Sony wants to put the “smart” in smartphones with its new Xperia X series handsets, which come packing new “intelligent” predictive features, better battery management, and a greater focus on design.
The company introduced the first three phones revolving around that vision—the Xperia X Series featuring the Xperia X, Xperia X Performance, and the Xperia XA—during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday. Sony says the Xperia X Series is part of the company’s new approach to add “layers of intelligent technology.”
What that means in practice: To begin with, the phone’s camera will get new predictive capabilities to take better action shots. Once you’ve centered the phone on its subject, the phone’s software kicks in to figure out what the subject will do next and grab a shot that has less blur, according to Sony.
The batteries on these phones will also have better management and Qnovo Adaptive Charging software to extend their lifetime between charges.
As for design cues playing off that “intelligent technology,” Sony has added curved glass displays and a curvature in the chassis that will supposedly provide a natural fit in the palm.
The phones
The first two phones—the Xperia X and X Performance—are pretty similar. They both come with 5-inch 1080p screens, a 23MP rear-facing camera, and 13MP on the front. The Performance has a larger battery at 2,700 mAh, compared to the X’s 2,620mAh.
Both are offered in single and dual SIM configurations, shipping with 3GB of RAM and up to 32GB of onboard storage. The two phones also have microSD expandable storage up to 200GB, except for the Xperia X dual SIM model, which maxes out at 64GB for the microSD.
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 650 powers the Xperia X, while the Performance gets the beefier Snapdragon 820. Both phones come with Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
The Sony Xperia XA.
The lower-end Xperia XA runs Android 6.0 and packs 2GB of RAM, a 5-inch 720p display, a 13MP rear-facing camera, a 8MP front-facing camera, a 2,300mAh battery, and a MediaTek MT6755 processor. It also has single and dual SIM versions, up to 16GB of onboard storage, and a microSD slot for another 200GB.
As you might expect all three phones have slim profiles, measuring from 5.6- to 5.7-inches and weight well under six ounces.
Sony has yet to announce a release date or pricing for the phones, which will come in white, black, green-, and rose-tinted gold.