Sony Xperia L3 announced as company's newest budget smartphone

Besides announcing their Xperia 1 flagship alongside the Xperia 10 mid-rangers, Sony has also unveiled a new budget offering in the Xperia L3. This entry-level smartphone completes Sony's portfolio on handsets to suit every price point.

Design

The Xperia L3 follows the design cues set by its pricier cousins in a more subtle form. You get a 5.7-inch LCD display surrounded by some decently sized top and bottom bezels, resulting in an 18:9 aspect ratio. In any case, the phone should be comfortable to handle, but its height makes it hard to fit into your front pocket. The display has Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection, which should keep it protected from scratches and accidental drops. The top bezel also houses a single selfie camera.

On the back of the device, you have a dual-camera setup on the upper left side paired with an LED flash.

The fingerprint sensor can be found on the side of the device, easily reachable by the thumb. Interestingly, Sony has chosen to separate the fingerprint reader from the power button. This will allow users to quickly check notifications without unlocking the device.

In terms of colors, the Xperia L3 will be offered in Silver, Black, and Gold.

Cameras

The dual camera setup on the rear consists of a 13-megapixel primary camera and a 2-megapixel sensor that’s used for depth perception (portrait mode photos).

On the front, you have a single 8-megapixel camera you can use for selfies or video calls.

Hardware

The Sony Xperia L3 is powered by an octa-core MediaTek P22 chipset, which should be ideal to easily handle day to day tasks. However, don't expect it to power through graphics-intensive games or process heavy apps. If you are looking for a device to watch videos or listen to Spotify while going through other regular tasks, this phone would be right for you.

There is 32GB of internal storage which you can expand through microSD and 3GB of RAM, which is a respectable setup considering the market the phone is positioned in.

Sony has outfitted the Xperia L3 with a 3300mAh battery, which is a decent size for a device of its specs and should get you through a day of use with ease. Sony uses its Xperia Adaptive Charging to control the rate at which the battery is being charged. The L3 also supports USB Power Delivery, which is a standard for quick charging, similar to Qualcomm’s Fast Charge.

Software

Disappointingly this 2019 smartphone comes with Android 8.0 Oreo installed, instead of the newer Android Pie. It's strange to see that they used Android 8.1 instead. You can expect Sony's custom interface on top of Android as usual and hope they consider releasing an Android Pie update for this handset this year.

Release and Availability

While Sony stated that the price of the Xperia L3 will be market dependent, the company failed to mention which markets would offer their budget device. In the past, Sony has been known to overprice its budget offerings, which makes us worry that the Xperia L3 will once again fail to appeal to customers.