Sony Xperia E3 review: Blue collar
Blue collar
Xperia phonebook
The Sony Xperia E3 phonebook is integrated with the dialer using a tabbed interface - the Contacts, Phone, Favorites and Groups tabs can be side-swiped. The contact list has a dedicated search filed plus it offers and an alphabetical scroll bar.
You can sync with multiple accounts, including Exchange and Facebook, and you can selectively show or hide contacts from some accounts (as well as filter specific groups in an account), or set the phonebook to display only contacts with phone numbers or only contacts that are online.
Linking contacts is available, quick contact feature is here too.
Good telephony
The Sony Xperia E3 was able to hold onto signal very well. We tested it even in tight spots and the bars dropped to only 3. Calls remained uninterrupted and the sound quality was okay. Voices came out loud enough. Clarity wasn't the best but it was okay nonetheless.
The dialer support smart dialing.
The Sony Xperia E3's loudspeaker was only average. It scored average voice and pink noise tests and a good ringing phone test so it shouldn't be an issue to hear calls. But no boomboxing with this one.
Speakerphone test | Voice, dB | Ringing | Overall score | |
61.5 | 58.5 | 72.6 | Below Average | |
66.6 | 65.7 | 66.6 | Below Average | |
67.9 | 66.3 | 70.1 | Average | |
71.1 | 64.7 | 72.7 | Good | |
68.0 | 65.3 | 75.8 | Good | |
70.2 | 73.5 | 75.8 | Very Good | |
77.1 | 76 | 83.3 | Excellent | |
81.6 | 75.7 | 82.7 | Excellent |
Messaging and text input
Text messages and MMS use standard thread layout. Adding multimedia (photos, videos, sounds, etc.) will convert the message automatically into an MMS.
Naturally, the Gmail client and the default Email apps are onboard. Gmail can sync only with (multiple) Google accounts, while the generic Email app can handle POP and IMAP and offers a Combined inbox.
Text inputAs for text input, the Xperia E3 offers a customizable on-screen full QWERTY keyboard. You can choose a different layout (keypad, QWERTY, QWERTY with extra symbols), add/remove the coma and period button, the smiley and voice input buttons and also enable things like bilingual word suggestions if you have more than one language enabled. Different keyboard skins are available too.
You can also try the so-called Gesture input if hitting those keys individually doesn't give you the desired typing speed. It's similar to Swype, and even if you've never used a Swype-like input before, you'll quickly get used to it.
Single-hand size keyboard is available too, but only in portrait orientation. If enabled, it squeezes the onscreen keyboard to the left or right side of the screen so it gets more comfortable for single handed text input.
Reader comments
- Krose
- 06 Aug 2019
- HDT
When I first got this phone I was disappointed at the fact that storage is only 1.75 GB. 1 GB is already used up by built in apps so storage is absolutely terrible. The camera works but it can be awful at times. Short WiFi range, battery life sucks. ...
- Kamal
- 05 Apr 2017
- rA7
Good company is sony xperia
- mes
- 26 Oct 2016
- LDn
i tried 64gb cat10 and worked