Sony Xperia XA Ultra was recently announced, making it the fourth smartphone in the Xperia X family that was launched during the MWC 2016.
It comes to join the likes of Xperia XA, Xperia X, and Xperia X Performance, however, with the phone being a phablet, it will be nowhere near this pack in terms of market competition. Its closest rival in the phablet world, perhaps, is Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, at least for now.
Sony Xperia Z5 will probably be the last of the Z series. Last year the company released a top end phablet in the shape of Xperia Z5 Premium, however, this year had seen the company announce the same sized phones – all three units have 5 inches. However, the entry of a new Xperia XA Ultra means the phablet lovers have their way. But how will this XA Ultra compete against the flagship Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge when it is released later this year?
Design and display
Sony Xperia XA Ultra is way thicker than the Galaxy S7 Edge with its 8.4mm as compared to the 7.7mm of the latter. Furthermore, the former is taller at 164.2mm as opposed to the latter’s 150.9mm. It gets even better for the Edge as it is a lot lighter than the XA Ultra with a weight of just 157g as compared to the 190g of the Sony phablet.
As for the design material, you will find metal and glass on both and while Sony Xperia XA Ultra features a curved glass display, the S7 Edge has a curved dual-edge display. Speaking of displays, the S7 Edge has a Super AMOLED panel with 5.5 inches of real estate and a QHD resolution that translates to a 534ppi pixel density. While the Xperia XA Ultra features a larger display unit of 6 inches, it has a Full HD resolution that only manages to hit 367ppi of pixel density.
Processing power and storage
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge has two variants – one has a Snapdragon 820 SoC while the other has an Exynos 8890 SoC. However, both units are equipped with 4GB RAM. As for the Sony’s Xperia XA Ultra, you get a MediaTek MT6755 Helio P10 SoC with a RAM of 3GB. Given that the P10 is not the flagship chipset in MediaTek’s lineup, the Snapdragon 820 chipset will definitely outshine the XA Ultra’s P10.
Storage options are even worse for Sony Xperia XA Ultra as it only manages 16GB of onboard storage as compared to the 32GB/64GB available on the S7 Edge. However, both units can accommodate a microSD card of up to 200GB.
Camera, battery, and price
It is on the camera matters where Sony Xperia XA Ultra might be winning the game. It comes with a 21.5MP snapper on the rear. The shooter is equipped with panorama, PDAF, LED flash, and HDR, among other features. But it is the front camera where the XA Ultra really hits the jackpot with its 16MP selfie camera. If anything, the Galaxy S7 Edge’s 5MP is nowhere near this snapper. However, it delivers even better photography when it comes to its 12MP rear snapper that also includes an LED flash, OIS, PDAF and auto HDR, among other features.
Despite the huge display size of the Xperia XA Ultra, the phablet falls behind when it comes to battery capacity with its 2700mAh unit as compared to the 3600mAh used on the S7 Edge. As for the pricing, the Galaxy S7 Edge is valued at $780 for the base model, but there are no details on the pricing of the Xperia XA Ultra. But given the spec combination on board, we won’t be surprised to the see the phone priced way below $500.