Sony Xperia E4 review: The odd successor

Great phonebook

The Sony Xperia E4 phonebook is integrated with the dialer using a tabbed interface - the Contacts, Phone, Favorites and Groups tabs can be side-swiped. The contact list has a dedicated search filed plus it offers a very nicely animated alphabetical scroll bar.

Phonebook

If you are using two SIM cards, every time you want to make a call you'll be asked to choose which SIM card to use.

Dialer

Linking contacts is available, the quick contact feature is here too.

Telephony

The Sony Xperia E4 was able to hold onto signal very well. Calls remained uninterrupted and the sound quality was okay. Voices came out loud enough. Clarity wasn't the best but it was okay nonetheless.

The dialer support smart dialing.

The noise cancelation system is also pulling its own weight ensuring pretty good background noise suppression, as reported by the other side.

Dialer

The loudspeaker on the Sony Xperia E4 however is rather disappointing. We ran it through our tests numerous times and it still scored only Below Average.

Sony has preloaded a number of features that modify how the speaker sounds. We tested them all, but except for the proprietary xLOUD, the rest made the speaker even quitter. There are three main sound options in the E4 that work across the whole system - xLOUD, Clear Phase and Clear Audio+.

From what we could make out, xLOUD, naturally makes the speaker louder, while Clear Phase improves audio quality, but significantly lowers volume. Clear Audio + seems to be a combination of the two and works pretty well, but still only goes so far.

Bear in mind that the position of the speaker, as already mentioned, makes it very easy to cover and muffle. This, combined with the below average loudness means that you should be cautious when leaving the phone on a flat surface, as you can easily miss a call.

Messaging and text input

Text messages and MMS use standard thread layout. Adding multimedia (photos, videos, sounds, etc.) will convert the message automatically into an MMS.

Messenger

Naturally, the Gmail client and the default Email apps are onboard. Gmail can sync only with (multiple) Google accounts, while the generic Email app can handle POP and IMAP and offers a Combined inbox.

Gmail and Email

Text input

As for text input, the Xperia E4 offers a customizable on-screen full QWERTY keyboard. You can choose a different layout (keypad, QWERTY, QWERTY with extra symbols), add/remove the coma and period button, the smiley and voice input buttons and also enable things like bilingual word suggestions if you have more than one language enabled. Different keyboard skins are available too.

Xperia keyboard

You can also try the so-called Gesture input if hitting those keys individually doesn't give you the desired typing speed. It's similar to what Swype offers, and even if you've never used a Swype-like input before, you'll quickly get used to it.

Single-hand size keyboard is available too, but only in portrait orientation. If enabled, it squeezes the onscreen keyboard to the left or right side of the screen so it gets more comfortable for single handed text input.