The entry-level and mid-range markets aren’t anything new to the world of Sony smartphones, but today Sony is stepping up their game by announcing the Xperia E3 to fill a critical role that hasn’t by previous devices; a premium build that feels like a high-end handset. Featuring a similar feel and build as the high-end Xperia Z3 that was just announced, the E3 even shows off the same design traits as the Z3 including the front-facing speakers and rounded corners of its bigger brother. That’s about where the comparisons stop though, as the internals are all mid-range to entry-level, and the price will reflect that as well.
The screen is a 4.5-inch 854 x 480 resolution panel, meaning this isn’t the most dense display you’ll ever see in your life but it’ll more than get the job done, and at 4.5-inches you won’t feel as cramped as you will on other entry-level phones out there. Under the hood you’ll find a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor, which will no doubt easily handle anything you throw at it simply because the resolution of the panel is much lower than others with beefier processors. You’ll also find 4G capability for fast network speeds, and a 2,330 mAh battery that’ll very likely get you through an entire day without issue.
On the camera side the back camera is a modest 5 megapixels, however it features many high-end settings like HDR and Timeshift burst mode, ensuring that even with a cheaper device you’re guaranteed to get some pretty decent pictures of your daily activities. At this point we don’t have pricing or dates of availability yet, but Sony will be announcing that soon as well as any markets and partners it’ll be working with over the course of the handset’s lifetime.
