Sony Xperia XA2 family

The Sony XA2 family is the latest addition to the range of Jolla Devices: with the power of 8-core Processor and bigger displays up to 6″ Sailfish will literally fly!

This is a family page that serves as an introduction to take stock of the situation and understand the differences between models. For more information continue browsing by choosing one of the three models.

Early 2019: point of the situation

By 31 January 2019 the new Android 8.1 Apps Support is out. Although released as ‘beta’, and at the reduced price of 29,90€, the Android 8 support is reality and allow also to the XA2 devices to install some Android apps.

At the moment – under Sailfish OS Sipoonkorpi – there is some issue, mainly linked to the absence of Google Play Services: many app will not open, or will works with various range of issues, from minor to major…

Please follow this important Wiki on Jolla together to be up-to-date and warned about the Android situation.

Also, there is a light Battery drain issue that afflicts the new XA2 models: despite the large batteries, the autonomy with Sailfish is between 1 and 2 days. the issue seem to be related to the wifi, but we are all hoping that this major issue will be fixed on next software update.

We hope that these 2 problems will be fixed on the may/june(?) update of Sailfish OS, and with the software support for fingerprint sensor, we will have full working ‘flagship’ devices.

Previously…

On November, Jolla a has added support for a new generation of Sony smartphones, targeting the XA2 family: Sony Xperia XA2 , Sony Xperia XA2 ULTRA and Sony Xperia XA2 PLUS.

All the variants are supported: dual SIM variants , 32 / 64 GB size.

Xperia XA2 family

The version of Sailfish for XA2 is still Sailfish X, the licensed version of Sailfish OS from Jolla Oy. There was some confusion at the level of naming and branding after that, during the year the emphasis was shifted to Sailfish 3 as a disruptive next-generation release. (Edit. In Barcelona there were also a new logo, but they were only sticker).

So, the installation method is practically the same: Unlock Bootloader of Sony through an unlock key, and flash the phone. Buy a license to obtain Predictive Text, Android support, Zendesk, and MS Exchange support.

Differences between models

The Xa2 models have very similar technical specifications, so the appearance, and the size of the display will probably guide your choice.
All models were launched in 2018, and shares the same same processor and GPU. The XA2 and Ultra XA2 model are January, while XA2 Plus is July.

Going by categories we can say that:

Sony XA2 is the ‘base model’:
is a 5.2 “display and very similar to Xperia X and iPhone 8 in size.
Available in Silver, Black, Blue , Pink.
Distinguishing features: it has the best quality / price ratio of the family.
Sony XA2 ULTRA is the ‘big model’ :
it has a 6 ‘display, with a footprint of 163 x 80 x 9.5 mm.
If you like large displays, it is the right choice. But having the same processor with more pixels makes it slightly slower than XA2 base in all benchmarks.
Distinguishing features: it is big.
Sony XA2 PLUS is the ‘refined’ .
After a few months Sony introduces a model of intermediate size, with still a 6″ display (18:9 format) with rounded corners. Same specifications, with glass Gorilla Glass 5 instead of 4. Available in Silver, Black, Gold, Green
Distinguishing features: the most expensive and stylish.

XA2 appears sizes

In dept comparison

For an detailed comparison between models, use the excellent comparator by GSM Arena. Clicking on the below button you will land on a ready page with differences highlighted. Just remember to exclude the rows related to Android SW.

Compare specifications on GSM Arena

The hardware

All XA2 Xperia family is powered by the octa-core 2.2GHz Cortex-A53 CPU processor and this makes it much more capable than its predecessor Xperia X, (which was basically a 4 + 2 cores, ed). The GPU is an Adreno 508 GPU, enough to handle the workload.

Memory: there are two setup: 3 GB of RAM / 32GB of file , or 6GB RAM / 64GB of storage.

Remember that there is also a microSD slot for expansion up to 256 GB. It uses the SIM 2 slot, so consider it before to chose the 32GB.

To verify if the 32GB-SD-limit of Sailfish-limit is still there.

The batteries are large, non-removable, from 3,300 mAh to 3580 mAh (XA2 plus and ultra). All models are compatible with QuickCharge 3.0 and 2.0 adaptive formats for fast charging.

We tested the SONY Charger UCH10 (QuickCharge 2) and there is some improvement than the stock charger. For sure in the first our of charge.

The rear camera is very good, with a main-room 23MP f / 2.0 apertures, with 2160p / 30fps video recording. Front camera is 8MP, highlighted for its 120 degrees of shooting angle, but with fixed focus. It allows video recording at 1080p / 30fps.

Design

One aspect that struck in all the reviews is the good industrial design: the body of the phone is slightly curved, convex, and this helps the grip especially in XA2 Ultra model.

Watching him well – for those in memory – there is something of the Nokia N9 , especially looking at the blue model: curved glass (only horizontally, however, edit), relatively thick, glossy finish on the sides as extras.

The Xperia blue XA2 is the editor’s choiche. When will Sailfish installed, the rounded corners will accompany swipe gestures!