In the ’80s, padded shoulders and big hair came accompanied by the Sony Walkman, a cassette-guzzling goliath that glued to your belt like a silver bum bag.
Cassette players might be old news, but the Walkman name lives on in Sony smartphones. Flick on the player in Sony’s new budget phone to gorge on downloads, queue tracks, EQ sound and toggle headphone surround. As a music player, the Experia E3 is a perfect fit. As for the rest of the phone, Sony took design tips from its flagship sibling, Sony Experia E3. With rounded edges and a chunky corset, E3 delivers the goods on a 4.5” LCD display. A quad-core 1.2GHz processor, and 1GB of RAM, makes browsing a lag-free experience. The 5MP rear camera is a poor substitute, although it shoots 1080p videos, and the 0.3MP front-facing camera make selfies pixilated messes. Regardless, anyone seeking a decent mid-range phone should experience the E3.