Computer Shopper - UK (2019-08)

ISSUE 378|COMPUTER SHOPPER 45

DESPITETHEXPERIAL3 acting as the
budget component of Sony’s 2019 Xperia
line-up,this is no bargain-bin tat. It looks
just like aflagship phone you’d be charged
three times as much for–and it has afew
hidden surprises, too.
Not that its entry-level status is entirely
disguised, but the Xperia L3 certainly looks
lovely.The all-metal unibody design is a
pleasant surprise,and it fits nicely in the hand.
There’s also aside-mounted fingerprint
sensor on the right edge,which can be used
both forsecure unlocking and forauthorising
contactless card payments via NFC. This sits
between the phone’s power button and
volume rocker,while asingle USB Type-C
port can be found at the bottom.
The only thing not to like about the design
is that the rear panel can be pressed inwards
by about amillimetre.It’s acheap phone,sure,
but give it asqueeze and it feels quitecheaply
made.Wealso weren’t initially fond of the
awkwardly placed volume rocker sitting near
the bottom of the phone,although this is a
lot easier to get used to.

TALL,BRIGHTAND HANDSOME
The Xperia L3 is fitted with an edge-to-edge
18:9 screen, with reasonably slim bezels
above and below the display. The Gorilla
Glass 5-coated screen measures 5.7in from
corner to corner,with a1,440x720 resolution.
This isn’t ahigh-resolution panel, nor should
you expect it to be at this price,but it looks
pretty enough.
In technical testing, we found that the
Xperia L3’s IPS panel was capable of
producing 96% of the
sRGB colour gamut, with
an average delta-E of 2.32.
Forthe most part, colours
have plenty of pop across
the palette, and the phone
is also capable of reaching
asunlight-friendly
maximum brightness of
504cd/m2. Likewise,a
contrast ratio of 1,641:1
is very good foraphone
at this price.
Powering the Xperia L3
is an octa-core 2GHz
MediaTek MT6762 Helio
P22, accompanied by 3GB
of RAM and 32GB of
eMMC flash storage.
Unfortunately,wecouldn’t

SONY XperiaL3

★★★★★

£169•From http://www.amazon.co.uk

VERDICT

AsimpressiveastheXperia1is,itsbudget
siblingdeservessomeattentiontoo

ANDROID 8.0SMARTPHONE

get Geekbench 4torun

on the Xperia L3 –other

reviewers have reported

the same problem,

indicating that Sony has

blocked the software from

running on its review

sample units. That’s a

shame,asthe Xperia L3

feels surprisingly sprightly

in everydayuse.The

MT6762 is abudget chip,

no question, but switching

between multiple apps

was abreeze,and we

didn’t encounter any

slowdown issues when

running CPU-intensive

applications such as

Google Maps.

RUNNINGTIME

Thankfully,our gaming benchmark managed

to run without any problems. The GFXBench

Manhattan onscreen test posted aresult of

9.7fps, which means that the Xperia L3 is

ideal forsimple Android titles, but not

high-fidelity 3D games.

The low-power CPU has aside benefit of

merely sipping at the battery.That’s if our

video playback test is any indication: the

Xperia L3 lasted for15h 52m, which is afine

result. Youshouldn’t have any problems

lasting afull dayfrom acompletecharge.

Lastly,the Xperia L3 is fitted with a

dual-camera setup on the back of the phone,

which is apretty widespread arrangement

these days. One of these is

astandard 13-megapixel

RGB lens with an aperture

of f/2.2, while the other is a

2-megapixel depth-sensing

unit, forfancy bokeh-effect

portrait shots. An

8-megapixel selfie camera

sits above the screen,

completewith aface-

smoothing beauty mode.

The Xperia L3 does a

fair job at capturing

detail-rich images in a

variety of lighting

conditions, with well-

balanced exposures and

accurate-looking colours.

The phone’s HDR mode

lifts up shadowy areas

quitenicely without losing

detail in overly bright

areas of the image,while

visual noise is kept to a

minimum, even in

low-light environments.

Speaking of which, the

Xperia L3’s rear-facing

snapper does amuch

better job when the light

is dimmed compared to

the same scene captured

with the similarly priced

MotoG7Play(Shopper

377). The MotoG7Play’s

images came out rather

softand warm, while

the Xperia L3’s stills are

nice and crisp.

The camera software

could be better,however.

It’s abit fiddly changing

through the camera settings, and the

onscreen exposure and colour temperature

sliders aren’t labelled, which isn’t ideal.

There’s no waytoturn off HDR, either.

SHAKE BELIEVE

This brings us to the Xperia L3’s limited

video capabilities. There’s no frame rate

adjustment –all recording resolutions are

locked at 30fps –and the camera is only

capable of recording video at amaximum

resolution of Full HD.You won’t find any form

of image stabilisation, either,sofootage is

often jumpy, with visible screen tearing.

Still, while it might not be in the same

league as its Xperia counterparts, Sony’s

Xperia L3 offers the ideal blend of usability

and asking price.It’s adangerous line to tread,

and we’ve seen along list of budget-priced

phones falter in recent years, but the Xperia

L3 is adependable choice forlighter wallets.

NathanSpendelow

Batterylife

0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100

Seepage110forperformancedetails

PROCESSOROcta-core2.2GHzMediaTekMT6762HelioP22

• SCREENSIZE5.7in•SCREENRESOLUTION1,440x720•
  REARCAMERAS13megapixels,8megapixels•STORAGE
  32GB•WIRELESSDATA4G•NFCYes•DIMENSIONS
  154x72x8.9mm•WEIGHT156g•OPERATINGSYSTEM
  Android8.0•WARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILS
  http://www.sonymobile.com•PARTCODE1318-2748

SPECIFICATIONS

15h52m