Review Sony Xperia ZL Smartphone

Upon unpacking the device, the differences in design of the case compared to the Xperia Z are the first things that stand out. While the sides with their reflective inlays are identical, the back of the device has a textured surface and rounded edges helping it to lie better in the hand than its counterpart with its relatively straight edges. Of course, the surface made of plastic does not make as good an impression as the one made of premium glass, but on the bright side, the latter solution is also far more sensitive even with a protective layer. The front of both smartphones is the same, whereby the display is surrounded by a black glass that is covered with a protective layer upon delivery. Along with the black version reviewed by us, the Xperia ZL is also available in the colors red and white.

The manufacturing quality and solidity of the case left a good impression. The back, made of plastic, is less impressive, but the pleasant haptics are another matter. Unfortunately, the cover cannot be removed, which means that access to the battery is not possible. Behind a small panel on the back it is possible to find the micro SIM slot and the micro SD reader. Compared to the Xperia Z the newer Xperia ZL is not protected from dust and water; a small difference that requires a bit more caution during daily use.

With a size of 69.8 x 131.7 x 9.8 millimeters (~2.75 x 5.19 x 0.39 inches/W x H x D) and a weight of 151 grams (~5.3 ounces) the Xperia ZL is somewhat shorter than the Xperia Z, but on the other hand it is also marginally thicker and five grams (~0.2 ounces) heavier. Operating the device with a single hand is not a problem, although people with small hands could encounter some difficulties reaching the outer edges of the display, which is why we would recommend trying it for yourself before making the purchase.

Sony have also opted for a 5-inch TFT display with this smartphone, which is marketed by the manufacturer as "HD Reality Display". Identically to the Xperia Z the display has a resolution of 1080x1920 pixels with a 16:9 aspect ratio, which results in a pixel density of 443 PPI (Pixels Per Inch). This represents the current standard among high-end smartphones with Google Android, which include the HTC One (4.7-inch) and the Samsung Galaxy S4 (5-inch). The Apple iPhone 5 as well as the Google Nexus 4 meanwhile have a somewhat coarser resolution, although individual pixels are very difficult or hardly possible to recognize upwards from a density of 300 PPI.

The Mobile Bravia Engine 2 improves the color representation of the display. One disadvantage however is the long load times as a result of quick picture changes in the gallery. What stands out are the options for the system settings, where it is now also possible to manually adjust the white balance. Hue and saturation are easy to configure with a slide controller. Sony themselves do not provide any presets in this regard, contrary to many other smartphones from Samsung.

Using the X-Rite i1Pro 2 the first thing we determined was the brightness of the display. On average, the display reached a convincing value of 578 cd/m², which is substantially better than that of the Xperia Z at 428 cd/m². The illumination distribution of the Xperia ZL is also somewhat better at 90%; and following our initial measurements, we were left with an altogether very positive impression.

At the heart of the Xperia ZL lies the familiar Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro SoC (APQ8064A) with four cores operating at a clock speed of 1.5 GHz and an integrated Adreno 320 GPU. Sony have therewith opted for powerful hardware, which can be found in several high-end smartphones to date. Current novelties in this market segment are however equipped with Qualcomm's more recent Snapdragon 600 SoC. This quad-core processor can for example be found in the Asus Padfone Infinity, the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S4. Further hardware in our reviewed device includes 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal flash memory. A model with 32 or 64 GB of storage capacity is not provided by Sony at present. Using the card reader is nonetheless possible to expand the storage capacity relatively cheaply.

Version 3 of the AnTuTu benchmark ascribes the Xperia ZL an overall score of 19942 points. This represents an approximately 30% better result than the almost identical Xperia Z, where only a small variation in the results should be expected. This benchmark also shows the performance difference compared to the HTC One with its Snapdragon 600 SoC. With 23500 points it outperforms the Xperia ZL by 18%. Using the NenaMark2 benchmark the performance of the two smartphones is more or less equal since the difference varies in the single digit range.

Basemark 2.0 delivers more reliable results than AnTuTu, whereby both smartphones from Sony operate on more or less the same level. The winner in this instance is the Google Nexus 4 with a result of 53.54 fps (difference: 40%), while the HTC One finishes with 41.08 fps in this test - a result that represents a performance advantage of 7%. Contrary to this, the smartphone from the Taiwanese manufacturer significantly outperforms our reviewed candidate in the Linpack multi-thread test with 733 MFLOPS, while the Sony Xperia ZL has to admit defeat with a result of 587 MFLOPS (difference: 25%).

The Sony Xperia ZL is not a big surprise - another high-end smartphone from Sony with a 5-inch Full-HD display. The display panel is very bright and has good characteristics, although the black level and the narrow viewing angles stand out as negative aspects. Despite perhaps being visually less appealing than with the Xperia Z the easily accessible ports could be a big advantage during daily use, but unfortunately this also means that the Xperia ZL it is not dust or water proof.

The application and graphics performance of the somewhat aged Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro SoC with and integrated Adreno 320 GPU is able to impress, and control via the capacitive touchscreen as well as the speed of Google Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean) are pleasing. The camera with 13 megapixels provides pretty snapshots, but that's all. Elevated case temperatures and the simple mono speaker are both negative aspects, whereby the location of the speaker is at least good with this model.

The power consumption and the provided battery runtime are average for this hardware configuration. Unfortunately, the lithium-ion battery is permanently integrated and cannot be changed. In this case, Sony could have easily made an improvement. Altogether, the Xperia ZL is a good smartphone although it won't exactly knock your socks off.