Sony Xperia XA1 Plus review

5.5-inch FullHD display isn't as bluish as the body

But it's close. More on that later, though. The Xperia XA1 Plus is equipped with a 5.5-inch IPS display of FullHD resolution, making the XA1 proper the only one of the three XA1s to sport a 720p panel. 1080p stretched over a 5.5-inch diagonal makes for a 401ppi density and is basically the gold standard for a midranger of this size.

It's also plenty bright. A maximum brightness around 600nits secures it a top spot among its peers, a few nits short of its Ultra sibling. Contrast is great too, not AMOLED-great, but awesome for an LCD.

Display test	100% brightness
	Black, cd/m2	White, cd/m2	Contrast ratio
Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra	0.382	603	1579
Sony Xperia XA1 Plus	0.376	591	1572
Xiaomi Mi 5X (Standard)	0.343	549	1601
Sony Xperia XA1	0.512	537	1049
Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) Max auto	0	533	∞
Sony Xperia L1 (Max Auto)	0.571	531	930
Nokia 6 (Global version)	0.364	484	1330
Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)	0.322	484	1503
Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017) Max Auto	0	482	∞
Sony Xperia L1	0.47	450	957
Motorola Moto Z2 Play	0	432	∞
Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017)	0	425	∞
Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017)	0	348	∞

Sunlight legibility is average on the XA1 Plus. The plain XA1 is marginally better, while the Ultra is more noticeably so. AMOLEDs are superior out in direct sunlight, all of them.

Sunlight contrast ratio

It's color reproduction where the XA1 Plus fails to impress. Its whites lean heavily towards cyan, to the tune of a DeltaE of around 10. The average DeltaE is an okay 5.7, but the whites you'll probably notice. The reds are quite muted too, particularly if you're coming from an AMOLED, but also just looking at the Plus on its own.

Connectivity

The Sony Xperia XA1 Plus comes in single and Dual SIM flavors. Ours is the single SIM version, so we can't comment on how the Dual SIM variety handles the two cards. Cat.6 LTE is supported by the Helio P20's modem for download speeds of up to 300Mbps.

Wi-Fi b/g/n over 2.4GHz and a/n over 5GHz is supported, but not ac. You can stream video wirelessly over Miracast but the XA1 Ultra isn't DLNA certified.

Bluetooth is v4.2 LE and comes with the audio-focused aptX protocol as well.

NFC is available too, and so is an FM radio receiver.

For positioning, you get GPS and GLONASS, but no BDS or Galileo.

Peripherals can be connected via the USB-C port, but USB 2.0 limits transfer speeds to 480Mbps. There's a good old 3.5mm jack for attaching headphones too.

Sony Xperia XA1 Plus battery life

The Plus in Xperia XA1 Plus may as well stand for extra battery. The phone packs substantially more juice than the larger Ultra. With its 3,430mAh, the Plus is better equipped than most current 5.5-inch devices in its segment which gravitate around the 3,000mAh mark. There is, of course, the notable exception of the Redmi Note 4 and its 4,100mAh power pack.

Anyway, the Xperia XA1 Plus is running on the efficient 16nm Helio P20 chip, one that already proved its strengths in the battery department on the XA1 and XA1 Ultra. Quite expectedly given its extra capacity, the Plus excels in terms of endurance.

Voice call longevity isn't spectacular, but at nearly 23 hours it's more than enough. Fifteen and a half hours of browsing the web over Wi-Fi is the best bit about the Plus' battery life, but twelve and half hours of video playback is pretty great too. The phone is quite frugal in its standby battery draw too, rounding up a superb showing by the XA1 Plus.

Crunching those numbers in our endurance formula produces an overall rating of 102 hours - triple-digit endurance ratings are the bomb.

Our endurance rating denotes how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the Sony Xperia XA1 Plus for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. We've established this usage pattern so our battery results are comparable across devices in the most common day-to-day tasks. The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritties. You can also check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.