Sony Xperia L review: Xperia Lite

Synthetic benchmarks

The Sony Xperia L uses a Snapdragon MSM8230 chipset, which includes a 1.0 GHz dual-core CPU - a pretty solid processor for a midranger. It features an Adreno 305 GPU, which is the low-end member of Qualcomm's latest mobile graphics lineup.

We start off with BenchmarkPi and Linpack, where the Sony Xperia L posted pretty good scores, even it wasn't able to quite match the much more expansive smartphones we have in our database.

Benchmark Pi

Lower is better

• Sony Xperia V
  279
• Samsung Galaxy Express
  346
• Samsung Galaxy S II Plus
  409
• Sony Xperia L
  435
• Samsung Galaxy S III mini
  499
• Sony Xperia go
  543
• Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2
  552
• HTC Desire X
  639
• Sony Xperia E dual
  800
• Samsung Galaxy Young
  831

Linpack

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S4
  788
• LG Optimus G Pro
  743
• HTC One
  646
• Sony Xperia ZL
  631
• Sony Xperia Z
  630
• HTC Butterfly
  624
• LG Optimus G
  608
• Oppo Find 5
  593
• Sony Xperia SP
  348
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  214
• Nexus 4
  213
• Sony Xperia L
  191
• Meizu MX 4-core
  189
• HTC One X+
  177
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  175
• HTC One X
  160
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  141

When it comes to overall testing, the Xperia L posted a score between the dual Cortex-A9 and the quad-core rivals, just as expected.

AnTuTu

Higher is better

• HTC One
  22678
• Sony Xperia Z
  20794
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  15547
• Oppo Find 5
  15167
• HTC Butterfly
  12631
• Sony Xperia L
  9746
• Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2
  6650

We've added a GPU benchmark for good measure to test out the Adreno 305 embedded into the Sony Xperia L. It got a 13 fps result in the off-screen test.

GLBenchmark 2.7 Egypt (1080p off-screen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S4
  41
• HTC One
  37
• Oppo Find 5
  32
• Google Nexus 4
  32
• Sony Xperia Z
  31
• Sony Xperia ZL
  31
• Sony Xperia SP
  31
• Apple iPhone 5
  30
• LG Optimus G Pro
  30
• LG Optimus G
  21
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  17
• Sony Xperia L
  13
• HTC One X
  11

Quadrant

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia V
  5816
• Samsung Galaxy Express
  4998
• Sony Xperia L
  4279
• Samsung Galaxy S II Plus
  3542
• Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2
  3045
• Samsung Galaxy Nexus
  2316

Geekbench 2 tests just about everything you can think off. The Sony Xperia L climbed over a thousand points which is impressive for its underpowered dual-core chip.

Geekbench 2

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S4
  3227
• LG Optimus G Pro
  3040
• HTC One
  2708
• Sony Xperia Z
  2173
• HTC Butterfly
  2143
• Sony Xperia SP
  2105
• Sony Xperia ZL
  1995
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  1845
• LG Optimus G
  1723
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  1661
• iPhone 5
  1601
• Sony Xperia L
  1073

SunSpider is based on JavaScript performance and it seems Sony need to better fine-tune the handset. Its score is decent, but the Krait architecture can certainly do better even at this relatively low clock speed.

SunSpider

Lower is better

• Sony Xperia V
  1189
• Samsung Galaxy S II Plus
  1460
• Samsung Galaxy Express
  1654
• Samsung Galaxy Nexus
  1863
• Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2
  1901
• HTC Desire X
  2259
• Sony Xperia L
  2539
• Sony Xperia E dual
  2824
• Sony Xperia J
  2853
• Samsung Galaxy Young
  3578

BrowserMark 2 is an HTML 5-based benchmark, where the Sony Xperia L fared much better, but you should keep in mind that it's compared with much lesser chipsets here.

BrowserMark 2

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia V
  1957
• Sony Xperia L
  1809
• Samsung Galaxy Express
  1154
• Samsung Galaxy S II Plus
  1079
• Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2
  1036
• Sony Xperia E
  992
• Sony Xperia E dual
  975
• Samsung Galaxy S III mini
  714
• Samsung Galaxy Young
  908

Vellamo focuses on JavaScript and HTML 5 and is where the Xperia L performed a stunner posting quite a good score just below the Samsung Galaxy S III.

Vellamo

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia SP
  2497
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  2418
• HTC One
  2382
• Sony Xperia Z
  2189
• Sony Xperia ZL
  2186
• HTC One X (Tegra 3)
  2078
• Samsung Galaxy S4
  2060
• HTC Butterfly
  1866
• Oppo Find 5
  1658
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  1641
• Sony Xperia L
  1640
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  1568
• LG Optimus G
  1522
• Meizu MX 4-core
  1468
• Nexus 4
  1310
• Samsung Galaxy Fame
  1234
• Samsung Galaxy Young
  1072
• Sony Xperia E dual
  1065

The Sony Xperia L did about as expected in the synthetic benchmark tests. It didn't turn out to be a performance champion, but it's better than many of its peers. More importantly it performs pretty smoothly in real life and we didn't experience lags or hiccups while operating the phone.