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GSMArena team, 11 August 2012

Blast from the past


Sony Xperia neo L review: Blast from the past

  • Comments (84)
  • User reviews
  • Xperia neo L

1. Introduction
  1. 1. Introduction
  2. 2. Unboxing, 360-degree spin, design and build quality
  3. 3. User interface, synthetic benchmarks
  4. 4. Phonebook, telephony, messaging
  5. 5. Gallery, music and video players, audio quality
  6. 6. Still camera and quality comparison, video camera and quality comparison
  7. 7. Connectivity, web browser, document viewer
  8. 8. Google Maps and Wisepilot, Play Store
  9. 9. Conclusion
  10.  
  11. Sony Xperia neo L specification
  12. User opinions and reviews
  13. Review comments (84)

Sony Android Touch UI

Introduction

The Sony Xperia neo L is trying to break into an already well-populated market of affordable smartphones that give you a loud bang for your buck. It's a hotly contested game, but the neo L doesn't come unprepared. It has Sony's screen and camera know-how behind its back.

The Sony Xperia neo L is the second revision of the neo design. The biggest change is the screen, which grew to 4 inches, and the OS - the L model launches with Android 4.0 ICS out of the box.

Sony Xperia neo L Sony Xperia neo L Sony Xperia neo L
Sony Xperia neo L official pictures

There are some other changes visible on the outside - Sony decided to drop the HDMI port, there are now four hardware buttons under the screen and the hardware shutter key is missing, but that's about it.

On the inside, things are more familiar - the Sony Xperia neo L is based on the same platform as quite a few Sony Ericsson phones - the previous two neos, the Xperia arc, mini, ray, PLAY and so on.

In Froyo times these were flagship specs and when Gingerbread came out, they were relocated to midrange territory. Today, they are even lower than that but the neo L has a couple of aces up its sleeve.

Key features

  • Quad-band GSM /GPRS/EDGE support
  • 3G with 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
  • 4" 16M-color capacitive LED-backlit LCD touchscreen of WVGA resolution (480 x 800 pixels)
  • Android OS v4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich
  • 1 GHz Scorpion CPU, Adreno 205 GPU, 512 MB RAM, Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 chipset
  • 5 MP autofocus camera, LED flash, geo-tagging, 3D Sweep Panorama
  • 720p video @ 30fps with continuous autofocus and stereo sound
  • Front facing VGA camera, video chat (Google, Skype)
  • Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA
  • GPS with A-GPS
  • microSD slot (32GB supported, 2GB card included)
  • Accelerometer and proximity sensor
  • Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
  • microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v2.1
  • Voice dialing
  • Adobe Flash 11 support
  • Deep Xperia Facebook integration

Main disadvantages

  • Display has poor viewing angles
  • Very limited video codec support
  • No HDMI port as on the older neo models
  • No FM radio as on the older neo models
  • No hardware camera shutter key as on the older neo models
  • Memory card slot under the battery

The lack of a dual-core processor might put some people off, but it's really the HDMI port that we miss. It's a real rarity, especially since manufacturers started using MHL instead, but that requires an adapter and it's usually only the higher-end devices that get it.

Sony Xperia neo L Sony Xperia neo L Sony Xperia neo L Sony Xperia neo L
Sony Xperia neo L live pictures

So, there have been a few omissions, but the Xperia neo L still has quality components like that Reality display and Android Ice Cream Sandwich (a lot of former high-enders and even current models are still - and might remain forever - on Gingerbread).

Jump to the next page where we start to find out just how much Sony heart went into what looks like a Sony Ericsson body.

Next Page » 2. Unboxing, 360-degree spin, design and build quality
1. Introduction
  1. 1. Introduction
  2. 2. Unboxing, 360-degree spin, design and build quality
  3. 3. User interface, synthetic benchmarks
  4. 4. Phonebook, telephony, messaging
  5. 5. Gallery, music and video players, audio quality
  6. 6. Still camera and quality comparison, video camera and quality comparison
  7. 7. Connectivity, web browser, document viewer
  8. 8. Google Maps and Wisepilot, Play Store
  9. 9. Conclusion
  10.  
  11. Sony Xperia neo L specification
  12. User opinions and reviews
  13. Review comments (84)

Reviews Sony Xperia neo L review
  • Comments (84)
  • User reviews
  • Xperia neo L

Sony Xperia neo L review: Blast from the past - Reader comments

?
  • Anonymous
  • a3A
  • 06 Apr 2016

bsm,I've got one of these,it does not work fluently,battery life is so short that you have to charge phone every time you do 2hours of web browsing,the keys of the phone(back,home,sett) will stop working after sometime and you'll have difficult time ...

  • Reply
j
  • joe
  • uv0
  • 13 Aug 2014

Is it possible to increase internal memory from1GB(approximate usage 315MB only) to 3 or 4GB?

  • Reply
S
  • Shivani
  • w49
  • 28 Jan 2014

Worst phone. Lags very often. Please don't buy.

  • Reply
  • Read all comments
  • Post your comment
Total reader comments: 84

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