Phones Sony Xperia XA

[Ffosse]

I bought an iPhone SE on August 10th which I love; however I wanted something else as a backup as I recently broke my 5.5" Chinese Ulefone.

So I got the Xperia XA.

It's the most beautiful, elegant phone I've ever held, (yes, including iPhones and Samsungs) the side bezels are thinner than the Sharp Aquos Crystal. The sides are metal and the back is a quality polycarbonate that doesn't show fingerprints. My photos don't really do it justice but the design and build are excellent. It is a bit tall but feels perfectly balanced in the hand; the screen is 5" 720 IPS.

It gets middling reviews, however, although I find performance is up there with other mid-rangers, only 1 or 2 glitches so far. Battery could be better, but still not bad. Most would argue its not worth its price and it's hard to disagree with that but I just like Sony, having had the Z3 Compact.

Next to an iPod Touch 6

I adore it and also my iPhone SE - The XA is much less powerful but I have Android Marshmallow to tinker with.

 

[MRU]

I like the XA, but feel it is simply priced too high compared to Sony's previous handsets and the plethora of android handsets out there.

 

[Ffosse]

Yeah, £240 is a lot.. especially when you can get 1080p screens and better processors from other brands at that price and less.

Design wins out for me here, though. Here's one with the screen on:

 

[AppleRobert]

Enable ClearAudio in the sound settings and get a pair of Sony active noise canceling headphones. Bet your jaw drops.

 

[Ffosse]

Enable ClearAudio in the sound settings and get a pair of Sony active noise canceling headphones. Bet your jaw drops.

Like all audio enhancements Clear audio distorts the sound, and I have a pair of £300 earphones. so I needn't listen to the XA on anything but 'flat'. The device puts out good sound, although it's not the loudest,

 

[skinniezinho]

Isn't going from a Z3C/Iphone SE to a XA a downgrade?
What is battery life from Z3C to iphone SE?
I am thinking of selling my Z3C to an SE.

 

[Ffosse]

Isn't going from a Z3C/Iphone SE to a XA a downgrade?
What is battery life from Z3C to iphone SE?
I am thinking of selling my Z3C to an SE.

The XA is a better looking phone than either of the others - battery life is not bad at all, not as good as the Z3C but not far off the SE in daily use - I got fed up with ugly phones, would rather have a better-looking budget/midrange one.

 

[Ffosse]

The XA is a better looking phone than either of the others - battery life is not bad at all, not as good as the Z3C but not far off the SE in daily use - I got fed up with ugly phones, would rather have a better-looking budget/midrange one.

I ditched the XA and the SE and bought a Huawei P9 Lite in place of the Sony for £129. The Huawei has a full HD 5.2" screen, 3GB RAM and a very good fingerprint scanner, also, its battery is good for 2 days use. Overall I liked the Sony but battery life was becoming pretty bad. And I couldn't really get over the fact that the iPhone SE looked like it was straight out of 2012...plus I wanted OIS.

Now my main phones are the iPhone 7 128GB and the Huawei P9 Lite (16GB) + 128GB microSD. Generally I'll buy 2 new phones a year and love my current ones.

 

[MRU]

I ditched the XA and the SE and bought a Huawei P9 Lite in place of the Sony for £129. The Huawei has a full HD 5.2" screen, 3GB RAM and a very good fingerprint scanner, also, its battery is good for 2 days use. Overall I liked the Sony but battery life was becoming pretty bad. And I couldn't really get over the fact that the iPhone SE looked like it was straight out of 2012...plus I wanted OIS.

Now my main phones are the iPhone 7 128GB and the Huawei P9 Lite (16GB) + 128GB microSD. Generally I'll buy 2 new phones a year and love my current ones.

Wow where did you snag that bargain ?

 

[sunking101]

My girlfriend has the XA and it's what prompted me to get the XZ, I like Sony's hardware design and also their near-stock Android implementation. The edge to edge screen looks great on the XA and it looks like a flagship, in fact it looks way better than my flagship XZ. The battery life is pretty poor but it's enough smartphone for most people. It performs really well.

 

[Ffosse]

Wow where did you snag that bargain ?

EE instore only £129 + £10 top up. I don't know about Ireland, if you have EE stores even.I'm finding it an excellent mid, upper mid range phone.

 

[MRU]

EE instore only £129 + £10 top up. I don't know about Ireland, if you have EE stores even.I'm finding it an excellent mid, upper mid range phone.

Wow that is a bargain. We don't have EE in Ireland. (they are in NI though), but still great deal. That was PAYG so ? If so I'm tempted as if you buy PAYG on EE they will actually process a sim unlock your device, however if it's bill pay they wont unlock until its annoyingly more than 6 months old

May get friends over to pick me one up and unlock it.

 

[Ffosse]

Wow that is a bargain. We don't have EE in Ireland. (they are in NI though), but still great deal. That was PAYG so ? If so I'm tempted as if you buy PAYG on EE they will actually process a sim unlock your device, however if it's bill pay they wont unlock until its annoyingly more than 6 months old

May get friends over to pick me one up and unlock it.

Especially when Carphone Warehouse want £249.99 sim-free for it. I was on EE anyway with the XA, but I think unlock codes are around £3 on ebay. It's definitely the most phone I've got for the money before, camera not up there with the iPhone 7 but still pretty good. I put Nova Launcher Pro on it as the stock UI I wasn't very fond of. It also has the best (fastest) fingerprint reader I've seen - better than the iPhone.

It's actually got me more interested in Android again as when I bought the iPhone 7 I was using that almost exclusively - I also have an iPad Mini 4 and an Apple watch 2.

It feels good in the hand with the metal frame; you don't really notice that the back is polycarbonate. I've gotten 2 days and 20 hours out of it with still 20% battery left (light usage but a couple of Netflix episodes). That was the problem with the XA - expensive (when I bought it) and a terrible battery, otherwise it was a great device.

Only one problem with the P9 Lite so far - it refuses to pair with my BT Sennheiser PXC 550s; it will see the device then a pop-up error screen appears. No problem connecting to my other BT earphones, though.

 

[Kapybarus]

It would be perfect phone for that price only wish it has fingerprint sensor.

 

[Ffosse]

It would be perfect phone for that price only wish it has fingerprint sensor.

What would? The XA?

 

[Ffosse]

The XA turned out to be a $hitter - woeful battery life.