Sony Xperia XA2 And XA2 Ultra Coming Stateside With Snapdragon 630 And Fingerprint Readers At Last
Just as had been rumored in the days and weeks leading up to the Consumer Electronics Show, Sony, as expected, refreshed its mid-range smartphone lineup with the introduction of the Xperia XA2 and Xperia XA2 Ultra. The new phones represent the third-generation of the mid-range Xperia XA, and one of the things they bring to the table is a new fingerprint sensor that we hope makes it onto Sony's higher-end phones.
For whatever reason, Sony has been slow to implement a fingerprint sensor into any of its phones, even though it's become a commonly found features in the smartphone sector at large. But whatever, biometric security in the form of a fingerprint sensor has finally arrived on the Xperia line, starting the Xperia XA2 and Xperia XA2 Ultra. That means it's almost a sure bet that Sony's next flagship phones will get the upgrade as well.
Both new phones are powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 630 system-on-chip (SoC) with 4GB of RAM and 32GB or 64GB of internal eMMC storage. They also feature the same overall design, with reduced top and bottom bezels and a display that extends to both edges. What's different about the two is the size of the display—the Xperia XA2 sports a 5.2-inch Full HD 1080p panel, which is a pretty big upgrade from its predecessor's 5-inch HD 720p display, while the Xperia XA2 Ultra features the same 1080p resolution but on a bigger 6-inch panel.
The camera implementation is a little different between the two models as well. There is a 23-megapixel camera with 4K video and 120 frames per second slow-motion capture support on both handsets, along with an 8-megapixel super wide-angle (120 degrees) front camera. The Xperia XA2 Ultra also boasts a 16-megapixel front camera with optical image stabilization in conjunction with the 8-megapixel shooter.
To accommodate for the bigger display on the Ultra SKU, Sony outfitted the Xperia XA2 Ultra with a 3,580 mAh battery. That's 32 percent larger than the 3,300 mAh battery in the Xperia XA2. Both phones ship with Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box.
Sony did not announce a specific release date or pricing, though expect the Xpera XA2 and Xperia XA2 Plus to hit retail sometime later this month or in early February.
