Sony Xperia XA1 Plus hands-on review: First impressions

Introduction

It's fairly easy to get swept away by all the Snapdragon 835 beasts of the day. It's just the way IFA goes. But while the XZ1 and XZ1 Compact are soaking up all the spotlight at the Sony booth, there is another newcomer in the company's ranks. One that is frankly likely to sell in greater volume than its flashy siblings, since it is meant to further saturate the mid-range Xperia XA1 line.

Frankly, the XA1 Plus came as anything but a surprise. At least for the better part, that is. With the XA1 sporting a 5-inch panel and the XA1 Ultra, a 6-inch one, it was more or less a matter of time before the popular 5.5-inch base got covered as well.

Sony Xperia XA1 Plus key features

• Body: 155 x 75 x 8.7mm, 189 g, plastic back and metal frame body, Scratch resistant glass front
• Screen: 5.5" IPS LCD display, 1080p resolution (1,080 x 1,920px)
• OS: Android OS v7.1.1 Nougat with the Xperia launcher and Sony multimedia apps
• Chipset: Mediatek MT6757 Helio P20 chipset: octa-core (4x2.3 GHz Cortex-A53 & 4x1.6 GHz Cortex-A53); Mali-T880MP2 GPU; 3GB/4GB of RAM (market dependent)
• Camera: 23MP, 1/2.3" camera, f/2.0 lens, phase detection hybrid AF, LED flash, dedicated hardware shutter key;
• Video recording: 1080p @30fps video recording, Steady Shot; Stereo audio recording;
• Selfie: 8MP, 1/4", f/2.0 front-facing camera with 1080p@30fps video
• Storage: 32GB of built-in storage and a microSD card slot
• SIM: Single and dual-SIM models (market dependent)
• Connectivity: Cat. 4/Cat. 6 LTE (market dependent); Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; GPS/GLONASS/Beidou/Galileo, Bluetooth v4.2, aptX; NFC, USB-C port with USB 2.0 support, 3.5mm headphone jack
• Audio: Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic;
• Battery: 3,430mAh non-removable battery, Pump Express+ 2.0 support, Qnovo adaptive charging, Stamina mode
• Misc: Fingerprint sensor (market dependent)

Join us on the following page for our first hands-on impressions.