| Pros | Cons |
| + Good battery life | - Mid-range chipset |
| + Nice screen | - Plastic back |
| + Impressive camera | - Big top and bottom bezels |
“The Sony Xperia XA2 manages to pack in more specs and features than you might expect for the money, with its screen, camera and battery being the highlights. The design is a bit weaker and it's not a powerhouse, but it's good value.”
The Sony Xperia XA2 is one of a new breed of mid-rangers – those with many specs and features that are high-end or close to, but with a lower price tag and a few concessions that keep them from being true affordable flagships like the OnePlus 5T.
They’re impressive, and often make it hard to justify the ever-growing prices of many top-end phones, but they need to strike the right balance and avoid neglecting core features in favour of luxuries.
So, with its edge-to-edge screen, powerful camera and impressive audio does the Xperia XA2 strike that balance or has it forgotten about the basics? Read on to find out.
The Sony Xperia XA2 has a 5.2-inch 1080 x 1920 display, a solidly mid-range spec, but one which stands out thanks to the lack of bezel at either side.
There’s still a hefty bezel above and below the display, but it’s far more eye-catching than most mid-rangers and comes closer to the all-screen effect found on flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S8 and LG G6.
It’s also a decent screen, sharp at 424 pixels per inch – a pixel density which not many mid-rangers will beat, and compact enough to use with one hand. It’s LCD, so you don’t get the vibrant colours of an OLED display, but it’s moderately impressive given the roughly £350 price of the phone SIM-free.
One of the compromises made to keep the Xperia XA2’s price down is in its design, as while the frame is metal the back is plastic, but it’s still a reasonably good-looking phone, especially when you factor in the edge-to-edge screen discussed above.
It’s also slightly curved, which helps it sit comfortably in the hand. There’s little clutter on the phone either, with just a camera lens and fingerprint scanner on the back for example and no buttons on the front.
The Sony Xperia XA2’s other main concession is its mid-range octa-core Snapdragon 660 chipset paired with 3GB of RAM.
Those are solid specs which should power the phone through most tasks you could throw at it, but they’re still distinctly mid-range.
That’s absolutely fine and expected for what you’re paying though, and it runs Android Oreo, so the software is up to date, which is more than you can say about a lot of phones.
One of the Sony Xperia XA2’s highlights is its 23MP camera. That’s a very high megapixel count for a smartphone camera, and while more megapixels aren’t always a good thing they seem to deliver here, with the camera capable of taking very detailed photos, focusing quickly and working reasonably well even in low light.
It’s also good for video, as it can shoot in up to 4K quality, as well as being able to shoot slow motion footage at 120fps. And thanks to Sony’s SteadyShot technology you’ll typically get smooth footage even when moving.
To be clear, this isn’t a match for, say, the camera on the iPhone X or Samsung Galaxy Note 8, but it’s very competitive with other phones at this sort of price.
It also has a decent 8MP front-facing camera. This has a 120-degree wide-angle lens, so you can fit more people or background into your shots.
The main additional feature of the Sony Xperia XA2 is its audio, as the phone has three different technologies to help improve audio performance.
There’s its Smart Amplifier, which is designed to make music loud and clear, its Clear Bass, which is designed to provide loud, impactful bass without distortion, and there’s ClearAudio+, which is designed to deliver immersive audio.
These features are most noticeable with a decent pair of headphones, but even playing music through the phone’s speaker you’ll get fairly loud sound.
The Sony Xperia XA2 has a 3,300mAh battery, which is an above average size and a major increase on the 2,300mAh battery in the Sony Xperia XA1.
More importantly, it lasts a long time, or at least an above average amount of time, as it should comfortably last you over a day, but may not stretch to two.
It also benefits from Smart Stamina and Qnovo Adaptive Charging technologies, which monitor your battery to help maximise its life between charges and its overall life, as they can make sure it doesn’t wear out as fast as less smart batteries.
Memory comes in at 32GB plus a microSD card slot with support for cards of up to 256GB, so space shouldn’t be too much of an issue.
As for connectivity options, you get 4G, Bluetooth 5.0 and NFC.
The Sony Xperia XA2 is an accomplished upper mid-range phone with several standout features. Its edge-to-edge screen looks great and provides a sharp image, its camera can take detailed photos, its audio is good, and its battery is long-lasting.
If they’re your priorities then the XA2 comes easily recommended, but the build and performance aren’t quite as impressive – they’re still absolutely fine for the money but are bettered elsewhere.
Ultimately though, unless you want to spend a lot more you’re always going to have to sacrifice something in a phone and the Xperia XA2 keeps those sacrifices as small as possible.
Dimensions (mm): 142 x 70 x 9.7
Weight (g): 171
Battery capacity (mAh): 3300
Colours: Silver, Black, Blue, Pink
Screen size (inches): 5.2
Resolution: 1080 x 1920
Pixels per inch (PPI): 424
Processor: Octa-core
Processor make: Snapdragon 630
RAM: 3GB
Internal storage: 32GB
Expandable storage up to (GB): 256
Camera: 23MP (8MP front-facing)
Operating System: Android 8 Oreo
