Sony Xperia XA2 H4133 32GB

Sony Xperia XA2 review

The Xperia XA2 sits in a slightly odd place. It offers solid specs and performance for the price, but the 16:9 screen and chunky body are already out of step with the competition, and the camera just can’t keep up at all. If 4K or slow-motion videos are must-haves for you, the XA2 is a decent enough choice at the price, but otherwise it’s difficult to recommend above the very stiff competition.

Sony Xperia XA2: Full, in-depth review

Like most Sony phones. The Xperia XA2 is a good option but it’s not quite the best out there. Sony’s Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact generated a lot of buzz at this year’s Mobile World Congress. However, the bulk of that buzz was focused on potentially-niche but genuinely-neat features like the rumble-style Dynamic Vibration and support for filming 960FPS slow-motion video in 1080p rather than the - arguably - much more significant shift away from Sony’s OmniBalance design language.

Sony Xperia XA2 review review

Sony Xperia XA2 review

The XA2 could have been another fairly forgettable mid-ranger, but Sony has taken last year’s XA1 as a starting point and fixed just about all the complaints we had with it. The XA2 has a much more capable CPU, so your apps and games are much smoother. The screen resolution finally puts it on par with the similarly-priced competition, and battery life is very good as well. Those looks are starting to age, admittedly, but it has a certain appeal if you’d like your budget phone to look like a much more expensive one. There are plenty of phones in the £300-400 bracket right now, and a lot of 'em have more modern designs, so it’s great to see Sony get the price right. It has a better camera than the Moto X4, bigger battery than the HTC U11 Life, and a newer version of Android than Samsung’s Galaxy A5. Of course, if your budget will stretch a little further, last year’s Honor 9 is still a seriously tempting alternative.