Sony may announce new Xperia smartphones next week

Sony is working on updates to three of its low- to mid-range lines — Xperia XA, XA Ultra, and L — which may be introduced as soon as next week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. However, the Xperia XA2, XA2 Ultra (pictured top and below), and L2, as they’ll be known, may also be held for a February debut at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, as they have been in past years.

Currently, more details are known about the two new XA series models — a lineup entering its third iteration, following 2016’s XA and 2017’s XA1 pairings — thanks to specs revealed through the GFXBench benchmark.

The biggest change to these mid-range models appears to be their transition from Mediatek systems-on-chip to Qualcomm Snapdragon 630s (2.2GHz octa core). And whereas the Xperia XA1 has a 5.0-inch, 720 x 1280 display, the 5.2-inch XA2 (pictured above and below) looks to offer the same full HD, 1080 x 1920 resolution as the larger 6.0-inch XA2 Ultra (whose display characteristics are remaining unchanged, year-to-year).

While both models’ memory configurations should remain static as well (4GB / 64GB and 3GB / 32GB RAM and storage for the XA2 Ultra and XA2, respectively), they do look to be getting refreshed imaging components. Specifically, the XA2 is listed with a 21MP, 4K-capable rear camera and 7MP front-facing selfie cam. The XA2 Ultra, meanwhile, reports the same rear camera configuration, plus dual 15MP selfie cams, which are also capable of 4K video capture.

Less is known about the entry-level Xperia L2 (pictured above and below), other than the fact that it will maintain its predecessor’s 5.2-inch, 720p display size and resolution — and that, unlike the Android Oreo-equipped Xperia XA2 duo, it may still ship with the older Android Nougat.

The design language on all three models closely mirrors that of the current Xperia lineup — for better or for worse — but several leaks offer some hope that Sony is also preparing higher-end handsets with significantly reduced bezels.