Sony Xperia E dual review: Something extra

HVGA display

The Sony Xperia E dual comes with an HVGA LCD screen, measuring 3.5 inches in diagonal. These numbers add up to a pixel density of 165ppi, which is some way off the Retina standards, but not bad enough to be an eye-sore. You can find slightly better densities in this class, but the difference won't be too great.

The Xperia E dual HVGA screen

As for image quality, the Xperia E dual's display offers fairly low contrast, poor viewing angles and sunlight legibility. Sadly, a mediocre screen is still one of the things you have to live with if you decide to save some money on a smartphone. Here are the results from our traditional display tests.

Display test	50% brightness			100% brightness
	Black, cd/m2	White, cd/m2	Contrast ratio	Black, cd/m2	White, cd/m2	Contrast ratio
Sony Xperia E dual	0.21	181	844	0.54	473	870
Sony Xperia J	0.22	289	1290	0.41	562	1359
HTC Desire X	0.18	226	1273	0.33	421	1275
HTC Desire V	0.33	340	1027	0.48	506	1054
Sony Xperia tipo	-	-	-	0.75	561	751
HTC Desire C	0.23	186	814	0.5	360	723
HTC One X	0.15	200	1375	0.39	550	1410
Sony Xperia U	0.35	287	831	0.55	515	930
Samsung S7500 Galaxy Ace Plus	0.27	239	873	0.6	528	888

Contrast ratio

• Nokia 808 PureView
  4.698
• Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III
  3.419
• Samsung Omnia W
  3.301
• Samsung Galaxy S
  3.155
• Nokia N9
  3.069
• Samsung Galaxy Note
  2.970
• HTC One S
  2.901
• Samsung Galaxy S II
  2.832
• Samsung Galaxy S II Plus
  2.801
• Huawei Ascend P1
  2.655
• Nokia Lumia 900
  2.562
• Samsung Galaxy S III mini
  2.422
• Motorola RAZR i
  2.366
• Apple iPhone 4S
  2.269
• HTC One X
  2.158
• Nokia N8
  2.144
• Oppo Find 5
  2.088
• Apple iPhone 4
  2.016
• Sony Ericsson Xperia ray
  1.955
• Samsung Galaxy Camera
  1.938
• Sony Xperia V
  1.792
• Sony Xperia U
  1.758
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  1.691
• HTC One V
  1.685
• LG Optimus Vu
  1.680
• HTC Desire V
  1.646
• LG Optimus 3D
  1.542
• Nokia Asha 302
  1.537
• Nokia Lumia 610
  1.432
• Gigabyte GSmart G1355
  1.361
• HTC Desire C
  1.300
• 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

And here is the Xperia E dual's RGB matrix under a microscope.