Sony unveils three new smartphones: the Xperia XA2, Xperia XA2 Ultra and Xperia L2

If you’ve just about got your head around the baffling array of Sony Xperia branded smartphones in the wild, I have some bad news: three more have just popped up at CES 2018. Leaving the L2 to one side for the moment, the Xperia XA2 and XA2 Ultra have apparently been created “for those who are living online and are creating and consuming content on social media daily.”

Okay, that description could reasonably apply to any smartphone made in the last eight years or so (with a special shoutout to HTC’s doomed 2011 handset with the dedicated Zuck-button), so what does that actually mean? It means Sony is going big on the cameras. The rear camera on both devices is a 23-megapixel snapper, with ISO 12800 sensitivity meaning that it should cope well with low light images.

The front-facing camera boasts a 120° super-wide camera, allowing you to fit more people and scenery in shot, if making people envious on Instagram is your life’s work.

The XA2 Ultra adds more features to the mix. As well as the 8MP 120° camera lifted from the XA2, it has an additional 16MP snapper with optical image stabilisation. It’s also larger, with a bigger battery and 6in screen (up from 5.5in on the standard XA2). Both of them are 1080p displays, which is really all you need on a smartphone screen – certainly not the magic beans of 4K Sony has foisted on an apathetic public in the past.

Both phones use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 processor – last seen powering the slightly sluggish HTC U11 Life – and come with Android Oreo. They’re expected to launch next month. 

The XA2 will be available from Three UK (pricing and details to follow), and O2 will be exclusively stocking the XA2 in Silver. Preorders open at 1pm GMT. 

What about the Xperia L2?

Last and, to be fair, probably least, is the Xperia L2. You may not remember the Xperia L, but it was actually a very strong budget handset back in the day – albeit that day was in 2014.

This may well follow suit, although the budget market has sophisticated since then. Still, for your money, you’re getting a 5.5in smartphone, powered by the quad-core MediaTek MT6737T processor and backed by 3GB RAM, running Android Nougat. Suitably budget then, but for the right price it may be worth a look – we won’t know what that’ll be until in launches later this month, mind.