Sony Xperia L with 4.3-inch display, 1GB RAM now up for pre-orders at Rs. 18,990

Sony Xperia L is now available for pre-orders in India at Rs. 18,990 on online retailer Infibeam.

The listing suggests a MRP of Rs. 19,990 and a shipping date of May 8 for the device that is available in both Black and White colour options, and the Red variant is not to be seen.

Sony had unveiled the Xperia L back in March alongside the Xperia SP. Sony Xperia L features a 4.3-inch display with a resolution of 480x854 pixels, made of scratch resistant glass. It also sports an 8-megapixel Exmor RS front camera that supports 720p HD video recording and a VGA front facing shooter.

Xperia L is powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8230 dual-core processor alongside 1GB RAM, and has 8GB of internal storage expandable by another 32GB via microSD card. The phone supports NFC functionality and comes with a 1750mAh battery. The company claims that the battery will enable the phone to offer a talk time of up to 8 hours and 30 minutes and standby time of up to 498 hours. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi, DLNA, 3G, GPS and Micro-USB. The phone runs on Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean).

Sony Xperia L key specifications

• 4.3-inch 480x854 TFT display
• 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8230 dual-core processor
• 8GB internal storage expandable up to 32GB via microSD
• 8-megapixel Exmor RS autofocus camera with LED flash VGA front camera
• 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, EDGE, GPRS, GPS, LTE Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)
• 1,750mAh battery

Samsung Galaxy S Advance gets Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update

Samsung has announced the roll out of the much-awaited Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update for its Galaxy S Advance smartphones. Users of the device had a wait which was a bit longer than usual, but, nevertheless, the update is finally here.

The latest Android 4.1 I9070XXLQE brings all the goodness of Jelly Bean to the smartphone along with few improvements, fixes and performance enhancement. The update is currently live in Germany, Poland and Ukraine.

The software upgrade will not work on devices being used in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Unfortunately, there is no official confirmation on when the update will be available in other countries.

LG reportedly confirmed to build the Nexus 5 smartphone

The popular Google Nexus 4 was built by LG and, apart from the early manufacturing mishap, the Korean manufacturer seems to have done its job with the smartphone pretty well.Rumors of the next generation Nexus smartphone are already growing thick and fast and, according to a report from Korea Times, Google has given the task of building the Nexus 5 to LG.

The report claims that Google's CEO Larry Page has been visiting the South Korean company often to discuss the technical aspects. However, there is no official confirmation from Google or LG just yet.

BlackBerry R10 poses for the camera in red and white

A third member of the new BlackBerry family of smartphones has posed for the camera. The BlackBerry R10, as it's called, is going to join the already available Z10 and the Q10, which is soon hitting the market.

The BlackBerry R10 isn't yet announced by the Canadian phone manufacturer, so information is sparse at the moment. The source of the photo adds that it's a "mid tier" handset with a plastic build, which nevertheless feels "nice".

The R10 is destined to sit below the BlackBerry Q10, and is aimed at the BlackBerry OS user who wants a more affordable QWERTY device. According to the person behind the leak, the R10 is scheduled to come out in Q3 this year, but a more specific time slot hasn't been mentioned.

Judging from the photograph above, the R10 will be available in multiple color options. Red and white are among them, given that they appear on the photo. Specifications of the smartphone are yet to be known.

Nokia CEO talks hero device

Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop, and CFO, Timo Ihamuotila, talked to UK’s Mobile Magazine about an upcoming ‘hero’ device (presumably the Lumia 928), a phablet and Nokia’s entire range of devices.

The hero device should launch by the end of June and Nokia is looking for an exclusive partnership with a US carrier to launch it (the talk around town is that there will be an exclusive deal in the UK as well).

Did Nokia use a Lumia 928 to shoot a private concert in NY?

It was odd to hear that a Finnish band used a Samsung smartphone to record its music video, but it seems that Nokia had its own little concert. The Nokia Blog is reporting there was a private concert in New York featuring Ed Sheeran (who works with Taylor Swift) and the audience was handed Lumia 920sto shoot photos and videos.

But there were a few devices with bumper cases on tripods that seemed to match the description of the unannounced Nokia Lumia 928. One of the main advantages of the 928 over the 920 is the xenon flash which you can almost see in the photo below.

Another thing to notice is that the 3.5mm audio jack is on the left - it’s centered on the 920. The top of this device seems to have a microUSB port in the center instead (it's at the bottom on the 920).

This is not in any way a 100% guarantee that we’re seeing the Nokia Lumia 928, but this could be the shooting of a promo video (to showcase the low-light shooting capabilities of the 928 perhaps). Nokia does have a Lumia event planned for May 14, so  let's see what it holds for us.

Motorola 'XFON' for AT&T leaks again

The upcoming Motorola device known as the X Phone has surfaced yet again. @evleaks has uncovered two new images that show bits of both the front as well as the back of the device.

The front images show the phone placed inside a dummy case, which is usually used for phones that are yet to be announced and thus have to be hidden from the public during field testing. We can see the Motorola logo above the display (which is different on each of the three phones above) and the earpiece, which look similar to this leaked image we saw before (below).

The software on the phone seems relatively stock Android, at least from the app drawer and the keyboard. Also worth noticing is the presence of the AT&T logo in the top left corner of the screen, along with the 4G LTE logo near the signal bars.

The back of the phone seems to have some sort of soft touch material that looks similar to Kevlar used on previous Motorola phones. The sticker on the back clearly says ‘XFON ATT’, so this definitely seems to be the X Phone everyone has been talking about.

As we have heard from Google before, the company is currently depleting the 18 months of pipeline that they have to drain, so any new product from Motorola won't be coming any time soon, and definitely not at this month's I/O. However, what you see above may just be ready by the time Android 5.0 is about to ship.