Sony arrived at MWC 2016 to announce even more smartphones for its ever growing Xperia range in the form of the Xperia X and the Xperia XA.
The two new handsets sit in the mid-range market and aren't direct competitors to the Xperia Z5 series, but still manage to actually pack some punch.
The Xperia X is the highlight of thw two with a 5-inch 1080p display, fingerprint sensor and a new rounded design.
Sony is embracing the Apple and Samsung type design with a more rounded phone and it has smoothed out the blocky corners of the Xperia Z5 series. The design choices may persuade the odd design lover that Sony isn't taking criticism lightly.
It does still look very much like a Sony phone, and that's not just because the Xperia logo is emblazoned on the back.
An interesting thing to note is the Xperia X comes with a fingerprint sensor similar to the one Sony installed on the Xperia Z5. But those in the US have the version of the Z5 without the sensor, so it'll be interesting to see is Sony manages to keep the technology for the new Xperia X when it launches.
We haven't had time to test it out on the Xperia X, but if it's anything like it is on the Xperia Z5 it'll be among one of the best scanners you can find on the market.
The Xperia X features an impressive camera set up with a 23MP camera on the back and a 13MP selfie shooter on the front, much like the front facing sensor on the Xperia M5.
Sony didn't confirm whether either the Xperia X or Xperia XA would be waterproof. Someone on the stand did suggest to me that the Xperia X would be, but they didn't seem certain.
The Xperia XA is the slightly lesser phone here, but it features an almost edge-to-edge display that looks entirely different to the Xperia X.
Even though it's only 720p, it's sure to catch a few more eyes than the standard Xperia X screen.
The Xperia XA comes with a 13MP rear facing camera and 5MP version on the front, which feels like a let down sat next to the Xperia X but it's not bad spec for a camera at all.
Sony made a big song and dance about the new Qnovo adaptive charging technology on the Xperia X and Xperia XA. Both phones are meant to be better at controlling what they're doing at certain times to give you a longer lasting battery, and that's something Sony phones have suffered from in the past.
The Xperia X has a 2620mAh battery while the Xperia XA features a 2300mAh cell. It'll be interesting to see what Sony has done to improve the battery tech when we get a proper look at the Xperia X range, but for now it's not exactly clear.
Processing wise the Xperia X comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 chipset, which is one of the newest mid-tier chips on the market and should provide the handset with a decent slug of power.
The Xperia XA is a little less impressive under the hood with a MediaTek MT6755 octa-core processor and 2GB of RAM, unlike the 3GB of RAM at the Xperia X.
Both phones also support microSD cards up to 200GB and it's good to see Sony keep the 200GB support as many companies are sticking with a 128GB limit even though larger cards are now easy to come by.
It now means you don't have to spend out a lot of money on a high-end phone if you just want something with a lot of memory in it.
The Xperia X and Xperia XA will launch with Android 6 Marshmallow software on board. It depends when these phones launch, but there's still no sign of the software on the Xperia Z5 series so it may beat the flagship phones to the punch.
Quick verdict
These new handsets come even after numerous Sony spokespeople have said it would be slowing down and not releasing anything much after September's Xperia Z5 range.
What isn't clear yet is where Sony expects these phones to sit. The Xperia Z series already covers a lot of bases. If you want an innovative large screen phablet you go for the Premium, if you want an average size phone packed full of features go for the Z5 and if you want a smaller yet high-end phone go for the Xperia Z5 Compact.
Although it's true all three of these phones are expensive, I can't imagine the Xperia X and Xperia XA are going to be all that cheap. Sony also has its mid-range market covered with the Xperia M5 that was only announced in September 2015.
From the little I've seen of the Xperia X and Xperia XA it looks like both of these phones may be impressive for those looking at the mid-range, but whether they inspire customers into parting with cash is yet to be seen.
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