Sony Xperia L

SONY XPERIA L REVIEW

The Sony Xperia L is a mid-range device that screams Sony from the first look. And in a world filled with affordable mid-range Android devices design is of paramount importance. In this case, the Xperia L is an elegant phone, featuring a noticeable inward curve and a beautiful diffused LED light strip at the bottom that lights up whenever you have notifications pending. The Xperia L is about to enter a segment that saw some of Sony's most compelling performers last year. This is no small responsibility but the L seems to have the right tools for the job. It comes across as one of the hottest prospect in Sony's lineup - one that's more likely to pleasantly surprise than disappoint. Let's take a closer look at what the Sony Xperia L has to offer. The handset doesn't have a spectacular specification, but it all works well as a package. You get a 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM and Android 4.1 - not much on paper, compared to the near-2GHz monsters we're now seeing on premium smartphones, but we've no complaints about the handset's performance. Apps open and shut with a snap and animations are silky-smooth. The 4.3-inch screen is a welcome break from the large 5-inch and bigger screens of today as you can actually operate this device with just one hand. Sony uses the Android on-screen buttons for navigation. That means they do take up a bit of those 4.3 inches, so in reality there is less room for icons and other usable content. At 4.3 inches diagonal and with a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels the screen is not amongst the sharpest ones out there. Pixel density comes at the mediocre 228ppi. a good enough display and adequate processing power are a start. The styling of the Bond phone was readily available - no points for creativity but in the end, the Xperia L has good looks and character with minimum effort. That's the thing here, Sony makes upgrading look so easy and it's a skill that sometimes evades even the most talented competitors. Let's see though if the Xperia L can keep it up. With a 1 Ghz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chipset, Adreno 305 GPU and 1 GB of RAM, the hardware inside the Sony Xperia L is nothing we haven’t seen before, so we had a fairly good idea of what to expect. Luckily we weren’t disappointed, and the Xperia L even made a fairly good showing in some cases.

SPECIFICATION & FEATURES

DISPLAY & SCREEN

Type:	TFT capacitive touchscreen
Display Protection:	--Contrast ratio: 1077:1 (nominal) / 1.351:1 (sunlight) --Scratch-resistant glass
Technology:	TFT
Form factor:	Candybar
Colors:	16M colors
Touchscreen:	Yes, up to 4 fingers Multi-touch
Size:	4.3 inches
Resolution:	480 x 854 pixels
Pixel density:	228 ppi
Display Features:	Light sensor, Proximity sensor, Scratch-resistant glass

BODY & DESIGN

Device type:	Smart phone
OS type:	Android
Dimensions:	(5.07 x 2.56 x 0.38 inches) / (128.7 x 65 x 9.7 mm )
Weight:	(137 g) / (4.83 oz)
Keys and Input Methods:	--Capacitive touchscreen with on-screen QWERTY keyboard --On-screen 12-key keyboard --Side Keys: Right: Volume control, Camera shutter, Lock/Unlock key

GENERAL TECHNOLOGY

2G Network:	GSM 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 1900 MHz - C2104, C2105
3G Network:	HSDPA 900 MHz, 2100 MHz - C2105 HSDPA 850 MHz, 1700 MHz, 1900 MHz, 2100 MHz - C2104
Data:	HSPA (unspecified), UMTS, EDGE, GPRS
Positioning:	GPS, A-GPS
Navigation:	Yes
SIM card type:	Micro-SIM
Announced:	18 Mar 2013
Released:	May 2013, Available

HARDWARE & MEMORY

Processor:	Dual core, 1000 MHz, Krait
Graphics processor:	Adreno 305
System memory:	1024 MB RAM
Built-in storage:	8 GB storage
Card slot:	microSD, microSDHC up to 32 GB

MULTIMEDIA & SOUND

Alert types:	Vibration; MP3 ringtones
Audio quality:	Noise -87.0dB / Crosstalk -88.0dB
Features:	--PlayStation Certified --Sony Entertainment Network (selected markets only) --Video streaming --Motions gaming --3D games --xLoud Experience – audio filter technology from Sony --“WALKMAN” application --TrackID music recognition* --Clear bass, Clear stereo and Clear Phase --Bluetooth stereo (A2DP)
Audio Supported formats:	MP3, AAC, eAAC, WAV, OGG, 3GPP, MP4, SMF, OTA, Ogg vorbis
Audio recording, supported formats:	3GPP, MP4, AMR
Video playback Supported formats:	MPEG4, H.263, H.264, XviD, AVI, MOV, MKV
Loudspeaker:	Yes, (Voice 72dB / Noise 67dB / Ring 79dB)
Headphone:	Yes
3.5mm jack:	Yes
Music player: Filter by: Features:	Yes Album, Artist, Playlists Album art cover, Background playback, Music recognition
Radio:	Yes, (FM radio)

CAMERA

Camera:	Photo & Video
Primary Camera quality:	8 megapixels, 3264 x 2448 pixels
Flash:	LED flash
Features:	--features: Back-illuminated sensor (BSI), Auto focus, Touch to focus, Face detection, Smile detection, Exposure compensation, White balance presets, Digital zoom, Geo tagging, High Dynamic Range mode (HDR), Sweep panorama, Scenes, Effects, Self-timer, Image stabilization, 4x digital zoom, Sony Exmor RS for mobile image sensor, HDR for both picture/film --Image playback, supported formats: BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG --Image capture, supported format: JPEG
Primary video camera:	--Camera video resolution: 720p (Full HD, 1280x720) --Camera video frame rate: 30 fps --Video playback frame rate: 30 fps
Primary video camera features:	Video stabilization, HDR, Video calling, Video recording (HD 720p)
Secondary camera:	Yes, (0.3 megapixels), VGA

CONNECTIVITY

WLAN:	Wi-Fi 802.11 (a/b/g/n, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot)
Bluetooth:	Yes (v4.0 with A2DP)
USB:	Yes (v2.0)
Connector:	Micro-USB
Features:	Mass storage device, USB charging
Global Roaming:	Yes
NFC:	Yes
GPRS:	Yes, (Up to 85.6 kbps)
EDGE:	Yes, (Up to 237 kbps)
Speed:	HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps
Other wireless connectivity:	Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technology
Other:	DLNA Certified, Tethering, Computer sync, OTA sync, aGPS, Media Go, Media Transfer Protocol support, Native USB tethering, Screen mirroring, Xperia Link, WebKit web browser with Pan & zoom, Synchronisation via Exchange ActiveSync, Facebook, Google Sync and SyncML

INTERNET

Built-in Online services support:

YouTube (upload), Picasa

APPS

Pre-loaded applications:

--Google Chrome

--Google Play

--Google Voice Search

--Google Maps for Mobile with Street view and Latitude

FEATURES

OS:	Android OS, v4.1 (Jelly Bean)
Chipset:	Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8230
CPU:	Dual-core 1 GHz
GPU:	Adreno 305
Sensors:	Accelerometer, proximity, compass
Messaging:	SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM, Predictive text input
Browser:	HTML, HTML5
Phone Book:	Yes, (Unlimited entries, Caller groups, Multiple numbers per contact, Search by both first and last name, Picture ID, Ring ID)
Organizer:	Calendar, Alarm, Calculator
Charging:	Charger
Call Records:	Yes
SMS:	Yes
MMS:	Yes
E-Mail:	Yes, (IMAP, POP3, SMTP, Microsoft Exchange)
Instant Messaging:	Yes, (Google Talk)
Predictive text input:	Yes, T9 input
Voice message:	Yes
Voice dialing:	Yes
Voice commands:	Yes
Voice recording:	Yes
Radio:	Stereo FM radio with RDS
GPS:	Yes, (with A-GPS support)
Java:	Yes, (via Java MIDP emulator)
Colors:	Black, White, Red
Notifications:	Haptic feedback, Music ringtones (MP3), Polyphonic ringtones, Vibration, Flight mode, Silent mode, Speakerphone
Others:	--SNS integration --Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic --MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player --MP3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV player --Document viewer --Photo viewer/editor --Voice memo/dial --Predictive text input

BATTERY

Battery Type:	Li-Ion battery
Capacity:	1750 mAh battery
Stand-by time:	Up to 498 hours (2G), 20.7 days / Up to 454 hours (3G), 18.9 days
Talk time:	Up to 8.3 hours (2G) / Up to 9.00 hours (3G)
Music play:	Up to 43.20 hours
Video playback:	7.50 hours
Battery life:	Endurance rating 39 hours