Sony Xperia E3 Review: 4G, Great Specs and Cheap Price Tag!
The Xperia E3 was Sony’s surprise offering for 2014, joining the ranks of Sony’s budget smartphone range which includes the Xperia E and E1. But with the same top quality design and Sony features built into the smartphone as the latest Xperia Z3, the E3 is the perfect wallet friendly flagship alternative. So what exactly makes the E3 such a great budget smartphone? Our Sony Xperia E3 review tells all…
Flagship Design, budget phone
As with most Sony smartphones hitting the shelves, the Xperia E3 sports the same smooth metallic-look design, making the handset look more like a top of the range, budget busting purchase than the steal that it is.
Available in four colours including a lemon yellow, a soft copper and your typical black or white, the E3 doesn’t look that far off the new Xperia Z3, especially as it boasts the same nylon corners and scratch resistant screen which avoid those inevitable bumps and scratches. Unfortunately there’s no waterproof coating on the E1 compared to its flagship brother though, so you’ll have to avoid having a clumsy episode too close to water!
In contrast to its predecessor, the Xperia E1, the E3 has a much larger display, measuring in at 4.5-inches compared to the E1’s 4-inch screen. This means that all of your images, movies and games are brought to life like never before on a budget smartphone, enhanced even further by Sony’s impressive display quality.
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Sony Xperia E3 Specs
Budget smartphones often fall short when it comes to their specs, but the Xperia E3 proves that it’s got brawns as well as beauty. Under the hood the smartphone offers a quad-core 1.2GHz processor which has shot up dramatically from the E1’s dual-core processor.
Sony has doubled the RAM offered by the E3 too, meaning that this handset is fast enough to handle anything you throw at it. And that’s a good job because with Android KitKat and 4G connectivity built into the device, you’ve got access to thousands of apps that you’ll be wanting to download, and at lightning speed too!
If you’re worried about running out of room when it comes to storing all of your selfies, apps and Whatsapp messages you can breathe a sigh of relief; with 4GB of internal storage on board, plus an SD card slot which extends to 32GB, you’ll have so much room you won’t know what to do with it!
You may like: Want to see how the E3 really compares to its predecessor? Check out the Xperia E3 vs E1 comparison!
5MP Camera
Now Sony wouldn’t bring us a smart-looking phone with impressive specs only to leave an amazing camera off the list. Featuring a 5 megapixel rear facing lens with built-in auto scene and HDR technology, the Xperia E3 beats most of its closest rivals hands down.
The auto scene recognition means that the camera can detect up to 36 scenes, adjusting the settings to bring you the perfect shot, wherever you are. Other cool camera features on the Xperia E3 include AR Effect, a mode that lets you capture animations- hats, moving dinosaurs or birds- and AR Fun, a new app which lets you get creative layering doodles, stickers and fun effects over your shots. On top of that the Sony smartphone brings you Timeshift Burst, Social Live and Panorama mode, as well as access to all of your photo editing apps from the Google Play Store, such as Snapchat and Instagram.
Key Sony Features
Quick Launch app
Sony has really gone to town with the Xperia E3, and the new Quick Launch app is an example of that. With just a flick of the wrist, you can open up any app you want; just save it as your favourite and give your phone a shake to put the feature to work!
One Touch Connection
The Sony Xperia E3 is the perfect smartphone to finish off a line up of Sony devices, whether you already own a Sony TV, laptop or smartwatch. With NFC (Near Field Connection) built into the phone, you simply have to give your phone a tap and watch as the devices connect to one another wirelessly!
Longer Battery Life
The guys and Sony know that if anything is important to its users, it’s battery life. That’s why the Xperia E3 boasts not one, but three battery-saving modes all desperate to ensure that you never run out of juice. The basic STAMINA mode conserves as much battery as possible without making you compromise on functionality, whereas the extended standby mode goes one step further, switching off any of your background artwork and open apps when your phone’s not being used. Lastly there’s the extended usage mode, which gives you those extra few minutes needed to send those texts or make that call when your juice levels are dwindling.
Sony Xperia E3 4G
And as if all of that wasn’t enough for you, Sony has even made the Xperia E3 4G compatible, making this handsets one of the cheapest 4G phones around!
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