Sony Xperia E5 review: Nice ’n easy

Performance

Sony uses the MediaTek MT6753 chipset as the platform of choice for the Xperia E5. The chip features a quad-core 1.3GHz Cortex-A53 processor, 1.5GB of RAM and dual-core Mali-T720MP2 GPU.

We chose to compare the Xperia E5 with similarly spec'd 5" 720p smartphones. Most of them rely on Snapdragon 616 and 410 chipsets - the later sports quad-core CPU and older GPU.

The first bencharmark is GeekBench, which is great at giving us a reliable reading of raw CPU performance. Here, the Xperia E5 sits above the Snapdragon 410 in the Galaxy J5 (2016).

GeekBench 3 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  3570
• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  3147
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  3038
• Oppo F1
  3014
• Xiaomi Redmi 3
  2842
• Huawei P8lite
  2813
• Sony Xperia E5
  1490
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  1437

The same happens in the compound AnTuTu 6, where the Xperia E5 is trumped by the Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus and Oppo F1, which have a Snapdragon 616 working inside their bellies.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  75051
• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  59850
• Sony Xperia XA
  47170
• Oppo F1
  35353
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  35291
• Sony Xperia E5
  32248
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  27487

Moving to graphics performance, the Xperia E5 managed to output measly 3fps on the 1080p offscreen version of GFX 3.0 Manhattan. On screen result doubled to 6fps, but that's still not as good as the Xperia XA for instance.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14
• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  13
• Sony Xperia XA
  7.2
• Xiaomi Redmi 3
  5.8
• Oppo F1
  5.8
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  5.5
• Sony Xperia E5
  3
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  1.8

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia XA
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14
• Xiaomi Redmi 3
  12
• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  12
• Oppo F1
  11
• Sony Xperia E5
  6
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  5.5
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  3.8

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  9.1
• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  8.1
• Sony Xperia XA
  4.8
• Sony Xperia E5
  1.9

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia XA
  11
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  9.1
• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  7.9
• Sony Xperia E5
  4.3

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 4s
  1545
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  1537
• Sony Xperia XA
  1013
• Oppo F1
  961
• Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus
  884
• Xiaomi Redmi 3
  804
• Huawei P8lite
  691
• Sony Xperia E5
  575

All in all, the MediaTek MT6735 chipset did a fine job pushing the 720p display of the Xperia E5 smoothly. The user interface felt snappy and there's hardly any lagging except for really heavy apps.

It's certainly not a benchmark champ but it outperforms competing phones with the Snapdragon 410. However, it's no match for mid-rangers with Snapdragon 615 or higher.