Xperia L1 review: Entry-level Xperia with the classic OmniBalance design.
Xperia styling on a budget.
Xperia L1 brought Sony's signature flat-edge OmniBalance design to the entry tier at $200. The weak MediaTek chip limited it to basic use, but it let budget buyers own a phone that looked unmistakably Sony.
01Display
56/10056/100 is one of the weaker display results among budget phones of 2017 — 9 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
02Camera
50/10050/100 is one of the weaker camera results among budget phones of 2017 — 7 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
03Performance
42/10042/100 is one of the weaker performance results among budget phones of 2017 — 9 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
04Battery
60/10060/100 is one of the weaker battery results among budget phones of 2017 — 9 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
05Build
60/10060/100 — right at the average for budget phones of 2017.
- Classic Sony OmniBalance design at $200
- 5 MP wide selfie cam
- microSD + 3.5 mm jack
- MT6737T very slow
- 720p only
- 2 GB RAM tight
How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 74-phone cohort of budget devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .