Optus Sony Xperia E1

[Linux User]

I got the Optus Sony Xperia E1 for $50 (AU) about 3 months ago after selling off some junk I had lying around. I've been wanting to write a review of a product for ages, so I took the opportunity to do that here. Prior to that, for 6 months I had been using Nokias and gave up on smartphones after my Moto G broke. Prior to that I had 2 Huawei Ascend G300, both of which broke, but not of my fault and warranty covered it. Prior to that, I had my dad's old Nexus S, and prior to that I was a huge Nokia fanboy and refused to get a smartphone. Just a bit of background of my history with phones.

Exterior

The phone is, in my opinion, the perfect size for a smartphone. Sure, it's got a 4 inch screen, but as far as I'm concerned, 4 inch is the perfect size for a smartphone. My hands are small, as I am 14 years old, so maybe my opinion will change in the coming years, but even my Moto G I found a bit too large to handle. The phone is made entirely of plastic, and while most other reviews say it is really cheap feeling, I disagree. I quite like the feeling of the phone in the hand. That being said, however, the "S" on the Sony logo in the back came off, so, yeah. On the top, there's a headphone jack, and a "Walkman" button that opens the Walkman app. I didn't like the Sony bullshit so I disabled it, more on that later. On the right edge, there is the volume buttons, and under that the power button. Placement is excellent in my opinion. However, while the tactile response was great when I first opened it, it is worn out now after just 3 months, so while it's there, its not nearly as satisfying. Either that or I've just gotten used to it. On the bottom, there's nothing except a tab to open the removable back. On the left side, there's a micro USB connector.

Display and speakers

This is a 4 inch 800x480 piece of garbage. Well, garbage compared to high end smartphones. In practice, it is actually pretty good considering the price. Vertical viewing angles are pretty bad, but when you're looking at it straight on, it's really not too shabby. The 800x480 resolution is above 200ppi, and is sharp enough. But again put it in perspective. I paid $50 for it. It also gets quite bright and dark, so it's never been too dim or too bright for me. The speakers get actually quite loud, and on the box, the music capabilities of the phone were advertised quite heavily. They are about as loud as my dad's Xperia Z1 at full volume, albeit more distorted. But for the price, I'm quite impressed.

Software and performance

It did come with some bloat, with Sony's skin included. I mentioned the Walkman button earlier. It comes with a Walkman music app that some find very useful, but I just disabled. The one good thing about the Sony skin, in my opinion is the wonderful File Commander application. Normally the first thing I do on a new phone is go and download B1 or some other file manager, but this File Commander is absolutely amazing, and I have no need whatsoever for a third party one. It is also worth mentioning that not only can the preinstalled optus be disabled, but it can be completely uninstalled. I installed Google Now launcher on the phone. It runs 4.4.2 KitKat, and really, is quite nice! It runs smoothly, and is completely, totally, utterly usable! I'm really impressed considering the dual core Snapdragon 200 and the mere half gig of RAM. I'm not going to lie, it does lag when you push it. But it is fine, and under the loads that I put it through, it i perfectly fine. The one gripe I have about it is that the full Facebook and Messenger apps lag considerably. But, I just installed Facebook Lite, and its fine. I often LAN Minecraft with no problems, I play Geometry Dash, Dr. Driving, Ski Safari, Zombie Highway, all totally playable. Geometry Dash hiccups sometimes, but its more than fine otherwise. It scored 13880 in AnTuTu, but then again, that's a synthetic benchmark.

Camera

I am a simple person. My needs for a camera are to occasionally take a photo of a friend doing something amusing, or take a photo of the homework I have to do that night (written on a whiteboard). It is 3.2 megapixels, and noticeably worse than anything else I've used, but I don't really care. This is really not my area of expertise, so I'm not going to link a photo from the camera. You can look at another review for that. It is also worth pointing out there's no front camera, but I'm not into this whole "selfie" thing

Other notes

- The battery on this is only 1700 milliamp hours, but don't let that fool you, my friends. The battery life on this is absolutely tank. I easily get two days out of it, and I can get by on one charge for three days if I use it lightly.

- It has a micro SD slot to complement its 4GB internal storage. That might be an issue for you, but I've used about 2 GB of that, and about 500MB on my 2GB micro SD card. The great thing about this is that even though they removed it in KitKat, Sony has retained the ability to move apps to the SD card so, thats cool of them.

- Call quality is a strong point, and the sound is crystal clear, at least on my end.

- The build quality is pretty good, and it has taken its fair share of drops.

Conclusion

This is a good, well built, no-frills budget phone. I really like it, and recommend it to anyone in the market for a really cheap phone. All things considered, it's nothing spectacular or exceptional. It is, however, a good phone for the price, and I applaud it for that.

The good:

-Price

-Price:performance

-Speakers

-Build quality

-Battery life

The bad:

Nothing, really

The mediocre:

Pretty much everything else, screen, buttons, software, etc.

Guys, remember this is my first review of anything ever, so please, go light on me.

[Linux User]

I'm a legendary reviewer.