Shortly after Sony announced its new Sony Xperia Z smartphone last night (or yesterday, depending on where you are!) they then announced the little brother to the 5-inch Android smartphone, the Xperia ZL, which offers many of the same great features but in a more manageable size.
Normally when a new smartphone is released it is part of a range and a sibling smartphone is announced as a budget version of the flagship handset, but this is not the case for the ZL as the smartphone is just as much of a beast as its hardened brother, the Xperia Z.
The differences between the handsets are small as the ZL also comes with a 5-inch Full HD 1080p display, a 13 megapixel camera, a 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm processor, and 2GB of RAM and many of the connectivity and software features.
The biggest difference is the littlest margin, as the Xperia ZL is actually .08-inches thicker than the Xperia Z, but the handset is actually smaller in terms of width than the Xperia Z by 0.28-inches and smaller by 0.05-inches in length. Additionally there are slight differences in the build, with the ZL having a slight curve to the back and the inclusion of a physical camera button towards the bottom on its right edge.
Furthermore,the ZL loses the Z’s waterproofing and dustproofing features which is where the ZL loses some of the size against its bigger brother. Unlike the Xperia Z, you won’t be able to drop this phone in the bath and see it live to see another day – unless you’re very lucky, that is.
The latest Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean software is on board, which means that you get a host of the latest Google and Sony Jelly Bean and Timescape features, including the PlayStation Store for games and Walkman for music.
Reportedly the Xperia Z will be hitting shelves here in the UK in March but there is a little more confusion surrounding the ZL as it may not reach all of the countries that the “premium” Z will reach. So far Sony has released very little information regarding the release schedule, so we’ll be keeping a close eye on this one.
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