Simplicity seemed to evade the Japanese company yet again however, once more details of the phones got out.

The Xperia X — a premium mid-range phone named like a flagship phone and sold at the dangerously-close-to-high-range price of $800 — is nice but it's too safe for enthusiasts and too expensive for the mid-range. The Xperia XA, meanwhile, is an entry-level unit that is fine at $500 but drops too many features to appeal broadly.

The true flagship of the bunch is the X's souped-up brother the Xperia X Performance and, even though the difference between the two might not be apparent at first glance, it's clear that this is the phone Sony should have been pushing as the leader of the bunch.

First things first, the X and X Performance are the nicest looking and feeling smartphones that Sony has ever made.

I've long been a fan of the clean, monolithic slabs of glass that made up the Xperia Z range, but the finish was grippy and had a tendency to attract fingerprints, with the hard edges making the phones uncomfortable for long use. The X line switches out the glass back for a matte sheet of metal, which on the Performance is lightly brushed or kind of sparkly depending on the colour you go for.

The front side is covered bottom to top in glass, with both it and the metal rear curving towards the edges for a soft, comfortable hold. The sensible size makes one-handed use a breeze. After a month of using the X Performance daily, I'm still surprised at how nice it feels compared to pretty much any other phone.

Like previous Xperia phones (but not the X or XA), the X Performance is waterproof, boasting an IP65/IP68 certification. Despite this the stereo front-facing speakers are loud and bassy, and the Micro USB port (no USB C unfortunately) is open and flap-free.

Under the hood the X Performance runs a Snapdragon 820 64-bit processor with an Adreno 530 for graphics. This is, aside from the waterproofing, where the phone differs significantly from the standard X, totally crushing the latter's Snapdragon 650 where speed is concerned. Benchmark tests show the X Performance marginally outperforming Samsung's Galaxy S7, with the speed particularly noticeable when opening apps, unlocking the phone (the side-mounted fingerprint scanner is marvellous) or going straight from locked to camera mode.

All three Xperia X devices sport a 5-inch screen, which on the Performance displays at 1080p, lower than the standard QHD and much lower than the Xperia Z5 Premium's ridiculous 4K screen. Sony's usual brilliant colour, deep contrast and image processing helps counteract this somewhat, but the display overall is very good rather than astounding.

Sony has opted to take a much lighter approach to Android this time around, and the version of 6.0 Marshmallow installed on the X Performance is very similar to the standard Google software you'd find on a Nexus device. The main additions are Sony's custom launcher, keyboard and messaging app, which are a matter of taste and easily switched out.

Imaging continues to be a big focus for Sony, and the 23MP main camera on the X Performance delivers some spectacular results. The dedicated shutter button on the edge of the phone combined with the overall snappiness of the camera setup means you can go from a locked phone to a captured image in around a second. Thanks to Sony's much-touted hybrid autofocus, your target will almost always be nice and sharp, even if it wasn't sitting still. (Photophiles should check the photo examples from DxO Labs, keepers of the mobile imaging standard, which rated the X Performance equal best for a phone camera alongside the HTC 10 and Samsung Galaxy S7).

I found I didn't really grasp how good the camera was on the X Performance until I tried to go back and take a shot with an older phone. On the auto setting, the X Performance adjusts exposure and white balance for indoor photography incredibly well, with very little noise. HD video is great too, with excellent stabilisation.

I had mixed results from the battery in the Performance, which is disappointing given Sony's recent history of phones that last two days. This isn't to say the battery life is poor, but I found I ended the day with anywhere from 50 per cent to 5 per cent battery remaining, with activities like photo-taking and games making the big difference. The processor may be much more powerful than that in the standard X, but it's clearly more power hungry as well.

One strange feature is the Qnovo adaptive charging, which charges the phone gradually throughout the night rather than blasting to 100 per cent as soon as possible and then holding the charge until morning. The idea is that this method is much gentler on the battery and will keep it holding a decent charge for years to come, but obviously I wasn't able to test this claim.

The Xperia X Performance is available direct from Sony for $999, or on a plan exclusively from Telstra.