It's official — the Sony Xperia XA Ultra is the new moniker of the Xperia C6 Ultra, and it's packing in a huge 6-inch display and possibly one of the best front-facing cameras for selfies.
To start things off, this news is in line with reports about Sony focusing solely on the Xperia X roster, pulling the plug on Xperia C and Xperia M after it killed off the Xperia Z series back in February.
Moving on to the nitty-gritty details, it houses a MediaTek MT6755 — also known as the Helio P10 — octa-core 2.0 GHz processor along with 3 GB worth of RAM under the hood. Storage-wise, it has 16 GB of internal space that can be expanded up to 200 GB via a microSD card.
As mentioned earlier, it sports an end-to-end 6-inch screen, much like the Xperia XA but bigger, and it pushes out a higher definition of 1,080 x 1,920. Out of the box, it runs on Android Marshmallow — as it should, really.
Keeping the lights on is a 2,700 mAh battery pack that Sony claims to be capable of lasting up to two days on a single charge, and on top of that, it features quick-charging support to boot.
Touted as a smartphone that can capture "exceptional selfies even when the sun goes down," it's fitted with a 16 MP front snapper with Sony Exmor R for mobile sensor, front flash, optical image stabilization, autofocus, 88-degree wide-angle lens and both HDR and low-light photos support.
"Xperia XA Ultra boasts an advanced selfie cam for perfect poses, day or night. With 16 megapixels and Sony's renowned low-light sensors you get sharp, bright, blur-free shots every time," Sony says.
The main camera isn't left out either, as it boasts a 21.5 MP shooter that uses HDR imaging, hybrid autofocus and auto-scene recognition, to name a few.
As for availability, it's expected to hit the shelves of select markets in July, and at this point, it's still not sure whether or not it'll land on U.S. shores when it first rolls out. Even the price isn't known yet, but it's a safe bet to assume that it'll fetch a slightly higher price than the Xperia XA. Also, one thing that's already certain is that it'll be available in white, black and lime gold.
It's also worth mentioning that the Xperia XA Ultra comes as a bit of a surprise, as the expected 2016 lineup initially consisted of only the Xperia X Performance, Xperia X and Xperia XA, which were presented along with the Xperia Ear at the 2016 Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona.
Long story short, the Xperia XA Ultra should be a midrange phablet that doesn't go far from the Xperia XA in terms of specs, and it looks like Sony is warming up to idea of enormous screens more.
What do you think of the fourth smartphone in the Xperia X series? Feel free to drop by our comments section below and tell us what's on your mind.
