Sony Xperia XA vs Samsung Galaxy J5 2016 Review

This year we saw Sony started shifting its brand to the new Xperia X series. Along is the new Sony Xperia XA mid-ranger with decent specs for its price. We put it on a comparison and review against Samsung’s mid-ranger Samsung Galaxy J5 2016. Which phone is a better buy? Let’s find out.

• SAMSUNG GALAXY J5 2016 / SERIES 6 REVIEW
• SONY XPERIA XA + XA ULTRA UNBOXING AND HANDS-ON

Design and build

It’s no question that the Sony Xperia XA is sleeker and more appealing with its curved glass and really thin bezels. It relies on the on-screen buttons while the Galaxy J5 has a combination of physical button and two capacitive keys.

Both felt solid in the hands while only the Xperia XA features LED notification, camera shutter, and dedicated dual-SIM and microSD card slots. The Galaxy J5, however, has a removable battery and front-facing selfie flash.

The Galaxy mid-ranger resembles the plain and dated Samsung design we’re used with while the Xperia mid-ranger is a refreshing take by the Japanese company. We miss the fingerprint scanner from both phones, though.

Display

With HD resolution on each display, sharpness is close as to each other, though technically, Xperia’s panel packs extra pixels due to a smaller 5-inch panel over the 5.2-inch of Galaxy’s panel. Both are bright displays with Super AMOLED on Galaxy having extra punch and saturation, but this difference is hardly noticeable. You can find scratch-resistance protection on top of each.

Camera

Making a comeback on each shooter is the 13MP main camera. In terms of quality, the Xperia shooter beats the Galaxy in color accuracy with the latter producing oversaturated photos. The sharpness level, however, is noticeably better on Galaxy camera. The Xperia XA is struggling in night shots which may be due to a software problem.

In the selfie, the 8MP front camera of the Xperia XA is visibly better with more details and natural colors compared to the bland and oversoften shots of Galaxy’s 5MP selfie camera.

Now on video, the Xperia shooter also takes the crown here with a better color handling and more stabilized shot.

Let’s know which camera do you think is better on this review.

Performance and benchmark

The Helio P10 octa-core processor of the Xperia’s hardware trumps the quad-core Snapdragon processor of the Galaxy J5 in our benchmark and actual speed test. The former can handle up to moderate video settings when playing NBA 2K16 while the dated Samsung hardware is limited with low settings.

Antutu Benchmarks

Battery and charging

The battery on the new Sony Xperia XA is rather underwhelming despite its efficient chipset and smaller screen size. With 2300mAh, it’s below average in our battery test with 2.5 screens on time with moderate use. On the other hand, the Galaxy J5 2016 packs 3100mAh removable battery with really good battery life.

Charging time took faster on the Xperia phone and slower on Galaxy phone due to the larger battery cell.

Battery Endurance Rating and Charging Time

Speaker and audio

You can find an FM Radio and single loudspeaker on each. The bottom-facing speaker on Xperia’s speaker underperforms while the Galaxy’s back-firing one is a bit more solid and louder.

Pricing and verdict

The two phones are only separated by a few thousand pesos in pricing. The Sony Xperia XA offers a faster processor, more streamlined and attractive design, and better selfie camera for P13,990 price or $300. For P12,000 SRP the Galaxy J5 2016’s biggest selling point is the battery life. With these cons and pros, which mid-range Android phone do you think is worth it?

Let’s know in the comments.

https://apis.google.com/js/platform.js

READ NEXT

• SAMSUNG GALAXY J5 2016 vs GALAXY J7 2016 COMPARISON
• SAMSUNG GALAXY J5 2016 vs HUAWEI GR5 COMPARISON
• SAMSUNG GALAXY J5 2015 vs JG 2016