Review: Sony Xperia E4g

Sony's affordable E-series has definitely come a long way and with its current fourth generation. The company is really going to great lengths to deliver abundant functionality and usability at a modest price tag.

It all comes down to choice when keeping costs low is a primary objective and the E4g has definitely opted to do things a little differently. Instead of bumping the display size to 5.0-inches, this device has opted to go for a smaller 4.7-inch one and this is pretty much the only aspect the Xperia E4g falls short of the E4, at least on paper.

The panel has retained the same 540 x 960 pixels resolution and the reduced screen size leads to a higher ppi of 234. The phone is also a tad smaller, measuring 133 x 71 x 10.8 mm and weighing in at a good 10 grams less for a total of 135g. Exterior changes go even further, but more on that in a little bit.

(+)

• 4.7" 16M-color 540x960 IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen
• Android OS v4.4.4 KitKat
• Quad-core 1.5GHz Cortex-A53; Mediatek MT6732, Mali-T760MP2, 1GB RAM
• 5MP camera with 1080p@30fps video; 2MP front-facing camera with 720p video
• 8GB of built-in storage and a microSD card slot
• LTE connectivity with optional Dual SIM support
• Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, GPS receiver, Bluetooth v4.1, FM radio
• Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic
• 2,300mAh non-removable battery

(-)

• Low screen resolution
• Average cameras
• Non-removable battery

Underneath the hood, there has been a definite power-boost compared to the vanilla E4. The Mediatek MT6582 SoC in the Xperia E4 has been swapped out for a MediaTek MT6732 chip. This one has a much faster Mali-T760MP2 GPU.

The rest of the specs are pretty much unchanged, but, then again, so is the price tag. The camera setup is nothing special with 5MP stills and 1080p video on the main unit, but the 2MP/720p selfie cam is a welcome improvement over the VGA front-facer of the Xperia E3. There's a microSD card slot too, of course. RAM is once again set at 1GB.

But the Xperia E4g has yet another treat in store. Like its name suggests, it offers LTE connectivity, just like the E3 did, so Sony definitely saw the error of its ways after the original Xperia E4 skipped on the ever-so-important connectivity option. The new chipset also come with GLONASS support, another clear improvement over the E4.

Design-wise, the phone bears a lot of signature Sony elements and is kind of bulky. It does, however offer noticeable better materials than the Xperia E4, mainly in the back plate, which has a rubberized soft finish, a lot nicer than the plain plastic used on the E4g

Design and build quality

A fact's a fact though - the E4 is chunky and plasticky all-around and yet, the rubbery finish does make it feel and look a lot more premium than the Xperia E4. It measures 133 x 71 x 10.8mm and is not particularly light either at 135g. The back cover oddly looks too big and shaped more like a bumper case, almost like it doesn't belong and was borrowed from another device. Still, the smaller size lessens the effect, making for a slightly better look than the E4, but this is purely subjective.

Other than that, Sony has really done the best it could with the available materials. The body feels nice to the touch and the plastic does not look cheap in any way. The E4g is available in two colors: white and black.

Display

The Sony Xperia E4g is equipped with a pretty plain IPS LCD panel with a resolution of 540 x 960 pixels on a 4.7-inch diagonal, a tad smaller than the Xperia E4 and slightly bigger than the E3. The resulting 234ppi is nothing special but probably just right for the price range.

It's not the resolution though that we're worried about. The thing that really ruins the experience is the plastic screen coating, which is very reflective.

While taking the microscopic photo, we had a very hard time focusing to get all three colors right. The distortion is most probably the reason why the display appears slightly blurry. Granted, the display isn't nearly as reflective at the one on the Xperia E4, so, although images are still far from crisp, the E4g does offer a better viewing experience.

Battery

Sony has put a 2,300mAh battery inside the Xperia E4g, just like the Xperia E4. We ran our battery test with the battery-saving STAMINA mode off. The handset scored surprisingly low with a total endurance rating of 47 hours, which means you can count on squeezing out 2 days of battery life, at best.

Compared to 88 hours on the Xperia E4, this score looks alarmingly low. At first, we thought maybe we had done something wrong with the test, but, sadly a rerun of the whole procedure, gave equally disappointing results.

It seems that the faster MediaTek MT6732 is really taking its toll on battery performance, or, perhaps the problem lays with the different screen even though it's smaller. All we know for sure is that both the Xperia E4 and the E4g scored identical endurance rating during a voice call, so the modem is not a likely suspect for the diminished battery life.

Connectivity

The Sony Xperia E4g comes in single and dual SIM flavors, just like its sibling. Both models offer quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support and dual or tri-band 3G connectivity with HSDPA. LTE support is also present, so, the device no longer falls short of the Xperia E3 in this respect.

Local connectivity features dial-band Wi-Fi b/g/n, yet another improvement over the Xperia E4 and Wi-Fi Direct. There is also support for Bluetooth 4.1 with A2DP and apt-X. Satellite navigation is no longer limited to GPS and thanks to the MediaTek MT6732, now has GLONASS support as well. The Xperia E4g also has an FM radio with RDS. It doesn't offer an IR port, but does come with NFC, in the E2003 variation only.

Camera

The Sony Xperia E4g's camera uses a 5MP camera sensor - a resolution, which sounds quite outdated. It shoots with a maximum resolution of 2560 x 1920 pixels (5MP) in manual and Superior Auto modes. There is also a LED flash to help you with some low-light photos. The camera should be the same as the one on the Xperia E4 even though the flash position has been swapped, so perhaps there have been some minor changes.

Final matter

Sony decided to out four separate models in the low-end E-line this year. Last year's you could simply get the Xperia E3 with either dual-SIM or LTE support and now the E4 and E4g both have single and duals-sim versions. After making a thorough examination of the LTE-enabled Xperia E4g, we think we might have found the answer.

The Xperia E4g doesn't give off the impression that it was created to broaden choice in the budget market segment. Comparing it with the E4 it was Sony's second attempt at creating a viable successor to the E3.

The Xperia E4g is far from perfect in many respects, but then again, it really doesn't need to be perfect. All it really had to achieve is improve the Xperia E3 and retain a budget-friendly price point, which, frankly, proved too much for the Xperia E4 to handle.

The E4g is better than its bigger sibling in almost every way and thus does a notably better job at being competitive in its price group. Still, there are a lot of rough edges with the phone. One thing, however, remains unchanged - the smartphone is solid, dependable and simply works, which, in itself is an admirable achievement for a €130 phone.