This year we saw Sony started shifting its brand to the new Xperia X series. Along is the new Sony Xperia XA mid-ranger with decent specs for its price. We put it on a comparison and review against Samsung’s mid-ranger Samsung Galaxy J5 2016. Which phone is a better buy? Let’s find out.
It’s no question that the Sony Xperia XA is sleeker and more appealing with its curved glass and really thin bezels. It relies on the on-screen buttons while the Galaxy J5 has a combination of physical button and two capacitive keys.
Both felt solid in the hands while only the Xperia XA features LED notification, camera shutter, and dedicated dual-SIM and microSD card slots. The Galaxy J5, however, has a removable battery and front-facing selfie flash.
The Galaxy mid-ranger resembles the plain and dated Samsung design we’re used with while the Xperia mid-ranger is a refreshing take by the Japanese company. We miss the fingerprint scanner from both phones, though.
With HD resolution on each display, sharpness is close as to each other, though technically, Xperia’s panel packs extra pixels due to a smaller 5-inch panel over the 5.2-inch of Galaxy’s panel. Both are bright displays with Super AMOLED on Galaxy having extra punch and saturation, but this difference is hardly noticeable. You can find scratch-resistance protection on top of each.
Making a comeback on each shooter is the 13MP main camera. In terms of quality, the Xperia shooter beats the Galaxy in color accuracy with the latter producing oversaturated photos. The sharpness level, however, is noticeably better on Galaxy camera. The Xperia XA is struggling in night shots which may be due to a software problem.
In the selfie, the 8MP front camera of the Xperia XA is visibly better with more details and natural colors compared to the bland and oversoften shots of Galaxy’s 5MP selfie camera.
Now on video, the Xperia shooter also takes the crown here with a better color handling and more stabilized shot.
Let’s know which camera do you think is better on this review.
The Helio P10 octa-core processor of the Xperia’s hardware trumps the quad-core Snapdragon processor of the Galaxy J5 in our benchmark and actual speed test. The former can handle up to moderate video settings when playing NBA 2K16 while the dated Samsung hardware is limited with low settings.
Antutu Benchmarks
The battery on the new Sony Xperia XA is rather underwhelming despite its efficient chipset and smaller screen size. With 2300mAh, it’s below average in our battery test with 2.5 screens on time with moderate use. On the other hand, the Galaxy J5 2016 packs 3100mAh removable battery with really good battery life.
Charging time took faster on the Xperia phone and slower on Galaxy phone due to the larger battery cell.
Battery Endurance Rating and Charging Time
You can find an FM Radio and single loudspeaker on each. The bottom-facing speaker on Xperia’s speaker underperforms while the Galaxy’s back-firing one is a bit more solid and louder.
The two phones are only separated by a few thousand pesos in pricing. The Sony Xperia XA offers a faster processor, more streamlined and attractive design, and better selfie camera for P13,990 price or $300. For P12,000 SRP the Galaxy J5 2016’s biggest selling point is the battery life. With these cons and pros, which mid-range Android phone do you think is worth it?
Let’s know in the comments.
| Specs, PH Price | Sony Xperia XA Dual | Samsung Galaxy J5 2016 |
| Display | 5-inch 720p HD IPS LCD, 297 ppi, Scratch resistant | 5.5-inch 720p HD Super AMOLED, 282 ppi, |
| Size | 7.9mm thick, 137g weight | 8.1mm thick, 159g weight |
| Design | Curved Glass + Metal back | Metal frame + plastic removable back and battery |
| Colors | Lime Gold, Rose Gold or Pink, White, Black | Black, White, Gold, Rose Gold Pink |
| Chipset & CPU | Helio P10 octa-core | Snapdragon 410 quad-core |
| Graphics | Mali 860MP | Adreno 306 GPU |
| Memory | 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, microSD up to 128GB | 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, microSD up to 128GB |
| Camera | 13MP main, 1080p video, LED flash | 13MP main, f1.9 lens, 1080p video, LED flash |
| Selfie | 8MP selfie front-facing | 5MP f1.9 selfie front-facing, LED flash |
| Connectivity | 4G dual LTE micro SIM (dedicated), WiFi a, Bt 4.1, GPS, FM Radio, NFC | 4G dual LTE nano SIM (dedicated), WiFi n, 4G LTE, Bt 4.1, GPS, NFC, FM Radio |
| Software | Android 6.0 Marshmallow | Android 5.1 Lollipop, up to Marshmallow |
| Battery | 2300mAh | 3100mAh |
| Fingerprint | N/A fingerprint | N/A |
| Release date | July 2016 availability in the Philippines | April 2016 |
| Price | Php 13,990 / $300 USD | Php 11,990 / $260 USD in the Philippines |
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Carl Marx Brillante says:
hi do you have any camera comparison between
j7 2016 vs xperia XA
thanks more power
Jade Jardinico says:
Only Galaxy C5 and A5 (just slightly better in camera over J7 2016).