Techno Gimp: Economical Sony Xperia E: Entry-level Android phone saves cash, data

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Economical Sony Xperia E: Entry-level Android phone saves cash, data

3.5-inch
Economical Sony Xperia E: Entry-level Android phone saves cash, data. Phones, Mobile phones, Sony, Sony Xperia E, Sony Mobile, Android 0

Sony has announced a new Android handset, the Sony Xperia E. Continuing its alphabetical Xperia march, the new phone looks to be a little brother to the Xperia J.

The Sony Xperia E comes with economy in mind, both in terms of data consumption (and thereby costs) as well as battery life. To save power, the phone will disconnect from Wi-Fi and data traffic when the screen has been in sleep for a few minutes.

We assume you can disable this, or those waiting on notifications for that important email or WhatsApp message will be left in the dark.?

The battery is listed as 1500mAh, giving you around six hours of talk time or 530 hours of standby, or 30 hours of music listening, with Sony claiming its extended standby mode will give you 4x mode standby over other devices.

Of course, we'll see how this phone really performs when we get it in for a full review.?

Sony is also joining the dual-SIM party, with a variant of the Xperia E coming with two SIM slots. This will mean you can separate data and calls, or have a roaming card if you cross borders frequently.?

Cutting to the important details, we get the impression that this will be an affordable handset too, with entry-level specs. The Sony Xperia E comes with a 3.5-inch screen with resolution of 480 x 320 pixels, which is pretty low by current standards.

There's a Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 1GHz single-core processor and 512MB of RAM. There's 4GB of internal memory, but only 2.2GB available to use. Fortunately you can expand via microSD up to 32GB. It has a 3.2-megapixel camera on the rear.?

The handset itself measures 113.5 x 61.8 x 11mm and weighs 115.7g.

The Sony Xperia E launches on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, along with all the normal Sony Xperia additions. You'll get Sony's Walkman music application in the mix, as well the regulars like TrackID and PlayNow.?

One of the nice features, however, is HD voice. If your network supports it - Orange, for example - then you'll benefit from clearer calls when talking to someone else with an HD voice-enabled device.?

The Sony Xperia E will come in black, white and pink, while the Xperia E dual will be available in black and gold.

It will be available in early 2013; no word on price, but we'd expect it to be cheap.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Sony Sony Xperia E Sony Mobile Android