Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra impresses the photographer

I like the Sony range of phones. They are distinct looking with a premium build, offer great value for money and are feature rich. No wonder Matthew Kanniah was excited to get his hands on the Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra. So how is the Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra? Does it live up to the hype? Here are Mathew’s First Impressions:

The Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra features the somewhat familiar Sony design in a thick metal case and almost edge to edge glass. It measures 163 x 80 x 9.5mm and weighs about 221g, which means it feels big and heavy in the hand. I often found myself using two hands to use the device as one just won’t cut it.

So what do you get for your money when you buy the Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra ?

Well, out the box the phone will run the latest Oreo software, a fingerprint scanner, Full HD 1080P 6-inch display screen, a Snapdragon 630 processor and 4 gigs of ram to keep things snappy and quick. It has a good 3,580mAh battery, which resulted in some impressive performance when playing media, using heavy apps, texts and calls.

Let’s Talk Camera

The Xperia XA2 Ultra features three cameras and as a photographer, I am always fussy and curious to see how well something like this will perform.

That rear-facing camera is a mean 23MP offering and thanks to that Snapdragon 630 the camera on this phone can shoot epic photos in good conditions, 4K video and 120fps slow-mo, and is decent in low light. For selfie lovers, Xperia XA2 Ultra comes with 16MP and 8MP cameras so you won’t be disappointed. That 16MP camera features optical image stabilization to keep things steady but also improves the low-light performance, that, coupled with a LED flash really brightens up shots without a loss in quality.

I was a particular fan of the 120-degree wide-angle view on the front camera which provided great perspective inside the supercars I drive and tight showrooms I see.

For added benefit, you will also find a dedicated camera button to make life easier when taking photos.

What else do you get?

Well to the joy of many, Sony has kept the headphone jack so your 3.5mm earphones will continue to work. Your music and video collection would probably fit on the onboard 32 gigs of space, but this can be expandable to 256gb should you require more capacity.

The speakers are very clear, audible and crisp. This, along with those vivid screen colours, makes playing games an absolute pleasure.

All in all, the phone is great.

For the price, you get a good camera, design, and a fab screen. It packs all the features most of the premium brands have in a nice package. For me, my only drawback was the shape of the phone which could thinner and sleeker. That would make it easier to use with one hand making this great phone even better!