Sony's midrange XA smartphones have always been interesting devices thanks to their edge-to-edge displays and surprisingly friendly price-tags, but they've typically been held back by a couples of quirks and bugbears. These have included low resolution displays, hit-and-miss performance, and the absence of a fingerprint reader.
Fortunately, Sony is set to address these with its latest midrange handset, the Xperia XA2. The edge-to-edge display (which genuinely sits flush with the aluminium frame) is now 1080p, up from 720p. The processor has been upgraded from a lower-end MediaTek chip to Qualcomm's Snapdragon 630. And most importantly, the Xperia XA2 has a fingerprint reader.
Much like its predecessor, the Xperia XA2 features a 23MP rear-facing camera. We were pretty impressed by the Xperia XA1's camera, which we described as one of the best in a midrange device, so hopefully this also holds true with the XA2. Sony's improvements sound promising, and are said to include faster focus and better lowlight imaging.
Key specifications for the Xperia XA2 a 5.2-inch 1080p display, a Snapdragon 630 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of expandable storage, dual SIM and a 3,300mAh battery. It will ship running Android Oreo.
The Xperia XA2 is now available locally, priced at $549. You can get it right now from JB Hi-Fi online, and you'll be able to find it in store and direct from Sony on April 17. While last year's XA1 launched at $399, we're hoping the improved processor and addition of a fingerprint make it worth the premium.
Alex Choros
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