Gadgetory

hi this is Brian Bennett for cnet.com and right now we're taking a first look at the Sony Xperia ZL this unlocked smartphone is quite well appointed and for the steep 7 59 99 unsubsidized price sony is charging for it well it better be the first thing you'll notice about the Xperia ZL is its large 5 inch LCD screen not only is the screen bright it boasts a full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels to and displays vibrant colors one thing I noticed off the bat though is if you stray from viewing the screen directly head on image quality deteriorates quickly by contrast the HTC One which features a slightly smaller 4.7 inch LCD display has the same resolution brightness but much wider viewing angles despite its large display however the Xperia ZL is sleek at just 0.4 inch thick the phone is thin with stylish ly dark good looks under the Xperia Z l's display is a slick notification light that looks like some sort of robotic i winking at me from the future well maybe that's just me it also changes color depending on the alert the light is calling attention to next to that is Z Elle's front-facing 2-megapixel camera which is an odd choice typically phone makers position the cams above not below the screen there are no capacitive buttons here either you have to tap the screen to fire up virtual keys for basic android controls on the phones right edge are the Xperia Z l's only fiscal controls placed here are a thin volume rocker a dedicated camera key plus a prominent circular power button sitting in between them the left side holds a microUSB port while up top you'll find a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack sony throws in a set of earbuds that are nicer than the usual throwaway models bundled with phones a little door cover slots for micro SD and SIM cards the battery however is embedded the cl's backside is textured plastic and not the more premium glass material Sony uses in the Xperia Z another difference between the Xperia ZL and the Xperia Z is that the ZL isn't water or dust resistance internal components are the same as the Xperia Z though under the hood is a 1.5 gigahertz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon s4 pro processor 2 gigabytes of ram and 16 gigabytes of internal storage not too shabby that Hardware powers the Android 4.2 jelly bean OS and Sony's special you I that's grafted over it that means you get all the power and flexibility of modern Android native support for Google services including the enhanced search capabilities of google now sony has infused the ZL with its own special sauce two highlights are a handy weather widget and a nice remote control app to use the phone as a second clicker for TVs and AV receivers the experience 13 megapixel camera has a ton of feature settings and shooting modes to as an unlocked gsm handset the xperia ZL connects to tmobile and ATT SGA am networks in the US plus supports 4g LTE bands 12 45 and 17 i'm brian bennett for cnet.com and this has been a first look at the Sony Xperia ZL