Cheaper Xperia Z1 Successors Announced: Sony Xperia E1 and Xperia T2 Ultra
Just a week after announcing the Xperia Z1s and Z1 Compact, Sony has announced two new Xperia smartphones: the Xperia E1 and Xperia T2 Ultra. Here are the details -- hardware specs and availability -- about the new offerings from Sony.
Both smartphones are in the Xperia line, but look more like the clunkier, plastic, mid-range Xperia Z1 Compact than the flagship Xperia Z1 or Z1 Ultra, because much like HTC and Samsung with their lower-cost "mini" versions of flagships, that's the market Sony is aimed at. The Sony Xperia E1 is a 4-inch mini model, while the Xperia T2 Ultra is like a bargain-bin Xperia Z1 Ultra phablet, with a 6-inch screen.
Xperia E1
The Xperia E1's 4-inch screen is a TFT display with 800 x 480p resolution which yields gets a mid-range (but not terrible 223 pixels per inch. Under the hood is a 1.2 GHz dual core Qualcomm CPU, with half a gig of RAM supporting it. The most built-in storage you'll get with the Xperia E1 is 4GB, but luckily there is a microSD card slot for expansion of up to 32GB more.
Other specs of the phone are not impressive, but certainly functional. The main camera for the Xperia E1 has a 3.15-megapixel sensor, but it can record 720p HD video and has 4x zoom, so it's useful. Budget selfie enthusiasts should look elsewhere, though, as there is no front-facing secondary camera.
The Xperia E1 is right with the pack as far as operating system version, with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean pre-installed, along with Sony specialties like the Walkman app and ClearAudio+ software. The Xperia E1 boasts a 100Db speaker, which Sony says is strong enough that "even a motorcycle won't interrupt your music." Other smartphone essentials like 3G data with HSPA+, Bluetooth, a decent 1,750 mAh battery, and WiFi are included in the cheap smartphone as well. The price is expected to be under $240, but it probably won't be coming to the United States any time soon. More information is expected at the Mobile World Congress in February.
Xperia T2 Ultra
The Xperia T2 Ultra is also expected to be a budget phone, but it's got more impressive hardware. First, the 6-inch screen is a Sony HD Triluminos display, much like the more premium smartphones from the Japanese manufacturer. Sony is bragging that the display extends to within 2.5 mm of the phone's edges, which is a pretty impressive bezel width, "ensuring that the phone is no wider than a standard credit card." Apparently some of the "phablet" name-calling and criticism of the huge 6.4-inch Xperia Z1 Ultra screen has made Sony more size-cautious: the Xperia T2 Ultra only 0.29-inches wide and weighs just over a third of a pound.
The 6-inch IPS LCD display gets a 720 x 1280p resolution, which works out to about 245 pixels per inch. It's run by a quad core Qualcomm MSM8928 at 1.4GHz with a gig of RAM supporting. Its internal storage is a more standard 8GB, with up to 32GB of microSD expansion available.
Perhaps most surprising is that the T2 Ultra comes with a decent suit of camera equipment and full-on 13-megapixel HDR-capable, LED flashing, 1080p @ 30fps video-recording camera on the back, along with a 1.1-megapixel front-facer.
With this one, though, Sony pretty much explicitly announced that the Xperia T2 Ultra would be headed to emerging markets like China, Africa, the Middle East, and the Asia Pacific rim for under $550.
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