14 DAY TRIAL // We kind of expected Sony to announce an affordable smartphone at its IFA 2014 press conference and it looks like our speculations proved to be accurate.
A few days before the launch event, there were rumors claiming Sony would introduce a certain Xperia E3 budget-friendly handset, along with its more advanced Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z3 Compact.
Even though the main stars of the press conference were Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z3 Compact, consumers looking for much cheaper devices will be happy to know that the Xperia E3 offers many important features at an affordable price.
According to Sony, the Xperia E3 “is the ultimate smartphone for your consumers, without the expensive price tag.” We were invited at Sony's press conference and had the chance to take a look at the smartphone, so here are some of our impressions.
First of all, the Xperia E3 is definitely not a good looking phone. It's not the ugliest on the market either, but the design and the plastic used at manufacturing do make it look a bit on the cheap side.
We agree that in order to keep costs low some compromises need to be made, but we had higher expectations from Sony.
However, if you can get past that, the Xperia E3 is a wonderful device, from the user experience point of view. It's quite snappy when browsing the menu and it won't have any issues running any app or game in Google Play Store thanks to the 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 1GB of RAM.
The issue would be the fact that Xperia E3 comes with only 4GB of storage, but only 1.2GB will be available for users. This means that you will definitely need to buy yourself a microSD memory card.
We've also noticed that the Xperia E3 runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat, not the latest version of the operating system, namely KitKat 4.4.4, but that's not such a bad thing at all. Another useful feature for those users who like to be more active would be the fact that it can be connected to a wristband.
Sony Xperia E3 sports a 4.5-inch TFT LCD display that supports 480 x 854 pixel resolution and features shatter proof glass for protection against scratches and accidental drops.
We have found that the 2330 mAh battery, which is non-removable, might be just enough for medium users considering the Xperia E3 does not have any hardware that could drain the battery very fast.
Well, there is the LTE support, which is the main selling point of the Xperia E3, but this will only work in areas with 4G network coverage and only if you want to enable it.
Another major selling point would be the phone's price, but Sony has yet to announce the details on the Xperia E3 suggested retail price. However, we do know that the phone will launch globally from autumn 2014 and that a dual-SIM variation will be available as well.
For more technical details see our Sony Xperia E3 specifications page.
