Sony’s Xperia XA smartphone was released in the UK on June 23rd with the O2 network, but starting today, it is being offered by rival networks Three and Vodafone, mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse as well as Virgin Media. O2 has been offering Xperia XA at £17 per month on a Pay Monthly deal which includes 100 MB of data, but thanks to the availability of more options, you can now choose among various Pay Monthly plans being offered by other networks and Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs). Carphone Warehouse, for example, is offering a number of plans, the cheapest of which starts at £19 per month, requires no upfront cost, and comes with 500 MB of 4G data, 500 minutes and unlimited texts. Virgin Media also offers a series of Pay Monthly plans starting at £15 per month which includes no upfront cost, 500 MB of 4G data and 250 minutes.
Among Three’s offerings for the Sony Xperia XA, the cheapest is an £18 per month one which requires no upfront payment and offers 500 MB of 4G data and 300 minutes. Even though all of these plans sound similar, Three’s plans cost just half as much for the first six months. If you take the £18 per month deal for example, you will need to pay just £9 per month for the first six months. If you need more data and minutes, you can go for a £23 a month offer ( £11.50 per month for the first six months) which comes with 1GB of 4G data, 600 minutes and unlimited texts. Vodafone is currently offering two tariff options, one of which costs £19 per month for 24 months with 500 MB of data and an upfront fee of £30, while the other costs £24 per month, requires an upfront fee of £10 and offers 1 GB of 4G data.
The Sony Xperia XA launched at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona back in February along with the Xperia X and Xperia X Performance phones and was first made available for pre-order in the UK on April 22nd on the Amazon UK website. At that time, the phone cost £279.99 which seemed somewhat higher than its specifications merited. For those who are not aware of the phone’s prowess, the Xperia XA features a 5-inch HD display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, an Octa-core Helio P10 System-on-Chip clocked at 2.0 GHz, 16 GB of internal storage, 2 GB of on-board RAM, a 2,300 mAh battery, a MicroSD card slot for additional storage and 13-megapixel and 8-megapixel rear and front cameras. In terms of features and specifications, the phone is inferior and at the same time, cheaper than the Sony Xperia X which was also made available for pre-order for £549.99 on the Amazon UK store.
