Sony have only relatively recently unveiled the Xperia E4, which has the makings of a solid mid-range device based around a 5.0-inch, 960 by 540 pixel (also known as “qHD”) resolution screen and, a first for a Sony device, a 1.3 GHz quad-core MediaTek processor backed up by 1 GB of RAM. The E4 has a focus on battery life and Sony claim two days of normal use from the 2,300 mAh battery plus Sony’s proprietary Ultra STAMINA mode designed to squeeze up to a week from a charge by shutting down non-core applications. The E4 is a 3G-only device, presumably because Sony wanted to keep costs down and the MediaTek processor does not support 4G LTE.
Now, Sony have announced the Xperia E4g, which is a similar device to the E4 but featuring a 4G LTE modem. Sony’s press release doesn’t go into the full specification detail other than cites that it has a 1.5 GHz quad-core processor rather than a 1.3 GHz processor and the same promise of two day battery life from the 2,300 mAh embedded battery. We are assuming that the E4g has the same camera set up, which is a 5MP unit on the back and a 2MP unit on the front. We’re also expecting the E4g to have 8 GB of internal storage as with the original E4. It will come with Sony’s Xperia skin and includes the Xperia Transfer software, which makes it easy to import data from customers’ old device including Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone devices.
To dissect the device with what we know, the original Sony E4 uses the MediaTek MT6582 processor, which does not include LTE support as standard. Given the higher clock speed and supposing that Sony are still using a MediaTek processor for the E4g, the quad-core MediaTek MT6732 is the most likely alternative processor as this includes LTE support and is clocked at up to 1.5 GHz. This is the same 64-bit processor that’s used in the HTC 820s and because of the improved architecture and higher clock speed, should perform noticeably better than the E4 and represents a substantial upgrade.
Otherwise, Sony have explained that the E4g will ship in April for €129 ($146), the same price as we’ve seen for the normal E4. It will be available in two colors, black and white. If you were thinking about picking up the Sony Xperia E4, would you now consider the E4g instead? Let us know in the comments below.