Sony Xperia E1 review: Enter Walkman

Display

The Sony Xperie E1 is built around a 4" TFT LCD display of WVGA resolution (480 x 800 pixels) for a pixel density of 233 ppi. That's the most Sony could've given the phone considering the Snapdragon 200 chipset and we have to say it's not too bad.

Color reproduction is decent and while the contrast is rather poor, the screen's brightness than the Xperia E's display. Naturally, it's not as sharp as a 720p screen, but you're not being charged for one of those either. Viewing angles are rather mediocre and there's a noticeable color shift when looked at an angle.

The 4" WVGA display is the best fit for the Xperia E1

Display test	50% brightness			100% brightness
	Black, cd/m2	White, cd/m2	Contrast ratio	Black, cd/m2	White, cd/m2	Contrast ratio
Sony Xperia E1	-	-	-	0.72	489	677
Nokia X	0.39	24	637	0.64	461	715
Nokia Asha 501	-	-	-	0.37	354	947
Nokia Asha 503	0.28	178	647	0.56	358	635
Nokia Lumia 520	-	-	-	0.51	422	834
Sony Xperia E	0.19	157	813	0.50	433	875
Sony Xperia E dual	0.21	181	844	0.54	473	870
Sony Xperia tipo	-	-	-	0.75	561	751
Samsung S7500 Galaxy Ace Plus	0.27	239	873	0.6	528	888
Apple iPhone 5	0.13	200	1490	0.48	640	1320
Motorola Moto G	0.35	315	906	0.57	550	967
Sony Xperia C	0.18	151	842	0.66	639	962

As you can see the sunlight legibility isn't something spectacular. However, thanks to the increased brightness it's somewhat better than the original Xperia E.

Sunlight contrast ratio

• Nokia 808 PureView
  4.698
• Apple iPhone 5
  3.997
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  3.997
• Samsung Galaxy S5
  3.549
• Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III
  3.419
• Nokia Lumia 925
  3.402
• Samsung I9505 Galaxy S4
  3.352
• Samsung Omnia W
  3.301
• Samsung Galaxy S
  3.155
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  3.127
• Samsung Galaxy S4 zoom
  3.118
• Nokia N9
  3.069
• Samsung Galaxy Note
  2.970
• Sony Xperia Z1
  2.950
• HTC One S
  2.901
• BlackBerry Q10
  2.856
• Samsung Galaxy S II
  2.832
• Samsung Galaxy S II Plus
  2.801
• BlackBerry Z30
  2.790
• Huawei Ascend P1
  2.655
• Sony Xperia ZR
  2.672
• Nokia Lumia 900
  2.562
• HTC One Max
  2.537
• Nokia Lumia 720
  2.512
• HTC One
  2.504
• Sony Xperia Z
  2.462
• Samsung Galaxy S III mini
  2.422
• HTC One (M8)
  2.371
• Motorola RAZR i
  2.366
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  2.307
• Apple iPhone 4S
  2.269
• HTC Desire 600 dual sim
  2.262
• LG Nexus 5
  2.228
• HTC One X
  2.158
• Nokia N8
  2.144
• Oppo Find 5
  2.088
• BlackBerry Z10
  2.051
• Apple iPhone 4
  2.016
• HTC One mini
  2.003
• LG G2
  1.976
• Sony Ericsson Xperia ray
  1.955
• Samsung Galaxy Camera
  1.938
• LG G Pro 2
  1.922
• HTC Butterfly
  1.873
• Huawei Ascend P6
  1.865
• Sony Xperia V
  1.792
• Sony Xperia U
  1.758
• Meizu MX3
  1.754
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  1.691
• HTC One V
  1.685
• BlackBerry Q5
  1.682
• LG Optimus Vu
  1.680
• LG Optimus GJ
  1.666
• HTC Desire V
  1.646
• Samsung Galaxy Ace 3
  1.622
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  1.578
• Samsung Galaxy Core
  1.563
• LG Optimus G Pro
  1.552
• LG Optimus 3D
  1.542
• Samsung Galaxy Core LTE
  1.542
• Nokia Asha 302
  1.537
• Sony Xperia M
  1.473
• Nokia Lumia 610
  1.432
• Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo
  1.393
• Sony Xperia E1
  1.372
• Gigabyte GSmart G1355
  1.361
• Samsung Galaxy Grand
  1.321
• HTC Desire C
  1.300
• Nokia X
  1.291
• Nokia Asha 501
  1.270
• LG Optimus L7
  1.269
• LG Optimus L9
  1.227
• Meizu MX
  1.221
• Sony Xperia E dual
  1.203
• Samsung Galaxy Pocket
  1.180
• Sony Xperia tipo
  1.166
• Samsung Galaxy mini 2
  1.114

Battery life test

We were pleasantly surprised from the Xperia E1's battery performance. It's a 1,700mAh Li-Ion unit, which is slightly smaller than what's found in some of the phone's competitors, but it puts up a fight. Talk time is excellent and because the E1's screen isn't very bright, the web browsing time is pretty great, too.

Overall, the Xperia E1 managed an endurance rating of 56 hours, which means it'll easily take two days before you need to charge it, if you use it for 1 hours of talking, web browsing and video playing a day.

Our proprietary score also includes a standby battery draw test, which is not featured in our battery test scorecard but is calculated in the total endurance rating.

Our battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you want to learn more about it.