Sony Xperia U VS LG Optimus L7: Which one to buy?

We love cheaper Android smartphones because you can do a lot of stuff with less money.

Sony Xperia U and LG Optimus L7 are almost one year old but they have good specs and can still be on the market.

As new phones are already out (as LG Optimus L7 ii), you will find these phones in really good prices so it’s an opportunity to buy one.

We compare these phones on 6 fields. If we missed something, just add a comment.

[bq_right]Winners:
Shape: Sony Xperia U
Design: LG Optimus L7[/bq_right]

Body

The two phones have different screens so their body are different.

The Sony Xperia U is smaller as it has a smaller screen. Although it is smaller it is not as slim as LG Optimus L7. But it is lighter.

We love the design of Sony Xperia U but LG wins as it is much thinner.

[bq_right]Winners:
Bigger screen: LG Optimus L7
Better screen: Sony Xperia U[/bq_right]

Screen

The screen is different on the two phones. Sony Xperia U has a small screen (compared to average smartphone) of 3.5 inches.

LG Optimus L7 has a medium 4.3 inches screen.

The screen of Sony Xperia U is better as it has more PPIs.

So Sony Xperia U has 280 pixels per inch compared to 217 pixels of LG Optimus L7.

Cameras

[bq_right]Winners:
Primary camera: Sony Xperia U
Second camera: no win[/bq_right]

Both phones have a 5MP camera with autofocus and LED flash.

Both also have a second front camera for video chat sessions.

The difference is on the video capture. Sony Xperia U can take video at 720p@30fps but LG Optimus L7 video is VGA@30fps.

So we have a camera winner.

[bq_right]Winner: Sony Xperia U[/bq_right]

Speed

The speed of the phones are  different. Sony Xperia U is much faster as it has a dual core processor at 1GHz (Cortex A9).

LG Optimus L7 has a single core processor at 1GHz.

But both have the same RAM.

[bq_right]Winner: LG Optimus L7[/bq_right]

Battery

The battery of Sony Xperia U is not as good as the other specs of the phone. It has a 1320mAh battery compared to a 1700mAh battery of LG Optimus L7.

Other specs and details

Memory: Sony made a big mistake and has no SD slot on the phone. So you only have 8GB on your phone. No extra memory. On the other side you have 4GB memory on LG L7 and a microSD slot to expand your memory. Winner: LG Optimus L7

Android version: both phones went on the market at the same date but LG Optimus L7 had Android 4.0. Sony Xperia U has Android 2.3 but then an update made Android 4.0 available to the phone. But we always prefer the first version of Android on each phone. Winner: LG Optimus L7

Apps: Both phones have the same Google apps and some more apps. Not big deals but the essentials to start over your day. You can download more at Google Play. But don’t overdo it as you have specific memory and will be plenty pretty soon if you start downloading.

Final verdict

We like both phones as they have a smart price and good specs. Sony Xperia U is beautiful but not thin. LG L7 has more the plastic feeling but it’s thin. I like the bigger screen but I don’t know if i would prefer the bigger screen over the better screen. 3.5 inches is pretty small for me. The dual core processor of Sony Xperia U gives an extra point to the phone as it will be much faster than LG L7. On the other side I don’t know if the update of Android 4.0 Sony has realeased is fast enough as Android 2.3 on that specific phone. There is another problem with Sony Xperia U and that is called “battery”. Smartphones have generally battery problems and on Sony Xperia U these are pretty big. It’s a hard decision. They are almost equal.

Total Wins

sony-xperia-uSony Xperia U
Shape (is lighter)
Better screen (more PPI)
Better video quality camera
Faster processor

LG-L7-IILG Optimus L7
Design (is thinner)
Bigger screen
Bigger battery
More memory options (microSD card)
Lower SAR value
Latest Android version from scratch

Specs rating of Sony Xperia U

SpecSony Xperia UCompared to:with spec:ScoreBuy now:
Width12iPhone 57.642%

Weight110Sony Xperia U110100%
Screen PPI280HTC One46960%
Camera MP5Nokia Pureview4112%
2nd Camera0.3Sony Xperia Z2.214%
Processor2 * 1.0Samsung S48 * 1.616%
RAM MB512HTC One200026%
Battery mAh1320Samsung Note 2310043%
Android2.3Google Nexus 44.250%
SAR1.62-0.0019%
Release Date2012-05Today2013-0358%
Our view60%-100%65%
AVC rating methodTotal Rating42.1%Get a better price for this phone

Specs rating of LG Optimus L7

SpecLG Optimus L7Compared to:with spec:ScoreBuy now
Width8.7iPhone 57.686%

Weight122Sony Xperia U11089%
Screen PPI217HTC One46946%
Camera MP5Nokia Pureview4112%
2nd Camera0.3Sony Xperia Z2.214%
Processor1 * 1.0Samsung S48 * 1.68%
RAM MB512HTC One200026%
Battery mAh1700Samsung Note 2310055%
Android4.0Google Nexus 44.267%
SAR0.76-0.0062%
Release Date2012-05Today2013-0358%
Our view65%-100%65%
AVC rating methodTotal Rating48.9%Get a better price for this phone

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