The Sony Xperia XA1 Plus was announced in August at IFA 2017 and has today launched in India, with the local branch of the Japanese company saying that the smartphone is to become commercially available from tomorrow, September 22. The device is offered in a choice of Black, Blue, and Gold colors, and is priced at Rs. 24,990 ($385). Sony’s Xperia XA1 Plus follows on from the Xperia XA1 and Xperia XA1 Ultra that were both officially unveiled in February and sits somewhere between the two as far as size is concerned. However, although many of the specifications remain the same as the earlier models, the device is still a unique offering from the Tokyo-based OEM.
The dual-SIM smartphone has a 5.5-inch display featuring a Full HD resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 and packs a 2.3GHz MediaTek Helio P20 SoC which is itself equipped with the ARM Mali T880 GPU. There’s 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage that’s expandable via a microSD card to 256GB, and the phone packs a 3,430mAh battery that supports Qnovo Adaptive fast charging. Other notable specs of the Xperia XA1 Plus include a 23-megapixel rear camera with a fast autofocusing system with an aperture of f/2.0, HDR, SteadyShot, and a dual-LED flash, as well as an 8-megapixel front-facing shooter with a 23mm wide-angle lens. Connectivity options include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, and GPS, with the phone itself weighing 189g and measuring 155 x 75 x 8.7mm, making it slightly thicker than both the Xperia XA1 and Xperia XA1 Ultra. The device has a plastic back with metal sides and very slim side bezels. On the left side of the handset is a SIM card tray while its right edge houses a power key and volume rocker.
At present, the new Sony handset is running the Android 7.0 Nougat OS, though a recent list from Sony confirmed that it’s set to receive Android 8.0 Oreo at some point in the future. The handset ships with a 3,430mAh battery which is notably larger than the 2,300mAh and 2,700mAh batteries of the Xperia XA1 and Xperia XA1 Ultra, respectively. Sony is expected to bring more of its devices to India in the coming weeks, with the company still looking to seize a bigger share of the second largest smartphone market in the world.