Sony Xperia T3 review: Wits and looks

Introduction

Sony's Xperia T lineup has been growing out of 007's tux and the third generation is putting on a t-shirt. OK, an oversized t-shirt, although the T3 has lost some weight, and screen real-estate, compared to the T2. Gone is the Ultra moniker and the massive 6" display - the Xperia T3 is closer to smartphones than phablets.

Sony Xperia T3 official pictures

It is indeed that simple, the Sony Xperia T3 is a more compact version of the Xperia T2 Ultra phablet, one that you can slip in your pocket. The screen is still a high-quality IPS unit of 720p resolution and Sony once again goes for the Snapdragon 400.

Sony Xperia T3 official pictures

The Xperia T3 is running KitKat out of the box which is good, but other specs are taken a notch down. The camera, to begin with, is now an 8MP unit, down from 13MP in the T2 Ultra. On the upside, the proper shutter key is there.

With a 2,500mAh battery, the Xperia T3 will probably struggle to match the impressive times of the T2 Ultra, but we'd be happy if it gets close enough. Here is the complete list.

Key features

• Impressively thin at 7mm
• 5.3" 720p IPS capacitive touchscreen Triluminos display (277ppi), X-Reality engine, ambient light sensor
• LTE connectivity
• Android 4.4.2 KitKat
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset with quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A7 processor, Adreno 305 GPU and 1GB of RAM
• 8MP camera, single LED flash, 1080p video recording, dedicated hardware shutter key
• 1.1MP front-facing camera with 720p video recording
• 8GB of built-in storage, expandable via the microSD card slot
• Active noise cancellation with a secondary microphone
• 2,500 mAh battery; STAMINA Power Saving Mode

Main disadvantages

• Non user-replaceable battery
• No water or dust proofing

The Sony Xperia T3 seems reasonably equipped for the midrange and does well to offer LTE connectivity on top of good looks and solid build. It's also one of the thinnest Sony smartphones around with only the Z Ultra having a thinner profile.

The sealed battery should hardly be a surprise, we guess it's part of the price you are paying for the Omni Balance design. That said, we have perhaps seen too much of it already, though it isn't something to hold against a device of the Xperia T3's price bracket and level of equipment.

Sony Xperia T3 at ours

Anyway, the Xperia T3 sure looks like a familiar package but, if we're lucky, not a pedestrian effort. As usual, we are kicking off with our traditional exterior checkup.