Sony Xperia XA1 Plus, analysis, price and opinions

Back to school is around the corner. Brands begin to put all the meat on the grill: in stores we already have the new Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 +; shortly, the brand new Galaxy Note 8 will appear next to it. And Apple is counting the days to officially present the long-awaited iPhone 8, a terminal that will fight in price with the flagship of Samsung. The other brands bid to have their precious piece of the cake and destined for these dates the presentations of their new teams. One of these brands is Sony, which has just made its new mid-range official, the Sony Xperia XA1 Plus, a terminal with a great value for money, as we will see later.

This new Sony Xperia XA1 Plus terminal will go on sale with a final price of 350 euros on an undetermined date in the autumn season. So now you know: be aware of all its features: if you were thinking of changing terminals, you still have time to save a good amount and launch yourself for this Xperia XA1 Plus.

Sony XA1 Plus data sheet

Design and display

The design of this new Sony Xperia XA1 Plus strictly follows the brand's precepts: sobriety, functionality and austerity. Although it has already incorporated the 2.5D effect on its screen, this Sony terminal still has a rectangular finish, without rounded corners. A design somewhat removed from what we are used to seeing, but which undoubtedly comes to Sony as a ring to the dice as an identifying mark. It has a diamond crystal finish, which is related to the Huawei P10, giving it a deep color appearance and an appearance of remarkable robustness.

In this terminal we do not see an infinite screen, although given the final price it does not surprise us either (as much as there are incredible exceptions). We see, therefore, noticeable frames both in the lower and upper part, which enclose a screen with a 5.5-inch sRGB color system and Full HD resolution . This produces about 400 pixels per inch, enough to be able to watch a series or movie with all the guarantees of quality. It is a terminal with dimensions of 155 x 75 x 8.7 millimeters and 190 grams, somewhat heavy, perhaps, compared to the rest of the mid-range in which it competes.

On one side we have the volume button and on / off, which acts as a fingerprint sensor . A site this, by the way, quite original to include it, since all usually have it either as a haptic button on the front or on the back, next to the camera. On the other side we find the tray for the SIM card.

This new Sony Xperia XA1 Plus will be available in stores in 3 colors: black, blue and gold.

A mid-range processor

Inside the body of this Sony Xperia XA1 Plus we find an eight-core processor from the Chinese brand Mediatek, specifically the MT6757 model. 4 of the cores reach a clock speed of 2.3 GHz and another 4, 1.6 GHz. With cold data on the table, we do not think that you will have problems handling heavy games and applications. Its 4 GB of RAM memory also helps multitasking. In short, we do not find the powerful Snapdragon here, but Mediatek stopped being, a long time ago, the ugly duckling of processors.

As for storage, we would have liked to see something more than 32 GB but at least we have a microSD slot to be able to increase the capacity up to 256 GB more.

A camera with a Sony warranty

If the terminals of the Japanese house stand out for something, it is for their photographic result. In this case we have Sony's Exmor RS sensor with super fast startup (in 0.6 seconds we have the camera ready to shoot), 23 megapixels, hybrid autofocus (we will focus on any point on the screen that we touch in less than a second), Clear technology Image Zoom (magnification with little loss of quality) and Sony's Steadyshot (a digital image stabilizer). A camera for those who want speed when taking snapshots.

Regarding the selfie camera, we have an 8 megapixel Exmor R sensor and a focal aperture of f / 2.0.

A very decent battery with fast charging

With this Sony Xperia XA1 Plus we have a battery for a while: 3,430 mAh with stamina saving mode and also the fast charge of the Mediatek processor, version 2.0 of the Pump Xpress +. According own company data would take only 30 minutes to load up to 75% battery . That is, with having it on the network for a while we will have a lot of autonomy, so the acquisition of an external battery with this terminal seems unnecessary.

One of the best surprises that we will take with this terminal, when we take it out of the box, will be to verify that the new version of Android 8 Oreo will already be standard. Thanks to this, we will have even more intelligent notification management with a pending notification icon on the icon itself or the long-awaited Picture in Picture (being able to watch a video while using another app).

Other features of the Xperia XA1 Plus

• Qnovo adaptive charging method: the phone is able to perceive an increase in temperature and, thus, send less charge so that the system does not suffer internal damage.
• Xperia actions: automate your phone to make it even smarter. Make your phone stop ringing at certain times so it won't bother you or connect to data while you're abroad.
• LTE networks (4G)
• NFC
• Bluetooth 4.2
• USB Type C
• AptX sound technology

Price and reviews

Without having tried it yet, we simply have to look at the data. And they reveal a terminal with a sober and resistant design (thanks to the diamond cut) and that will undoubtedly satisfy those who give importance to the camera and the battery. Its Mediatek processor will not be, too, to the liking of Snapdragon fans. We will have to wait, then, for the first performance tests. For a price of 350 euros there are similar terminals that are giving very good results (for example, the Samsung Galaxy A5 2017). We will have to wait to get our hands on it to see if Sony really hit the mark this time.