Sony Xperia 1, 10 Plus, 10, L3 hands-on review

Sony Xperia L3 design

Sony might have skipped on a direct successor in the "XZ" flagship lineup. Sort of. But the budget "L" family still got some love with a refresh in the Xperia L3. Well, at the very least a strong fondness seeing how the display was stretched up a bit to 18:9, but doesn't really get the full 21:9 experience.

Joking aside, we appreciate Sony's efforts to modernise its budget line, as best it can. Plus, despite some cut-backs, even the Xperia L3 gets to rock the new Xperia design language. Overall, that is. The bezels surrounding the 18:9 HD+, IPS panel are obviously thicker. And the plastic material for the body doesn't feel quite as nice.

For whatever reason, the principal construction of the Xperia L3 is a lot more similar to the one on the premium Xperia 1 than the Xperia 10 and 10 Plus. More specifically, the L3 uses a three piece design - a plastic central frame, with a plastic back. The latter has a noticeably glossier finish than the Xperia 10 pair, with color options including Black, Silver and Gold.

In the absence of a unibody and working with a tighter budget and less premium materials, the Xperia L3 did end up with a somewhat noticeable "gap" around its back panel. It's visible, but not exactly bothersome or apparent to the touch. Plus, despite its bill of materials, the L3 feels very solid and well made. And the latter is actually not that bad to begin with. You still get Gorilla Glass 5 protection for the display, where it counts.

Just like the overall design and profile, the Xperia L3 manages to retain the controls and their overall placement from the more expensive Xperia 10 devices. It even does one better in the buttons department. Again, this might be bad luck on our end with the review units, but out of the roster or Xperia review units the L3 definitely delivered the best tactile feel and travel on its power and volume keys.

Smack in the middle of those is what looks and better still behaves like the side-mounted fingerprint reader on the Xperia 10 and 10 Plus. That is to say it is plenty big, easy to find, very snappy and accurate. Also, always-on, so you can again forego reaching for the power button to wake up the phone.

The 3.5mm jack on the top frame is a welcome sight and so is the USB Type-C port on the bottom. It might be limited to USB 2.0 speeds, but just like the rest of Sony's new device roster, the L3 is compatible with USB Power Delivery. You can't really expect to get a PD charger bundled in the box though. At least not on every market.

Hardware, Internals, Software and Features

The Xperia L3 has fairly modest internals to work with - a MediaTek Helio P22 chipset, accompanied by 3GB of RAM and 32GB of expandable storage. Even so, Sony feels confident its abilities to live up to the title of an "entertainment-focused" smartphone.

Sony also throws in claims of "all day performance and entertainment" for the Xperia L3. Of course, it's all PR talk, but even so, I could be an achievable feat on the 3,300 mAh battery pack. Sony's own Smart STAMINA and Battery Care are part of the mix here as well.

We can't really complain about the connectivity loud-out either: Cat.6 LTE, USB 2.0 Type-C, Wi-Fi, GPS + GLONASS, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC. And to top it all off - a good old 3.5mm audio jack.

One thing to note is that unlike the other Sony devices we encountered at MWC 2019 the Xperia L3 was running an older Android 8.0 Oreo ROM.

Camera

The Xperia L3 gets a fairly basic 13MP + 2MP camera setup. It is actually quite comparable to the one on the Xperia 10 in terms of features. That is to say, the secondary camera is there purely for the sake of Bokeh shots.

Unlike the Xperia 10, however, the Xperia L3 can only capture up to 1080p video. Naturally, no advanced cinematography features here either.

A basic 8MP, fixed focus shooter handles selfies. Frankly, not that much different from what the rest of Sony's new lineup has to offer. It has a pretty wide 83-degree lens and can do Bokeh shots, just like the back camera.

Just like the Xperia 10 and 10 Plus, the Xperia L3 will be available starting today (February 25), again, on select markets.