Sony the fourth largest phone manufacturer made no qualms about announcing its plans for securing the third position in the lucrative smartphone market.The company which has been instrumental in bringing some solid tech in the past year, be it with Xperia Sola which introduced the floating touch technology or the Xperia S which featured the sharpest HD smartphone display smartphone, the company has been constantly surprising us with some novel additions.
However while focussing on the premium and high-end specced smartphones, it is also tightening its leash on the low-mid-range market segment which is increasingly becoming alluring.
In its bid to dethrone, Huawei and hold off ZTE who is also eyeing for the coveted no 3 spot, the company is revising its strategy to focus on creating a splash in the 'cheaper phones' segment in the developing markets around the world. While Sony will adopt Android for this mission, it may expand to other OS platforms in time.
We saw the Japanese multinational conglomerate launch its high-end Xperia Z in India while showcasing premium devices like Xperia ZL, Xperia Z tablet. What was also spotted in the line-up was budget Xperia E and Xperia E dual smartphone.
Both Xperia E and Xperia E dual will be arriving in India this month for Rs 11,000 and Rs 12,000. The Xperia E dual will follow first, with Xperia E trailing behind by the end of the month.
The wallet-friendly and reasonably feature-packed duo will come bundled with a pair of head phones worth Rs 1,500.
The main focus of the device is its audio quality. The smartphone features HD voice which makes calls loud and clearly audible. Be it noisy streets or traffic jams or even school yards, the noise cancellation feature filters out the background sounds, bringing you a very clear audio from the other end.
Sony's trademark 'Walkman' also features on the smartphone, assisting you to create your own playlist in a snap. Thanks to the xLoud loudness enhancement on board, now you can crank up the volume and sit back and enjoy the right mix of song. For the music aficionados, the Xperia E has the Music Unlimited feature- that allows you to listen to music offline and without any annoying ads. Also, thanks to the power management functionality, you’ll be on top of battery drain too.
The Sony Xperia E Android mobile phone also houses a data usage app to keep you upto-date and manage your costs and phone bills in check. This will be quite handy for those juggling multiple options and be free of any shocker bills at the end of the month.
On the spec front, the smartphone comes fitted with a 3.5-inch HVGA touchscreen and is fueled by a Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and a single-core 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM7227A processor for seamless multitasking.
The device bears a basic 3.2-megapixel rear camera with auto-focus coupled with VGA video recording. The battery life stands at 1,500 mAh and assures talk time up to 6.3 hours and a standby time up to : 5.30 hours.
It is backed by a 512MB RAM, 4GB of internal storage which can be expanded upto 32 GB via microSD card.
On the other hand, its sibling, Xperia E dual boasts of similar features like its sibling with the addition of a dual SIM functionality. It could have been a result of which this Xperia variant ships with a Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) instead of a Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) like its sibling. Android 4.0 is not a archaic platform, but with two successors already out, it does dampen the spirits.
Overall Xperia E does manages to grab our attention. As it competes with rivals like Samsung and LG, which are set to bring in more offerings in this segment - it will be interesting to see how Sony holds on its own. Stay tuned for a in-depth review of Xperia E in coming weeks on KYMI.
