Sony Xperia E4 announced – Its Entry-level MediaTek powered smart phone

Sony has just announced its new Xperia E4 smart phone, a new entry-level device which gets a larger 5.0″ display and it runs on a MediaTek processor. Initially speculated for MWC 2015 release, Sony interestingly has decided to announce it weeks ahead of the international mobile event.

At first glance, the Xperia E4 looks the replacement of the Xperia E3 and overall it still retains Sony’s Omni-Balance design throughout. The front display is upsized from the 4.5″ FWVGA (854×480) display on the Xperia E3 to a better 5.0″ qHD (960×540) screen.

However under the hood, Sony opts for a more cost effective Quad-Core 1.3GHz MediaTek MT6582 processor, that’s similar to the one that’s powering the Honor 3C and Honor 3C Lite. It is mated to 1GB of RAM and has 8GB of on-board storage that can expand further to another 32GB with microSD.

For taking pictures, selfie lovers would be happy to know that they have upgraded the VGA shooter on the E3 to a much decent 2MP front camera, and it even comes with its own dedicated selfie app. The main camera at the back is still a similar 5MP unit that supports Full HD 1080p video recording. Connectivity wise, the Xperia E4 only supports 3G HSPA+, which is a notch below the Xperia E3 that supports 4G LTE. A dual-sim Xperia E4 Dual variant is also available as well.

Powering the Xperia E4 is a similar capacity 2,300mAh battery and Sony claims that it could last up to 2 days on a single charge, just like its current Xperia Z3 line up. While the press release mentions that it runs on Android 4.4.4, the Xperia E4 product page is listing its operating system as Android 5.0 Lollipop.

With the Xperia E4 out of the way and its new Xperia Z4 not due anytime soon, is Sony going to announce anything at MWC 2015? Perhaps a full sized tablet and hopefully a new replacement of its ageing Xperia Z Ultra. We’ll find out in a couple of weeks time.