Sony Xperia L1 is pretty in picture but boring on paper

If you didn’t think Sony has enough smartphones on its roster this year, you might want to quickly reevaluate that thought. The company has announced yet another device for introduction this year, dubbed the Sony Xperia L1.

Yep, that’s a redux for a moniker that was last used in 2013. The series will likely prop up Sony’s mobile lineup, perhaps even replacing the Xperia E range. The company hasn’t yet confirmed this though.

So what’s Sony’s chief marketing mantra with this phone?

“Meet the smartphone that performs as good as it looks,” the company writes on its product page.

The mid-range Sony Xperia L1 doesn’t yet have local pricing or availability details

With that said, it definitely isn’t an ugly device, but rather stock standard Sony in many ways. Stately, one might say. Colours available include a styx, a shimmery white and a salmon that should appease the rose gold lovers.

The L1 for all intents and purposes is definitively budget on paper. Internally, we get a quad-core MediaTek MT6737T chipset (that’s four ARM Cortex-A53 cores running at 1.45GHz), 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage with a slot for expansion.

Up front, there’s a rather wide 5.5-inch 720p LCD screen, with remarkably narrow bezels. It actually looks a lot like a smaller XA Ultra. All the better to view photos on, it seems, with snaps coming courtesy of a f/2.2 13MP rear camera with autofocus, and a 5MP wide-angle selfie snapper.

Finally, a 2620mAh battery, USB Type-C and Android Nougat 7.0 rounds off the offering.

When it launches (there’s no international date as yet), expect it to compete against the likes of Xiaomi’s Redmi range, and Huawei’s P Lite devices.

There’s currently no word on South African pricing or a release date.