Small time mobile phone manufacturers are bringing super cheap Chinese handsets into the market by the week and bigger brands are looking to beat them at their own game. Bigwigs like HTC, Sony and Samsung have been releasing inexpensive handsets to please the consumer and these handsets definitely sport better build quality, stable operating system and a promising after sales scheme. We have seen a few handsets from these brands, but they lack what the small-time budget handset manufacturers offer — an impressive feature-set. Chinese phones offer almost four times the features that bigger brands offer for the same price. We received an entry-level smartphone from Sony, the Xperia E Dual, for reviewing. Let's see what it has on offer and who its target audience is.
Android ICS up-gradable to JB shortly
Design and build quality:
The curved edges of the Sony Xperia E Dual reminds us of the LAVA S12 Android phone. The Xperia E is a light-weight handset and feels much like a toy, though it has a rugged build quality and the entire chassis is very firm. It has a three-tone chassis comprising a high-glossy front and a rubberised rear panel in matte-finish separated by a very thin chrome trim. The front panel has a scratch resistant glass with three capacitive buttons for Home, Back and Menu. Though these buttons are highly responsive and sensitive to touch, none of them are backlit, making it a bit difficult for first time users to tell them apart in the dark. Next to the ear piece is a small tri-colour notification LED that changes colour according to the alert or charging/battery status. There is also another notification LED below the Home button, behind the translucent chrome trim, which is also an RGB LED.
Dual GSM SIM compliant, microSD card slot for memory expansion
The rear panel is made of a rubberised mesh texture to give it a good grip and prevent it from slipping. The rear sports a camera without a flash. Towards the bottom is a large opening of around 2 mm in thickness and an inch wide, which is the speaker grille. The rear panel opens a bit too easily, which could be a cause of concern in future as the plastic notches wear out slowly. Below the rear panel are the dual GSM SIM slots and the microSD card slot along with a removable battery. The right side of the chassis has the power and volume rocker while the left sports the microUSB PC interface and charging slot. The 3.5 mm headset jack is placed on the top.
3.15MP camera without flash; rear panel has a rubberized finish
Features :
Sony seems to have designed this entry-level smartphone for those who don’t want a powerful handset but would want to experience the Android ecosystem. The Xperia E Dual is not as feature-rich as one would expect. Though it sports a 1GHz Cortex A5 Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, the phone is good enough for casual computing on-the-go. This includes social networking, calls and text messages, standard or casual videos and gaming, music and Internet browsing. The graphics section is handled by the Adreno 200, which is a basic but strong GPU. The total RAM installed is 512MB, which is good enough for the purpose of the handset.
Audio jack on the top; power, volume and camera buttons on the right
The display is a basic 3.5-inch capacitive TFT with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels and can recognise only two fingers simultaneously. It is protected by a scratch-resistant glass. The internal storage is 4GB, of which 2GB is vacant for the user. You have the option of expansion up to 32GB using a microSD card. The camera available is just the rear shooter, which has a 3.15 MP sensor and no flash for night shots. Connectivity options are Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth v2.1, GPRs, EDGE, 3G and GPS. Sensors available are only proximity and accelerometer. The Xperia E is installed with Google’s Android ICS v4.0.4, which will be soon updated by Sony to Jelly Bean v 4.1. The handset is powered by a 1530 mAh battery, which the manufacturer promises will give you a talktime of around 6 hours and 12 minutes and a standby time of up to 530 hours.
3.5-inch display with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels
Performance :We did use the phone for a few days as our primary handset and found no flaws with the operating system or the user interface. The only complaint we have is that the user interface seems a tad sluggish or slow, but since we are used to faster phones, we chose to ignore this aspect. Benchmarking apps were installed on the phone and here are the scores. AnTuTu scored 5010, Quadrant scored 2442 and NenaMark2 scored 27.2 fps. Linpack gave results of 39.101 MFLOPS and 36.3 MFLOPS in the single-thread and multi-thread tests respectively. Benchmarking an entry-level phone for its scores is not as crucial as its overall real-world performance. What we need to know basically is if the phone manages to make it through the day without any hiccups or whether the user interface slows down or there are glitches in the operating system. We have no complaints and this phone is definitely recommended for those on a low budget seeking a basic Android phone from a well-known and time-tested brand.
Specializations :
Display | |
|---|---|
Form Factor | Bar |
| Screen Type | TFT Capacitive Touchscreen |
| Screen Size | 3.5 inches |
| Screen Resolution | 320 x 480 |
| Number of Colours | 262k |
Processor | |
Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM7227A |
| Speed | 1 GHz |
Memory | |
Internal Memory | 4 GB, 512 MB RAM |
| Extendable Memory | microSD, up to 32GB |
Camera Features | |
Sensor Resolution | 3.2MP, 2048 x 1536 pixels |
| Digital Zoom | 4x |
| Video Recording | Yes |
General Features | |
OS | Google Android |
| Version | 4.1 (Jelly Bean) |
| FM Radio | Yes |
| Bluetooth Features | Yes |
| Dual Sim Support | Yes |
| Messaging | SMS, MMS, E-mail |
| USB Connector | Yes |
| Available Colours | Black, Gold |
Carrier Networks | |
2G | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 |
| 3G | UMTS HSPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 |
Data | |
GPRS | Yes |
| EGPRS or EDGE | EDGE |
| WiFi | 802.11 b/g/n |
Body | |
Dimensions | 113.5 x 61.8 x 11 mm |
| Weight(grams) | 115.7 |
Sound | |
Media Player | Music formats: MP3, eAAC+, WMA, WAV - Video formats: MP4, H.263, H.264, WMV |
| Alert Tone | Vibration, MP3 |
| Speakerphone | Yes |
| Audio connector | 3.5 mm |
Battery | |
Type | Li-Ion |
| Capacity(mAh) | 1530 |
| Talk Time with Standard Battery (Minutes) | Up to 6 h 12 min (2G) / Up to 6 h 18 min (3G) |
| Standby Time with Standard Battery (Hours) | Up to 530 h (2G) / Up to 530 h (3G) |
Miscellaneous Features | |
| Built in Applications | Synchronisation via Facebook - Synchronisation via Google - Synchronisation via Exchange ActiveSync®, Synchronisation via SyncML - Google Play - Google Search |
| Other Features | Alarm clock, Airplane mode, Calculator, Calendar, Contacts, E-Manual, Infinite button, Notes, Setup wizard, Tasks, Xperia Gallery |
After Sales Service | |
Warranty Period | 1 Year |
thanxs for watching this post, Comment below for further details. And Don't Forget to Like my Facebook page Techno world.
I have been using this phone for quite a few days. the price was quite good and i was Amazed how Electronics Giant like SONY can make a smartphone so Cheap & great.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all i will start with Looks, as usual SONY does't disappoint in terms of looks. it may be not glamorous looking phone but if you look closely its still great.
it comes with Android 4.1(JellyBean) & Touch interface is quite smooth and some people are complaining about it being slow sometimes but it can be solved by stop 'Running' Apps in background in settings...
SOUND is quite great and it comes with classical 'WALKMAN' app, its got CLEAR voice even when you are in a crowded place.
Battery back up is great even after using hours of WiFi, 3G or GPRS/EDGE or Bluetooth.
Whats Great is that it comes with a on-ear Headphones which is a Heaven for Music lover.
Overall a Good Performance phone with a limited Budget..SONY has done a tremendous Job and has added me in their FAN list.
yeah your step of this comment is Perfectly awesome
Delete