We continue our slow-moving review of the Sony Xperia L2 smartphone with a discussion of the features and specs! We break them down in three categories for readability… The next post will discuss the “User Experience” aspects of the review. For example, the screen being a fingerprint magnet or that battery life is pretty decent in real-world use belongs in that part of the review, it’s not a feature/spec 🙂
In Part #1, we talked about the Sony Xperia L2 working with the Project FI Data SIM. But what if you want to use this to make or receive phone calls and text messages? It is a phone after all 🙂
I am a fan of using cases on phones for a variety of reasons. The Sony Xperia L2 [check our posts on it here] has nowhere near as many cases as some of the more popular phones, but it has enough of them to make picking not an easy task. As you may recall from my half a dozen Nexus 6 case reviews, I prefer the phone’s buttons to remain uncovered by cases, as the various overlays they use have their issues.
However, of the available choices at Amazon, I wasn’t certain any of them did not cover the buttons. A couple looked possible but it could have been the way they took the pictures. Of the various options, I only recognized one brand that I had previously bought a case from, Moko, so I picked up the Moko case for $8. Spoiler alert: it turned out to be a good decision!
Hooray! The Sony Xperia L2 works with the Project-FI “Data SIM”! Last year I switched from T-Mobile to Project FI after the Big Magenta raised their prices and I realized that I was over-paying and under-utilizing what I was paying for. The “Data SIM” is a good opportunity to add secondary/backup smartphones to your primary line on Project-FI…
I did not check any of the bands before attempting to use the L2 on Project FI, so I did not know what to expect! I had already ordered a Project-FI Data SIM a few months earlier, but I activated the SIM card only AFTER I installed it in the Xperia L2.
I did not intend to do this, but I accidentally started the upgrade process while fumbling with the phone, and so my good old LG Stylo 2 has been upgraded from Marshmallow (it came with Android 6.0 out of the box) to Nougat (Android 7.0).
Fear not, there’s nothing wrong with the Nougat version running on the phone. I haven’t noticed any issues or performance differences (faster or slower) with it. It is an aging phone obviously, but 2GVB of RAM is good enough if you rule rogue apps with an iron fist 🙂
And now to something so not fun. Bloatware! Sony may not be as obnoxious as some other manufacturers with bloatware but they have their share, which I divide in three categories. Now the term “bloatware” is subject to interpretation. Some people consider everything that’s not part of the OS bloatware, others only consider things they don’t want/need 🙂
These are pre-installed apps from 3rd-parties (not Sony, not Google) that exist on the device and can be disabled but cannot be deleted. This drives me crazy. Why can’t we delete apps we don’t want?
The offenders are the ones you see in the picture plus AVG Protection and the Swype keyboard..
In Part #1, we unboxed the Sony L2. Here, in part #2, I am summarizing the things to pay attention to during the initial setup and configuration of the phone.
I personally prefer to turn on the phone, uninstall unwanted apps and go through the settings and turn off things I don’t want/need, and then connect to Wifi and login with the Google account. This requires an additional step of having to do a second pass in the settings because some of them get activated after a connection. But it prevents the stampede as everything tries to connect and install things before you can turn them off. Most people prefer to connect to Wifi first and then turn things off,so it’s up to you.
And we are back with our second smartphone text and pictures useful unboxing post, the new entry-to-midrange Sony Xperia L2, an unlocked GSM smartphone that straddles, at least features-wise the entry-level and the mid-range. In this post, we describe and show what’s in the box. A lot more is coming on this smartphone – please leave a comment if you have any questions about it!
The Samsung Chromebook PLUS (which I will call “SCP” further down this post to save up on space) has a microSD slot on the side. If you haven’t owned a Samsung device before or one with a microSD slot, in this post, we give you a visual guide on how to install the microSD card. It’s not hard, do not be afraid 🙂
The Thanksgiving Holiday and ensuing shopping madness delayed our Samsung Chromebook Plus (SCP for short), but we are on the trail now! Now that we have taken it out of the box, it is time to do the initial setup. Make sure it’s fully charged or connected to AC power so you don’t run out of power in the middle of it.
It took me about 1.5 hours to do all the setup tasks, but I was also taking notes and multi-tasking while doing this. I haven’t done a Chromebook setup in at least four years 🙂 One thing to remember before you get started is that the first Google account that logons to the Chromebook is automatically designated by the computer as the owner. You cannot change it unless you do a factory reset. So make sure you decide that before getting started!
I logged on a Guest first and then with my Google account. I don’t know if this caused it, but on my initial login, I didn’t show as the Owner (I couldn’t make changes to the “People” section). After rebooting it for the first time, the Ownership was tagged to my account. So do not panic, reboot 🙂