The X stands for excellence

SONY HAS UPPED the smartphone ante with the Xperia X, boosting the capabilities of both the cameras and the battery.

This is the top of the line among X smart devices in a series that includes Bluetooth-enabled earphones, in-car music streaming and much more to come.

The Xperia X is powered by a hexa-core Snapdragon 650 64-bit processor running at 1.8GHz. It has three gigabytes of working memory (RAM) and 64GB of internal storage that can be expanded with a micro SD card up to 200GB, via a slot shared with one of two nano SIM cards useable on the model sold in Thailand. The phone runs on the Android 6.0.1 operating system.

Elegant in design, the X has a five-inch display to fit cosily in the hand. The seamless metal back is the perfect match for the curved glass edges of the display and the rounded, contiguous frame.

You can buy an X in White, Graphite Black, Lime Gold or Rose Gold, each with icons, display colours and graphics to match. The Lime Gold edition I tested had a green wallpaper and screensaver. 

The design is beautifully capped off in width and weight – 7.7mm and 152 grams – and the power button is on the right side. Held in the right hand, your thumb falls straight into place, which is useful since the button doubles as a fingerprint scanner for unlocking the phone. In my test the phone unlocked readily every time after scanning my right thumb.

The six-core processor and 3GB of RAM contribute to the phone’s good performance. The touch-screen and menus are quite responsive and graphics-intense games run smoothly.

As a crucial indicator of top performance, the Xperia X easily plays High-Resolution Audio format of FLAC 24bit/192kHz files. I wore Sony’s MDR-1ABT headphones and found the music quality excellent, with fine details and awesome bass.

The five-inch display at 1080x1920-pixel resolution relies on Sony’s Triluminos mobile technology, resulting in vivid colours and exceptional brightness. It’s terrific for viewing photos and videos.

You can hook up to LTE 4G with no problem. As usual I tested the phone on TrueMove H’s LTE network and connected with impressive speed. I could back up pictures to the Google Photos cloud fast. The Ookla Speedtest app measure downloads at 97.15Mbps and uploads at 21Mbps. 

Connection speeds can vary according to your location and the speed of the servers where the connection is made, as well as the number of users at any given time.

What’s most outstanding about the Xperia X is the amazing 23-megapixel camera, which uses a 1/2.3-inch Exmor RS as a mobile image processor, at a very sensitive ISO 12800. Sony’s G lens with 24mm-equivalent focal length and f/2.0 aperture adds to the camera’s agility.

The camera is ready to capture images in just a sixth of a second. The shutter button is lower down on the right side. Keep it pressed and the camera switches on, even if the phone’s in sleep mode.

The Xperia X uses Sony’s new Predictive Hybrid Autofocus technology and comes from close collaboration with its alpha-camera engineers. Predictive Hybrid Autofocus lets you choose your subject and then predicts its motion, so your image will be free from blur, which is great when the subject can get wildly kinetic, such as children and pets.

And that’s what I got during my test – blur-free photos with well-saturated colours, clear and clean even in the dimness of night.

The front camera has 13-megapixel resolution and uses a one-third-inch Exmor RS as its mobile sensor, and a wide-angle G lens of 22mm-equivalent focal length and f/2.0 aperture. Sensitivity is ISO6400. There’s a Soft Skin effect to make your self-portraits fashion-model gorgeous, and an auto photo preview so you can see what they’ll look like first before you snap the shutter.

The 2,620mAh battery can comfortably survive a full day of extensive usage. Sony reckons it’s good for two days of general use. Rapid recharging is possible if you have Quick Charter UCH12, which will give you 5.5 hours of power with just a 10-minute boost.

Meanwhile Qnovo Adaptive Charging technology constantly monitors and adjusts the charging currents to double battery life.

The Sony Xperia X has a suggested retail price of Bt21,990.

 

Key Specs

- Operating system: Android 6.0.1

- Networks: UMTS HSPA+: 800, 850, 900, 1700 , 1900, 2100MHz; GSM GPRS/EDGE: 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz; LTE: (Bands 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,12,17,19,20,26,28,38,39,40,41)

- CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 64-bit hexa-core processor 1.8GHz

- Memory: 3GB RAM

- Storage: 64GB, expandable with microSD by up to 200GB

- SIM: Two nano SIM slots, one shared with microSD card

- Display: Five-inch Full HD Triluminos Display for mobile

- Main camera: 23MP 1/2.3-inch Exmor RS sensor, 24mm G lens with f/2.0 aperture

- Front camera: 13MP 1/3-inch Exmor RS sensor, 22mm lens with f/2.0 aperture

- Connectivity: A-GNSS (GPS + GLONASS), WLAN: 2.4G/5G, Miracast, Bluetooth 4.2, DLNA, Google Cast, NFC

- Battery: 2620mAh

- Dimensions: 143x69x7.7mm

- Weight 152g