Sony brings Android Jelly Bean to the masses with the Xperia E

Sony has announced the Xperia E, a low-cost Android phones with a specification that's good enough for it to run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, a rarity on budget phones.

Sony has announced a new, budget Android phone called the Xperia E, and just in case anybody is confused over its position in the market, it has labelled it as the “no-nonsense Android smartphone.” That’s that cleared up, then. Keeping that in mind, don’t be expecting any mind-blowing spec details, but it does have one ace card to play.

The phone has a 3.5-inch touchscreen with a 320 x 480 pixel resolution, driven by a single-core, 1GHz Snapdragon MSM7227A processor, also known as the Snapdragon S1 which has been used in many modern Android phones such as the HTC Desire V and the LG Optimus L7. It’s backed up by a healthy 512MB of RAM, while on the rear of the phone is a 3.2-megapixel autofocus camera which can also shoot basic, VGA-quality video.

Thanks to the processor and RAM specs, the Xperia E comes with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean already installed, a big bonus on a device of this level, as lowly specs tend to mean older operating systems. The Xperia E will be joined by a dual-SIM version too, but this will have Android 4.0 as standard, with a 4.1 update coming in the future.

The Xperia E is a curvy, lightweight device at 115 grams and measures only 11mm thick, but it does hide a 1530mAh battery which works in conjunction with some clever power management tools to gain as much standby time as possible. Sony quotes a talktime of 6.3 hours and standby of 530 hours. There is also a data usage app which monitors other apps to help minimize your bill.

Sony has equipped the phone with its Walkman music player, xLoud enhancements and Music Unlimited access. Other features include HD Voice, DLNA connectivity and a microSD card slot to expand the 4GB of internal storage memory. The Xperia E will be available in black, white and pink, and is expected to go on sale during the first three months of 2013, although no price details or list of countries which can expect the Xperia E have been provided.