SonyXperia XA1 SIM-Free Smartphone - Black

Like several people here I love the square styling of this phone and its my 3rd Sony ( Z3 compact, Z5 compact-before.). If you are replacing either of these you need to read the below before you fall in love.Firstly size-- its a 5" screen as opposed to the ZX compact, and Z5/ Z3 compacts. Personally I like this its just about the biggest one handed phone you can have and gives that bit bigger screen. Its 2mm thinner too than a ZX Z5 Compact and has nicer top and bottom edging moving back to the Z3 compact styling ( without the clear plastic bumpers unfortunately).At a great price of £229 these are the features that you will miss from a ZX compact ( which is the updated Z5 compact and is now down to around £300 or less) -----No Finger print scanner ( there is a small sticking out button on the right side)---No double tap to wake on screen-- this is Sony being REALLY MEAN. This means that you have to push in the power button every time and then ( if you have set it and if you are using it as a work phone its likely your work email administrators will demand it in the Outlook download ) then enter the 4 digit code every time. Now there is a useful feature that you can set so as not to need the 4 digit pin. You can set a GPS setting ( i.e. home or work) that the phone will recognise and you won't need a pin. OR you can set it that a pin is not needed if you have it blue tooth connect device that you have authorised -- i.e. a Android watch or in the car. These are nice features but I really miss double tap to wake--There is a lot of moaning about this on Sony mobile chat sites so hopefully it will be part of a firmware update.--No stereo speakers-- the grill on the face at top and bottom is mic and hearing for phone calls. The speaker is on the bottom. For me its no big thing as if I want sound I will blue tooth to a speaker/ car. Its reasonably loud speaker on the phone (louder than Z3 Compact--isnt anything :-) _ but it is a bit hissy when you turn it up.--There is no 4k video but 1080p is fine. 4k on the ZX Z5 was only for 50 seconds before the phone got too hot and shut off anyway.Really thats about it-- this is the good stuff you get-- A fantastic 23 mp camera. Its actually the same one that was in the Z5 compact and that was supposed to be one of the best in the world. Like that one it shoots reg in 8mp so you have to set it to 23mp--but its a quality item in any way.-- Don't think that as its a lower class new chip than the snap dragon-- its been specifically designed for Sony and with 3 gb RAM rather than the Z5 Compact 2 gb RAM it opens and closes faster. Note if you are a gaming fanatic you may notice a dif but for everyone else this will be that bit quicker.--2300mah battery doesn't sound great , but what you are missing is that custom chip. It will last 20-30% longer than a Z5 Compact.-- Added to the above is the FANTASTIC super fast charging with USB C connector ( yes you will be buying USB C Amazon basics leads for charing around your house / car). But USB C is a) uni directional ( i.e. there is no wrong way up ) and b) chargers must faster. As an example you will get 50% in 20-30 mins. I would say its 60% faster than my old Z5 Compact which in its self was 30% faster than Z3 Compact.- Screen is 720p same as prior compacts. The Samsung brigade will shout not 1080 but its a compact screen so in reality ( unless you look REALLY close) you won't notice the diff.-It takes a Micro SD card up to 256gb with of course the 32gb internal storage.All in all I love it-- I hate that it doesn't have double tap to wake and with enough badgering Sony will sort this with a Firmware update. But apart from that its Brill and the price is excellent. If your coming from a XA it will blow you away. If you are coming from a Z3/ Z5 Compact you won't be disappointed and the price is great.The other thing to note is that with Nougat Sony removed SMALL APPS -- If like me you were used to using this to cahnge tracks on i.e. Spotify whilst on another page you will miss this. Sony you REALLY need to fix your software--your design is GREAT.If you have other questions ask me.UPDATE 1 21 July 2017-- Still loving the style and the 5" really is the top sizing that one handed use will support.There are 2 things that have developed that are really annoying --1- the swipe down to view notifications doesn't work. Maybe it was a software update? Ive read that one should take off all apps and put on one by one but I really cant be bothered to do that. Ive tried soft and hard re sets and its pain not to be able to lower the brightness each evening without going through system app. ANYONE ELSE FACING THIS.2. I constantly find that P on the right side of the keyboard won't press and show--ie it comes up as an O which is right next to it. Not sure if this is a factor of the curved edge and the side bezel being so slim or the screen formatting.Either way neither of the above happened on my Z5 Compact that I had for 18 months which behaved flawlessly.I still love the size / shape of the XA 1 but overall everything else is great-- but these ( and the aforementioned) seem silly software issues from Sony rather than hardware that would make it BRILLIANT for the price.UPDATE 2- THE DROP DOWN MENU STOPPED WORKING WITH OR WITHOUT CASE. A QUICK CHECK IN WITH SONY SUPPORT GAVE ME INFO FOR A HARD RESET ( PRESS ON/OFF BUTTON AND VOLUME UP BUTTON FOR 8 SECONDS. THIS FIXED THINGS FOR 10 MINS AND THEN IT WAS BACK NOT WORKING.ALSO THE HEADPHONE JACK STOPPED WORKING WITH THE 4 SONY HEADPHONES THAT I HAVE, DRIVING MY WIFE NUTS WHE THE SOUND WENT THROUGH THE SPEAKERS AND WAKING HER AS I LIKE TO GO TO SLEEP LISTENING TO RADIO.SUMMARY -- BEAUTIFUL SHAPE ( why cant Apple do this now--look at old nano iPods), ENOUGH SPECS THAT YOU NEED WITH A GREAT CAMERA. MAYBE I JUST HAD A BAD ONE. BUT I 'LIVE' ON MY PHONE SO AS WELL AS LOOKING GOOD IT NEEDS TO WORK. TOP MARKS TO AMAZON WHO OFFERED A REPLACEMENT OR A REFUND DUE TO NOT BEING ABLE TO FIX THE ABOVE ISSUE. AS MUCH AS I LOVE THE PHONE I FELT GOING FOR THE X COMPACT WOULD GIVE ME A MORE FLAGSHIP BUILD WHERE THE ABOVE WOULD NOT HAPPEN AS WELL AS GINING ME HI RES MUSIC AND FIGURE PRINT UNLOCK ( rather than hitting the on/off botton and then having to put in code. ) THE X COMPACT ALSO COMES WITH BUILT IN NOISE CANCELLING FOR HEADPHONES WHICH IS ALSO USEFUL WHEN TRAVELLING. B-U-T I WILL MISS THE 5" SCREEN GOING TO A 4.6" AND THE BRICKIER 9.5 MM WIDTH COMPARED TO THE SVELTE 7MM--EVEN IF THE BATTERY IS 2700MAH MEANING 25% MORE. If you are considering getting the XA1 have a look at the X Compact. Its down to £299 now. Thats still £70 more than the XA1 but the X Compact is about £200 less than the flagship Z5 Compact and has all the features / more speed , even if it is not waterproof and dust proof rated

As mentioned elsewhere in at least one review (that I missed when ordering this phone), it's not possible to have BlueTooth and Wi-Fi working at the same time without a host of problems. This issue is well-documented on Sony's own forums (search for "sony xa1 bluetooth wifi problem"), and there's no resolution being offered that I can find.The "answer" is to switch off Wi-Fi when using BlueTooth (not great for streaming music from the internet!) and switch off BlueTooth when using Wi-Fi (not great for convenience when getting into the car or wanting your fitness tracker to sync). When things do lock up, toggling Airplane Mode on & off typically provides a period of stability.Another deal-breaker should be the intrusive bloatware, particularly the "What's New" app, that allows your mobile network to push crap to your SIM-free device(!), and which Sony does not allow you to permanently get rid of. To be fair, I've used an Xperia before and was familiar with Sony's bent for pushing apps on you that you are unable to set the phone to permanently ignore; however, allowing a carrier to infest a phone that was not bought from them is a step way too far.It should be pointed out that the phone itself is great - the screen is a good size, and it's pin-sharp; the camera works really well, and the whole device is snappy and responsive. I'm actually keeping it, having invested a lot of time in setting it up and working out how to live with it, plus the additional money I've spent on a device-specific case and new charging cables.Overall: this phone can NOT be recommended due to the BlueTooth-related flaws which Sony has been well-aware of and is refusing to publicly acknowledge.UPDATE (March 2018):The Wi-Fi/BlueTooth connectivity problems have been remedied through a firmware update that arrived in February; however, the responsive of the screen has degraded significantly.For example, I unlock the phone using the "Pattern", which requires a swipe from dot-to-dot-to-dot - this is frustratingly difficult to carry out, because the screen loses "connection" to my finger mid-pattern, necessitating multiple attempts nearly every time I pick up the phone.As another example, I use "gesture typing", where text is input by keeping the finger on the keyboard and spelling out words by swiping - again, the phone thinks the finger is being listed and usually types two or three short words in place of the intended word.Another problem with the screen that's become apparent is the edges don't register touch 99% of the time; this means the notification shade can't be pulled down from the top of the screen. The area of the screen where I first noticed this is the right-hand edge, when I realised that trying to use the Backspace ("delete") key wasn't working. I've been into two phone shops and verified that their display models have the exact same problem by going into the in-built drawing app and trying to fill a blank canvas with colour - you're left with neatly-defined strips of white along each edge of the screen.I'm going to start the (probably fruitless) process of returning this device that I've had for two frustrating months. Despite the phone's great camera, snappy performance, and sound-feeling build quality, I'm completely turned off Sony products now, particularly given the time I've lost in trying to get this device to work and the money I've lost on buying a case and new charging cables.