Sony Xperia E from 2012

June 26, 2022 Luisa Rey

In 2012, Sony came up with a line-up full of affordable devices. The smartphones in this class were placed in the Xperia E series. Today we discuss the 2012 Sony Xperia E in our ‘The forgotten smartphone’ section.

Sony Xperia E

For this edition of our section ‘The forgotten smartphone’ we go back to the year 2012. This week we discuss the Sony Xperia E. Ten years ago, the Japanese manufacturer Sony chose to release affordable devices in the cheaper segment. We saw this that year with the Sony Xperia Tipo, which appeared six months earlier. By giving the new series the name E-series, the affordable, compact devices had to be immediately recognizable.

The Sony Xperia E appeared in two versions; there was also the Xperia E Dual with the only difference that it had space for two SIM cards. It was striking that the Dual model also appeared with Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, while the standard model came directly on the market with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Android 4.1 was the proprietary Xperia UI, the company’s own skin. This offered, among other things, the Timescape UI with access to various social networks. It was one of the key features of the device. We no longer see compact smartphones today as we saw it ten years ago. The phone had dimensions of 113.5 x 62 x 11 millimeters and a weight that came out at about 116 grams.

Sony gave the Xperia E a 3.5 inch TFT screen with a resolution of 480 x 320 pixels. As we were used to from the manufacturer, the Xperia E was also equipped with the Bravia technology that Sony has been using in smartphones for years. According to Sony, the touchscreen was made of a special kind of mineral, so it had to reflect less. Still, the screen quality was judged to be somewhat mediocre at the time. Below the screen was a luminous bar that could light up with new notifications.

There was no camera on the front; on the back, the phone offered a 3.2 megapixel camera. However, an LED flash was not present. The list of specifications was further completed with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S1 processor, along with 512MB RAM and 4GB (expandable) storage space. The battery capacity of the Sony Xperia E was 1530 mAh. In the Netherlands, the device was released for a price of 149 euros.