The Sony Xperia neo L is the latest Android handset by the Japanese phone maker and it tries to strike the right balance between price and functionality. The Xperia neo L builds up on the success of the neo series, but this time adds a bigger screen, a slightly different build and design. Is it worth your time and money? We’ll take a look at all the details before answering that.
Design:
The Xperia neo L is a typical phone from the neo series. If you’ve seen one, you’d instantly know that this phone belongs to the family - it comes with the typical slightly elongated body with four physical keys at the bottom. It’s a matter of taste, but we appreciate having those buttons, giving us a physical sense of stability and certainty that you’ve pressed a button that capacitive keys can’t give.
The Xperia neo L itself is the very embodiment of the cheap plasticky feel in a handset. Coming in a choice of either white or black glossy plastic, in either case you’d find smudges all over the handset after just a couple of minutes using it. The whole body is tightly put together, though, with no moving parts, which is good.
The device is also not among the thinnest at 0.48 inches (12.2mm) and it feels a bit bulky, tipping the scales at 4.64 ounces (131.5g).
Screen:
The handset features a spacious 4-inch LED-backlit LCD screen with a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels. Bravia technology makes colors punchier, and more pleasing to the eye. We’re happy with the size of the display and the pixel density is above what other peer phones have, but we wish there was some sort of oleophobic coating. Without it, the screen becomes a big mess of smudges after swiping and touching it a few times. Get a cloth ready at all times. There is also the grippy feeling that you get on cheaper displays, so you feel like your finger doesn’t slide smoothly but kind of jumps over the screen every once in a while.
In terms of viewing angles and sunlight legibility, the LCD screen is pretty mediocre - tilting the display washes out the colors slightly, nothing too dramatic, but again far from the best displays out there.
Interface and Functionality:
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.
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.
Processor and Memory:
Quadrant
It’s amazing what a world of a difference software optimization makes. The Sony Xperia neo L runs on a second-gen Snapdragon chip, the Qualcomm MSM8255 with 1GHz single-core Scorpion processor, 512MB of RAM and Adreno 205 graphics. This is one of the most popular chips out there - it might be reaching the end of its lifespan, but it’s still on a huge number of devices.
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.
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.
Camera:
The 5-megapixel auto-focus camera on the neo L comes with LED flash on the back and 30fps video capture, so far so good.
What’s worrisome, though, is the mediocre quality of the pictures the handset captures. It almost looks like you were shooting with a 3-megapixel or lower-resolution camera as detail is scarce, and the images lack in sharpness. Areas of similar color often appear as one big blurry spot.
When it comes to video capture, we’re looking at 720p HD video at 30 frames per second. The same issues holds true, though - we have little resolved detail, and sound captured on video appears dull and a bit muffled, all making for a rather average quality.
Sony Xperia neo L Sample Video:
Sony Xperia neo L Indoor Sample Video:
On the plus side, the device has a front-facing VGA camera, which will come in handy for video calls.
Multimedia:
The 4-inch screen is a great asset for multimedia consumption just for its sheer size. What’s great is that Sony is continuing on its tradition to deliver top notch audio in even its more affordable devices and the Xperia neo L sounds loud and - if you don’t crank up the volume to the maximum - clear.
Downloading one of the third-party video players on Google Play will let you play all formats, but be warned that the processor won’t be able to handle 1080p video playback. It does just fine with 720p, though.
Performance:
When it comes to the call quality, there is nothing particularly exciting or disappointing about the Xperia neo L. Sound is a bit dull, with some background noise audible, but not to the point that you can’t hear your callers.
The handset features a 1,500mAh battery rated for nearly 8 hours of talk time on 2G and just above 7 hours on 3G networks. In our experience, with average use, the phone easily got us through a full day.
Conclusion:
The Sony Xperia neo L is an interesting handset that tries to bring a 4-inch screen for a relatively affordable price tag. The spacious display with Bravia technology for punchier colors despite our criticism towards it is one of its assets, especially when you contrast it with the competition. Right now, it’s facing the Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 in direct battle - the two are almost identically priced, but the Xperia neo L easily wins as long as we compare only the screens. The Galaxy Ace 2 is snappier, though, with its dual-core processor and less cluttered TouchWiz skin, so there’s no apparent winner. While the Ace 2 is the immediate contender, the market is packed with other options: the LG Optimus Black/White is another worthy and cheaper alternative with a 4-inch WVGA screen. Then, you have the HTC One V with quality design and sturdy build, but smaller 3.7-inch display and also the larger and slightly more expensive LG Optimus L7 with an IPS display and 4.3-inch screen.
Actually, speed and mediocre camera performance are the two possible dealbreakers here. There’s not all that much lag, but the occasional stutter could be annoying. With a price of around $350 at launch, Sony’s mid-ranger is a mixed bag. If you like the spacious colorful screen, you might end up happy with it, but if absolute performance is a must, you should look elsewhere.
Sony Xperia neo L Video Review:
Pros
Comes with ICS on board
Spacious screen, with high pixel density for its class
Cons
Stutters occasionally
Plasticky, very cheap feel
Screen lacks oleophobic coating, looks like a mess after a while
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