Sony launched its new Xperia X and Xperia XA phones at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February and has now made them available for pre-orders in Europe. At the same time, Sony also announced that its premium Xperia X Performance phablet will officially launch in July of this year and will be available only in France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands and Sweden post launch. Having experimented with a number of Xperia Z series phones, none of which turned out to be best-sellers despite featuring brilliant features and specifications, Sony is now placing its bets on the new mid-range Xperia X and Xperia XA phones to remain viable in the ultra-competitive European smartphone market.
Even though the Xperia X is costlier and packs better specifications than the mid-range Xperia XA, its specifications do not really match up with other premium smartphones launched at Mobile World Congress like the LG G5 or Samsung’s Galaxy S7. While this led many to believe that Sony may have finally abandoned its plans to build premium devices, Sony also announced the X Performance phablet which signified that Sony is still willing to make another push at the premium phablet space. To be available in select countries in Europe, Xperia X Performance will be available to purchase at prices starting from €699. With prices starting from £469 in the UK and €599 in the rest of Europe, the Xperia X will feature a 5-inch display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, internal storage of 32 GB, 3 GB of RAM, a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 processor, a 23-megapixel rear camera and a 13-megapixel front camera. Prices of the cheaper Xperia XA phone will start from £239 in the UK and from €299 in the rest of Europe and the phone will come with a MediaTek MT6755 processor, a 5-inch display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, internal storage of 16 GB, 2 GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel rear camera and an 8-megapixel front camera. To compensate for their limited internal storage, Sony has added MicroSD slots in both phones and has made them brilliant mid-range smartphone competitors with all-metal bodies and the latest Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow operating system to boot.
If you purchase any of these phones, you will also be able to enjoy a much longer usage compared to other phones thanks to some brilliant battery-saving features that Sony has added in both phones like Qnovo’s Adaptive Charging technology, Sony’s smart battery management system and Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0 technology. You will be able to choose your favourite Xperia X or Xperia XA phone from a choice of White, Graphite Black, Lime Gold and Rose Gold colours. If you aren’t content with the specifications of Xperia X or Xperia XA, you can choose to wait till July for the Xperia X Performance phablet which will come with superior features like the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, 32 GB of internal storage, a MicroSD card reader, 3 GB of RAM, a 23-megapixel rear camera and a 2,700 mAh battery.