27.5.2017

Like several people here I love the square styling of this phone and its my 3rd Sony ( Z3 compact, Z5 compact-before.). If you are replacing either of these you need to read the below before you fall in love.Firstly size-- its a 5" screen as opposed to the ZX compact, and Z5/ Z3 compacts. Personally I like this its just about the biggest one handed phone you can have and gives that bit bigger screen. Its 2mm thinner too than a ZX Z5 Compact and has nicer top and bottom edging moving back to the Z3 compact styling ( without the clear plastic bumpers unfortunately).At a great price of £229 these are the features that you will miss from a ZX compact ( which is the updated Z5 compact and is now down to around £300 or less)-----No Finger print scanner ( there is a small sticking out button on the right side)---No double tap to wake on screen-- this is Sony being REALLY MEAN. This means that you have to push in the power button every time and then ( if you have set it and if you are using it as a work phone its likely your work email administrators will demand it in the Outlook download ) then enter the 4 digit code every time. Now there is a useful feature that you can set so as not to need the 4 digit pin. You can set a GPS setting ( i.e. home or work) that the phone will recognise and you won't need a pin. OR you can set it that a pin is not needed if you have it blue tooth connect device that you have authorised -- i.e. a Android watch or in the car. These are nice features but I really miss double tap to wake--There is a lot of moaning about this on Sony mobile chat sites so hopefully it will be part of a firmware update.--No stereo speakers-- the grill on the face at top and bottom is mic and hearing for phone calls. The speaker is on the bottom. For me its no big thing as if I want sound I will blue tooth to a speaker/ car. Its reasonably loud speaker on the phone (louder than Z3 Compact--isnt anything :-) _ but it is a bit hissy when you turn it up.--There is no 4k video but 1080p is fine. 4k on the ZX Z5 was only for 50 seconds before the phone got too hot and shut off anyway.Really thats about it-- this is the good stuff you get-- A fantastic 23 mp camera. Its actually the same one that was in the Z5 compact and that was supposed to be one of the best in the world. Like that one it shoots reg in 8mp so you have to set it to 23mp--but its a quality item in any way.-- Don't think that as its a lower class new chip than the snap dragon-- its been specifically designed for Sony and with 3 gb RAM rather than the Z5 Compact 2 gb RAM it opens and closes faster. Note if you are a gaming fanatic you may notice a dif but for everyone else this will be that bit quicker.--2300mah battery doesn't sound great , but what you are missing is that custom chip. It will last 20-30% longer than a Z5 Compact.-- Added to the above is the FANTASTIC super fast charging with USB C connector ( yes you will be buying USB C Amazon basics leads for charing around your house / car). But USB C is a) uni directional ( i.e. there is no wrong way up ) and b) chargers must faster. As an example you will get 50% in 20-30 mins. I would say its 60% faster than my old Z5 Compact which in its self was 30% faster than Z3 Compact.- Screen is 720p same as prior compacts. The Samsung brigade will shout not 1080 but its a compact screen so in reality ( unless you look REALLY close) you won't notice the diff.-It takes a Micro SD card up to 256gb with of course the 32gb internal storage.All in all I love it-- I hate that it doesn't have double tap to wake and with enough badgering Sony will sort this with a Firmware update. But apart from that its Brill and the price is excellent. If your coming from a XA it will blow you away. If you are coming from a Z3/ Z5 Compact you won't be disappointed and the price is great.The other thing to note is that with Nougat Sony removed SMALL APPS -- If like me you were used to using this to cahnge tracks on i.e. Spotify whilst on another page you will miss this. Sony you REALLY need to fix your software--your design is GREAT.If you have other questions ask me.UPDATE 1 21 July 2017-- Still loving the style and the 5" really is the top sizing that one handed use will support.There are 2 things that have developed that are really annoying --1- the swipe down to view notifications doesn't work. Maybe it was a software update? Ive read that one should take off all apps and put on one by one but I really cant be bothered to do that. Ive tried soft and hard re sets and its pain not to be able to lower the brightness each evening without going through system app. ANYONE ELSE FACING THIS.2. I constantly find that P on the right side of the keyboard won't press and show--ie it comes up as an O which is right next to it. Not sure if this is a factor of the curved edge and the side bezel being so slim or the screen formatting.Either way neither of the above happened on my Z5 Compact that I had for 18 months which behaved flawlessly.I still love the size / shape of the XA 1 but overall everything else is great-- but these ( and the aforementioned) seem silly software issues from Sony rather than hardware that would make it BRILLIANT for the price.UPDATE 2- THE DROP DOWN MENU STOPPED WORKING WITH OR WITHOUT CASE. A QUICK CHECK IN WITH SONY SUPPORT GAVE ME INFO FOR A HARD RESET ( PRESS ON/OFF BUTTON AND VOLUME UP BUTTON FOR 8 SECONDS. THIS FIXED THINGS FOR 10 MINS AND THEN IT WAS BACK NOT WORKING.ALSO THE HEADPHONE JACK STOPPED WORKING WITH THE 4 SONY HEADPHONES THAT I HAVE, DRIVING MY WIFE NUTS WHE THE SOUND WENT THROUGH THE SPEAKERS AND WAKING HER AS I LIKE TO GO TO SLEEP LISTENING TO RADIO.SUMMARY -- BEAUTIFUL SHAPE ( why cant Apple do this now--look at old nano iPods), ENOUGH SPECS THAT YOU NEED WITH A GREAT CAMERA. MAYBE I JUST HAD A BAD ONE. BUT I 'LIVE' ON MY PHONE SO AS WELL AS LOOKING GOOD IT NEEDS TO WORK. TOP MARKS TO AMAZON WHO OFFERED A REPLACEMENT OR A REFUND DUE TO NOT BEING ABLE TO FIX THE ABOVE ISSUE. AS MUCH AS I LOVE THE PHONE I FELT GOING FOR THE X COMPACT WOULD GIVE ME A MORE FLAGSHIP BUILD WHERE THE ABOVE WOULD NOT HAPPEN AS WELL AS GINING ME HI RES MUSIC AND FIGURE PRINT UNLOCK ( rather than hitting the on/off botton and then having to put in code. ) THE X COMPACT ALSO COMES WITH BUILT IN NOISE CANCELLING FOR HEADPHONES WHICH IS ALSO USEFUL WHEN TRAVELLING. B-U-T I WILL MISS THE 5" SCREEN GOING TO A 4.6" AND THE BRICKIER 9.5 MM WIDTH COMPARED TO THE SVELTE 7MM--EVEN IF THE BATTERY IS 2700MAH MEANING 25% MORE. If you are considering getting the XA1 have a look at the X Compact. Its down to £299 now. Thats still £70 more than the XA1 but the X Compact is about £200 less than the flagship Z5 Compact and has all the features / more speed , even if it is not waterproof and dust proof rated

18.7.2017

I had no intention of buying this phone. I had a phone I was happy with and it was working fine. However when my wifes phone needed replacing and I purchased her a Sony Xperia XA1 - I was impressed. Light weight, slender form, great camera, good performance, etc. this for me was a really good handset for the money. When Prime Day came and I saw the phone I thought was good value at £230 was now £170 - I bought one for myself.It would be unfair to compare the XA1 with a flagship phone, but if you were, it wouldn't do terribly. It has a premium feel to it (even the plastic back merges well enough with the metal sides you could mistakenly believe it was all metal) and the camera would have been in a flagship phone last year.It's not just the quality of the images that's impressed, the shutter speed is faster than a lot of phones, even more expensive ones.Ideally, the battery would have been bigger. It won't quite get through a day of intensive use, but there are various battery saving modes that can get you through, albeit with some functionality disabled. Also, the screen, it's only 720p. 1080p would really have been the sweet spot but it's not to say this is a problem. The 720p screen does have less pixels, and this does help the battery eke out a little more life. Also, the colours, the white and the blacks are very good. I compared the my old phone (an Honor 6x) with the wife's XA1 playing the same videos on YouTube side by side. At 720p - the XA1 won hands down - better colour and image quality. Surely the 1080p Honor 6x would slaughter the XA1 when it was showing a 1080p video versus a 720p one? No. I'd put it down to a narrow XA1 win. The richer colours and slightly smaller screen really helped defy the pixel superiority of the 6x.The more slender design means one handed phone operation is a reality again and a bit of extra real-estate in your pocket is freed up. The performance is decent, the Helio P20 CPU is a decent mid level performer, it won't go toe to toe with the flagship CPU's but will perform well in day to day use.There is some Sony bloatware installed, and by default it can be slightly intrusive, but this can be dealt with leaving a pretty stock Android experience - at least as close as you generally get these days.I really like this phone, and the wife loves hers. I've got to give it 5 stars because of what you get and how impressed I've been. For most users this phone will be great, for "Power Users" the battery and lack of 1080p screen may be a no-no.In the box:Phone, charger (cable + plug), misc documents and a pair of basic Sony headphones.ProsExcellent camera, especially for the money.Great colour reproduction.Type C USB connector.Slender buildLow price.ConsSmall Battery720p screen (but it's a really good one)No fingerprint scanner

19.8.2017

I brought this phone for my uncle after been issued one of these as a company phone and using it for some time. My current personal phone i use is a Sony xz ,which i have had since November 2016, and my wife has a xz premium so i have few comparisons that can be made. For the price the xa1 is good value , its has almost flagship specifications at mid range prices.DesignIts thin edge to edge screen and 5 inch screen makes the phone look very thin and tall, its not as wide as my xz but you can hold this phone with 1 hand use. The build quality is excellent seems solid and looks almost the same as the more expensive xperia.displayThe screen is very bright the colors are vivid,Evan tho the resolution is only 720 you cant really tell unless you really look hard.

27.7.2017

After 4 or 5 days of waiting at home, including receiving 2 empty broken seal boxes and the 3rd package being delivered to some mystery person instead of me, I received my new phone to replace my failed old Samsung S3.After a little over a week's use, and a few initial hiccups, I am happy to report that all is well. The screen is fantastic, the camera is fantastic even in low-light. The phone itself seems fast. I only make one or two calls per day and check emails and messages now and again and the battery only goes down by about 25 % PER DAY even with Bluetooth turned on. In comparison, my old S3 battery was dead before bed every day. One of my main motivations for choosing this particular phone,

3.10.2017

As a Windows Phone user, first a Lumia 640 then a Lumia 650, I was a bit nervous about finally leaving the sinking Windows Phone ship and joining the world of Android.I went for the Sony Xperia XA1 because it came recommended from others, had a good balance of price and performance, has had good reviews, and felt like the best phone in the shop.I made the right decision. This is a superb phone and I am quickly learning to love Android as well. The stand-out best things for me are:- The screen goes right to the side edges, allowing the phone to be thinner and so much more comfortable to hold and reach across the screen with my thumb.- It is really fast, vastly quicker than my old Lumia phones.

17.1.2018

Updated - I bought this at just under £200 (priced because the XA2 is on its way) to replace my Galaxy A3 (2016), which seemed to be increasingly laggy, kept running low on memory (16GB - even though I added no apps), plus I wanted a better camera. Wow, what a difference. Very responsive, lovely narrow shape allows great one-handed use. Phone calls are clear and the loudspeaker is very good, offering high quality sound for speaker phone or even music. This uses the Swiftkey keyboard that, although not much different in size to the Galaxy keyboard, is much better (I used to be a Blackberry fan, so value typing accuracy). I did try Swiftkey on the Galaxy, but on the Sony it is far better.

27.3.2018

I bought this phone to upgrade an HTC Desire 510 that was struggling to cope.It's a decent mid-range phone in the Sony idiom; slim, with square corners and a screen that goes nearly all the way to the sides . The octa-core processor, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage are good enough to run Android Nougat well and there's plenty of space for all the apps I need. For media storage there's a micro SD card slot. Some might criticise its non-Full HD screen, but in practice and bearing in mind that this is not a large phone, it's fine enough not to show pixels in normal use.NFC touch capability and a dedicated camera button are a welcome bonuses, less welcome is the lack of a fingerprint sensor.

22.11.2018

I have been quite impressed with this phone that whole ive had it, about a year now. There are two things rust impress me 1 , in all the time I've had it ive not got a single scratch on it even though is shared my pocket with keys and coins from time to time. 2. The 23mp camara It's brilliant! Takes really good pictures and video. And there's no doubt the sharp colorfull screen helps there! I've dropped it a number of times and is still working! But saying that you might want to get a rubber case for it as it is a bit slippery bit like a bar of soap sometimes. I really enjoy watching youtube on it. Some youtube material It's very high quality and this includes films.

7.7.2018

With the XA line up, Sony has finally nailed the mid market space, the XA1 in particular is a nice blend of specs, features, and build quality, its a solid phone, with a decent ips 720p screen, and a snappy response, it features all the bells and whistles, even lte and glonass and includes that magical 23mp Sony sensor, best in class for a phone that can be had for a measly 140 bucks.a helio p20 octa core with a mali880mp2 gpu at 700mhz means this is a powerful handset, capable of playing pubg at 40fpsif your in the market for a phone, dont discount the sony handsets, they are well supported with updates, and all feature superb build quality.battery life is stunning,

31.12.2017

Received this for Christmas, my first Android phone. Yes! I was the one who bought a Windows phone just before it all went pear shaped.Looks... stylish but unassuming. Well made and looks it.Operating system... took about a day to get used to the OS as, compared to Windows, it is a lot less clunky and seems much smarter and so took me by surprise because of its responsiveness.I've been painfully transferring contacts and other information as it doesn't seem to be possible to do this automatically between windows and Android.Still learning everything it does or can do. I think I'm going to be happy with this phone especially once I've installed all the apps I've wanted that weren't available

28.10.2017

This is my first smartphone, I chose it because I need one not because I leap onto passing bandwagons. I also added a 64gb card and wrapped it in the Sony style cover (because the phone wakes when the cover is opened).The phone is plenty fast enough in operation, battery life is easily a couple of days. Not sure if I'm losing my hearing but the speaker is not quite loud enough when making calls in moderate background noise. My wife says it's my hearing. Camera is good for taking instant snaps, video chats, low light photos, etc. Android is okay but having build-in apps like facebook is unnecessary.

24.1.2018

More than happy with the handset even though I've always bought the 'Compact' versions previously and wasn't sure about the increase in size, but it's not causing too much of a problem with fitting in pockets etc.My only annoyance is that I can't get the old T9 keyboard layout. I find the QWERTY for texting really hard going, partly I think because of the way I text (left handed!). Contacted Sony and they said I can't get the T9 on that phone unless I download a third party app which I don't want to do as I've read a few things about issues with the suppliers accessing data.

1.1.2018

Had Z2 and loved it, had two so called flagship phones since 1 6inch and the other one was a 5.7inch. Both of them were great at first but battery life was very frustrating and had to charge them around 2-3pm every day. My brother lent me this phone as he had it for free as an upgrade and never tried it. Faster than my last 2 phones even though on paper should be slower. Battery I still have 53% battery left and it's near 9am at night and have used it a lot today. Style wise it's truly beautiful and camera is brilliant both front and back. Will always buy Sony going forward.

23.7.2017

I previously owned the Sony Xperia Aqua. This is a far superior phone, with a top quality camera, fast processor, looks and feels good.I wanted a dual sim so that I could use my work number and personal number on one phone and this is relatively easy to use - you do have to choose which sim to use when calling/texting but that's not a problem one you get used to it. My hands free, blue tooth connection works fine but it not so clear which sim you are using - probably my out dated car software? The only real problem with this is the time it takes to charge it.

5.7.2017

I've always had sony phones and never had any issues with their usability and user interface. just feels like a premium product. This is a good phone, not as wide as some phones but could be described as tall and slim. Only issue i find with all smart phones is the use of glass on the screen. they break easily even from a 10cm drop and you end up buying more protective gear to a slim phone making them rather chubby than a small brick phone and it all takes too much space in your pockets.Not had any issues with apps failing so far

Sony Xperia XA1 - Reviews

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