Today Sony announced the addition of a new smartphone to their mid-range line of Xperia XA2 devices. The new phone is the Xperia XA2 Plus and joins the Xperia XA2 and Xperia XA2 Ultra. The new Xperia XA2 Plus is most similar to and is essentially a slightly revamped Xperia XA2 Ultra that concentrates more on consumers of entertainment content while dropping the dual lens front-facing selfie camera setup. Sony also takes a step into the minimal bezel screen-dominant design that much of the smartphone industry is moving towards.
At initial glance, one may not notice much different when comparing the new phone to the Xperia XA2 Ultra that launched earlier this year. The look is deceiving though as Sony has stretched the screen to an 18:9 aspect ratio instead of the 16:9 ratio of the Ultra. Aspect ratios of at least 18:9 have become common on flagship devices, but Sony is starting to push that into the mid-range tier with the XA2 Plus. Other than changing the aspect ratio, the resolution remains at full HD and the screen size is 6 inches.
To help entice buyers to opt for this newer unit, a few other changes were made. Sony included their High-Resolution Audio and Digital Sound Enhancement Engine (DSEE HX) technologies to improve the audio experience. A new 6GB of RAM option will also be available joining the existing 4GB option. Sony also bumped up the size of compatible microSD cards from 256GB in the XA2 Ultra to 400GB in the XA2 Plus.
Finally, with the changes to audio technology and the screen, Sony is de-emphasizing the “selfie” credentials. The dual lens setup found in the XA2 Ultra has been removed and in its place is an 8MP front-facing camera that sports a wide-angle 120-degree lens. To make up for some of the lost capability, Sony’s “Portrait selfie” mode in their camera app now includes Bokeh and Beauty features on the software side.
One final new wrinkle that Sony introduced is swapping out the Blue color option of the XA2 Ultra with a new Green color for the XA2 Plus. Silver, Black and Gold are the other color choices.
Sony says the new Xperia XA2 Plus will be available starting in late August. No pricing has been announced yet.