Review Sony Xperia E Dual Smartphone

The design of the Sony Xperia E dual is very reminiscent of the other devices of the series. Its black case of polycarbonate convinces through a mixture of matte and glossy surfaces. A thin frame in chrome helps smooth the design. A cool feature is the blue flashing LED stripe at the bottom of the device; however it only becomes visible in dark environments. The manufacturing of the individual parts of the case is of high quality. The smartphone sits nicely in the hand through the rounded backside. The textured surface results in a comfortable feel. The finish is too smooth in our view. A thin coating would offer much more hold.

Unfortunately, the stability is not totally convincing for us. Even when applying small force, one can already feel a certain deformation of the case. This is due to the multi-part case. A single body case usually performs much better. Another point of concern is the PMMA display protection (Polymethylmethacrylate). In comparison to Gorilla glass, it is not very robust. When applying stronger pressure, one can see waves on the TFT display.

The phone measures 61.8 x 113.5 x 11 millimeters (~2.4 x 4.5 x 0.4 inches/W x L x H) and weighs 116 grams (~0.35 pounds). Although it is relatively light, current smartphones are a bit thinner usually. It is comparable to the Samsung Galaxy S DUOS GT-S7562 in terms of size and weight. 

The ports on the phone come as no surprise. A headset or external speakers can be connected via the 3.5 mm stereo port on top of the phone. Fresh energy as well as data from a PC can be received through the micro-USB (left side). In addition, there is also a card reader so that the integrated 4 GB flash memory can be expanded (Net capacity: 2.28 GB). Even though the specs in the manufacturers’ data give a maximum of 32 GB, micro-SD cards of up to 64 GB are supported.

The control of the device is performed through buttons all around it. On the right hand side there is a compact volume switch and the power button which is not so convincing in its shape. Moreover, the individual pressure points are too imprecise. Right below the screen there are located the three typical Android touch buttons. We are not going to explain their functions in more detail. They are illuminated so that these controls are easily visible in the evening.

The package contains the most important accessories for basic use. Due to the low entry price there are no extras provided. Besides the main device, Sony includes a lithium-ion battery, a UBS cable, the modular USB charger, a simple headset, and a printed instructions manual. Sony offers many products in its Store where it is often worthwhile to make a price comparison. Interestingly the company does not sell any second batteries or replacement batteries through the website.

Warranty

Sony offers a warranty of 24 months for the Xperia E dual, which starts from the date of purchase. The battery and the accessories included are protected for 12 months through the warranty.

The Sony Xperia E dual features a glossy 3.5-inch screen with a resolution of 320x480 pixels in the 2:3 format. This results in a relatively low pixel density of only 165 PPI so that the picture looks very grainy. The difference becomes especially apparent when compared to the Apple iPhone 5, Google Nexus 4 or the Samsung Galaxy S3. Another negative point is the display technology that is being used in the device. It is an LCD-TFT display whereas high quality devices offer IPS or AMOLED displays.

We have measured the quality of the screen with the Mavo screen from Gossen. The panel reached a light density of 315 cd/m². This value is pretty good in class comparison, even though it is not the brightest of all. The Samsung Galaxy S DUOS as a direct competitor is a bit brighter on average. With 91% the illumination level is very uniform and also convincing. Overall, these are good results for this section of the test.

Figuratively speaking the device comes as a double-edged sword for outdoor use. At maximum brightness of the screen the content is clearly visible, however only when in direct view of the screen. Viewed from the side, content is not recognizable anymore. If the brightness is decreased, then the reflections due to the glossy surface increase in turn. Hence, an efficient use is not possible anymore. In order to solve this one can change the sitting position or purchase a matte display protection foil.

Inside the Sony Xperia E dual there is a Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 MSM7227A System-on-a-Chip (SoC) at work. We have already analyzed the chip in detail in the tests of the Samsung Galaxy S DUOS and the Sony Xperia J. In this case it is a single-core chip (Cortex A5) based on the  ARMv7-Architecture running at 1 GHz. The SoC is produced in 45 Nanometer size and contains the Adreno 200 (Enhanced) graphic unit.

It also contains 512 MB RAM. Modern devices in the mid- and upper range usually offer dual or quad cores and a maximum of 2GB RAM. Naturally, one should not compare apples and oranges here, since the costs of such devices are much higher too.

First, we checked the time behavior of the SoCs with the tool CPU Spy. In idle mode the snapdragon S1 is working over 90 percent of the time with only 245 MHz, hence consuming little energy. Under load the maximum performance of 1008 MHz is activated without any problems.

Then we enter the benchmark test round with the synthetic tests. Interestingly, our test device is faster than the Sony Xperia J, even though they both feature the same hardware. This becomes clearly visible in the GPU benchmark test NenaMark 2. Our device with the Adreno 200 GPU reaches 27.4 FPS (frames per second) there. The Xperia J with only 19.6 FPS performs about 28% worse. The Samsung Galaxy S DUOS is about on the same level as the Sony Xperia J. For multi-thread calculations from Linpack there is only a difference of a few points in the scores of these three devices. In addition, we have also included the Google Nexus 4 in the comparison table so that the difference to a faster Android smartphone can also be seen.

To play audio material there is a mono speaker at the lower backside of the device. The sound impression is not very convincing. Trebles are too pronounced. Bass and low-pitched sounds are missing entirely. The maximum volume is convincing, but the sound produces distortions from 60 percent onwards. External and peripheral audio devices can be connected through the 3.5 mm stereo port and the quality of transmission is excellent.

In addition to the calling time of 6 hours and 12 minutes as specified by Sony, we have undertaken our own running time measurements. The beginning is marked by the maximum battery run time under minimal screen brightness and all wireless connections disabled (airplane mode). After 18 hours and 43 minutes the Sony Xperia E dual has to be recharged. The Xperia J, with a bigger battery and lower consumption, lasts longer at 21 hours and 30 minutes. The Samsung Galaxy S DUOS comes nowhere near with only 12 hours and 36 minutes.

At the other extreme is the minimal run time under heavy load that we have simulated with the tool Stability Test. The brightness of the screen was maximized and all wireless connections also enabled. After 3 hours and 17 minutes a full battery charge is drained. In this scenario the Xperia J and the Galaxy S DUOS last longer.

A more common scenario is estimated with “surfing with WLAN” mode. With a standard brightness of 150 cd/m² every 40 seconds a new web page is displayed. The test device lasts almost 10 hours in this mode. The difference to the Xperia J is about three hours. The Samsung device lasts about 30 minutes less than the test device.

The Sony Xperia E dual is a good dual-SIM smartphone for little money. One should not expect too much besides this function though. The case  is undoubtedly fancy, but the stability is not ideal. The card reader allowing up to 64 GB is a useful feature considering the small internal storage provided. The integration of the dual-SIM function proves to be good in Android. An update to Google Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) is yet to be released by Sony though.

The 3.5-inch touchscreen offers convincing test results. However, the low resolution of 320x480 pixels and the use of LCD-TFT technology are not up to date anymore. The performance is fine for a device that costs less than 200 Euros (~$265) and performance in everyday life is good. For gamers and multimedia enthusiasts it is the wrong choice. The battery life based on the 1500 mAh battery is fine; however the consumption in office use is too high in comparison to similar products. Overall, it is a good device for first-users who do not want to carry around two smartphones all the time. Nonetheless, the question still remains why so far only smartphones in the lower price range offer the dual-SIM feature in Germany.