the most affordable of sony’s 2020 smartphone lineup is this wii beauty here the xperia l4 a 170 pound budget friendly handset that boasts a similar look and feel to that mega expensive xperia 1 mark ii flagship phone of course several sacrifices have been made to reach that low asking price and around that budget realm there is some really hot competition right now from the likes of xiaomi and of course motorola so is the xperia l4 a value-packed handset for sony fans who are a wee bit skinned well here’s my full sony xperia l4 review for all you need to know and for more on the latest greatest tech please do poke subscribe and hitting that notifications bell cheers now while last year’s sony xperia l3 stuck with a more traditional 18×9 design the fresh new l4 bust that same super skinny 21×9 finish of the xperia one mark ii flagship smartphone it’s comfy to wield although you’ll still need to use that one-handed mode if you don’t have freakishly long claw like fingers to actually reach the top of the screen suddenly your choice of colors is rather limited with this budget blur though you can basically choose black or blue and i gotta say i’d really love to see the xperia l4 come rock in a rich red finish or that deep gorgeous forest green of xperia’s past the black model looks perfectly smart i like the way that the camera’s flush with the back end and all of that jazz but it’s not exactly the most thrilling of designs and that plastic finish is also unsurprisingly vulnerable to marking as well although so for touch wood i’ve only got a
couple of light scratches on that back end after about a week or two of play and having that fingerprint sensor separate from the power button is just awkward as usual occasionally you’ll yank the xperia l4 out of your pants you’ll be tapping your digit to that sensor and nothing will happens then you’ll have to awkwardly fumble for the power button to turn on the screen and then try again it’s a bit of a minor grumble but i would definitely rather have them combined as they are on the flagship model and you do have a face and lock option but it is google’s trusted fears feature which was cold for android 10 because it’s not very good so i would say steer clear to be honest in fact the slightly balmy os situation is definitely my major beef with the xperia l4 this is one of very few smartphones that comes out of the box with android 9 pre-installed in 2020.
and the fact that we’re only a few months off the official proper launch of android 11 shows just how nuts that really is so if you fancy a bit of dark mode support or some gesture navigation action well you better get ready to suck your thumb and cry to mommy and so far there’s no proper word on when or indeed if the xperia l4 will get an upgraded to android 10 let alone android 11. we can only hope and pre-it soon because some of those features really are a big miss on a more positive less grumpy note sony has at least chucked in nfc with full google peer support and a good bit of dual band wi-fi action too and having both nfc and your band wi-fi still ain’t that common at this sort of price point so it’s definitely a big victory for the sony xperia l4 and additions like that one-handed mod are definitely a plus helping out with the general usability but then on the flip side sony has also installed apps like booking.com and won’t allow you to remove them boo however i’ve definitely got deep love for that 6.2 inch ips display with its glorious 21×9 stretchy aspect ratio this is of course great for watching compatible movies giving you a proper cinematic view of the action although yeah it’s not quite as ideal as those more premium experience as the l4 does unusually and unfortunately sport one of them notch jobbies bang in the center and yes unfortunately there is a drawback of that stretched aspect ratio and that if you’re watching any older content with a more traditional like 3×4 aspect ratio then basically everything displays in a tiny wii box unless you zoom right in and then just decapitate everyone ah poor mr cleese still that 21 by 9 finish is also ideal for multi-tasking with two apps at once especially when you’re watching something in a dinky
window up top while you get on with work or browsing the socials or whatever else meanwhile the xperia l4 720p resolution matches most rivals around this price and manages to keep the visuals pretty sharp too although the peak brightness ain’t exactly overpowering so visibility is tricky on a sunny day while the auto brightness feature occasionally just doesn’t really work no worries as far as the audio goes though you might only get a single mono speaker down below which isn’t exactly worth writing home about but you do have full bluetooth 5 support on there and you’ve got a headphone jack up top as well something that sony’s even resurrected and its latest xperia 1 mark ii flagship phone now performance was always going to be one area where the sony xperia l4 showed its limitations and like many other cut price devices you can expect a few little stammers here and there as you’re getting down to business the mediatek mt 6762 chipset is backed by just three gigs of ram in the l4 where many budget rivals now offer four gigs but that said all the same i did not find my patients tested very often by the smartphone as i was just getting down to everyday business you can even get gaming with the likes of pubg mobile and the frame rate will stay playable as long as you keep those detail settings rock bottom you get a wide view of the action although like all budget phones the touch responsiveness can occasionally be a bit iffy but it still works just fine now the xperia l4 3580mah battery may seem a wee bit titchy compared with a lot of budget rivals such as for instance the oppo a9 2020 the redmi note 9 pro and the motorola moto g8 power light all of which pack 5 000 milliamp beasts however thanks to that energy efficient
mediatek chipset and the 720p hd display you actually get really good returns for that in fact if you’re only checking messages and the like you’ll easily get two full days of use from a charge while even heavy use of skype and youtube and the camera won’t drain the battery before bedtime and also briefly worth to mention before we dive fierce first into the xperia l4 camera tech is the dual sim supports you can stick two sim cards in there otherwise the second sim slot can also be used for a micro sd memory card up to half a terabyte in size to expand the already pretty zam generous 64 gigs of internal storage now on the back end of the xperia l4 you have a triple lens camera setup although obviously the budget price in here means that that hardware is rather limited the 13 megapixel primary lens does its best to capture good looking everyday photos with color accuracy also getting a thumbs up and as long as the lighting isn’t iffy your picks will still look crisp enough when you check them out on a laptop or monitor like all budget blows of course the xperia l4 optics are run done by strong glare and sharp contrast even with the inclusion of an hdr setting indoor snaps can look rather soft while in low light you can brace yourself for some serious grain all fairly standard for a sub 200 pound smartphone and while you do have basic iphone style controls over the brightness and the color temperature that’s it there’s no dedicated pro mode here for a proper
manual fiddle still you do get a 5 megapixel ultrawide angle lens to play around with if you want to get a different viewpoint and yes the xperia l4 is rather limited when it comes to bonus camera features but you do have a simple portrait mode which uses the 2 megapixel depth sensor to blur out the background and you can also shoot a portrait selfie which does a bang-up job despite the single lens front-facing setup this 8-megapixel shooter does of course struggle in low-light just like the rear lenses though so once again you want to take care when lining up your shot as for video you can shoot up to full hd resolution footage without rear cam and it’s just about fine for simple horror movies with no worries on the audio pickup although many rivals are now offering 4k capture at this sort of asking price and that right there is what i think of the sony xperia l4 and as you can see like all budget blows it does have its many foibles but you know what it gets it right when it comes to the battery life the screen tech is rather nice and if you’re a sony fan you want a 21×9 design but on a very strict budget it will do the job as long as you come expecting the usual limitations as far as the likes and performance and the camera tech goes then no worries so are you tempted by the sony xperia l4 perhaps you’ve been using the sony xperia l4 as your full-time phone be great to hear from you down below even just say hi because we’re a friendly bunch here a good old textbook i do try and get into those comments and reply to them whenever possible time is very limited so apologies if i don’t manage to get around to uh to your particular comment but i do really really try very hard indeed and uh please do box subscribe ding that notifications bell and have yourselves a lovely week people cheers everyone love you
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