Sony Xperia neo L Review
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The Sony Xperia neo L can brag about arriving with Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich on board, unlike many of its rivals.
Sony has sprinkled some of its Timescape UI magic on top of ICS and while other phone makers have moved toward simplicity, this skin looks like one of the few heavier skins we have left for good or bad.
We have come to love the stock Android UI, especially in ICS and now in Jelly Bean, more than any other skin, so for us it was an annoyance as we had to remember that widgets were not in the app drawer, but instead you have to long press a blank space on the home screen.
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The Sony Xperia neo L can brag about arriving with Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich on board | |||
The keyboard is also not standard Android affair, and it takes some getting used to. We found it relatively accurate, but we didn’t like the grey looks and - call us nitpickers - the fact that you had to go into the symbols menu to access the period sign.
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On-screen keyboard |
Processor and Memory:
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Quadrant |
And while it runs smooth as molasses on the Windows Phone-based Nokia Lumia 710 and HTC Titan II, on the Timescaped Ice Cream Sandwich performance is not as buttery as our eyes would have liked to see. Dropped frames are easily noticeable when you scroll in the menus and that’s a big downer. The small but consistent lag is throughout the device - it happens in menus, when opening some of the built-in apps like the dialer and even in the animations when opening folders.
On Quadrant, the chip scored a pretty low 1,200, so don’t expect to be able to run the latest games.
When it comes to internal storage, the handset sports 1 gigabyte of memory, of which only around 330MB are available to the end user to install apps and media. You definitely would need to pick up a microSD card to expand that.
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Chrome browser |
Internet and Connectivity:
When it comes to getting on the Internet, the Xperia neo L has one huge advantage over its rivals running on Gingerbread. What’s that, you wonder? You can get Chrome on it - Google’s mobile browser works only on Android 4.0 and later, and it’s a treat.
Chrome is now the default browser as of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and we definitely feel that if you can sacrifice Adobe Flash (Chrome doesn’t support it), there is no reason for you not to install Chrome and use it as default on the ICS-running Xperia neo L. Still, the device looks a bit underpowered and you can notice it stutters here and there when you try to scroll around and zoom in and out around pages.
The handset features 3G HSDPA, delivering 7.2 Mbps on the downlink.
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Sony Xperia neo L
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16 Comments
1. neutralguy posted on 20 Jul 2012, 09:40 7
i don't get why there are things listed in "CONS" that are not listed in other devices.
>Plasticky, very cheap feel
>Screen lacks oleophobic coating, looks like a mess after a while
Samsung phones always comes with these kinds of things. "SG.Ace2"
Anyways, great review. Hoping for a little higher score but the performance is somewhat a big down factor.
2. lonestrider posted on 20 Jul 2012, 09:44 3
Xperia sola, U, and P is way better than this one... Very weird...
3. hunted posted on 20 Jul 2012, 09:51 6
i bet this phone is better than ace 2 except processor.
5. spiderpig2894 posted on 20 Jul 2012, 10:51 5
looking at the video. the performance is quite acceptable
6. loken posted on 20 Jul 2012, 11:00 8
What the heck is oleophobic coating and why do you always put them on sony devices reviews?????????? also you should have reviewed the white model .. becausee the white one looks gorgeous and also by the way samsung phones dont get plasticy feel on con...
Phonearena must hate Sony..
7. DawsonLee posted on 20 Jul 2012, 11:51 2
Must be one of the worse and peculiar decision by Sony to even consider releasing this phone, certainly the new NXT series offer more for the similar price (correct me if i'm wrong)
10. yce_marvel posted on 27 Jul 2012, 06:56 0
would you please be kind to tell me if this xperia has noise shield or dedicated mic, and if the camera menu has white balance options...thank you!
11. bimito posted on 31 Jul 2012, 23:58 0
well i think it is quite a good mobile and im gonna buy it TODAY!!!!!!!
it not so costly - only 999dhs
has gud features and ICS OS !!!!!!!!!
i would give it a 9 rating
12. npe25oct posted on 09 Aug 2012, 11:26 0
This phone is just terrible. It's firstly slow, secondly crashed without a reason, thirdly hard to reboot... Maybe more and so far I've been using this for 3 weeks and really wanted to sell it after 1 week... Who's going to buy, I guess not :(
13. sat12345 posted on 14 Aug 2012, 06:31 0
hi i newly buy neo mobile .but i dont know how to download songs r videos .can anybody plz guide me how to download plz.my no 8380010484 u give miss call i call u...im frm pune
14. nitin1127 posted on 14 Aug 2012, 23:37 0
I have never seen such a worst cell in my life...... once fallen mob display gone...... very worst mob....... any planning to buy change your mind....
15. midhunt353 posted on 21 Sep 2012, 04:35 0
pls help me.im using this phone.its a good one.bt i dnt no how to zoom camera is there any option for zooming
16. sanjaypuri posted on 16 Dec 2012, 06:53 0
pls any plans to buy this phone. think twice before wasting your hard earned money on this s**t piece. the touch stops working in a week and camera clarity is pathetic. highly dissapointed on buying it.after sales service poor
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