Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra review: Geared up

Telephony

The Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra we have for review is the single SIM version (G3221). Dual SIM versions are also available in some markets.

The list of favorites, the call log and the contacts are all tabs within the same app, and the dialer is summoned with a tap on a button. The call log can be filtered by missed, incoming and outgoing calls. Smart dial is supported too.

Dialer with smart dial • In-call screen • Call log • Phonebook • Favorites

Loudspeaker

Even if the two slits, top and bottom, on the Xperia XA1 Ultra hint at a stereo speaker setup, the phone actually packs just a single bottom-firing driver. It is, however, plenty loud, unlike the XA1, but it still falls slightly behind the XA Ultra from last year. Even so, the flagship XZ Premium with its pair of speakers has nothing on the Ultra in terms of sheer loudness.

Text input

For text entry, Sony has been sticking with the SwiftKey keyboard for a while now. It's touted as having one of the best prediction algorithms and offers pretty much everything: multiple layouts and themes, 5 different sizes, undocking, secondary symbols upon long press, swipe input, and emojis.

Swiftkey keyboard is the default text input method

Other apps

The News app is a news aggregator, pulling stories from sources on topics of your choice. It can also issue two daily bulletins for you at a time you specify, so you don't miss out on current events.

News

Xperia lounge is Sony's own entertainment app, feeding you exclusive content and competitions related to music, movies and games.

Xperia Lounge

There is a file manager, strictly speaking, but it's buried in the storage options in the Settings menu. It does allow basic copy and move actions, on multiple items too. However, you can't access it from the app drawer, all you get there is a shortcut to a downloads folder.

Sony's health-tracking app Lifelog doesn't come pre-installed, though all it takes to download it is a trip to the Play Store.