Pricey Xperia X pre-orders hit Amazon UK

Sony announced its new Xperia X range back in February and although we are still waiting for an official pre-order program to kick off in the UK, Amazon has already started taking orders for the Xperia X and Xperia XA. These two smartphones are set to launch on May 20th and June 10th respectively.

However, I’m not sure that many customers will be keen to take up these pre-orders, as the prices seem extortionately high. Amazon is selling the Xperia X for £549.99, which makes it more expensive than the LG G5 and the Samsung Galaxy S7, which cost £499 and £526 respectively. Remember, this smartphone isn’t even Sony’s top-end model, that title belongs to the Snapdragon 820 powered Xperia X Performance. The Xperia X comes with a hexa-core Snapdragon 650 processor instead, a slightly smaller 2,620mAh battery, and no IP rating against dust or water resistance.

The Xperia XA is more budget friendly at £279.99, but even that seems a tad high for a handset that offers a 720p 5-inch display, MediaTek Helio P10 processor, and just 2GB of RAM, among other cut backs. For example, the unlocked Moto X Style is currently on sale through Amazon for just £14 more, and there are usually good deals on slightly older handsets to be found at this price.

UK retailer Clove is offering the phones at a slightly cheaper £499.99 and £249, but it seems that this is the price range that retailers are expecting for Sony’s latest handsets. We can only hope that the official pre-order pricing is a little more reasonable.