Sony Xperia XA review
Display
The Sony Xperia XA has a 5" screen covered under a 2.5D scratch-resistant glass (Sony doesn't give out brand names). It's backed by Mobile Bravia Engine 2 and also offers Super-vivid mode.
The resolution - 720 x 1,280px, or simply 720p - is stretched a bit thin at this size. Up close you can see it's not as sharp as a 1080p screen, though the 294ppi pixel density makes this a minor complaint (iPhone 6s is at 326ppi).
Colors are not as vivid as on Triluminos displays on some other Xperias. They are not as accurate either, with an average deltaE of 8.3 (max 11.4). We've seen better in this price range, but accuracy is comparable to say, Galaxy S6.
White balance is off, but there are sliders that allow you to manually adjust the white balance by using R, G and B sliders. Improving accuracy is tricky with this system, but at least you can get a white balance you like.
Colors aside, Sony did pick out a capable panel - it's fairly bright and offers great contrast thanks to the low black levels. At night, you can set the brightness under 5 nits to avoid the painful glare of a bright screen.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | ||
| 0.38 | 523 | 1376 | |
| 0.44 | 539 | 1219 | |
| 0.63 | 527 | 839 | |
| - | 366 | ∞ | |
| 0.42 | 520 | 1238 | |
| 0.44 | 441 | 998 | |
| 0.46 | 408 | 897 | |
Image enhancements include Mobile Bravia Engine 2, which works for photos and videos. It enhances colors, sharpens the image all the while reducing noise. There's also Super-vivid mode, which gives you "surreal, vibrant and super-vivid images."
When viewed at an angle, the screen shows no contrast loss but you can definitely see hues shift and change (it looks as if the saturation changes).
Sunlight legibility is very good for the class - it's nearly the same as on the Xperia Z5 Compact and (surprisingly) better than the flagship HTC 10.
Sunlight contrast ratio
You can enable automatic brightness from the settings (but not from the quick toggles in the notification area). Smart backlight control keeps the lights on while you're looking at the screen, so you can set a short display sleep timeout, but still read long texts at your own pace.
Connectivity
The Sony Xperia XA comes in single and dual-SIM flavors. VoLTE is supported for higher quality audio in calls (assuming your carrier has enabled it).
The phones can drink Internet at up to 150Mbps speeds thanks to LTE Cat. 4 (50Mbps up) or Wi-Fi a/b/g/n (dual-band) if you prefer a local connection.
Bluetooth 4.1 with Low Energy and audio-focused aptX is on board as well. NFC is available too.
Wireless media connections include DLNA and Miracast. There's no wired TV out, but the USB port does support On The Go for hooking up external storage.
Battery
The Sony Xperia XA is thin and light, which doesn't leave much room for battery capacity. The XA is loaded with 2,300mAh in total, which is not much for a 5" phone, though some devices manage to pull off a decent endurance of similar units.
It does support a fast charging tech, MediaTek's PumpExpress 2.0 to be exact and Sony says you can get over 5 hours of battery life in just 10 minutes with its UCH12 charger.
In some regions you will need to provide your own charger, though, the one we got is a standard 1.5A. Also, note that the Quick Charge power bricks we tried didn't push more than 1.5A, so look for a charger specifically compatible with PumpExpress.
Like its other X siblings, the Xperia XA battery uses Qnovo tech, which promises to prolong its usable life. As batteries age, they can hold less and less charge and that's just the problem Qnovo solves by intelligently monitoring the charge that goes into the battery.
The actual battery performance isn't great - we only squeezed out 40 hours of Endurance rating. This means to reach Sony's promised 2-day battery life, you shouldn't push the Xperia XA too hard. Web browsing proved the biggest drain, you can get just over 5 hours. We've seen better from phones with smaller batteries. Even the Helio P10 chipset does okay in other phones. Still, video playback was surprisingly good and the 10 hour talk time (while not great) should be enough.
The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritties. You can also check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.
Camera
The Sony Xperia XA uses a 13MP camera with an f/2.0 aperture and a 1/3" sensor. It's not the old flagship camera used in the XA Ultra and not the new model used in the X and X Performance.
The camera has hybrid autofocus (contrast + phase detection) and supports object tracking, although it doesn't seem as good at it as its X stablemates.
The phone uses mostly the same UI as the other X phones. This means vertical swipes change modes, horizontal swipes flip between front and back cameras.
Xperia camera UI
The models include Superior Auto, Manual (just a name, there's no focus or shutter speed control) and some "camera apps" which range from useful (panorama) to fun (AR). These are downloadable so you can easily add more functionality.
The selfie camera is an 8MP camera with an f/2.0 lens and 1/4" sensor. So not the impressive cam the Xperia X had, but still better than most.
The Quick Capture feature from a locked phone option is available - just press the shutter key and the phone will unlock and take a photo. Optionally, it can just unlock and launch the camera or shoot video instead of a photo. This feature isn't quite as fast as it is on the Xperia X, but still quite fast. Note that the camera doesn't always give itself time to focus and adjust exposure properly, so check how the photo turned out as you may have to re-shoot some.
Additional settings • Camera apps
Shot to shot time is average and sometimes slow with Superior Auto - the mode can automatically enable options like HDR, which take a while to shoot and process. Sometimes the camera wouldn't register swipe gestures too.
Image quality
The camera takes sharp photos with a good deal of detail for its 13MP resolution. Noise is low and noise reduction and sharpening are mature, so there are no annoying processing artifacts. The dynamic range is good even without HDR, the camera finds a good balance between shadows and highlights.
The white balance color rendering needs work, however. There's a strong blue tint, which makes even bright sunny days feel cold. It's not just white balance, colors just feel off. Contrast can be better as the phone uses the dynamic range of JPEG conservatively.
Sony Xperia XA samples: Normal • Superior Auto
Photos shot in Manual turn out good, but we'd recommend using Superior Auto. Both modes mostly produce the same images, but on occasion, SA delivers better results (e.g. turning on HDR even if you didn't notice it's needed). Sometimes it makes shot-to-shot time slow, but it's worth it for the extra bit of quality (unless you need to take several photos in quick succession).
We tried out HDR and found it quite subtle - it improves shadow and highlight rendering slightly. It also changes color rendering, which actually makes things look better.
Sony Xperia XA samples: Normal • Superior Auto • HDR
The panorama mode is pretty poor, though. You only get 1080px height of the image, but even that's too much for the actual resolved detail. It doesn't help that stitching has issues - straight lines turn wavy and there's occasional ghosting. There's no way to 'end' a panorama either, you either have to complete it or point the phone somewhere else which automatically ends the shot, but this often messes up the final part of the panorama.
Sony Xperia XA panorama
The selfie camera produces fairly sharp images with low noise and good colors.
Here's the Xperia XA against other 13MP cameras in its class.
Sony Xperia XA in our Photo Quality Comparison tool
Video camera
The Sony Xperia XA camera can record 1080p video at 30fps with both its cameras. There's no 60fps mode even at 720p. You do get SteadyShot stabilization and video HDR, though.
1080p footage is shot in MP4 files at the usual 17Mbps. Audio is captured at 128KBps but is mono only. That's a little disappointing in 2016 and with two mics on the phone (not that having three on the iPhone stopped Apple from sticking to mono sound recording either).
Resolved detail in videos shot with the Xperia XA is okay for its price class, better than a good deal of mid-rangers. There's no noise and color rendering is good, however, exposure is too sensitive and adjust too quickly and visibly as objects enter and leave the scene.
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