Amstrad introduced the E3 in September 2004 as the third generation of its E-m@iler family. For £99 it combined a telephone, email, limited web browsing, a digital camera and video calls through a 56 Kbps modem, at a time when broadband was still not widespread in every British home. Amstrad conceived it as a simple home terminal capable of bringing Internet services to users without a computer.
For a video game collection it is especially interesting because it could also download classic ZX Spectrum games and, unlike earlier E-m@ilers, was sold with a dedicated game controller. Downloaded titles were stored in its 64 MB of memory, creating an unexpected link between this 2004 communications terminal and the Sinclair catalogue, whose rights Amstrad had acquired years earlier.