Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual E5533 is a “selfie giant” without boundaries. Self-admiration without limits. Review of Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual Convenient body size and huge display

The main feature of the Xperia C5 Ultra is the 13 megapixel front camera, complemented by its own flash.

One of the best cameras

In addition to the technical side of the issue, the corresponding software was also added to the front camera, so with the PROselfie mode you will be the coolest selfie who can take pictures of himself anytime, anywhere, with flash, HDR and other bonuses. This might be Sony's answer to the HTC Desire EYE. It would not be logical to make such a front camera and not make a good main one. Therefore, it is also 13 MP and also excellent - it’s not for nothing that other manufacturers use Sony sensors in their best models. Don’t forget about the camera interface of the Japanese company, which is rich in modes.

Thin bezels around the screen

Externally, the Xperia C5 Ultra tried to make it as small as possible, minimizing the frames around the screen. And they did it very well - the smartphone shows one of the best ratios of usable screen area to body. The display here is huge - with a diagonal of 6 inches and a resolution of 1920x1080. There are many proprietary technologies to improve image quality - chips have been added to the standard IPS matrix that are used in Sony Bravia TVs.

Stylish design

In general, the design of the phablet is quite recognizable for Sony smartphones. One can criticize the heavy weight of the device - 187 g. However, there are people who like phones whose weight can be felt in the hand. The case here is not collapsible, and accordingly the battery cannot be changed. The battery capacity - 2930 mAh - should be enough for a full day of work, especially considering the effectively working Stamina energy saving program.

Productive “filling”

The gadget is controlled by an 8-core MediaTek MT6752 processor with 2 GB of RAM. The potential of this “filling” is enough, for example, to run demanding games, and if you switch for a minute to answer a message, then when you return, you will find the game in the same place where you left off.

Why are smartphones made only with a powerful main camera, while a 5-megapixel front camera is considered the ideal choice? After all, just look at the photos on Instagram: if there are not cats and food, then there is definitely a selfie! So it’s not for nothing that the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual has a 13-megapixel front camera. But the smartphone is interesting not only for this, let's look at it in more detail.

The Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual clearly shows the standard Sony design, layout of keys and connectors. There is a round power button on the right, below it is a volume rocker. But at the very bottom of the right side there is a physical camera button. So even in the cold, wearing gloves, you can start it with one touch. In tablet orientation, this button lies just under your finger, like in a camera.


On the left side there is a flap, under which slots for microSD and two nanoSIM are hidden. The most convenient moment is that no paper clips are needed, the SIM card tray is spring-loaded and can be pulled out after a light press.







The main complaint about the design is the plastic back. Not that I'm a snob - but this glossy plastic looks downright cheap. If a matte soft-touch had been used, the smartphone would have benefited.





The screen of the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual is very large, and the frames around the edges are quite thin. Thanks to this, it seems that it occupies almost the entire front panel. Above and below it are functional panels with speakers - conversational and multimedia (yes, no stereo) and add-ons in the form of a camera and sensors. You might even get the impression that this is a flagship, but the plastic back gives it away.

Display

There is not a single complaint about the display; Sony used a six-inch IPS matrix with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. This is a unique feature of a smartphone, so they did a great job on it.

I really liked that the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual has such thin frames. With an immodest 6 inches of display diagonal, it easily fit in my miniature female palm. And after it, a native smartphone with a 5-inch screen seems like a toy copy. So keep this in mind - with prolonged use, a large display with a clear picture is addictive and wildly addictive if you suddenly decide to switch to a smaller model.





A separate story here with image transmission. We are dealing with a Full HD matrix, but even with this gigantic diagonal, the picture is transmitted clearly and in detail. The viewing angles here are good and the colors are not distorted when you rotate the display, even the blacks remain deep and do not fade. In terms of the full color gamut of the sRGB space, a slightly too high gamut and a slightly cooler than necessary color temperature, the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual display gets an A-minus. Almost perfect. So much so that I couldn’t find any reason to complain about it without measuring it with a colorimeter.

Camera

I liked the main camera of the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual for its quality, but not for its software. The 13-megapixel sensor does an excellent job of taking photos outdoors and indoors in good lighting. But the intelligent auto mode suffers from significantly overestimating the ISO, so at night you will get extremely noisy photos, or you will have to switch to manual settings. And there, it turns out, only ISO, white balance and exposure change. You know, with such a camera, I would not refuse both setting the shutter speed and manual focusing.

By tradition, there are cool proprietary Sony modes - augmented reality, panoramas and others. So you can play with the camera no worse than with a toy. But what I didn’t understand was the second-person overlay function. Firstly, this is done very clumsily, and secondly, it turns out to be an absolute nightmare, evoking memories of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.






Once you have already made a good camera, then make software that will allow you to use it to the maximum - nothing else is required - the love of mobile photographers is in your pocket. And only a few will appreciate such specific features as in the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual.

The front camera of the smartphone is also 13 megapixel, with autofocus, and it shows good detail. It’s better not to use the built-in “beautifier” of the face, the photos become worse in quality, and the algorithms for processing them themselves are quite strange.

Frontal flashes are my personal brand of torture. Maybe it’s my eyes that are too light-sensitive, but every time I tried to illuminate myself with this flash, I ended up with either half-closed or completely closed eyes. And then I spent a few more minutes catching colorful bunnies around, because the LED here is quite strong. So you should experiment carefully with the front flash.

Performance

With such a power-hungry display, they decided to save charge using the Mediatek MT6752 processor, which balances between energy savings and high performance of eight Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.7 GHz. The Mali-T760 MP2 video accelerator copes surprisingly well with games, even if they require detailed graphics in dynamic scenes.

The smartphone passed the synthetic tests with dignity. It was very nice to see numbers comparable to the LG G4. The truth is that I was a little disappointed that the smartphone was heating up. Perhaps this is due to the engineering sample that was tested. Perhaps this is a firmware bug that will be fixed in the next update. But during testing, the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual got very hot when using the camera and playing games.


With daily use, the smartphone behaves well: it handles my endless schedulers, social networks, mobile banking and EasyWay. Two gigabytes of RAM is enough to switch between multiple tasks without unloading them. But if the first 10-15 minutes of the game go great, then the smartphone becomes frankly hot and the pleasure from the game becomes less.

The internal memory of the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual is only 16 GB, but microSD memory cards up to 128 GB are supported, so space should not be a problem.

Interface

Out of the box, the smartphone comes with Android Lollipop 5.0 and Sony shell. And this is a bunch of proprietary applications of the Smart Connect and Xperia Care plan, as well as a set of Xperia wireless connections. At the moment, there is already an update to Android 5.1 over the air, but the test smartphone did not see it.

Working with two SIM cards

Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual, as the name implies, received two slots for nano SIM cards and a full package of functions for working with two SIM cards. You can even set up call forwarding from the first to the second SIM card.

Battery

Due to the fact that the screen is very bright, the battery is consumed offensively quickly, although it is quite capacious - 2930 mAh. With the brightness set to 60%—and this is a comfortable value for working with the display outdoors and in a lit office—the smartphone lost about 40% of its charge per hour of intensive use. In games, the charge goes even faster - literally 15 minutes NOVA 3 - and goodbye to 10% of the battery.


The selfie flagship Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual was equipped, taking into account the growing passion of selfie users, with an unlimited screen, a powerful front camera with flash and other “wow” parameters. Comparing the Sony Xperia C5 with the previous flagship, we notice that the developers have changed many important characteristics.

Packaging and accessories of the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual smartphone

The new mid-range “gigantophone” Sony Xperia C5, like the company’s top models, is packaged in a discreet white box. On its back side the technical features of the device and the color range of the cases are briefly listed.

The charger is not very powerful, but can work from a 220V outlet. The stereo headset is the simplest, which is understandable given this price range.

Technical specifications Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual


Let's take a closer look at the characteristics of the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual smartphone:
  • Model: E5533;
  • OS: Android 5.0 (Lollipop) with Xperia proprietary shell;
  • Processor: 64-bit MediaTek MT6752, ARMv8 architecture, 8 cores ARM Cortex-A53 1.7 GHz;
  • Graphics subsystem: ARM Mali-T760 MP2 (700 MHz);
  • RAM: 2 GB (LPDDR3, single-channel, 800 MHz);
  • Storage memory: 16 GB (11 GB available), microSDXC memory card slot (up to 200 GB);
  • Screen: 6 inches, IPS, Full HD (1920x1080 pixels), 367 ppi, Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2, up to 10 simultaneous touches;
  • Cameras: main - 13 MP Exmor RS, EGF 25 mm, viewing angle 80 degrees, autofocus, 4x zoom, flash; front - 13 MP Exmor RS, autofocus, EGF 22 mm, viewing angle 88 degrees, Selfie Flash; video stabilization SteadyShot, Full HD 1080p@30fps;
  • Network: GSM/GPRS/EDGE, UMTS HSPA+, LTE Cat.4 (150 Mbit/s);
  • Number of SIM cards: 2;
  • SIM card type: nanoSIM (4FF);
  • Interfaces: Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 GHz + 5 GHz), NFC, Miracast, USB-OTG, DLNA;
  • Navigation: GPS/GLONASS, A-GPS;
  • Radio: FM tuner with RDS;
  • Sensors: accelerometer, light and proximity sensors, compass (Hall sensor);
  • Battery: non-removable, lithium-ion, 2,930 mAh;
  • Dimensions: 164.2x79.6x8.2 mm;
  • Weight: 187 grams.

Design and ergonomics of Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual


The word "Ultra" in the phone's name indicates the presence of a large screen. The first thing that will attract the eye of an interested buyer is not the usual, completely “non-top” filling, but the appearance and design of the smartpad. The impressive 6-inch screen, framed in a thin, almost invisible frame, attracts attention. This display size is large even for a phablet, but thanks to the thin frame it looks elegant.

The developers of the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual smartphone have created an innovative, fresh design - a frameless device that is one continuous screen. This ergonomics compares favorably with Sony's slightly boring design concept - OmniBalance. Phones without edges are new in Russia, so Sony is a pioneer in this area.

Another distinctive feature of the Sony Xperia C5 is the materials used to make the case. The screen is covered with protective glass, the sides (only 0.8 mm) are made of aluminum, and the back panel is glossy plastic. The gloss is not very practical; it retains traces of all touches on the surface, but Sony designers are guided by the preferences of the Asian market. Case color palette: black, white, light green (mint).

The corners of the border frame are made of plastic to absorb shock when dropped. They are small, but will protect the screen from scratches on the surface when placed with the screen facing down. The case is non-separable, requires delicate handling, there is no dust or moisture protection.

The most important detail that brings the Sony Xperia C5 into the category of “Android selfie smartphones” is the front 13-megapixel camera with flash and wide shooting angle. Taking pictures of your loved one with her is a sheer pleasure. It is located above the screen. There is also a Sony logo, LED charging/notification indicator, a set of sensors, and an audio speaker grille.

The arrangement of all buttons and connectors is classic, typical of all Sony models. Symmetrically to the “conversational” speaker, there is a slot for a multimedia speaker below the display. Both speakers without any stereo effect are an unpleasant detail. Just above there are 3 on-screen control buttons: “Return”, “Home”, “Recent applications”.

At the bottom end of the case there is a MicroUSB connector, at the top there is a 3.5 mm AUX output for connecting a headset.

On the right side there is a Sony-branded chrome button in the form of a rivet for turning on/locking and a rocker for the volume control. Below is a separate dual-range camera shutter button. It is located very conveniently for pressing with a finger even with a glove.

On the left side of the smartphone there is a microSD connector covered with a flap and slots for installing two nanoSIM cards. The ability to install a pair of SIM cards in one tray for subscriber identification is supported in the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual E5533 model, as indicated by the word “Dual”. An “OFF” button is hidden under the plug to force the device to shut down. The tray is very easy to remove - light pressure activates the spring release.

The main functional elements are concentrated on the back wall of the smartphone. At the top is the main camera eye, highlighted by a chrome ring, below it is a photo flash, another microphone for recording sounds and noise reduction, and even lower is an NFC antenna. The central part of the rear surface is decorated with the Sony logo, with “Xperia” marked at the very bottom.

The entire design of the Sony Xperia C5 is monolithic, without backlash or gaps, the battery is non-removable. Externally, the phone looks very elegant, except for fingerprints on the black gloss. On a white and mint background, hand marks are almost invisible, and the phone looks neater. The reduced width of the device allows for a comfortable palm grip. In the settings you can change the size of the Desktop on the display screen.

Display of the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual smartphone


The gorgeous six-inch IPS display of the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual does not raise any complaints. Screen resolution is Full HD (1920 x 1080 pi), increasing its diagonal led to a decrease in pixel density. The brand of glass is not specified by the manufacturer, but there is an oleophobic coating that can repel dirt, fingerprints, and protect the glass from scratches.

The image on the screen is bright and rich, thanks to Mobile Bravia Engine 2 technology, which increases contrast and gradation of dark colors. The intensity of the display can be adjusted manually or using Adaptive Adjustment, which receives information from the light sensor. Maximum display backlight makes using the smartphone comfortable even on a sunny day.

Intelligent backlight control helps reduce battery consumption. The screen begins to glow brighter if you take the smartphone in your hand. Controlling the time interval between transitions from operating mode to sleep mode, color rendering temperature - all these settings can be changed at the request of the owner.

The touch, capacitive screen is very sensitive, recognizes up to 10 touches. With the activation of the “Glove Mode” option, the smartphone is controlled with “clothed” hands, which is very important in winter.

When viewing videos and high-quality photos, the “X-Reality for mobile” function allows you to improve the picture quality. The glow power of the screen increases by switching to maximum brightness mode. The display's color palette is a little cold, slightly blue, but the White Balance adjustments will change it for those who like warm tones.

Main and front camera Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual


The main feature of the Sony Xperia C5 “selfie” is the presence of 2 almost equivalent cameras. The front and main wide-angle cameras with a resolution of 13 MP have many customizable functions, autofocus and differ only in the viewing angle - 22 mm (88 degrees) and 25 mm (80 degrees), respectively. The viewing angle of the front camera is larger than that of the main one, allowing you to capture a group of people in one frame.

Selfie lovers and experimenters will find in the pre-installed software menu many scenarios and options for changing photos: replacing faces completely or fragmentarily, applying makeup, smoothing out skin unevenness and much more. For example, “Portrait in style”, “AR mask” with various comical effects. You can combine your own photo with the surrounding background when both cameras are shooting and the “Face in Image” option is turned on. The standard software can be expanded by installing additional software.

The photo quality of the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual E5533 smartphone is standard. It is no worse than competitors of this class. The highest image quality is achieved in bright daylight, and the main camera focuses quickly. Shooting in low ambient light is difficult, but possible with some skill. The front camera flash “Selfie Flash” is a new product from the developers, it helps out and will appeal to fans of selfie photography, but when photographing at night it can blind. Despite the soft, diffuse beam of light, the LED here is not weak.

Both cameras can make videos in Full HD format. There is a SteadyShot video stabilizer and 4x zoom. HDR mode for shooting photos and videos is available on both cameras. Files in MP4 and 3GPP format are recorded and played back.

Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual speaker sound


Two speakers placed symmetrically on the front panel of the smartpad only give the impression of a stereo pair; in fact, they work separately and do not create a stereo effect. Only one speaker is used to play multimedia content. Manufacturers claim its power is about 95 decibels, but the user will not be able to verify this fact without special equipment.

The sound of the speaker is of rather average quality, but there are no complaints about the volume. By default, the automatic sound control mode “ClearAudio+” is set; manual settings are also available. If you want to get surround sound in headphones when playing music, then there is a corresponding option.

The built-in dynamic normalizer will equalize different sound volume levels. Encoding music in a lossless format (FLAC codec) provides lossless compression of digital audio.

Performance of the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual smartphone


The giant smartphone is equipped with a MediaTek MT6752 chipset with an eight-core processor, its clock frequency is 1.7 GHz, and the video accelerator is Mali T760-MP2. RAM - 2GB, built-in memory - 16 GB, about 11 GB of which is available to the user. You can increase it using microSD up to 200 GB!

USB-OTG technology allows you to connect an ordinary flash drive to your phone. All this stuffing is enough for the device to perform everyday work quickly, smoothly, and without freezing.

The device slows down when launching resource-intensive games. This is clearly not a gaming monster, but the processor horsepower is enough to run bulky applications. The processor frequency does not sags under heavy load, but the aluminum frames of the case heat up quite strongly, sometimes at an uncomfortable level, burning your hands. This is probably a firmware bug that will be fixed over time.

Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual battery specifications


If you are not a fan of 24/7 surfing the Internet and watching a lot of movies, then according to the manufacturers, charging the 2930 mAh battery will last for 2 days.

With active use, the smartphone will be discharged in less than a day, depending on the load. Watching a movie reduces the battery level by 15% per hour, so you can continuously watch 3-4 movies offline.

The smartphone's arsenal includes a proprietary energy-saving technology - Ultra Stamina, it really works. In the “Phone+Camera” mode, the device is active for up to 25 days without recharging. There is no fast charging mode, so it is better to turn it on at night.

Interface and software Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual


The smartphone operating system is Android 5.0 Lollipop with firmware 29.0.B.1.55 and its own Xperia shell. Sony is distinguished from its Chinese colleagues by its lack of desire to make significant corrections to the interface and software of mobile devices. The changes in them are not radical, but rather cosmetic: a few useful little things for more comfortable work, additional applications.

On the desktop there are widgets, icons, and a button for accessing all applications that are familiar to an Android smartphone user. The location of applications can be changed by sorting. Curtain - at the top of the display with the editing menu. Application manager with the function of quickly searching for small applications in a separate window.

To comfortably operate your phone with one hand, you can reduce the display window to the size of the Xperia Ray. In the “One-handed actions” section there is an option “Change screen sizes”, to enable it you just need to swipe from the lower right corner to the center. The window moves across the screen and can be operated with the right or left hand. This is very convenient with such an extensive screen of the “gigantophone”.

There are no global interface changes; there is a standard set of proprietary Android shell utilities with some nice additions. For example, changes in working with some operations - speed dialing, screen unlocking, access to notifications, etc. in the "Optimized Applications" section.

The wireless interface set is normal: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4 and 5 GHz), Bluetooth 4.1, support for 4G, NFC, DLNA and Miracast. The built-in A-GPS technology and work with GPS and GLONASS satellites allows you to determine your location.

Price and video review of the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual E5533 smartphone

Essentially, this is a tablet-smartphone, not a “top-end” model that is quite affordable. The price of Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual is about 22,000-25,000 rubles.

Watch the video review of the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual:


The new selfie-oriented smartphone Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual E5533 with a frameless screen has a very nice appearance. Its futuristic design will appeal to phablet lovers. In the middle-class niche, it stands out with its modern hardware, good display, two cameras with decent optics, and good battery life.

The new Sony Xperia C5 Ultra smartphone is equipped with a huge 6-inch screen with very narrow side frames, as well as two 13-megapixel (front and main) cameras. What else can buyers of this device expect, Vesti.Hi-tech found out

Sony's portfolio in the mid-price segment was replenished with the Xperia C5 Ultra smartphone, which took place literally three months after the announcement of its predecessor, the Xperia C4. In this line of relatively inexpensive devices, the company continues to demonstrate its achievements in the field of photo technology, positioning these products taking into account the popularity of selfies. In addition, the word Ultra in the name now indicates a very large screen diagonal. Let us recall that the previous “gigantophone”, also marked as Ultra, in the family of middle-class devices was . We received the Xperia C5 Ultra model with the ability to install two SIM cards (E5533) for testing. In addition, devices are available that are designed for only one subscriber identification module (E5553).

Specifications

  • Model: E5533
  • OS: Android 5.0 (Lollipop) with Xperia proprietary shell
  • Processor: 64-bit MediaTek MT6752, ARMv8 architecture, 8 cores ARM Cortex-A53 1.7 GHz
  • Graphics subsystem: ARM Mali-T760 MP2 (700 MHz)
  • RAM: 2 GB (LPDDR3, single channel, 800 MHz)
  • Storage: 16 GB (11 GB available), microSDXC memory card slot (up to 200 GB)
  • Screen: 6 inches, IPS, Full HD (1920x1080 pixels), 367 ppi, Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2, up to 10 simultaneous touches
  • Cameras: main - 13 MP Exmor RS, EGF 25 mm, viewing angle 80 degrees, autofocus, 4x zoom, flash, front - 13 MP Exmor RS, autofocus, EGF 22 mm, viewing angle 88 degrees, Selfie Flash; video stabilization SteadyShot, Full HD 1080p@30fps
  • Network: GSM/GPRS/EDGE, UMTS HSPA+, LTE Cat.4 (150 Mbit/s)
  • Number of SIM cards: 2
  • SIM card type: nanoSIM (4FF)
  • Interfaces: Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 GHz + 5 GHz), NFC, Miracast, USB-OTG, DLNA
  • Navigation: GPS/GLONASS, A-GPS
  • Radio: FM tuner with RDS
  • Sensors: accelerometer, light and proximity sensors, compass (Hall sensor)
  • Battery: non-removable, lithium-ion, 2,930 mAh
  • Dimensions: 164.2x79.6x8.2 mm
  • Weight: 187 grams
  • Color: white, black, mint (light green)

Design, ergonomics

It is not surprising that the new product from Sony has retained the main features of the corporate design of Xperia smartphones.

However, even in comparison with the flagship it looks very impressive. Although the Xperia C5 Ultra inherits the basic hardware of the previous model (Xperia C4), its stylish appearance is more reminiscent of another giant phone - .

The elegance of the new device is emphasized by narrow frames on the sides of the large screen, the width of which is only 0.8 mm. It seems that the display occupies almost the entire front surface of the smartphone (in figures it is approximately 76%).

The back cover of the case is made of glossy plastic, which can be black, white or mint (light green) color. An aluminum rim with plastic corners runs along the perimeter, designed to absorb the impact of a fall. The width of the device with such a large screen is only 79.6 mm. For comparison, the value of this parameter for other 6-inch smartphones is: -- 83.8 mm, -- 81.0 mm. True, at the same time, the giant’s “carcass” turned out to be very plump - (8.2 mm, 187 g) versus (7.6 mm, 172 g) versus (7.9 mm, 185 g). By the way, the Xperia C5 Ultra does not provide protection against water and dust.

Although the entire front surface of the device is covered with scratch-resistant glass, barely noticeable edges protruding above the display prevent it from contacting the surface when the smartphone is lying face down.

At the top of the front panel, next to the Sony logo, there is a front camera lens with a flash, a charging/event indicator, a cutout for the speaker grille, as well as proximity and light sensors.

The cutout for the multimedia speaker grille is made symmetrically to the speaker grille, but at the bottom of the panel. In turn, three touch keys - "Back", "Home" and "Recent applications" - took up space on the screen itself.

The left edge is allocated for slots with a common plug for a microSD memory card and a tray for two subscriber identification modules in the nanoSIM format. No paper clips are required to remove the SIM card tray, as this is easy to do even with a fingernail. By the way, the OFF button is hidden under the same plug to force the device to turn off.

On the right edge there is a power/lock button in the signature “metal rivet” style, a volume rocker and a separate key for the camera.

At the top end, like the Xperia C4, there is a 3.5 mm audio headset jack,

and on the bottom there was a place for a microUSB connector and a “conversational” microphone.

The main functional elements of the rear panel, decorated with Sony and Xperia logos, are located in its upper part.

This is the main camera lens, the flash eye, the second microphone and the NFC antenna area, marked with the corresponding logo.

The glossy back cover successfully collects grease marks, which are especially noticeable on black plastic. For this reason, the “rear view” of a stylish smartphone is almost always somehow untidy. The solid design of the device is due to the non-removable battery.

As for ergonomics, in addition to reducing the width of the case, the developers also took care of special measures (connected in the settings) to simplify communication with this “gigantophone”.

Screen, camera, sound

Compared to its predecessor Xperia C4, equipped with a 5.5-inch screen, the diagonal of the Xperia C5 Ultra has increased by 0.5 inches. Thus, the new product already uses a 6-inch IPS matrix, albeit with the same Full HD resolution, so the pixel density per inch has decreased and amounted to 367 ppi. However, individual dots are indistinguishable to the naked eye, and the brightness and richness of colors is not lost even at large viewing angles. Like other Xperia smartphones, Mobile Bravia Engine 2 technology is used to improve image quality. In particular, it is designed to optimize contrast to achieve finer gradations of dark shades.

It is proposed to adjust the brightness level of the screen backlight manually, or use automatic adjustment based on data from the built-in light sensor (“Adaptive adjustment”). You can easily change the color temperature of the screen ("White Balance") at your discretion - make the colors warmer or, conversely, cooler. In addition, settings allow you to save battery power, using, for example, a minimum interval for the screen to go into sleep mode, as well as an intelligent backlight control function that detects that the device is in your hand.

The touch capacitive screen clearly responds to pressure and recognizes up to ten simultaneous touches. This multi-touch is confirmed by the results of the AnTuTu Tester and MultiTouch Tester programs. When the "Glove Mode" option is enabled, you can operate the smartphone with clothed hands.

You can improve the quality of photos and videos during playback by either enabling the X-Reality for mobile option or the “Ultimate Brightness Mode”. Tempered glass with an oleophobic coating not only protects the display from scratches, but also allows you to quickly clean it from grease.

The new smartphone will primarily please those who, out of the variety of possible scenes, prefer self-portraits. The fact is that the main and front cameras of the Xperia C5 Ultra received 13-megapixel sensors, and wide-angle lenses with equivalent focal lengths (EFL) of 25 mm and 22 mm have viewing angles of 80 and 88 degrees, respectively. In other words, the front camera has wider-angle optics, which makes it easy to capture even a large group in the frame when shooting a groupie. Both cameras have autofocus and a flash, while selfie lovers have at their disposal the so-called Selfie Flash, which provides soft and uniform illumination at a short distance from the subject. In addition to 4x zoom, SteadyShot digital video stabilization is also provided. Shooting at the maximum resolution (4096x3072 pixels, 13 MP, 4:3) is possible only in the "Manual" mode, and the default "Super Auto mode" provides a lower resolution of 3920x2208 pixels (9 MP, 16:9). The manufacturer especially notes the presence of an HDR mode for both cameras, both for photos and videos. To release the shutter, in addition to a dedicated hardware key, there is an icon on the viewfinder screen and a volume rocker (defined in the settings).

Examples of shooting can be viewed.

Both cameras can record videos in Full HD quality (1920x1080 pixels) with a frame rate of 30 fps. Content is saved in MP4 container files (AVC - video, AAC - audio). 3GPP format is also supported.

As usual, in addition to the already installed camera applications, you can download additional programs. So, with the help of “With a face in the image”, when both cameras are working, it is easy to combine your own portrait with the main subject of the shooting. By the way, from the Xperia C4 with a 5-megapixel front camera, the new product inherited, for example, modes such as “Portrait in style” and “AR mask”.

In the first case, it’s easy to add one of the existing or created yourself styles to the image with fun effects.

The "AR Mask" mode when taking a selfie allows, for example, to superimpose the face of an animal or the face of another person onto your own.

Although the speakers located symmetrically on the front panel of the Xperia C5 Ultra look like stereo, only one of them is used for multimedia (video, music). However, the manufacturer claims that it alone is capable of producing sound with a volume of up to 95 dB (which is impossible to check without the appropriate equipment). Subjectively, this speaker sounds really loud, but the quality is, of course, average.

The settings offer to automatically optimize sound parameters by relying on the ClearAudio+ function. This can be done manually using the built-in equalizer with presets. In addition, there is a surround sound option for headphones (concert hall, club, studio). But to equalize the volume of different songs or videos, a dynamic normalizer can be turned on. By the way, standard tools provide support for lossless formats, in particular FLAC. As for the built-in FM tuner with RDS support, it only works when a wired headset is connected (as a shortwave antenna).

Filling, performance

The basic hardware platform was inherited from the Xperia C5 Ultra almost unchanged from the Xperia C4. Here we again turned to MediaTek products, choosing the same 8-core MT6752 processor.

Let us remind you that this chip, made in compliance with 28 nm design standards according to the ARMv8-A architecture, in addition to 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53 (1.7 GHz) processor cores and a multi-mode 4G modem, also integrates: ARM Mali-T760 video accelerator MP2 (700 MHz) with two execution units (with support for API Open GL ES 3.0 and Open CL 1.2), Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules, single-channel memory controller, etc. In terms of performance, the MT6752 is usually compared to the less powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 615. Like the Xperia C4, the Xperia C5 Ultra has 2 GB of LPDDR3 RAM (800 MHz).

From the results of synthetic tests AnTuTu Benchmark 5.7.1 it follows that in terms of the number of “virtual parrots” the Xperia C5 Ultra smartphone is ahead of last year’s flagship.

In the Vellamo benchmarks, success accompanied these smartphones in varying degrees - in multi-core tests (Multicore), the Xperia C5 Ultra was ahead, but when measuring “horsepower” in processor tests (Metal), it was already slightly behind it.

With variable settings of High Performance and High Quality (performance at the expense of quality and vice versa) on the Epic Citadel visual test, the average frame rate at a resolution of 1800x1080 pixels remained almost unchanged - 60.7 and 60.3 fps, respectively. But when changing the setting to Ultra High Quality, this parameter decreased by almost half, to 36.5 fps.

The Xperia C5 Ultra showed a good result on the universal benchmark 3DMark (recommended Sling Shot tests with ES 3.1). Although the new product is not a gaming monster, the power of the existing hardware is quite enough to run, including “heavy” applications.

The total number of points earned by the Xperia C5 Ultra on the cross-platform benchmark Base Mark OS II was 850.

Of the 16 GB of internal memory, approximately 11 GB are available, and, of course, even less is free. To expand the storage, there is a slot designed for microSD/HC/XC memory cards with a capacity, as indicated by the manufacturer, up to 200 GB (for the Xperia C4 it was limited to 128 GB). Thanks to support for USB-OTG technology, it is easy to connect a regular flash drive to the device.

To provide voice communication and mobile Internet functions, two subscriber identification modules are designed in nanoSIM (4FF) format, with support for 4G Cat.4 networks. As for other wireless communications, along with dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4 and 5 GHz), these are also NFC and Bluetooth 4.1 interfaces. There is also support for DLNA and Miracast. Note that the NFC chip allows you to use the “My Travel Card” application from the Bank of Moscow, which can not only read, but also remotely top up the Troika card.

To determine location and navigation, the multi-system receiver uses GPS and GLONASS satellites, which is confirmed by the results of the AndroiTS GPS Test program. There is also built-in support for A-GPS technology.

The capacity of the non-removable lithium-ion battery of the Xperia C5 Ultra was 330 mAh larger than that of its predecessor Xperia C4 (2,930 mAh versus 2,600 mAh). At the same time, the presence of fast charging would be very useful here, since the maximum current of a standard power adapter is only 850 mA.

The smartphone earned 5,428 points in AnTuTu Tester battery tests. According to the manufacturer, the capacity of the existing battery allows you to constantly be in touch for 14 hours 24 minutes, while the standby time will be up to 728 hours. In turn, the maximum music listening time is more than 60 hours, and video playback is 7 hours 47 minutes. A test set of videos in MP4 and Full HD quality played continuously at full brightness for just over 6 hours.

The provided energy saving modes are designed to increase battery life. Thus, Stamina allows you to limit performance, disable background processes during inactivity, and also set a list of applications that are allowed to access the network. Ultra Stamina extends the battery life more significantly, although it leaves only basic phone functions enabled (voice calls and SMS). The so-called “Low Battery Mode” is activated at a predetermined battery level. In this case, energy consumption is reduced, for example, by turning off wireless communication modules (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS), reducing the screen timeout, lowering its backlight level, etc.

Software

The Xperia C5 Ultra smartphone runs Google Android 5.0 (Lollipop) operating system, wrapped in the proprietary Xperia shell, the interface of which is not much different from the classic “lollipop”.

In particular, several branded themes, widgets and applications have been added here.

For simplified control of the giant phone, the settings provide a section “One-handed actions”. So, if you swipe diagonally (right-up or left-up) when the "Resize screen" option is enabled, the size of the working part of the display will decrease. Then, by swiping from the top corner, you can easily increase the active area of ​​the screen to 4 inches. But by checking the “Optimized applications” option, you can also simplify dialing, unlocking the screen, accessing notifications, etc.

Purchase, conclusions

The new product, which is offered on the Internet (according to Yandex.Market) at an average price of 24,310 rubles, is clearly aimed at those who use a smartphone not only for communication. First of all, selfie lovers will not be disappointed - after all, the gadget is equipped with two 13-megapixel cameras complemented by flashes.

The strengths of the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra include a frameless screen, an advanced front camera, as well as support for 4G networks and the presence of an NFC interface. Along with the ability to play FLAC files, the smartphone provides good battery life. But it was not without its drawbacks. Thus, the untidy appearance of the device is due to the back cover made of glossy plastic (especially black). In addition, the body of the new product, lacking protection from dust and water, may seem too bulky. However, what is most frustrating is the lack of support for fast charging in the device.

Generally speaking, the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra smartphone finds itself in such a niche that it essentially has no direct competitors. As already noted, it surpasses its predecessor Sony Xperia C4 (21,240 rubles) in the size of its “frameless” 6-inch screen and a more advanced front camera. Although the “selfie” (26,550 rubles) also received two 13-megapixel cameras, its screen diagonal is only 5.2 inches, moreover, the processor is not 8-core, but only 4-core. But among the 6-inch giants one can note, for example, an almost entirely metal one (27,490 rubles), which, with comparable filling, received, unfortunately, only a 5-megapixel front camera.

Review results of the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra smartphone

Pros:

  • Large frameless screen
  • Advanced front camera
  • Ability to play FLAC files
  • 4G and NFC support
  • Good battery life

Minuses:

  • The case may seem bulky
  • Back cover made of glossy plastic
  • No fast charging mode
  • Lack of protection against water and dust

A large Sony smartphone with a good front camera – we are trying to determine the advantages and disadvantages. Looking ahead, we can say that for the money it’s not a bad purchase...

A little about the phablet market

A report from Svyaznoy about the phablet market arrived just in time, I’m presenting it in its entirety, it will allow you to better understand why Sony has updated its own line of large smartphones - by update I mean the C5 Ultra.

“In the first 8 months in Russia, for the first time, more phablets** were sold than tablet computers with a screen of less than 8.9 inches. In total, based on the results of January-August, sales of phablets in Russia amounted to about 3.5 million devices worth almost 44 billion rubles. Sales of tablet phones in Russia increased by 128% in volume terms and by 140% in monetary terms. At the same time, since the beginning of the year 2015, about 3 million tablets with a display diagonal of less than 8.9 inches have been sold in Russia.

Thus, the sales volume of tablet phones in Russia for the first time in history exceeded the number of compact tablet computers sold. Taking into account the dynamics of the tablet market, as well as the continuing interest in “large” smartphones, Svyaznoy analysts predict that by the end of the year, more phablets will be sold in Russia than tablets in general.

Also, for the first time in the history of the portable electronics market, revenue from sales of phablets in Russia exceeded the same figure in the tablet computer category. According to Svyaznoy, tablets worth 31.6 billion rubles were sold in Russia in January-August 2015.

The popularity of tablet phones, in addition to the form factor and functionality, is also due to their growing accessibility. Despite the fact that the average bill for a smartphone in Russia increased by 13% over 8 months, the dynamics in the phablet segment turned out to be not so high - in fact, the average cost of a “large” smartphone remained at the level of last year, amounting to 12,600 rubles. The more modest growth dynamics of the average tablet bill is due to an increase in the number of such devices in price segments of less than 15 thousand rubles.

In 2015, competition in the phablet segment noticeably intensified. A year ago, half of the tablet phones in Russia were sold by 3 companies: Samsung, SONY and Lenovo. They also received 60% of the revenue in this category of smartphones. With the entry into the market of budget phablets from Microsoft (Lumia 535, Lumia 640, Lumia 640XL), the brand’s share in this category of smartphones increased from 2% to 11%, and sales of Microsoft tablets in Russia increased 13 times. Such rapid development allowed the company to become one of the three most popular smartphone brands. Lenovo's sales in the phablet category more than doubled. The company managed to maintain its market share at 14%.

The top three market leaders by share in rubles have also undergone changes. Samsung managed to maintain leadership in the segment. Also in the top three are SONY and Lenovo, but Apple has almost caught up with them - buyers reacted very positively to last year’s new products, and the release of the iPhone 6s Plus model will allow the American brand to gain a foothold in the phablet category.

However, we note that despite the saturation of the tablet computer market, certain categories of these devices are in steady demand. We are talking, in particular, about tablets with a powerful processor, which are successfully used for working with special applications and for playing games.”

Let me remind you that the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium will be released at the end of the year. In theory, it can also be classified as a phablet. And I would also like to see a large version of the Z5 in two versions, one and two SIM cards.

Design

The device is available in three colors: black, white and mint.




The device turned out to be quite large, but you will probably immediately notice the almost complete absence of frames, although technically there are still sides, they are very thin and protrude slightly above the display. When you place the device with the display down, the screen does not touch the surface. The areas at the top and bottom are visually normal, it cannot be said that they are larger than in other devices. In general, the device is firmly built, you can feel the weight, it is pleasant. In pictures, the C5 Ultra looks bigger and worse, in real life, many note that it fits well in the hand, looks and feels interesting due to the metal ends and minimalistic design in general.



This model combines the ideas of two devices at once. This is the C series - and therefore there is a high-quality front camera for taking selfies - well, it is also a logical continuation of the T2 Ultra. Not a flagship phablet, but not a toy either. There are no complaints about the assembly; slots for memory cards and SIM cards are hidden under the flap; there will be a version with two SIM cards. It’s gratifying that Sony doesn’t forget about support for memory cards; for users this is more important than a bunch of incomprehensible software or crazy functions and settings. Cards up to 128 GB are supported - this is really important. During shooting, you can choose where to save photos, the same applies to installing applications. True, it’s worth buying a normal card – normal in terms of manufacturer and speed. So that there are no problems with launching programs.









The microUSB connector at the bottom is unprotected and without plugs, which is a plus. Next to the front camera there is a place for a soft LED flash. The optics here are wide-angle, and selfies come out really good.



Interestingly, the back is made of plastic, but the ends are made of aluminum, with a protection system like the Z3. The corners are not part of the frame to avoid deformation. At the top end there is a 3.5 mm jack. By the way, the case is very easily soiled, especially for the black device. We recommend watching our video about the device.


Separately, I want to say this. The famous Sharp smartphone, so beloved by Artem, has no frames at all, that is, there really are none. The Sony Xperia C5 has sides on the sides, and, in fact, there are minimal frames, the thickness is 0.8 mm.

Regarding the shooting button. It has two positions: press to focus, press harder, and a photo is taken. On my sample, the button works well, neither soft nor hard. When the device is locked, you can press the button, then the camera will start, you can take a picture. Another thing is that it does not launch with the latest settings (for example, 13 MP and the selected white balance preset), but with the default settings.


There is no protection against water or shock, so you shouldn’t drown the C5 Ultra.

Display

A lot has been written on the Internet about how a smartphone can use displays from different companies with slightly different characteristics. There are two companies, Innolux LCM and Truly LCM, supposedly the black and mint C5 Ultra has a Truly LCM screen, and the white one has an Innolux LCM. Using the service menu (*#*#7378423#*#*) I tried to see what the screen is, but I can’t get to this item in the menu, you press it, but there is no reaction. If you also have a C5 Ultra, post your results in the comments.


At first I read a lot of reviews about how the display was faded, but in reality I would call the picture very, very calm - although to some it will seem just faded and nothing else. Again I suggest looking at the screen before purchasing.

In fact, the diagonal of the IPS display is 6 inches, the resolution is 1920 x 1080 pixels, the picture is not bad, but it’s not Retina or a screen like on Samsung flagships, don’t expect miracles. Sony abandoned the name “phablet”, and in general, it seems that it’s not customary to call phablets phablets anymore, but the C5 Ultra is exactly that, a phablet. Can replace a small tablet and smartphone.

Let me remind you that the iPhone 6 Plus has a display diagonal of 5.5 inches, a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, and the Samsung Note 4 has a SuperAMOLED screen diagonal of 5.7 inches with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels. And, naturally, if a person is going to buy a phablet, he will consider all three devices - but here the C5 Ultra will have a very strong price advantage. When you hold the device in your hand, touching the edges of the display does not affect the behavior of the smartphone. For greater convenience, we implemented a reduction in screen size: swipe your finger from the bottom left edge up, and the screen becomes smaller, just right for your thumb. You can use all the functions of the device with one hand. The screen in this state can be moved up and down, and slightly enlarged if necessary. The function is not bad, it will come in handy if one hand is busy.

Performance

The device comes with Android 5.0 and uses Mediatek MT6752 chipset (Octa core 1.67 GHz). LTE is supported even for a device with two SIM cards, ARM Mali T760 graphics, Bluetooth 4.0, 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of data memory installed. Naturally, this is not enough; get ready to buy a memory card right away. I already said, it’s not worth saving on the card.

  • ARM Cortex-A53 64-bit octa-core processor (1.7GHz)
  • ARM Mali-T760 GPU
  • MediaTek CorePilot™ unlocking the full power of all eight cores
  • Rel. 9, Cat. 4 LTE (FDD & TDD), DC-HSPA+, TD-SCDMA, EDGE
  • 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0
  • H.265 Ultra HD codec support

The interface contains things familiar to Sony, these are redrawn icons, camera settings, and its own applications - for example, an antivirus and a program for detecting tracks.

The device cannot be called fast; in some applications the brakes are noticeable, the startup takes a long time, and there is heating. But when using ordinary, basic programs, everything is more or less good.

Working with two SIM cards

One tray is used for SIM cards, this is a convenient solution, it is easy to pull out, and cards are also easy to put in. In the menu, you can programmatically disable the use of the second SIM card, select a SIM card for data transfer, activate the “Always Connected” function, this will forward calls to another SIM card if the second one is unavailable. The device supports LTE (dual SIM cards), this is already becoming the norm for devices in the mid-price segment. I did not notice any problems in the operation of two SIM cards, except that those who like to save contacts on a SIM card will not be able to select the one they need - I don’t know why to do this now. There is phone memory and backups. Unless you constantly rearrange your SIM cards, then yes, you need such an option.

Working hours

A 2930 mAh battery is used, the operating time is stated to be 8 hours in video playback mode. There is an Ultra STAMINA Mode, if less than twenty percent of the charge remains, you should turn it on.

It takes about four hours to charge using the supplied power supply, which is a bit disappointing. I’m used to charging my smartphone in the evenings, connecting it to PS4. Don’t forget that the set-top box easily copes with this task, one hundred percent overnight.

With normal use during the day, the battery does not discharge quickly; the C Ultra easily survived until the evening, and several times lasted until the morning. In general, as with most modern devices, expect to get about a day of battery life.

In this device, as in other Xperia, you can turn on the power saving mode; it can help you if the charge level is about twenty percent and you don’t know when you will be near a power outlet in the near future.


Camera

Two cameras, each 13 MP, front with LED flash, focused on selfies, you can evaluate the quality using examples. The same effects are supported for both cameras; by the way, they can be additionally downloaded for Xperia cameras from the Google store. HDR supported for both cameras, automatic scene recognition for mode selection. Among the effects, there are traditional Sony AR effects, when mushrooms, gnomes, animals, and so on are added to the picture. If on flagships this happens quickly or very quickly, then with the C5 Ultra you have to wait; loading occurs in a couple of seconds, sometimes longer. There is a photograph with sound, I didn’t understand this effect at all, nothing particularly attractive.








When Sony talked about the new line, they especially emphasized that we would fight hard for the quality of pictures. As far as I can tell, this struggle also affected devices in the mid-price segment, because the C5 Ultra takes good photographs, I suggest you evaluate the pictures yourself. My opinion is this: the camera can and should be used. It doesn’t launch instantly; it’s annoying to have a huge number of unnecessary settings instead of just one setting – “Take a good shot.” The wide-angle selfie camera allows you to fit even a large group into the frame. If you use a monopod, a huge group will fit.

conclusions

The device turned out to be quite strange, as they say, niche. I suggest you look at the pros and cons of the device. Here are the advantages:

  • Interesting design, aluminum frame (but only plastic gets scratched, keep that in mind). It’s also interesting about the metal; when people pick up the C5 Ultra for the first time, they are surprised, it’s unexpected to see such material in a mid-price device. On the other hand, now is the time - every manufacturer in an oversaturated market is trying to offer more for the same money.
  • The display diagonal is a plus for some, a minus for others. Of course, I would like to see a higher resolution screen with such a diagonal, but we are dealing with what we have. Let me note that I’m talking specifically about the diagonal.
  • Two SIM cards, LTE support - some will say that there is no point in “dual”, but my friend uses the C5 as a work tool, it’s convenient to view mail on the big screen, work and personal SIM cards are in one device.
  • Support for memory cards is also a big plus.
  • Loud speaker.
  • Good sound quality, aptX support.
  • Good front camera for selfies (a plus for those who take selfies frequently).
  • Leapfrog with displays. People behave predictably, “on the Internet they write that the screens are DIFFERENT,” and immediately problems of choice, discussion, speculation, and so on begin. To some extent, with the C5 you can achieve the desired result using the white balance in the settings, but I would advise just looking at the screen before buying. This is the best way to understand whether to take it or not.
  • The performance is clearly different from the flagships, this is especially noticeable when the camera is working, there is no “instantness”. Naturally, if you also use games, you will notice heating and slowdowns even more.
  • The earpiece seemed quiet to me even at full volume.
  • Heating is not a drawback, but it cannot be ignored.

The retail price is 25,000 rubles for the version with two SIM cards; if you search, you can find it cheaper. Considering the pros and cons, the price tag is quite justified. I would like to recommend that Sony not abandon this series; consumers are slowly but surely understanding the advantages of phablets, and such smartphones are needed. What would you like to see in the continuation of the C5 Ultra? I would like a screen with different characteristics, a more powerful processor, a case made of matte plastic (less fingerprints and scratches), I personally really like OnePlus One cases. Simple and tasteful. I would like support for fast charging and a larger battery. I believe we can see much of the above in Sony’s flagship phablets.



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