Sony Xperia E4 Promises 2-Day Battery Life At Budget Price

Barely half a year has passed since Sony announced the Xperia E3 at IFA 2014. Now it is augmenting its budget smartphone line with the new Xperia E4. Like its predecessor, it promises to give as much of the Sony Xperia experience that it can at price point. This includes a 2,300 mAh battery promised to last 2 days, the distinct Xperia design, as well as customization options. One rather peculiar thing about the Xperia E4 is that Sony has opted to go with a MediaTek CPU this time around.

The smartphone runs on a 1.3 GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6582. In contrast, the Xperia E3 employed a 1.2 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400. There could be various reasons why Sony didn't opt to go with Qualcomm again. For one, the next Snapdragon budget chip would have not only bumped up the speed, it would have also switched to a different 64-bit architecture. The MediaTek solution might be a more affordable option that keeps things familiar.

The rest of the smartphone's specs are an incremental upgrade over last year's model, except for the RAM which remains at 1 GB. Storage has been doubled to 8 GB. The screen is also a larger 5-inch display. Unfortunately, the resolution moved up only ever so slightly from 854x480 to 960x540, otherwise known as qHD. The front-facing camera now boasts 2 megapixels but the back one unfortunately is still 5 megapixels only.

In terms of software, you probably won't be surprised to see only Android 4.4.4 inside. Aside from that, Sony has tried to give the Xperia E4 some semblance of sophistication. Xperia Transfer helps new users migrate their data from other Android or iOS devices. The Quick Settings panel from the status bar gives you access to your most important settings options instantly. PartyShare, which comes preloaded on the smartphone, is an interesting way to let a group in the same room share photos and even music.

The Sony Xperia E4 will launch this month and will come with a dual SIM variant. No price listing yet and no news on whether it will be available in the US. The timing of the announcement, made weeks before MWC 2015, perhaps strengthens the speculation that Sony won't be making a big splash at the tech even this year.