Smartphone makers have taken to the International CES platform to launch their latest offerings. Japan-based Sony too hopped on to the bandwagon to release its latest smartphones - the Xperia Z and the Xperia ZL.

The latest Xperia ZL sports high-end features to compete with any other smartphone in the top-segment of the industry. The handset measures 5.18 x 2.7 x 0.39 inches and weighs 5.33 ounces. Unlike the Xperia Z, the Xperia ZL is not dust or water resistant.

The Xperia ZL sports a 5-inch Full HD 1920 x 1080 Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 and 441 ppi. A quad-core Snapdragon S4 processor clocked at 1.5GHz powers the smartphone. The device is equipped with a 13-megapixel Fast Capture rear-facing snapper with Exmor RS for mobile that is capable of shooting high dynamic range (HDR videos) and razor sharp pictures. The device also includes a 2-megapixel front-facing camera.

The Xperia ZL includes 16GB of on-board storage which is expandable to a further 64GB using a microSD card. The handset also has 2GB of RAM. A 2370 mAh battery powers the Xperia ZL. Sony claims that the battery offers up to 10 hours of talk time and up to 500 hours of standby time. The company also says that the handset's Stamina mode increases the standby time of the handset by four times.

The Xperia ZL will pack in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The handset will be Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and NFC capable. The one-touch functions of the smartphone enable consumers to easily share music, photos, and videos from their smartphone to an array of NFC-enabled Sony devices.

Sony announced that the Xperia ZL will be available from Q1 2013 in select regions. Sony, however, did not reveal the pricing of the handset. The Xperia ZL will be available in black and white colors.

The Sony Xperia ZL seems like a worthy competitor in the highly-contested smartphone market. We will have to wait and see if Sony is able to attract more customers to the latest Xperia ZL.