Sony has poured a lot of resources in putting the Xperia XZ1 and XZ1 Compact on the IFA 2017 spotlight and with good reason. They are, after all, its late 2017 racehorses. It does, however, have another new smartphone up for grabs, and it has very few words to spare for it. And, again, with good reason. That’s because the Xperia XA1 Plus is nearly too identical to the Xperia XA1 and Xperia XA1 Ultra that Sony launched earlier this year.
It would be a bit inaccurate to call them triplets. They do, after all, have a few things that distinguish them. The most evident will be the size. The Xperia XA1 Plus has a 5.5-inch Full HD screen. By comparison, the Xperia XA1 has a 5.0-inch HD screen and the larger Xperia XA1 Ultra goes with 6.0 inches and a Full HD resolution.
In most cases, however, they do sound eerily similar. For example, they are all powered by the same MediaTek Helio P20, an octa-core processor running at 2.3 GHz max. They even have the same main camera, with a 23 megapixel 1/2.3-inch sensor, f/2.0 aperture, Hybrid AF, HDR, and anti0-shaking SteadyShot.
So what’s the point of an Xperia XA1 Plus? It all boils down to the battery. This new mid-range smartphone carries a 3,430 mAh battery inside. Contrast that with the Xperia XA1’s measly 2,300 mAh or even the Xperia XA1 Ultra’s 2,700 mAh and you can see where Sony is trying to lead consumers.
The Xperia XA1 Plus goes on sale 20th October and will be available exclusively from Amazon. That extra battery isn’t going to come cheap, with a $379.99 price tag attached to it.
