Sony Xperia XA Ultra vs Xperia C5 Ultra Review

The Sony Xperia XA Ultra is the successor to last year’s mid-range phablet, the Xperia C5 Ultra. With an improved design and upgrade camera setup, is the new Xperia XA Ultra miles better than its predecessor? How do the new dual-camera setup fare over the old shooter? Let’s find out in our full comparison and review.

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• Sony Xperia XA Ultra Unboxing

Design and build

The Sony Xperia XA Ultra retains much of the form factor and size of its predecessor. But looking closely, the new phablet brings better and more attractive build and design, respectively. There’s still the plastic frame but the front glass is now a beveled 2.5D glass while the satin plastic replaces the glossy back of the C5 Ultra.

In terms of handling, both are heavy as the other with the new phablet being a hairline thicker.

The ports and buttons are still in the same positions with the dedicated shutter key present at the right side. The loudspeaker from the front is now repositioned at the bottom. Meanwhile, the 21MP main camera is now moved at the corner from the center.

There’s still no fingerprint scanner on either but the dual SIM option makes a comeback. Both single and dual models will get a microSD card expansion.

The new Lime Gold color on this year’s Xperia phablet is one of the highlights providing a unique look.

Display

The new 6-inch 1080p panel on Xperia XA Ultra is noticeably more saturated and punchy. With a bit lower brightness level compared to the Xperia C5 Ultra, The more pleasing white balance makes up for a bit lower brightness level compared to its predecessor.

The Xperia XA Ultra’s bezels are thinner than the former with a beveled 2.5D scratch-resistant glass.

Camera

Both cameras on the Xperia XA Ultra have been upgraded from 13MP dual camera setup of the Xperia C5 Ultra. The resolved details did not dramatically change, but color accuracy and white balance are better on the new shooter.

With the bigger sensor and OIS, the new 16MP selfie camera of the Xperia C5 Ultra produces photos with a great amount of sharpness and vivid color. The old 13MP selfie camera of last year’s shooter still does the job, but we feel that the XA Ultra deserves to be labeled as the best selfie camera to date.

Video shooting is still stuck at 1080p. Sony’s proprietary stabilization effectively eliminates shakiness in video and even topping out some shooters with OIS.

For camera alone, Xperia XA Ultra is definitely a flagship shooter in a mid-range price.

Performance and benchmark

Powering the new phablet is an octa-core Mediatek Helio P10 with up 2.0GHz clock speed and paired with a 3GB RAM. The only difference on the older hardware is the clock speed of the octa-core CPU and lesser RAM at 2GB.

Our benchmark test shows XA Ultra leading a couple of thousands in Antutu benchmark while actual speed test is very close. It is on gaming where the extra powerful graphics is being utilized. Playing NBA 2K16 in medium graphic settings is smooth and fluid.

Battery and charging

Sony has unexpectedly reduced the battery on the Xperia XA Ultra to 2700 mAh from 2930 mAh of the Xperia C5 Ultra. The battery life is still the same the new phablet runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS with a Doze feature.

Actual screen-on time is about 3 hours with a cellular and WiFi connection in interval use. Meanwhile, the endurance rating is average.

Charging both phablets is a quite slow experience with the phablet filled from 0% to 100% for about 2 hours and 45 minutes.

Audio and speaker

The repositioned mono speaker sounds incredibly loud and a bit crisper than the front-facing speaker on the C5 Ultra. Both do not have high-res 24-bit audio feature like on the Xperia X and X Performance.

Pricing and Verdict

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Sony’s last year phablet debuted last year for about $400 and the same goes for the Xperia XA Ultra which is priced around P18,000 to P19,990 depending on where you will get it.

With only the improvements on the camera and design, we feel that upgrading from the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra to Xperia XA Ultra is not worth it. Maybe we could’ve recommended if there were a longer battery life and drastic performance changes.

Nevertheless, the new Xperia XA Ultra still makes a compelling phablet if you’re coming from a much older Xperia C series or Android phablets.