Sony has launched the successor to the Xperia E1 in India, the Xperia E3, along with its dual-SIM variant, the Xperia E3 Dual.

The company revealed that the Sony Xperia E3 and Sony Xperia E3 Dual smartphones will be available across the country starting Monday, priced at Rs. 11,990 and Rs. 12,990 respectively.

Both the phones were unveiled at IFA in Berlin earlier this month and were expected to be launched globally in autumn. India appears to be one of the first markets to receive Sony's new budget smartphones.

The newly launched Xperia E3 and Xperia E3 Dual will be up against some stiff competition, such as the second-generation Moto G (Review | Pictures) which is also available at the same price as the dual-SIM variant of the Xperia E3. Some of the other strong competitors to the new Xperia budget smartphones in the sub-Rs. 15,000 category include the Asus ZenFone 5 and Xiaomi's Mi 3 (currently discontinued in India).

(In Comparison: Sony Xperia E3 Dual vs. Moto G (Gen 2))

The Sony Xperia E3 and Xperia E3 Dual feature identical specifications, except that the latter sports dual-SIM card slots. The smartphones bear a 4.5-inch IPS display with an FWVGA (480x854 pixels) resolution.

The Android 4.4 KitKat-based handsets also house a 5-megapixel rear camera along with a bunch of Sony's own photo and video editing apps, including features like HDR and Timeshift burst. It also has a front-facing VGA camera.

A quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor clocked at 1.2GHz powers the handset, coupled with 1GB of RAM and Adreno 305 GPU. It comes with 4GB of built-in storage, expandable via microSD card (up to 32GB).

One of the new features introduced in the Xperia E3 is the 'shake to start' app that lets users customise shortcuts to access the preferred apps by holding the handset and flicking the wrist.

Connectivity options on the Xperia E3 include 4G LTE (in some markets), 3G, GPRS/ EDGE, Wi-Fi, A-GPS with Glonass, USB 2.0, FM radio with RDS, Bluetooth 4.0, and a 3.5mm jack.

The smartphone weighs 143.8 grams, and measures 137.1x69.4x8.5mm. Both the handsets offer 2330mAh battery, which is rated to deliver up to 12 hours 20 minutes of talk time, and up to 706 hours of standby time.