Sony has continued to keep its phablet series thru a new Xperia X lineup. The Sony Xperia XA Ultra is the biggest in the new series with its new curved and massive glass display. Putting the phablet against the Samsung Galaxy A9 is surely a close fight but which phone wins it overall? Read on to find out.
Table of Contents
Design and build
Making a comeback from the Xperia C5 Ultra is the 6-inch panel. Sony, this time, improved it thru a thinner bezel and curved glass.
The same goes for the Galaxy phablet with curved Gorilla Glass paired with a fingerprint scanner in its home button. On the Xperia, the fingerprint sensor is missing though Sony has kept the camera shutter key and LED notification light which the Galaxy A9 lacks. The 16MP camera on the Xperia is also more prominent than on the 8MP of the rival.
Despite the glass and metal build of the Galaxy phablet, it’s still a hairline thinner than the satin plastic-made Xperia phablet. The latter still feels premium especially in lime gold or rose gold.
At 200g-ish weight, either of the two is unwieldy and more suitable for two-handed use. Of course, your mileage may vary. Both offer dedicated dual-SIM and microSD card slots.
Display
It’s no question that Samsung’s Super AMOLED produces saturated colors and inky blacks. That’s true to the 6-inch Full HD 1080p panel of Galaxy A9. What the Sony Xperia XA Ultra offers, on the other hand, is as bright and accurate colors with its 6-inch screen. Both have beveled or curved 2.5D glasses on top.
Camera
Taking care of the photography on Sony Xperia shooter is the new 21MP sensor. It’s more pixels and much better in terms of color accuracy and dynamic range compared to the 13MP of Samsung shooter. Detail handling is close to the Galaxy shooter producing crisper details over the finer and lesser noise photos of Xperia shooter.
Perhaps the only downside of the Xperia’s camera is the missing OIS in the main camera. Shooting at dark or with flash needs a bit stable hand in some shots.
While missing the stabilization in the main camera, Sony unexpectedly included one in the 16MP selfie camera. Again, Xperia easily beats the Galaxy’s camera here in colors and sharpness despite the narrower angle. The Galaxy shooter tends to oversharpens, overexposed and produces pale colors despite turning off the beautification mode.
The two cameras shoot full HD videos and it’s noticeable the Xperia retains the control in color and details even in stabilization with its missing OIS, which is impressive.
Performance and benchmarks
In papers and Antutu benchmark, the Samsung Galaxy A9 with a Snapdragon hexacore 650 trumps the Sony Xperia XA Ultra with Mediatek Helio P10 in numbers. The actual speed test, however, is noticeably close with A9 edging a few milliseconds. Both hardware can handle NBA 2K16 in gaming test with medium graphic settings.
Battery and charging
The big advantage of the Galaxy A9 is in the battery. By numbers alone, it dwarfs the 2700mAh of Xperia XA Ultra by its 4000mAh juice. This difference results to Galaxy A9 lasting for several hours in our endurance test and screen-on time.
Charing the Xperia is a painstaking task using its default adapter taking more than 2 hours.
Speaker and audio
The mono speaker on each phablet is impressive and one of the loudest speakers we have encountered. The Xperia XA Ultra is leaning towards to more treble or vocals while the Galaxy A9 into a stronger bass.
Pricing and verdict
At P19,990 price or $440 USD, the Xperia XA Ultra is a few thousands cheaper over the Galaxy A9 valued from P23k to 26k or above $500. If you’re for better main and selfie cameras, the Xperia XA Ultra is the choice here. For power and battery, the Galaxy A9 makes a good option. Let’s know which phablet is still worth buying.
Price and Specs |
Sony Xperia XA Ultra dual |
Samsung Galaxy A9 |
| Display | Edge-to-edge and curved 6-inch Full HD, Scratch Resistant, 367 ppi | Curved 6-inch Full HD Super AMOLED, Gorilla Glass 4, 367 ppi |
| CPU | MediaTek Helio P10 octa-core processor | Snapdragon 650 hexacore |
| RAM | 3GB | 3GB |
| Memory | 16GB internal storage, 200GB max microSD card | 32GB internal storage, 200GB max microSD card |
| Main camera | 21.5MP phase detection, hybrid focus, auto HDR, stabilization, 1080p | 13MP f1.9, LED flash, OIS, manual HDR, 1080p video |
| Front camera | 16MP, LED flash, stabilization | 8MP f1.9, 1080p video |
| Connectivity | Dual SIM option, 4G LTE, WiFi a, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, GPS, FM Radio | Dual SIM option, 4G LTE, WiFi ac, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, GPS, FM Radio |
| OS | Android 6.0 Marshmallow | Android 6.0 Marshmallow |
| Battery capacity | 2700mAh | 4000 mAh |
| Ports and features | microUSB, USB OTG (on-the-go) | microUSB, USB OTG (on-the-go) |
| Release Date | July 2016 availability in the Philippines | March 2016 availability in the Philippines |
| Official price | Php 19k SRP pesos / $400 USD | Php 18k SRP pesos / $390 USD |
Sir, if your going to choose between the two. Which do you prefer?. Thanks
For me, I’ll go for the Xperia XA Ultra because of the cameras and a bit cheaper price.
Hi Jade, hopefully you will make a solo review on XA ultra and pls. include the HDR sample on manual mode. thanks
We will, thanks for throwing in your suggestion 😀
Hello, a question.
the photos with the xa ultra took them all in automatic mode to 16mpx and you used the manual mode to 21?
you think that in camera the ultra xa can compete with a moto z play or one plus 3t. is it better than the moto g5 plus?
great post!