Sony unveils mid-range Xperia SP and Xperia L handsets

After making a splash with the high-end Xperia Z and ZL, Sony has announced two new mid-range models for its 2013 line-up. The Xperia SP and Xperia L both bring unique features to the table and both run on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with Sony’s customisations on top.

Let’s begin with the Xperia SP, the higher-end one of the two handsets. A 4G ready handset, the SP brings a 4.6-inch 720p display in a sleek body that’s reminiscent of the Xperia ZL. Sony has retained the LED notification strip that we first saw in the Xperia U. The unique strip, which sits below the display, will match the approximate colours of the album art of the song that’s playing on the phone and will also pulse with the music. Additionally, users can customise the colour of the LED notification light to correlate to their contacts.

Available in black, red and white, the SP takes its design cues from Sony’s flagship Xperia Z. It is powered by a 1.7GHz Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor while the Adreno 320 GPU is in charge of graphics. There’s 8GB of storage, but you can use the microSD card slot to expand that.

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The Xperia SP has a sleek aluminium body

Around the back is an 8 megapixel camera module based on Sony’s Exmor RS sensor capable of shooting 1080p video, and there’s a VGA front-facer to take care of video chats. To improve build quality of the Sony Xperia SP, the company has endowed it with an aluminum wireframe, which is wrapped by a plastic casing. Connectivity-wise, the SP not only offers the usual Bluetooth, GPS/GLONASS, Wi-Fi and MHL-powered microUSB combination, but also brings in NFC capability.

Here are the key specs of the Xperia SP:

• 4.6-inch display with a 1280 x 720 pixel resolution
• LTE, HSPA+, GPRS/EDGE
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot
• Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP
• NFC
• GPS with A-GPS support and GLONASS
• 8MP primary camera with LED flash, 1080p video and VGA front-facing camera
• 8GB internal storage, with microSD card slot

Sony has added a 2370 mAh battery and has also thrown in Stamina mode, which should ensure good battery life. The official stand-by time is quoted as 709 hours (LTE) while the talktime is rated at 18 hour and 53 minutes. The Sony Xperia SP should be available from Q2.

The Xperia L will also be coming to stores in Q2 and Sony is positioning this phone as one for photography enthusiasts. So naturally, it also gets the same 8 megapixel camera as the SP. But the Xperia L brings HDR for both photos and videos, unlike the SP’s HDR. Sony claims that you can click a picture in just over a second even from the lock screen thanks to the dedicated camera key.

Also available in black, white and red, Xperia L features a 4.3-inch display with FWVGA resolution (854x480) and a scratch-resistant glass on top. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor clocked at 1GHz. Additionally, there’s the Adreno 305 GPU. Despite its low-end specs, this CPU-GPU combination should hold the Xperia L in good stead.

The Xperia L has a feature-packed camera

Even though the camera and the large screen will probably grab the most attention, the Xperia L also has a cool LED notification at the bottom of the handset, not very unlike the Xperia J. It is capable of producing some neat illumination effects matching the colour of the image on the screen. The Xperia L also gets NFC connectivity, but no LTE support. Additionally, there’s Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G HSPA connectivity.

Here are the key specs of the Xperia L:

• 4.3-inch display with a 480 x 854 pixel resolution
• HSPA+, GPRS/EDGE
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot
• Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP
• NFC
• GPS with A-GPS support
• 8MP primary camera with LED flash with HDR video, VGA front-facing camera
• 8GB internal storage with microSD card slot

In terms of power, the Xperia L will be kept on by a 1900 mAh battery and again, it also has Sony’s Stamina Mode for boosting stand-by times.