Following on from the Xperia L1 which Sony unveiled in March of 2017, Sony has now announced its latest ‘L’ smartphone, the Xperia L2 as part of its CES 2018 portfolio. As was the case with the L1, the Xperia L2 is designed to be an affordable phone although Sony has yet to officially confirm the actual price. Nevertheless, the specs and announcement have confirmed that this will be a device that straddles the budget and mid-range sectors.
Generally speaking, the Xperia L2 does certainly look a lot like the L1 although the differences, while refining changes, are there to be seen. On the back of the device is where some of the more obvious visual changes reside, such as the movement of the main camera to a more central position. As well as the fingerprint sensor which now has pride of place beneath the camera module in contrast to the typical positioning of the fingerprint sensor beneath the power button on previous Sony Xperia devices. Speaking of the fingerprint sensor, in addition to its movement, Sony has also confirmed this week that this will be a fully-functional fingerprint sensor when the device arrives in the US – again, unlike the previous few Xperia smartphone generations.
The back of the L2 in general is made up of a curved and metallic build quality which again looks very similar to last year’s L1. Moving to the front of the device and this is where you will find Sony’s “borderless” display. Compared to bezel-less displays, Sony has once again opted to focus on an edge-to-edge front panel design where the display covers most of the left and right sides, while maintaining fairly significant bezels at the top and bottom of the phone – as was the case with the L1. The display itself measures in at 5.5-inches and sports a 1280 x 720 resolution. Again, identical to what was offered with the Xperia L1. Inside, however, there are some fundamental upgrades, such as the RAM which has now been boosted up to 3GB (compared to the 2GB on offer with the L1), and the storage up to 32GB (compared to the L1’s 16GB), along with a quad-core processor (clocking at 1.5 GHz). In terms of cameras – which seems to be one of the main selling points considering the affordable nature of the phone – the Xperia L2 packs in a 13-megapixel rear camera which supports 3 x image zooming, along with an 8-megapixel 120-degree super-wide-angle front-facing camera. Powering the device is a 3,300 mAh battery (another of the other clear upgrades compared to the L1’s 2,620mAh capacity battery) along with various battery-saving software tweaks, such as “Stamina Mode.” Also on offer is a microSD card slot (supports cards up to 256GB), and Android 7.1.1 (Nougat).
Although Sony has yet to confirm exact pricing for the Xperia L2, the company has confirmed that the rolling out of its availability will commence as early as next month, February. As mentioned, this phone will be coming to the US and will arrive as a single-SIM option. This will also be a smartphone that is available to buy in three distinct colors, Black, Gold, and Pink. Although not all regions are expected to get all color options. Below is a selection of images showcasing the gold variant of the Sony Xperia L2.
