Sony Xperia E3 review: 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.

Phonebook

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.

Dialer

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	Pink noise/ Music, dB	Ringing phone, dB	Overall score
HTC Desire 616 dual sim	61.5	58.5	72.6	Below Average
HTD Desire 816	66.6	65.7	66.6	Below Average
Sony Xperia E3	67.9	66.3	70.1	Average
Samsung Galaxy Core	71.1	64.7	72.7	Good
Nokia Lumia 630	68.0	65.3	75.8	Good
Sony Xperia E1	70.2	73.5	75.8	Very Good
Motorola Moto G 4G	77.1	76	83.3	Excellent
Motorola Moto G	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.

Messenger

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.

Gmail and Email

Text input

As 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.

Xperia keyboard

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.

Keyboard options