Wednesday, 16 July 2014
Sony is just one of a growing number of international companies now attacking the bottom end of the Indian smartphone market. It isn't surprising, considering how much growth there is to tap in India, and how many people are still yet to buy their first smartphone. For customers, it's a win-win situation: high-quality phones are becoming more affordable, after-sales service is no longer a total gamble, and features keep trickling down from high-end handsets.
Sony, despite its ups and downs, has impressed us of late with some very slick, consistent hardware. The Xperia Z2 is a solid, well-balanced flagship phone and the Xperia M2 is beautiful in its own right. Let's see if Sony can manage to apply the same formula at a much lower price target and displace the popular Motorola Moto E.
Look and feel
The Xperia E1 Dual (and its near-identical twin, the single-SIM E1) are small, chunky and plastic all over. There are definite similarities to Sony's higher-end models, most notably the two-tone body and the power button in the middle of the right side. This could easily be the best looking phone in this price range, and the build quality is fantastic.
The E1 Dual is surprisingly light at 120g, but its thickness and matte plastic back make it really comfortable to hold. The screen measures four inches diagonally but thanks to the use of on-screen buttons, there isn't much plastic above or below it. There's a large Sony logo above the screen, plus a earpiece cutout, sensors, and notification LED that's invisible unless lit up.
The notification LED is a bit odd because when it isn't red or green to show your battery charge status, its colour seems to change depending on the angle you're looking at it. It could be white, blue, cyan, purple or orange and we wouldn't be able to tell whether they mean different things. There's also another hidden LED below the screen which lights up briefly in a random colour when tracks begin playing in the Walkman app, for no apparent reason whatsoever.
The camera lens on the rear is nicely recessed so that it won't scratch easily. There's another printed Sony logo and a more subtle engraved Xperia logo on the rear, but the most noticeable thing is the enormous speaker grille across the device's entire width.
The power button is on the right edge in keeping with Sony's current "omnibalance" design direction, but it doesn't work at all on such a small device. It's hopelessly inconvenient to get to when needed, and there are no shortcuts such as double-tapping the screen, which would have make this easier to deal with. Sony has
also decided to place a dedicated Walkman button on the top right edge, right where the power button should be. Making matters infinitely worse, pressing the Walkman button even lightly makes music start playing at whatever volume you left it - it's possible to trigger this even with the screen locked if the button is pressed twice. Needless to say, this led to some very awkward moments in our office during the review process.
There's a headset socket on the top and Micro-USB charging port on the left edge. The rear panel pops off to reveal the removable battery and microSD card slot. You have to pull the battery out to get to the two regular-sized SIM card trays
Sony, despite its ups and downs, has impressed us of late with some very slick, consistent hardware. The Xperia Z2 is a solid, well-balanced flagship phone and the Xperia M2 is beautiful in its own right. Let's see if Sony can manage to apply the same formula at a much lower price target and displace the popular Motorola Moto E.
Look and feelThe Xperia E1 Dual (and its near-identical twin, the single-SIM E1) are small, chunky and plastic all over. There are definite similarities to Sony's higher-end models, most notably the two-tone body and the power button in the middle of the right side. This could easily be the best looking phone in this price range, and the build quality is fantastic.
The E1 Dual is surprisingly light at 120g, but its thickness and matte plastic back make it really comfortable to hold. The screen measures four inches diagonally but thanks to the use of on-screen buttons, there isn't much plastic above or below it. There's a large Sony logo above the screen, plus a earpiece cutout, sensors, and notification LED that's invisible unless lit up.
The notification LED is a bit odd because when it isn't red or green to show your battery charge status, its colour seems to change depending on the angle you're looking at it. It could be white, blue, cyan, purple or orange and we wouldn't be able to tell whether they mean different things. There's also another hidden LED below the screen which lights up briefly in a random colour when tracks begin playing in the Walkman app, for no apparent reason whatsoever.
The camera lens on the rear is nicely recessed so that it won't scratch easily. There's another printed Sony logo and a more subtle engraved Xperia logo on the rear, but the most noticeable thing is the enormous speaker grille across the device's entire width. The power button is on the right edge in keeping with Sony's current "omnibalance" design direction, but it doesn't work at all on such a small device. It's hopelessly inconvenient to get to when needed, and there are no shortcuts such as double-tapping the screen, which would have make this easier to deal with. Sony has
also decided to place a dedicated Walkman button on the top right edge, right where the power button should be. Making matters infinitely worse, pressing the Walkman button even lightly makes music start playing at whatever volume you left it - it's possible to trigger this even with the screen locked if the button is pressed twice. Needless to say, this led to some very awkward moments in our office during the review process.
There's a headset socket on the top and Micro-USB charging port on the left edge. The rear panel pops off to reveal the removable battery and microSD card slot. You have to pull the battery out to get to the two regular-sized SIM card trays
