Sony Xperia XA2 Plus - the first mid-ranger with 18:9 screen and Hi-Res Audio

Review of Sony Xperia XA2 Plus. It's not all bad

Review of the Xperia XA2 Plus - Sony's first smartphone in the mid-price segment that doesn't make you yawn.
A really interesting, albeit peculiar product that deserves attention. Before starting the Xperia XA2 Plus test, it seemed to me that the XA2 series could no longer be saved from failure. The top-of-the-line XA2 Ultra turned out to be completely sad, and the brand new XA2 Plus seemed almost a complete copy of it.

Fortunately, I was very wrong, but in order to experience all the advantages, I had to use the smartphone as my main one for almost 4 weeks.

Specifications Sony Xperia XA2 Plus

• Display: 6 inches, 18:9, 2160x1080 pixels
• Camera: 23 MP, 1/2.3″ sensor, hybrid autofocus, f/2.0, 85 degree capture angle, 2160p or 120 fps video recording
• Front camera: 8 MP, 1/4″ sensor, f/2.4, 120 degree capture angle
• Processor: 8 cores, 4 x 2.2 GHz + 4 x 1.8 GHz, 14 nm, Qualcomm Snapdragon 630
• Graphics chip: Adreno 509
• RAM: 4 GB
• Internal memory: 32 GB
• Memory card: microSD up to 400 GB
• A-GPS, GLONASS
• FM radio
• Bluetooth 5, LDAC
• NFC
• WiFi
• Ports: USB Type-C, 3.5 mm
• Fingerprint's scanner
• Battery: 3580 mAh
• Charging: Qnovo, Quick Charge 3.0
• Platform: Android 8.0 Oreo
• Dimensions: 157x75x9.6 mm with a weight of 204 grams

Nothing extra

The heart of the device is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 chipset. There are two versions of the XA2 Plus: one with 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of user memory, the other with 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of user memory. I got the youngest one, and she had enough strength for my daily tasks. The phone did not lose the network, speech was clear, applications did not crash or slow down.

The device has two cameras on board. The main 23 MP, the same one that was in the Z5, can record video in 4K and slow-mo at 120 frames per second. It requires good lighting and behaves adequately only on a bright sunny day. Indoors and at dusk it begins to make noise, turn yellow and distort the photographs in every possible way. But during the day there is sufficient detail, the colors are bright, the inscriptions are readable.

The front camera is 8 MP wide-angle – 120 degrees. For selfie lovers, various functions are provided, such as blurring the background, improving the appearance of the people depicted in the photo, and other features.

Original photos

The interface of Sony's proprietary shell is practically no different from stock Android Oreo. The fact that this is a smartphone from Sony is given away by the lone Xperia Lounge application and the branded clock on the lock screen, which now has a second dot running in a circle.

Camera button, menu button and volume rocker

This rather large body houses a 3,580 mAh battery. With an average load - two hours of listening to music via Bluetooth or wired, reading social networks for three to four hours - the smartphone lasted almost two days. The screen remains the most energy-consuming element of the device. At the same time, the XA2 Plus supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging, with which you can charge your smartphone from zero to half in 30 minutes.

While I was getting used to the smartphone, the smartphone was getting used to me. One night he said to me: “Here, I’ve analyzed when you’re not using me, and I’ll probably extend the charging process over a longer period of time to preserve battery life, okay? You don’t touch me anyway from one in the morning to six in the morning, so why should I rush.” This smart system is called “Battery Care”.

Microphone hole, USB-C connector and speaker covered with mesh

As standard for Sony, the slot for two SIM cards is combined with a cover. If you pull out the plug, the phone, again standard for Sony, will reboot. Under this single flap there is a separate slot for MicroSD cards. So the smartphone is ready to work with two SIM cards and a memory card at the same time.

Design, ergonomics

The appearance of the Sony Xperia XA2 Plus does not evoke strong emotions; the body of the smartphone is made in approximately the same vein as other products in the XA2 line.

That is, it is a plastic case with a plastic back and metal insert ends. Inside there is a metal chassis, making the structure more rigid and durable.

Due to the screen with an aspect ratio of 18:9 and attention to detail, the smartphone does not seem old-fashioned, but a completely modern device. They even brought USB Type-C, but they forgot to remove the mini-jack. This already looks like a market trend - cutting out the 3.5 mm jack from flagships and leaving it in mid-segment smartphones.

The device cannot be twisted or bent, even despite the plastic parts. It seems almost monolithic, devoid of creaks and dents, as often happens with plastic phones. The assembly is wonderful, there is nothing to complain about.

Ergonomics

There are questions about the ease of use of the Xperia XA2 Plus. Not only is the phone large and wide (75 mm), but the metal inserts on the ends tend to cut into the palm. They turned out to be quite sharp on the edge.

I already mentioned durability; the smartphone is especially strong. As for wear resistance, everything is also in order - plastic shows itself noticeably better than glass or metal in terms of scratches.

Display

The Sony Xperia XA2 Plus has a 6-inch IPS display with an 18:9 aspect ratio, a resolution of 2160x1080 and rounded corners. Luckily, there are no cutouts. Sony didn't fall for the hype. The display makes a good impression, the brightness reserve is very impressive. But, traditionally for Sony smartphones, it noticeably goes into cool shades. In the screen settings (in addition to the standard brightness, scale and font size settings), there are three display modes: standard, maximum brightness and without picture “enhancers”. Separately, there is a flexible white balance setting:

In standard mode, the gamma curve is relatively close to the reference values, but there is a lack of red and an excess of blue, resulting in a “cold” picture. Color gamut is slightly wider than sRGB:

In maximum brightness mode the situation is similar:

According to the measurement results, the maximum brightness of the Sony Xperia XA2 Plus display is 506.361 cd/m2, and the brightness of the black field is 0.495 cd/m2, and the static contrast is 1023:1.

Screen

Sony Xperia XA2 Plus has a 6-inch screen with FHD+ resolution and an 18:9 aspect ratio. The screen occupies almost 79%, which is almost a record for Sony Xperia smartphones.

The main complaint about the screen lies in the insufficient maximum brightness, something around 400 nits. It’s enough for indoor use, but in sunny weather the display goes blind and it’s not comfortable to use. Otherwise, everything is fine - the contrast is excellent, viewing angles are maximum, color rendition is close to sRGB.

In general, I liked the screen of the Xperia XA2 Plus more than that of the Nokia 7 Plus (both are LCD, FHD+ and lack maximum brightness). Nokia's incorrect color rendering is probably to blame for this.

Oatmeal, sir

The device is ultimately boring. There's nothing super-delightful about it, there's nothing wildly annoying about it. It has a good screen, large, readable in the sun. Due to the large screen, it has considerable dimensions, but its elongated shape allows it to be conveniently placed in pockets. The internals allow the XA2 Plus to work without stuttering in standard applications and live long enough on a single battery charge.

Van-paaaaaaanch!

It sounds good - it doesn’t add any gag to the sound, it allows both melodies and headphones to shine. The declared support for high-rez feels more at the level of esotericism than common sense, but thanks for that.

And Sony has come up with a phone that doesn’t evoke any emotions at all. It works - and that's fine.

Advantages: juicy 1:2 screen that is easy to read in the sun, neutral sound

Disadvantages: boring

Official website: Sony Xperia XA2 Plus

Price: 29,990 rubles

Camera

The biggest pain point of the Xperia XA2 Plus is its main camera. It is based on the Sony IMX300 image sensor, which was installed in the Xperia flagships of 2014-2016. Now this camera is hopelessly outdated, which confirms the results of the shooting.

Take a look at the test images and you will understand everything. This is too low a result for a smartphone costing 21,000 - 28,000 rubles in official retail. Competitors from Huawei and Xiaomi are two heads higher in this regard.

Test shots:

Add to this a clumsy camera application that looks like a prehistoric artifact compared to analogues on the market and you will understand that it is better to perceive the phone as if it does not have a main camera at all. Or it is intended only for some extremely utilitarian things - take a photo of the price tag in the store, documents, etc.

The front camera, on the contrary, even pleased me, it can make quite suitable selfies. But against the backdrop of the terribly weak main camera, this is only so-so consolation.

Software

As much as I am ready to criticize the camera in the inexpensive Sony Xperia, I praise them for their excellent firmware optimization.

Xperia XA2 Plus runs on Android 8.0 Oreo with the proprietary Xperia UI shell, which is not much different from stock Android. A few cosmetic improvements, a couple of programs, that's all the changes compared to Pure Google.

I don’t know how the Sony Mobile engineers managed it, but the Xperia XA2 Plus on the Snapdragon 630 works MUCH more stable and noticeably faster than the Nokia 7 Plus on a completely bare Android and Snapdragon 660. Both have eMMC memory, which is 2-3 times slower than UFS 2.0 memory, but the magic is that the XA2 Plus somehow opens applications faster, has less lag in the interface, and is more responsive in everyday use.

Therefore, do not believe the fairy tales that you just need to install a stock Android on the “Chinese” and everything will go like clockwork. It won’t work, there are many hidden nuances associated with perfecting the hardware + software combination. Sony Mobile developers are masters at this.

Performance and tests

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 processor is responsible for the Xperia XA2 Plus; it consists of 8 Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 2.2 GHz. The graphics chip in this case is Adreno 508. The hardware is supported by 4 GB of RAM (there is a 6/64 GB version) and we have the same set as in the previously tested Xperia XA2 Ultra. It's a shame Sony didn't put a better SoC here.

I can't complain about the pace of work. The equipment responds quickly to commands, and I did not experience any serious lags. The manufacturer has made a great contribution to software optimization. The interface of the Sony Xperia XA2 Plus, although rich in functions, surprises with its ease and speed. As I already mentioned, all tasks are completed without delay.

The XA2 Plus also handles gaming well. Installing heavy programs, copying files, or downloading demanding games takes a little longer than you might expect. The games I tested on the device included Asphalt 8, Real Racing 3, Need For Speed, and Dead Trigger 2. I didn't notice the body getting hot, and with longer gaming sessions it only gets slightly warmer at the top.

Performance, operating time

The Sony Xperia XA2 Plus is built on the Snapdragon 630 chipset, which automatically puts this smartphone in the “not for gaming” category. There is enough productivity for everyday tasks - social networks, YouTube, Twitch, photo editing in VSCO. The phone covered all my basic needs almost completely.

Yes, the XA2 Plus is not as fast as the flagships with Snapdragon 845/Kirin 970, but if you are not a power user, then you are unlikely to feel any inconvenience. At least until you try playing demanding games like PUBG or Fortnite.

Autonomy

I liked the operating time of the Xperia XA2 Plus; the 3580 mAh battery consistently lasted for 1.5 days. My usage scenario involves a lot of social networks (especially Twitter and Instagram), about two hours of YouTube, streaming music on Bluetooth headphones, browsing for about 30 minutes and calling for 15-20 minutes.

The battery life of the phone is above average, given the 6-inch FHD+ screen.

Battery life

The smartphone is powered by a built-in 3580 mAh battery. This is not much, considering the 6-inch screen. But thanks to the energy-efficient processor, you can get 1.5-2 days in a not too active mode. With constantly working LTE/3G and Wi-Fi, 20 minutes of calls per day, periodic use of the camera, instant messengers, social networks, mail, browser and about 30 minutes of games, the smartphone can withstand 1.5 days. In the PCMark battery life test, the Sony Xperia XA2 Plus lasted 11 hours 45 minutes, which is quite good:

For synchronization and charging, a USB Type-C (USB 2.0) connector is used, while Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging is supported, but you won’t find it in the kit; the smartphone comes with a 5V, 1.5A power supply.

3.5

ITC.UA rating

Pros: stylish and comfortable body, decent display brightness, a full set of modern interfaces, including NFC and Type-C, good battery life, separate slots for SIM and MicroSD, pleasant shell close to stock Android

Cons: Not the best screen calibration, modest performance (considering the price and competitors), controversial placement of the fingerprint scanner, camera shots in low light

Conclusion: If you evaluate the Sony Xperia XA2 Plus without reference to price and competitors, then everything is quite good. It is convenient, even despite its impressive dimensions and large 6-inch screen. It looks stylish and is equipped with a good energy-efficient processor, which, together with a 3580 mAh battery, allows the smartphone to work for a long time on a single charge. The screen has a decent amount of brightness, but the calibration is far from ideal, as is traditional in Sony smartphones. But if you remember the price, it becomes clear that the smartphone will have a very hard time on the market; there are a lot of competitors, even models with Snapdragon 845 with dual cameras. Moreover, the remnants of last year’s flagship Sony Xperia XZ1 on the 835th “dragon” and with a more advanced camera are now being sold out, which also does not play into the hands of the Xperia XA2 Plus

Specifications

Communication, sound

There are no complaints about the quality of cellular communications and voice transmission during conversations. Like the older Xperia models I tested previously, the XA2 Plus is great for long calls. The speaker is loud and of high quality, and none of the interlocutors complained about the microphones either.

The situation with the sound from the speakers is worse; there is only one, but it is quite loud and clear in sound. Quite a decent level if you like to listen to music from your phone.

Everything is simpler with headphones. The device did not receive a separate DAC for audio processing, so it can only rely on the audio chip built into the Snapdragon 630. Sony's wireless sound, as always, is at the highest level, Bluetooth 5.0 and the LDAC codec provide top sound quality over a wireless connection, the main thing is to buy the appropriate Sony headphones. For example, h.ear in 2 or h.ear on 2 Wireless NC.