Key Difference: The Nokia Lumia 520 is a 4-inch IPS capacitive touchscreen smartphone that offers 480x800 pixels display, which offers approximately 233 ppi. The phone comes with 8 GB internal memory that can be expanded up to 64 GB. The phone offers 1 GHz on its dual-core snapdragon S4 and only 512 MB RAM, which is slightly disappointing. The Sony Xperia L is a mid-range smartphone. It features a 4.3-inch screen with a resolution of 854x480px and a scratch-resistant cover glass. It runs on Android 4.1 with a Dual-Core 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8230 chipset and 1 GB of RAM.

Nokia is a Finnish cell phone company, well known for its superb battery power and durability of its phones, and is the only phone that has not yet integrated its smartphones with Android. Nokia has been single-handedly leading Microsoft Windows OS 8 in the smartphone market. Most of the smartphones have become a pricy accessory to own, and if people opt for a cheaper phone, they must sacrifice on some features. To make a mark in the low- to mid-range smartphone market, Nokia has announced the Lumia 520, which should be available in April 2013 in India (release dates for the rest of the world is yet unannounced) and is currently up for pre-orders on many websites. It has even reached to the second-spot following Samsung Galaxy Grand on the Indian website, Flipkart. The phone is a variant of its big brothers 820 and 920, minus some ‘flash’ features. The Lumia 520 is a 4-inch IPS capacitive touchscreen smartphone that offers 480x800 pixels display, which offers approximately 233 ppi. This is pretty good display screen for a mid-range smartphone.

The Lumia 520 is a bar phone with the straight sharp edges and is available with the standard Windows Tile layout. The phone comes with 8 GB internal memory that can be expanded up to 64 GB. The phone offers 1 GHz on its dual-core snapdragon S4 and only 512 MB RAM, which is slightly disappointing. Another let down is the lack of a secondary camera, which makes it difficult to video conferencing. The phone does offer a 5MP autofocus primary camera, with 4X digital zoom and no flash. However, the company claims to use the same digital lens that is found on the flagship. The camera offers features such as Landscape orientation, Auto and manual exposure, Auto and manual white balance, Cinemagraph lens and Smart Shoot lens. The smart shoot lens allows the user to change individual objects in the photo and replace them with objects from the other photos. For example: incase the user is taking photos of two people; however, he does not like the expression of one person in the photo, they can swap the face for another face from another photo. The phone is customizable with changeable shells. The phone has a monoblock casing with the sleep/wake button, camera button and volume buttons on the right-hand side of the phone. Nokia also offers the Windows Office, plus Nokia Music and Nokia Maps. The phone also offers many different features including 7GB free SkyDrive storage.

The Sony Xperia L is a mid-range smartphone. It features a 4.3-inch screen with a resolution of 854x480px and a scratch-resistant cover glass. It runs on Android 4.1 with a Dual-Core 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8230 chipset and 1 GB of RAM. It also has all the bells and whistles, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G HSPA connectivity, as well as NFC support. The NFC is integrated with a one-touch connection to external displays in order to allow for big screen playback of videos or photos. The phone does not however have LTE capability.

Still, its saving grace has to be its 8 MP camera, which uses Sony's latest mobile Exmor RS sensor and offers a built-in HDR mode for both stills and video. The Exmor RS sensor is supposed to improved clarity and color reproduction, while the HDR mode will allow for better pictures in various different kinds of lights.

The phone is powered by a 1900mAh battery and has a battery STAMINA Mode for optimizing power consumption. The phone is available in three colors: white, black and red. It also has an LED light on the bottom of the phone that can be customized to blink different colors to indicate an incoming phone call, a missed call or text message. The light can also be programmed to blink in correspondence with the rhythm of the song played on the built in Sony Walkman music player.

The phone also comes with pre-installed Sony apps called Walkman, Album, and Movies. These are part of a pre-loaded software suite that allows for consuming and sharing a vast library of multimedia content.

The information for the detailed table about the two phones has been taken from the Nokia website, techradar.com, Sony Mobile website and GSMArena.com.

Image Courtesy: nokia.com, sonymobile.com