Sony has jumped ahead of the expected upcoming smartphone announcements at Mobile World Congress, announcing the Sony Xperia E4.
The Xperia E4 is a new mid-range phone which will be available in single and dual-SIM configurations, in Black or White. Sony has shown off a new design with the E4, which they call their ‘curved OmniBalance design’ a move to a more rounded, curvy body shape, which could be a sign of things to come on the Xperia Z4 when it’s eventually announced.
In terms of specs the Xperia E4 is fairly mid-range with a 5″ 960×540 resolution IPS Display on the front, while under the hood a 1.3GHz quad-core processor runs the show. There’s going to be 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage, but no mention is made of microSD card expansion.
The Xperia E4 will come with a 2MP front-facing camera, and a 5MP rear camera which will feature Sony’sauto scene recognition feature and HDR. There’s a range of Camera apps installed such as Portrait retouch, Live on YouTube, AR Fun and Sound photo, as well as a range of other apps to install.
Sony has taken pains to feature the ‘Stamina’ mode on the E4, which uses the 2300mAh battery to deliver up to 2 Days battery life. There’s even an ‘Ultra Stamina Mode’ which will restrict all Smartphone features to deliver core SMS and call functions only for an even longer life.
Software wise, Sony lists Android 5.0 making it one of the first Sony Xperia handsets to launch with Lollipop.
Sony has announced the phone at a global level, with stock hitting the market this month. We’ll have to wait a while for any announcements at a local level here in Australia. Perhaps we’ll see more, including pricing after their MWC announcements.
To me, the specs of the E4 don’t read as being mid tier, rather, they read as being entry level, the sort of thing designed to go toe to toe with the Moto E.