Xperia XA2, XA2 Ultra, L2 hands-on review

Xperias, reimagined. Sony is stepping into the new year with a brand new yet recognizably Sony design for its XA-series of midrangers, now into their third generation.
The Xperia XA2 and XA2 Ultra were announced at CES in Las Vegas, and alongside them a more humble Xperia L2 made a debut as well. We got the chance to spend some time with all three of them, and we've prepared a quick hands-on to share some initial impressions.

The Xperia XA2 leads the way - a compact mid-tier device that's gotten several key upgrades this year. For starters, it's been treated to a larger display that's also higher-res - it's a 5.2-inch FullHD panel compared to the 5-inch 720p units of the two previous XAs. Then there's the chipset - a 14nm Snapdragon 630 replaces last year's Helio P20. A major bump in battery capacity (3,300 vs. 2,300mAh), ultra wide selfie camera, and a fingerprint reader on the back (in the US, too!) - we're liking this new Sony.

Sony Xperia XA2 at a glance

• Body: Aluminum frame, polycarbonate back; silver, black, blue, and pink (select markets only) color schemes.
• Display: 5.2" 1,920x1,080 LCD, 424ppi pixel density.
• Rear camera: 23MP, 1/2.3" sensor size, f/2.0 aperture, 25mm-equiv. focal length. Hybrid (PD/contrast) autofocus. 2160p/30fps video recording.
• Front camera: 8MP, 120-degree field of view; fixed focus. 1080p/30fps video recording.
• OS/Software: Android 8.0 Oreo.
• Chipset: Snapdragon 630: octa-core 2.2GHz Cortex-A53 CPU, Adreno 508 GPU.
• Memory: 3GB of RAM; 32GB storage; hybrid microSD slot for expansion.
• Battery: 3,300 mAh (sealed); QuickCharge 3.0 fast charging.
• Connectivity: Single/Dual SIM; LTE Cat. 12/13 (600Mbps download); USB-C; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; GPS; NFC; Bluetooth 5.
• Misc: Rear-mounted fingerprint reader; single speaker on the bottom; 3.5mm jack; two-stage hardware shutter release button.