Will the Sony Xperia E find LTE, keep budget price with new flavor next year?

Sony Xperia E was nothing to write home about, but had a price tag to match

Sony will release a successor to the Xperia E appropriately dubbed the Xperia E2 in 2014, according to the latest whispers.

Japanese site EMSOne has it that the Xperia E2 will feature LTE compatibility, unlike its predecessor, which launched in March 2013 with 3G only.

Rise of the budget phones

Even with a specs upgrade, the E2 will surely retain its budget price tag. Sony's got enough going on in the high end with the flagship Xperia Z (and possibly the Xperia Z2).

There's also hope that phones like the Xperia E2 will come with Android 4.4 KitKat, since the latest version of Android isn't dependent on powerful hardware.

Does that mean the age of budget phones is upon us? Maybe not for that reason, but it's true that budget phones are thriving alongside their high-end, flagship counterparts.

And one can hope that we'll start seeing the new Android version on budget and low-end devices like the Xperia E line out of the box as well as the high-end devices that usually get all the OS love.

Speaking of budget phones, Samsung showed off its first Tizen phone in November!

Via Unwired View

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Michael Rougeau is a former freelance news writer for TechRadar. Studying at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Northeastern University, Michael has bylines at Kotaku, 1UP, G4, Complex Magazine, Digital Trends, GamesRadar, GameSpot, IFC, Animal New York, @Gamer, Inside the Magic, Comic Book Resources, Zap2It, TabTimes, GameZone, Cheat Code Central, Gameshark, Gameranx, The Industry, Debonair Mag, Kombo, and others.

Micheal also spent time as the Games Editor for Playboy.com, and was the managing editor at GameSpot before becoming an Animal Care Manager for Wags and Walks.