Sony Xperia XA1 review: Square one

Telephony

The Sony Xperia XA1 we have for review is the single SIM version (G3121). Dual SIM versions are also available in some markets.

The call log is separated from the contacts, but there's a shortcut to those in the upper right corner. It can be filtered by missed, incoming and outgoing calls. Smart dial is supported too.

Dialer with smart dial • In-call screen • Phonebook • Favorites

Loudspeaker

There are no stereo speakers on the XA1, contrary to what the design would have you believe at first glance. The single bottom-firing speaker isn't pumping out that many decibels, either, but an Average score in our three-pronged test puts it ahead of last year's model, and on par with the XZs.

Speakerphone test	Voice, dB	Pink noise/ Music, dB	Ringing phone, dB	Overall score
Sony Xperia XA	61.6	66.2	68.3	Below Average
Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)	66.0	64.3	70.1	Below Average
Sony Xperia XZs	62.4	65.5	73.3	Average
Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime	63.1	67.3	71.3	Average
Sony Xperia XA1	58.6	67.9	67.7	Average
Xiaomi Mi 5	66.9	67.2	74.0	Good
Moto Z Play	62.9	70.3	77.0	Good
Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017)	66.4	66.2	78.0	Good
Honor 8	67.1	66.2	82.6	Good
Xiaomi Mi 5s	64.2	70.0	84.9	Very Good
Huawei nova	69.2	71.9	80.6	Very Good
Sony Xperia XA Ultra	88.9	79.3	82.7	Excellent

Text input

For text entry, Sony has been sticking with the SwiftKey keyboard for a while now. It's touted as having one of the best prediction algorithms, and offers pretty much everything: multiple layouts and themes, 5 different sizes, undocking, secondary symbols upon long press, swipe input, and emojis.

Swiftkey keyboard is the default text input method

Other apps

The News app is a news aggregator, pulling stories from sources on topics of your choice. It can also issue two daily bulletins for you at a time you specify, so you don't miss out on current events.

News

Xperia lounge is Sony's own entertainment app, feeding you exclusive content and competitions related to music, movies and games.

Xperia Lounge

There is a file manager, strictly speaking, but it's buried in the storage options in the Settings menu. It does allow basic copy and move actions, on multiple items too. However, you can't access it from the app drawer, all you get there is a shortcut to a downloads folder.

Sony's health-tracking app Lifelog doesn't come pre-installed, though all it takes to get it is a trip to the Play Store.