buttons so the main microphone is sitting alone at the bottom.

Looking at the top is were the 3.5mm earphone port is located, and beside it is its secondary microphone.

Placed at the bottom are the USB Type-C port in the middle and its loudspeaker with Clear Audio+ technology at the right. Upon testing its sound quality, we can say that the company did a good job. Even at full volume, the audio playback is loud, clear, and crisp. The bass is also loud enough to neutralize the trebles upon playing songs.

Switching on the right side, we can see the volume buttons on top, the power button that also serves as the fingerprint scanner on the middle, and the dedicated camera button below.

On the left, we see its dual-sim card (nano) and dedicated microSD card slots. One thing that we like about it is it is easily accessible as it doesn’t need a SIM ejector tool to remove the tray. However, the smartphone automatically restarts whenever the tray is removed or when a new SIM card is detected, which is unusual for a 2017 smartphone.

Flipping on its back, we can see the 23MP rear camera shooter, a LED flash directly below it, and the NFC. Camera modes include Manual, Superior Auto, Video, and Camera Apps (AR effect, Panorama, Creative effect, Timeshift burst, and Sound Photo).

We have taken some sample shots in which we tested the photo quality in different conditions. On low light conditions, the photo produced is slightly grainy but decent, detailed and color accurate. Users can pick their desired camera resolution from 12MP(16:9), 12MP(4:3), 20MP(16:9), and 23MP(4:3).

The Xperia XA1 Plus has an Android 7.0 Nougat with a skinned UI but remained simplistic in its design. There are pre-installed applications such as Facebook, Spotify, AVG Protection (trial), and Amazon Shopping. Navigating the UI is easy to do which is good even for users who are not familiar with Android.

The Xperia XA1 Plus has a MediaTek Helio P20 processor with a Mali-T880 GPU, 32GB internal storage, and 4GB RAM. For a mid-range smartphone, the CPU and GPU are decent enough to run most applications at ease. We also tested the smartphones through benchmark applications. Here are some of the results:

* AnTuTu Benchmark – 63,348
* AndroBench – 260.55MB/s (read), 84.77MB/s (write)
* GeekBench – 833 (Single-Core), 3737 (Multi-Core)

The Xperia XA1 Plus is priced at Php16,990USD 290INR 24,544EUR 276CNY 2,108. Stay tuned for our Full Review to find out more about this device.

Sony Xperia XA1 Plus specs:
5.5-inch Full HD IPS display @ 1920 x 1080 resolution
2.3GHz MediaTek Helio P20 Octa Core 64bit
4 x ARM Cortex A53 2.3GHz + 4 x ARM Cortex A53 1.6GHz
Mali T880 MP2 GPU
4GB RAM
32GB UFS internal storage
microSD up to 256GB (dedicated slot)
23MP 1/ 2.3-inch f/2.0 Exmor RS rear camera: Hybrid Autofocus, 24mm wide-angle F2.0 lens, HDR, SteadyShot
8MP 1/4-inch f/2.0 Exmor R front camera: up to ISO 3200, 23mm wide-angle lens, HDI, SteadyShot
4G/LTE
Dual SIM (nano)
SmartAmp
Clear Audio+
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.2, A2DP
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
NFC
Fingerprint scanner
Qnovo Adaptive Charging
Android 7.0 Nougat
3430mAh battery with Quick Charging (Pump Express+ 2.0)
155 x 75 x 8.7mm (dimensions)
190 grams (weight)
Colors: Black, Blue, Gold, Pink