Sony Xperia Tablet Z and Xperia ZL

Sony Xperia ZL

The Sony Xperia ZL has the same internals as the Xperia Z flagship. It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset with a 1.5GHz quad-core Krait processor, Adreno 320 and 2GB of RAM.

We're dealing with the same 5" 1080p display, 13MP stills and connectivity package as the Xperia Z. The Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean version seems identical too, with the promised upgrade to 4.2 later this year.

Sony Xperia ZL

Where the Xperia ZL falls short is dust and water resistance. Unlike the Xperia Z, the only protection the ZL gets is the shatter proof and scratch-resistant glass.

Having lost some, the Xperia ZL is quick to gain some: an infra-red port enables TV remote functionality and there's a hardware shutter key. The phone is a tad more compact too, even if a bit thicker and a few grams heavier. You can check out the head-to-head comparison below.

Sony Xperia ZL next to the Xperia Z

Up front, the Xperia ZL looks just like the Xperia Z, but the back is completely different. It's made entirely of glossy plastic and has a rather ugly lid at the bottom that covers the SIM compartment and microSD slot. The camera lens placement is also different.

The Xperia ZL costs less than the Z and is expected to hit several markets any time now.

As far as the raw performance is concerned, it's quite similar to the Xperia Z's. You can check its benchmark scores here. The phone is really snappy with buttery-smooth UI transitions and minor loading times.

We went back to the Sony booth to do a hands-on video with the Xperia ZL. Check it out below.