Meet the New Flagship Sony Xperia X Performance

Earlier this week, Sony announced the Xperia X and Xperia XA at MWC 2016. Both phones boast some noteworthy specs but the third phone announced, the Xperia X Performance is where the real power lies in the company’s new lineup of smartphones with Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Everything you can expect from the Xperia X Performance lies in the name. Though boasting a near identical finish to the Xperia X, Sony’s performance phone has a faster processor and LTE connections, a bigger battery, and a better camera system. As Sony put it:

Discover your creative capabilities and ignite your passion

Let’s talk more in depth after the jump.

Despite packing in the same 23-megapixel rear-facing camera and 13-megapixel front-facing camera, the Xperia X Performance still has a few tricks up its sleeve when it comes to photography.

Never miss those special moments that might pass you by. The Xperia X Performance has improved camera features with quicker response times, more intelligent focus and a new highly adaptive shutter speed, so you get clear shots all the time.

Sony achieves this via their Predictive Hybrid Autofocus which enables the phone to do all the tracking. Working hand in hand with that is Sony’s SteadyShot technology which compensates for your movements, making panning smoother and the images more stable. In short, you should be able to take some gorgeous photos and videos though no 4K video option is offered.

All this is viewed on the phone’s 5-inch curved display and a seamless metal back with IP68 certification for water and dust resistance. Underneath the display is a 64bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 with 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage with support for a microSD card with up to 200GB.

Other things setting the Xperia X Performance apart include a larger 2700mAh battery and LTE Cat 9 support for faster downloads. How many networks actually support Cat 9 remains to be seen but I’ll take future proofing. All this not surprisingly comes at a slight weight increase 165g vs 153g of Xperia X and slight increase in thickness (8.7mm vs 7.9mm).

On the entertainment front, you’ll find support for Hi-Res Audio, Digital Noise Cancellation, and PS4 Remote Play. The Fingerprint Sensor is also a go though we’ll see if the feature comes to the US this time around or not.

The Sony Xperia X Performance will be released this summer and is believed to be priced at €699.