Sony’s mid-range smartphone p4
Sony’s Xperia XA1 costs 8,500 baht — about right for what it offers
As monolithic a consumer-electronics brand as they are, Sony has always been content to compete in the mid-range smartphone market instead of going up against the big boys like Apple or Samsung. Mid-range android phones are a-dime-a-dozen these days, however, and the Sony Xperia XA1, the brand’s latest mid-tier addition to their Xperia line (after the XA1 Ultra) has its work cut out for it if it wants to stand out.
With its gorgeous 23MP back camera, coupled with a relatively low price of about 8,500 Baht, the Xperia XA1 does have a few things going for it. But with a 720p-maximum screen, 3GB of RAM and a middling processor, you also shouldn’t expect much power out of it either.
DESIGN
I can’t decide whether or not I like the XA1’s clean, soft-edged angular design. On the one hand, it does give the phone a slick, futuristic profile, not to mention a firm and comfortable grip. On the other, the phone’s own minimalistic design aesthetic makes it look like a toy, especially when the edges are shown. While many will no doubt appreciate the clean, smooth edges, largely devoid of any symbols, it does make the phone seem rather cheaply-made sometimes as well.
The phone’s 5-inch screen, meanwhile, is capped at 720p, which speaks to the phone’s middling specifications. It’s certainly bright and colourful enough — and the capped resolution helps the phone’s last-gen innards maintain a steady performance — but with many phones now being released with 4K capabilities, 720p simply may not cut it anymore in a variety of situations.
The phone’s relatively thick top and bottom bezels make the XA1 seem like it has a larger screen though, and the slightly curved edges of the screen makes it blend nicely into the outer edges, giving it a pleasant “movie-theatre” vibe when set on its side for media playback. Though again, at 720p, you may want to keep the phone at a certain distance so the pixels don’t seem too apparent.
Other than that, there’s not much to say about the XA1’s design. You’ll find the power/rest button and the volume rockers on the right-hand edge, and the dual simcard and SD card trays on the left. There’s a USB Type-C port and a charging dock on the bottom, and a 3.5-mm audio jack on the top. Pretty standard stuff.
FUNCTION
As mentioned earlier, the XA1’s general performance maintains a largely consistent and reliable pace, able to run modern games and apps rather well for its specs thanks to the capped 720p resolution, which frees up a lot of processing power for the phone. That doesn’t mean the phone can match its topof-the-line cousins any time soon, however, as multitasking through multiple apps — or running the occasional next-gen-optimised apps — will still make the phone struggle to keep up. As far as mid-tier android phones go, this is largely par for the course.
What does give the XA1 a little edge over its competition is its very-capable 23MP back camera, which produces gorgeous photos even when zoomed (to a degree). Better yet, with Sony’s much-touted “predictive photography” feature and the ability to take slow-motion videos at an impressive 920fps (most slo-mo footage from phones like the iPhone 7 are taken at just over 400fps), the camera is undoubtedly the XA1’s most compelling feature.
With a dedicated RAM unit built into it, the XA1’s back camera is capable of automatically detecting movement in a shot and passively take multiple snaps of the same shot so you can choose the ideal movement when trying to capture action photos. The slow motion function, meanwhile, can only capture very brief videos, before playing them back at regular framerates as 6-second videos, so its more of a neat little feature than something that can be used seriously.
With its sub-HD screen and relatively low specs, the XA1 doesn’t require that much juice to keep running. Its 2300mAh battery, while small, is entirely sufficient to keep the phone on all day at moderate use. Heavy users may find the battery quickly insufficient, however, even if the phone does possess a rather decent charging speed.
VERDICT
Like most mid-tier android smartphones, there’s really not much to say about the Xperia XA1, aside from the fact that it’s a cheap, (largely) reliable phone with an above-average camera. It’s 720p screen does make it feel like something you’d expect from a product in 2012, but at 8,500 baht, you probably couldn’t expect much better.