Sony Xperia E5 A second-class Sony phone

It’s getting hard to keep up with Sony’s expanding range of phones, but this is their latest budget model, and it’s rather attractive – albeit very similar to last year’s Xperia Z5 Compact (see our review, Issue 462). This time it’s matt plastic instead of metal but the minimalist shape looks classier than most devices in this price bracket.

The 1280x720-pixel 5in screen isn’t very sharp by today’s standards, but at this size it’s adequate, and with plenty of brightness and contrast the display looks fine. Less than 84 per cent of the SRGB colour range is covered, though, and on closer inspection images were a little dull. Picture quality is also a weakness of the rear camera, which we found produced a lot of noise even in bright conditions. Shadows came out very dark, which at least hid the worst of the graininess, but didn’t make for great photos.

One plus point, however, was how responsive the E5 felt. The modest Mediatek processor is the same as that used in Wileyfox’s Spark X (see above), but Sony’s stripped-down version of Android 6 got more speed out of it. In fact it almost matched the performance of the Moto G4 (see the ‘alternative’ above), except in graphics tasks, where it still couldn’t cope with 3D games.

With a little software tweaking, Sony reckons the E5’s battery can last up to two days. That might be true in certain conditions, but our usual videoplayback test ran it down in just eight hours 41 minutes, which is rubbish.

VERDICT: For under £150, the E5 is a very attractive phone, but again it’s just not quite up there with the very best ALTERNATIVE: Samsung Galaxy J5 £153 Performance and photos are no better, but the J5 has a brilliant screen and 18-hour battery life