Key difference: The Sony Xperia E and E-Dual are two entry-level phones from Sony Mobile. The phone comes with a 3.5 TFT capacitive that has a ~165 ppi pixel density. It comes with a 1 GHz Cortex-A5 Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, an Adreno 200 GPU and 512 MB RAM. Samsung Galaxy S Duos is a dual-SIM phone that was launched in September 2012. The phone comes with a 4-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen, with approximately 233 ppi density. The device comes with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI on Android 4.0.4 ICS.

Sony is a popular smartphone company and has been launching popular phones under the Xperia Brand. Since, its separation with Ericsson, the company has introduced multiple phones in different ranges to cater to all types of demands. The widespread demand of smartphones has required many companies to start manufacturing low-end phones for the masses. The new 2013 line-up of Sony phones include the Sony Xperia E and E-Dual phones. These phones are identical to each other and only differ in some features.

The Sony Xperia E and E-Dual are two entry-level phones from Sony Mobile. These are the few of the cheapest models available on the market that have pretty decent features for a low-end phone. The phone has similar design themes to the older Sony phones with a slight inward curve and has shaved a lot of back bulk. The phone is slim and straight and is easy to operate using one hand. The company has also ditched the cheap, plastic back and replaced with it a rubber matte finish. This makes the back prone to fingerprint smudges, while the front screen is completely prone to fingerprints and dust smudges.

The front of the phone has a 3.5-inch display screen with three capacitive (Home, Menu and Back) buttons on the bottom. Above the screen is the earpiece, a hidden status LED and the proximity sensor. On the top end of the device, there is just a 3.5mm headphone jack, while the left side has a microUSB port. The bottom of the screen has a small LED light, while the right side of the device holds the volume rocker, power button and the dedicated camera key. The back of the devices holds the camera on the top and the loud speaker grille on the bottom.

The phone comes with a 3.5 TFT capacitive that has a ~165 ppi pixel density. In terms of technology these days, the resolution and the density is pretty weak, but as this is a entry-level the resolution is decent for the price. However, do not expect high definition resolution. The phone has pretty low contrast and poor viewing angles. The screen is made using scratch-resistant glass proving some sort of protection from scratches. The phone comes with the traditional Sony Timescape UI, which means it comes with certain built-in Timescape applications that are not removable.

In terms of speed and power, the phone is good for an entry-level model. It comes with a 1 GHz Cortex-A5 Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, an Adreno 200 GPU and 512 MB RAM. The phone supports 2G and 3G but not 4G. The Xperia E comes with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of the box, which is a good set-up. The Xperia E-Dual comes with Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwihch but can be upgraded to Jelly Bean. The Jelly Bean comes with all of the special features of Google, including Google Now. There are few modifications to the Android software. Upon unlocking the screen, the home screen has five screens, which are customizable. The differences between the ICS and Jelly Bean can be read in the article, The Difference between Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean on the website.

The major difference between the E and the E-Dual is that E-Dual supports dual SIM technology, while the E only supports single SIM. Both the phones come with a 3.15 MP back camera with a few features such as 4x digital zoom, Geotagging, Self-timer, Send to web and Touch capture. The camera does not have a great picture taking capability and has low resolution, but is okay for an entry-level phone. The phones also do not have a secondary camera, which means no video conferencing. However, it does have VGA video recording capability. The phone comes with 4 GB internal memory, of which 2 GB is available to the user and the memory is expandable up to 32 GB via microUSB card.

The phones come with a removable Li-Ion 1530 mAh battery that provides an okay battery capacity for an entry-level phone. The phone is considered as a no-nonsense android phone. The phone is a good entry-level phone and offers good features for its price. However, the person would have to sacrifice on secondary camera, photo resolution and a few features. The phone also offers certain neat features such as Overview mode (allows zooming out to see all open applications), Face Unlock, Wi-Fi tethering, Google Apps and Hand writing recognition.

Samsung announced the Galaxy S Duos as an option aimed for people that require double SIM capability, eliminating the need for carrying two separate phones. The phone was launched in September 2012.

At first glance, the Samsung Galaxy S Duos bears heavy resemblance to the company’s flagship phone, the Samsung Galaxy S3. However, looking past the basic form of the phone and picking it up; the user can realize the reason for such a small price tag. The phone is a cheaper version of its big brother, with a lesser quality plastic and some downgraded features. However, let’s not label it as of yet, as it does come with some good specs. The 4-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen, with approximately 233 ppi density, is pretty decent with good contrast and colors but it is too reflective under sunlight, making it a bit difficult to use outdoors without squinting or trying to cover the screen.

The phone itself is easy to hold and handle, making it sleek and small enough to slip into jeans pockets or a small purse when on the go. The 120 grams of weight also ensures that the phone does put that much pressure on the hands when holding the device for longer periods of time. The top of the device houses only the 3.55 mm jack, while the bottom only has the USB/charging port. The right side of the device holds the power button on the top right hand and the microSD card slot. The left side of the device only holds the volume rocker, a bit hard to reach, if a person is used to having it on the right. On the front, the device has the home button that is surrounded by capacitive more options and a back button.

The device comes with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI on Android 4.0.4 ICS. Again, the UI is a toned down version of the one found on the S3. The device lacks the ripples effect and the water-drop sound and has four customizable shortcut buttons on the bottom of the lockscreen that can directly take you to apps such as missed phone calls when unlocking the device. The device allows users to add/remove apps from the homescreen as well as add/remove panels similar to other versions of Android.

The device is powered by a 1 GHz Cortex-A5, with about 786 MB of RAM. The RAM is a slight upgrade to the 512 MB available on other phones, but it still isn’t that great when trying to run dual-SIM, resulting in some lagging during operation. The dual-SIM capability and standby allows both SIMs to be operational at the same time. The device comes with a 5 MP rear camera for taking photos and recording videos. The rear camera is pretty decent in terms of taking photos. The images have pleasing colors and a good dynamic range, but the photos are a bit grainy. The phone also comes with features such as smile detection, geo-tagging, Share shot, effects and panorama mode. The S Duos also houses a VGA (0.3 MP) front camera that is as okay, nothing much to talk about. The phone can also capture videos in VGA resolution at 30fps.

The S Duos comes with a decent removable LI-Ion 1500 mAh battery, that according to the company provides a talk time of 770 minutes in 2G and 520 minutes in 3G, along with a standby time of 570 hours in 2G and 470 hours in 3G. The phone does not come with the same amount of features as available in Galaxy S3, but with the price tag of this device, it is still something. The main reason for purchasing the phone would still be the dual-SIM capability, while in other countries where dual-SIM options are more common, the phone may not fare as well.

The information for the detailed table about the two phones has been taken from Sony Mobile website, Samsung website and GSMArena.com. Unless specified, the information is the same for both phones.

Image Courtesy: sonymobile.com, samsung.com