Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra Review: Everything is Balanced

After the launch of the Xperia XA1, the company received a good response from the customer. And then, the Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra is officially sold out with the audience targeting the big screen for entertainment, watching movies. The phablet is the successor to the Xperia XA and Xperia XA Ultra smartphone launched in 2016. We take a closer look at the Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra review below.

Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra Review

Design

Unlike the Xperia XZ Premium (review), the Xperia XA1 Ultra is aimed at the mid-range segment. The new XA1 Ultra feature more or less the same design language as the Xperia XA Ultra. The phablet features the same edge-to-edge display with near bezel-less sides. However, the top and bottom of the phablet continue to sport prominent bezels.

Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra is a premium looking device and will impress you in terms of overall design and build. Rear panel of the device is pretty minimalist. There is a 23MP rear camera, LED flash, NFC, and XPERIA brand logo in the center. There is one minus point is it’s extremely easy to scratch or left the fingerprints. You should choose Gold or White color model, will show fewer scratches than Black.

Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra Rear

Above the display, you will find a 16MP front camera, Sony logo, ambient light sensor and a front LED flash. On the top, you will find an earpiece. Below the display, there is a blank space except for a speaker because it has on-screen back and menu layout. On the left, there’s a SIM card slot and the micro SD card slot. Top edge with a 3.5mm headphone jack and a secondary microphone. While bottom edge with USB Type-C and a microphone.

Display

The Xperia XA1 Ultra has a large display as follows the Xperia Ultra tradition with a 6.0-inch IPS LCD display and Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) resolutions. The impression on the XA1 Ultra’s screen is the clarity, as well as the buildup on a quality IPS panel. The pixel density is 367ppi, 76.1% of the screen to body ratio and covered with the scratch resistant glass.

Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra Display

The border-less edge to edge display, which looks amazing. There’s barely any noticeable bezel on the sides, although the top and bottom part are quite big. In addition, Sony is equipped with a feature that allows users to customize the display color to suit their needs and preferences. We appreciate this feature on the Xperia devices.

Performance

Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra is powered by a Mediatek MT6757 Helio P20 SoC clubbed with Mali T880MP2 GPU. It is an octa-core SoC with quad-core 2.3GHz and quad-core 1.6GHz Cortex-A53 cores. It has got 4GB of RAM and 32GB of native storage which is further expandable via micro-SD card slot up to 256GB.

We speak about the mid-range hardware segment, which allows you to use your smartphone without too many problems in almost every task. We say it because the user experience of the device generally good not much frustrating when we open the heavy applications or games.

Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra Performance

The management interface is smooth and responsive, as well as the use of the most common apps such as instant messaging, browser and maps but also some game with improved graphics is not too complex. Continuing to talk about connectivity, we find an LTE modem can reach download speeds of 150 Mbps and 50 Mbps uploading, WiFi dual-band, Bluetooth 4.2 and GPS with A-GPS and Glonass.

Software

The operating system is Android 7.0 Nougat, which comes with a lightweight interface. The software is customized with the Sony proprietary interface that from the graphical point of view is now identical for several generations. Until now, we have nothing to complain about software from Sony as split-screen multitasking, customizable home screen, good stability, and everything works fine thanks to Android Nougat.

Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra

Even minor features like double tap to pull the notification bar extremely useful, or one-handed mode makes it easy to make text messages on the road with this big screen.

Camera

And now we come to the Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra camera, another element that has quite convinced us of this phablet. The camera sensors are obviously from the Sony, which from this point of view has nothing to envy of the competition. There is a 23-megapixel rear camera with 1/23″ sensor size, f/2.0 aperture, 24mm, PDAF, auto-focus and LED flash.

Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra Camera

The images are rich in details, especially in the presence of an optimal light, which allows shooting with reduced times. The camera sensor with high resolution is to be considered definitely an advantage of the device. The images were taken in poor lighting then surely suffer from the lack of a stabilizer and you can refer the Sony Xperia XA1 review, since the rear camera parameters of the both devices are similar.

Another biggest plus point of the XA1 Ultra is the front camera with a 16-megapixel sensor, f/2.0 aperture, 23 mm, OIS, Auto focus, and LED flash. Which makes it great, if you are looking for a good camera phone on both rear and front, the XA1 Ultra might be not a bad choice.

Both camera sensors are able to shoot full-HD (1080p) videos at 30fps. Good yields of the main video camera, characterized by a fast-focusing lens for optimum light conditions, a bit slower in dark situations. The camera features include geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, HDR and panorama.

Battery

The battery capacity is 2700mAh in the Xperia XA1 Ultra, the battery life of the device is quite surprising. One day average usage with continuously on mobile data on 4G network, sync on, check e-mail frequently, Facebook, FB Messenger, Youtube, music streaming with Soundcloud, get more than 4.30 hours on screen time.

We think that the phablet with a 6.0-inch Full HD display, when employed the 2700mAh battery, will be very low, but it’s surprisingly good. Especially, when continuously using the device with 4G network, it does not catch heat and only warm when watching Youtube continuously.

However, if compared to the current same segment phablets such as Galaxy A7 2017, C9 Pro, A9 Pro or Oppo F3 Plus, the 2700mAh battery capacity of the XA1 Ultra is somewhat felt less and uncomfortable for the powering tasks such as high-end gaming.

Final line

Summing up we can only describe this Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra a balanced device. The flaws out there, particular one is on the battery, but on the other hand, we have a decent camera, good quality, a really good ergonomics, the design and build of this device is amazing, this phone looks very premium and the border-less display is like icing on the cake.

Overall the Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra is a good for the people looking for a phablet smartphone with good sets of a camera. Coming to the Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra price, £329.00 at the Amazon.co.uk, pricing is actually acceptable for a product like this and a figure certainly more justified.

About Ankeet Solanki

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