Sony Xperia X, XA and X Performance arriving in Australia starting June 23
Sony's line-up of new and confusingly named smartphones will be on sale in Australia starting with the Xperia X on June 23.
After several generations of Xperia Z phones, Sony is moving back up the alphabet with a new run of X series handsets announced back in March at Mobile World Congress.
This includes the midrange Xperia XA, the Xperia X, the super-charged Xperia XA Performance and the big-screen Xperia XA Ultra (well, at 6 inches it's not huge, but the other three are capped at 5-inch screens). You can see the differences between the various models here.
Sony now has June 23 as the date the Xperia X goes on sale, with the XA and X Performance soon after, but at the moment the Ultra is MIA, with New Zealand getting it, but not Australia.
Pricing has just started to trickle out so we're updating this, along with how and where the phones are being sold. As usual it's a wonderfully confusing mishmash.
The Xperia X is the first off the blocks. You can buy it online from Sony from June 23 or via Vodafone, outright or on plan, from June 29. In July it's coming to Harvey Norman and it's AU$799 outright wherever you get it.
If you do get it on plan from Vodafone, it's on the AU$70 per month Red plan with no additional handset costs. Over 24 months it's a minimum of AU$1,680)
The Xperia XA is currently available on plan at Vodafone and Virgin Mobile online although it won't be in store at Virgin Mobile until July 4. It's available outright from Sony for AU$499 from July 7 and then JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman some time later in July. There is no reason for this to be so complex.
The X Performance is going to cost AU$999 outright and only from Sony online or in store. Carrier-wise, it will a Telstra exclusive. Given it's the only Category 9 LTE device out of the three means you'll get some good speeds from Telstra 4G network. There are no details on the plan until later in July.
And no, you're not reading this wrong: Optus was not named by Sony as a distribution partner.
Updated 4.30pm AEST June 29, 2016: Added the currently known pricing details.