Over the past few months, we’ve seen the incredibly posh Premium, the powerful XZ1 and now, Sony Mobiles Middle East have brought the XA 1 Plus to our sunny shores. While the previous two phones retail at over Dh2,000. The latest smartphone would set you back about Dh1,000.
Now, why is it so important? Well, because at first glance you won’t believe this device costs just Dh1,099.
The device is large, solid and wrapped in an expensive-looking metallic finish. Measuring 6.10” in height – similar in size to the iPhone 7 and 8 Plus, this is no small device. Its screen is 5.5" by itself.
One-handed use is a task and it will take some getting used to. Then again this depends on how dexterous you are and, well, the size of your hands. I have absolutely no issue with it – with regards to screens – the bigger the better.
On the sides of the device you’ll find the usual volume rocker buttons, a SIM card tray, charging ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack (I can’t believe this is a rare fixture nowadays) a fingerprint sensor embedded into the power button and a massive speaker.
We’ll come back to the speaker in a bit.
Cheaper phones usually ditch, or do away with a fingerprint sensor. Luckily that isn’t the case here, and the sensor on this device is the usual Xperia sensor you will find on their devices, their flagships too. It’s responsive, quick and natural.
Now let’s get a bit technical on this, non-geeks, you can skip this paragraph. One way they have managed to keep the price down is swapping out a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor for the Mediatek Helio P20. There are two options of 4 or 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. A microSD card slot is available too and you can add a memory card in up to 256GB. While you might find it slightly slow if you have used flagships in the past – it isn’t that noticeable. The device runs Android Nougat though you will have to deal with a mild Xperia skin on top of it.
For what is lacks in processing power it makes up with battery. The battery life on this device is amazing thanks to its 3430mAh cell. They also threw in a stamina mode and an ultra-stamina mode together with Sony’s famous QNOVO adaptive charging technology. Similar with the premium Xperia, aptly named the XZ Premium, the phone learns about your usage and the adaptive charging allows your battery to live life to the fullest. So you won’t have to worry about your battery dying on your over the next few months/years or however long you plan on using the phone.
Since it’s an Xperia, we have to talk about its cameras too. On the rear you have a 23MP camera with Hybrid Autofocus and a Quick Launch & Capture feature. It features Sony’s SteadyShot tech and shoots decent low-light media. The front is an 8MP camera with the same Exmore R mobile image sensor and SteadyShot tech.
The camera, battery and its 5.5 Full-HD LCD panel makes it an amazing phone for travellers. And more importantly – it’s audio. Remember the massive speaker at the bottom that’s even bigger than its USB Type-C charging port? It’s loud. Quite loud.
The audio on the device is quite good and you can tinker with the audio quality as well thanks to a manual equaliser to change your settings to your liking. The device has Sony’s SmartAmp and Clear Audio+ features and supports stereo recording too.
To wrap up, if you travel quite frequently, this phone was made to watch movies or TV shows on the move. It’s massive screen and tuneable audio helps. And not to mention its sizeable battery too. It could perhaps be a decent second device if you don’t prefer running down your battery on your primary phone. My only issue with this device is that it’s not fully water resistant. I guess that feature, together on the processor is where they’ve saved that Dh1,000 on.
If you’re on a budget and can live with a slightly slower interface and not instagramming in the pool – then take a look at the Xperia XA1 Plus.
