Sony xperia c5 ultra dual white. Self-love without limits

Sony Smartphone Xperia C5 review

During my last visit to Moscow, the Russian representative office of Sony did not have the opportunity to give me for study new smartphone Sony Xperia Z5 (they had not yet appeared in the required quantity), and Sony offered to test another rather interesting smartphone - Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual. After looking at this smartphone, I immediately agreed, because its characteristics looked very impressive. First of all, I noticed a hefty six-inch display (I love those) with FullHD resolution, there is also support for two SIM cards and two 13 megapixel cameras (yes, the front camera is also 13 megapixels, which is rare). Well, and, importantly, the price with such characteristics was very reasonable, although usually smartphones from Sony are oh so expensive! However, why list all the "goodies" in the introduction, let's better get to know this smartphone better. So - Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual, meet!

Specifications Operating system: Android 5.0
Display: 6", 1920x1080, IPS, 367 PPI
CPU: Mediatek MT6752, 8 cores, 1.7 GHz
Graphics accelerator: Mali-T760MP2
RAM: 2 GB
Flash memory: 16 GB
Memory card: microSD up to 128 GB
Net: GSM/GPRS/EDGE, UMTS, HDSPA/HSUPA, LTE
Wireless connection: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.1+HS
Camera: 13 megapixels, Exmor RS, autofocus, flash
Front-camera: 13 MP, autofocus, flash
Ports: microUSB, audio jack
Navigation: GPS, GLONASS, A-GPS support
SIM card: nanoSIM and nanoSIM - two radio modules
Battery: 2930 mAh, non-removable
Color options: white, black, mint (light green)
Dimensions: 164.2 x 79.6 x 8.2mm
The weight: 187 g
Additionally: accelerometer, light sensor, electronic compass, proximity sensor, hall sensor
Price: 24-26 thousand rubles (in Moscow), €307 (in Europe) Interesting characteristics, even more than. The battery for such a display is not too capacious, but not to say that it is frail - let's see how it works. (The six-inch Huawei Ascend Mate 7 had a 4100 mAh battery.) Well, pay attention to the fact that there are two radio modules, that is, SIM cards work independently of each other and you, for example, can call from one card to another. Yes, there is no moisture protection, like the Xperia Z models. The price for such a complete set, especially for Sony, looks quite attractive. Contents of delivery An ordinary box made of soft cardboard - no frills at all.
Complete set is extremely ascetic: smartphone, power adapter, USB-microUSB cable, brochure. Everything, nothing to spoil.
Appearance and features There are no surprises in the design of the device: the smartphone is very similar in style to the Sony Xperia Z5 - the same strict parallelepiped, aluminum edging, glossy plastic back cover. However, it immediately attracts attention that there is almost no frame on the sides of the display: there is literally 0.8 mm. And the camera on the front is exactly the same as the camera on the back.

Stereo speakers traditionally for Xperia are located on the front panel at the top and bottom - this, in my opinion, is the best location. The back cover, as usual with Xperia, is non-removable and covered with glossy white plastic. Which, by the way, is not very good, because the smartphone is large in size, and the glossy cover does not contribute to the "grasping" of the device. The camera with flash is located in the center, which is very correct: for some reason, some manufacturers sculpt the camera in a corner makes it more likely that the camera is accidentally covered with a finger during shooting. Right end - round convex power button, the volume rocker, which, in my opinion, is located a bit low, and at the very bottom - the camera call button, traditional for Sony phones. I wholeheartedly approve of the existence of such a button. All three buttons have a small stroke, and they are pressed quite indistinctly.
The top end is a headset outlet.
The left end is a stub, under which there is a memory card slot and a sliding slot for two nanoSIMs.

Well, this smartphone is next to the flagships from Samsung: Galaxy S6 edge + and Galaxy Note 4.
Build quality and materials are expected to be very high. The aluminum sides protrude slightly above the screen, and one of the reviewers expressed concern that they could cut themselves - in my opinion, this is complete nonsense. Display As we remember, in Xperia series users and experts had a lot of complaints about the displays of some models. An IPS-matrix display made using OGS technology is installed here. Tolerable viewing angles, however, with a vertical / horizontal deviation somewhere from 45 degrees, the brightness noticeably drops, the colors fade, the white color turns gray. The brightness is good, but nothing outstanding. Adaptive adjustment works well and is quite fast - compared to many other smartphones. In direct sunlight, the image is quite distinguishable. Even, perhaps, it looks better than on many other smartphones. The display has an anti-reflective filter and an oleophobic coating. Image quality, colors, fonts are at a good level. That is, in general, the display is without any enthusiasm, but quite decent quality. Device operation Android 5.0, shell and branded applications - from Sony. Main desktop.

By the way, there are nuances with the on-screen buttons. There are (from left to right) "Return", "Home", "List of running applications" keys. Their order does not change in any way, which for me personally is a kind of problem, because I'm used to the "Return" button being on the right. In all the smartphones that I came across, even if the "Menu" button was not present (it is often changed to "List running tasks"), then this menu, however, could always be called by long pressing "Return" or "List of running tasks". For some reason, this is not here - I see this for the first time. And I wrote off with the developers - yes, this is such a feature. No. On the one hand, it is not such a problem, because many applications contain an icon that calls the menu. But not all. For example, in the Nova Launcher shell there is no such icon and its settings were called by the on-screen menu button. So here and This is bypassed, of course, because the application window has a special icon for calling the Nova menu, but it's still a little annoying.

The application window has advanced sorting and filtering capabilities - this is sorely lacking in many other manufacturers.

Quick switch area. She is customizable.

Setting up quick switches.

Lock screen with the ability to launch a phone application or camera.

A list of running tasks with the ability to close all applications, a panel with "small applications" that can be placed on the screen in several pieces. The panel can be expanded to full screen.

Opened panel.

Several small applications on the screen.

Well, a very important and convenient feature is the mode of operation with one hand. The smartphone is large (the screen, I remind you, is already six inches), so Sony thought about situations when you need to do something with the phone with one hand. To call the mode, you need to swipe up from the bottom of the screen. The image on the display will be reduced to a size of 1290x726 pixels and will approximately correspond to the display size of 4.8". Moreover, this image can be attached to the left or right lower part of the display (depending on which hand you hold it with), you can also change the image size and expand it to full screen.This is very cool done!

phone application Incoming call can be rejected by message.

Conversation mode.

The call sound quality is very good. The noise reduction system works quite effectively. But at first there were strange problems with the mobile Internet. I, in my opinion, for the first time in the last few years, I encountered the fact that the mobile Internet did not work on the installed SIM card. Well, that is, the required APN was not registered automatically. You insert a SIM card into another phone - it works without problems. You insert it into this one - it doesn’t work. You call it in the Internet Options settings - it tries to get the settings, but gives an error. And it didn’t work until I figured out which APN to register for this operator and registered it manually. Then it worked. It’s not a problem for me to do this, but I’m afraid that 99% of users have no idea what kind of APN this is and how to prescribe it. I measured the speed mobile Internet- it's all right.

Audio Very handy and advanced application.

There are tons of track selection options, including folders.

Playback menu. Throw mode - play media content (audio, images, video) from your phone on compatible devices via wireless communication.

The sound quality in the built-in speakers is good: the sound is quite clear, powerful, without wheezing. There is even some semblance of some volume and hints of bass.

Reinforcing earphones-"carnations" Myst Nail2 - not bad: the sound is clear, clear, the volume is average, the highs are moderate, the basses are not observed at all.

The Bose QuietComfort 25 ear cushions are mediocre: the sound is muffled, a little “wadded”, the bass is semi-hinted, the highs are generally bad.

The Xperia Z, as far as I remember, the sound was always very decent - they were working on it. Video 4K video comes with noticeable stuttering. Starting from FullHD and below - everything is played smoothly and without jerks.

Navigation It starts quickly, it also works with GLONASS (GLONASS is not mentioned in the specification for some reason). Holds the coordinates well, does not fly off the road.

Games Not the most productive platform, but the same Asphalt 8 sets high image quality settings. The game slows down a little, but that's if you look closely.

Settings The settings, as usual with Sony smartphones, are very diverse.

In the settings of SIM cards, it is possible to redirect calls from one card to another in case of unavailability.

Xperia special features.

Selecting system icons for the status bar.

There is a simplified interface mode: this mode is convenient for pensioners and people with visual impairments.

This is what the simplified mode looks like with enlarged fonts.

Display settings.

It is possible to adjust the white balance, but it is not very clear what is the point without a calibrator.

Of the 16 GB, the system occupies about 6 GB.

Sony smartphones have always worked well with the Stamina saving system. Moreover, it does not need to be specially configured: just turn it on, after which the battery life improves markedly.

Stamina settings.

Screen pinning function (prevent exit from running application).

One-hand operation settings.

System data and performance Parameters for CPU-Z.

AnTuTu test. Not bad, but somewhere 1.5-1.7 times lower than modern flagships. (Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ has 68,025.)

Geekbench 3 tests.

Index by PC Mark. (Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ 5260.)

From a purely practical point of view, the speed of the smartphone is quite sufficient, it did not cause problems for me. And according to tests, its performance is at the level of last year's flagships. Not this, but the past. And they weren't slow either. Camera The button to call the camera here works somehow strangely. When pressed normally, it does not call the camera. For this to work, you need to press the button and hold it for a couple of seconds. I don't know what it is - protection against false positives, or what? But in other Xperia, as far as I remember, this was not the case. The second interesting point. When the camera is called by the button, the camera application appears with a characteristic sound signal lasting two seconds. And it doesn't turn off. The alarm sounds even when all sounds are turned off in the camera app. Annoying - scary. At the same time, when you call the camera with the application icon, the signal is not heard. The camera interface is standard for Xperia. In the shooting mode settings, there are traditionally a lot of all sorts of special effects: superimpose your face on the face of a friend (what a joy), insert your face into a photo, photos with background sounds, artistic effects, shooting with virtual characters, and so on. You can also download additional applications for processing photos when shooting.

There are some settings, but they depend on the selected mode. I still could not find the photo and video quality settings, so it turned out that they are only available in manual mode shooting.

Well, now examples of shooting in various conditions. All pictures are clickable.





In daylight, it happens that it messes up a little with the exposure - it darkens.





Text.





The front camera here is exactly the same as the rear one - a feature of the smartphone model, which is positioned as a "selfie smartphone". Well, what can I say, the quality of self-portraits is really excellent. Although our selfie lovers are mostly of the fair sex, and the phone is specifically non-female - large and heavy. Here are a couple of selfies. Video example.

The video, by the way, shoots what is called "not a fountain." But as a camera - at a good level. Very decent detail, good dynamic range, juicy colors, white balance does not mow much, focuses well. Sometimes a little dark, but this is easily corrected. (As you know, you can almost always pull out a slightly darkened frame, but with an overexposed one, everything is much more difficult.) Time battery life For a six-inch display, the battery is not very powerful here. However, the manufacturer claims the capacity is 2930 mAh, and my device showed that the battery is gaining 3341 mAh from scratch.
I first ran my battery life tests with power saving turned off. The results were not impressive. Internet. The display brightness is set to a comfortable 40% without auto-tuning. All wireless communications are enabled, the page is updated in the browser every 30 seconds. 6 hours 35 minutes. Video. The screen is set to a comfortable 10th brightness level of the player (maximum is 15th), auto-tuning is disabled, the "Airplane" mode is enabled, a TV series with hardware decoding is running in the MX Player in a cycle. A little less than 6 hours. Completely bogus. Synthetic test. At a comfortable screen brightness and with wireless communications turned on, PC Mark conducted a test of mixed modes: surfing, photo processing, video, reading, and so on - that is, emulating a good smartphone load with various standard actions. Here's what happened. (Galaxy S6 edge+ at QHD resolution and almost the same battery has 7 hours 41 minutes.)

Then I turned on the Stamina mode and ran the same tests again. Internet. 8 hours 25 minutes. Already something. Video. 8 hours 10 minutes. We are also tolerant. In the normal use mode, everything also depended noticeably on whether the power saving mode was enabled. Without it, the smartphone normally survived until the evening (about 20-30 percent remained), but it didn’t live for two days. With the Stamina mode turned on, the smartphone could last until the evening of the next day, but already on its last legs. So even with the use of the Stamina mode, this smartphone must be put on charge at night. Observations at work and conclusions The smartphone works stably and steadily, I did not notice any problems with it. The only glitch is that the camera is not always called even with a long press on the corresponding button. But this button generally works very strange. The heating of the back cover only manifested itself when running "heavy" applications (for example, 3D games), but it was quite insignificant. In general, as I think, for such a price the phone turned out to be very interesting and worthy of attention. Brand device, 6 inch display, good screen, good two cameras, quite decent performance and memory characteristics, two SIM cards, support for memory cards up to 128 GB, LTE - and all this for 24-26 thousand rubles? In my opinion, this is very good. I recently reviewed the Motorola Moto X Play which has similar specs, smaller display but bigger battery and better camera, - it costs €80 more in Europe. Between the two, I would certainly choose this smartphone. P. S. But the Sony Xperia Z5 is ordinary in Russia - under 40 thousand, Premium Dual (which has a resolution of 3840x2160 for video) - under 50 thousand.

• 28 41%
• 13 19%
• 12 18%
• 9 14%
• 7 11%

Bought on 09/17/15. The first thing that surprised me was that after 2 weeks - when watching the video, the phone hung and no buttons responded, I had to press the reset button. 11/17/15 already handed over for repair under warranty - light on the screen - changed the display 11/24/15 took. About the long charge in the service they said that they did not find any defects. 7.12.15 - took it to the service - the power button fell into the case. The service said that they did not find any defects, but the button was set to the normal position. 12/10/15 was ready. Apparently, when replacing the screen, it was installed incorrectly. At the same time, the metal frames of the edging of the case were scratched. I presented the service, wrote a claim, they said that the answer would be within 10 days and they would call me. 12/22/15 I called myself and went to them. They wrote that it was so before the delivery and the receiver overlooked. They did not answer questions about how the examination was carried out, what methods and instruments were used to determine the age of scratches, asked to see photos before delivery and after delivery (some services have this) they did not have them. The customer service is just terrible. Sony claims to be a leader, but with such an attitude towards customers, they will never achieve this. 12/25/15 handed over for repair AGAIN!!! This time, when you touch the screen in one area, the phone detects a touch in another. It's not always, but occasionally. It often occurs when typing without lifting your finger from the screen, scrolling through the news and talking on the phone, I don’t know why, the proximity sensor to the ear seems to work and the norms are tested, but every now and then the top curtain drops and all sorts of flashlights, Wi-Fi and the like turn on. This is not my first Sony phone and my wife had a Z3 compact, many friends have Sony phones, and all phones have terrible build quality. There is a Sony TV and a camera and a tablet and everything works well without any complaints, but all Sony phones suffer from build quality! Now I dissuade my friends from buying Sony phones, I bought a Chinese for my wife in NG as a gift, I won’t buy a Sony phone for myself either. VERY DISAPPOINTED!!!

Flaws: All the pluses are nothing compared to the build quality, so 1 point. Opening the camera seconds 10, no less! The back surface is very scratched - cheap plastic. The battery is rather weak, waking up in the morning at 7 o'clock a charge of 10-15% - I recharge it with a 2-Amp charge to about 34-45% while I'm going to work, I come to work I put it to charge with my native charge, at 6 pm the charge is 100% at 18:30 I go out From the job. So judge, while I'm going home I listen to music, read, watch videos, the road is 2 hours, I don't use it so actively at home anymore, call, write ... Ie. in 13 hours 85-90% of the charge is eaten up, the backlight is at a minimum, it costs 1 sim. Unreal long charge, more than 4 hours if not touched!!! If you use and charge, it will be 5-6 hours. It got to 8 (the whole working day was charged) The support service said that according to the passport, the duration of charging for safe mode 4 hours 45 minutes!!!

Advantages: camera, ergonomics, front-camera, fits well in the hand, good camera.

BUT

Anonymous buyer

With the screen everything is clear, I hope. After a year and a half of use, the battery stupidly sits down in half a day, flashing did not help, sometimes it simply does not charge.

Flaws: The screen turned yellow around the edges after a year of use.
Battery.

Advantages: Speed, screen, camera.

Experience: over a year

To

Buyer

Kolpakov Alexey 5 reviews

I used Sony phones a few years ago. Now Sony has moved far ahead in the art of making budget phone so that you regret your purchase. For a little over a year, one sim card slot burned out, the camera no longer works. Constant overflow of memory, software glitches. As far as the phone is effective externally, it is terrible internally. The next phone will be any company, but not Sony.

Flaws: Glitchy software, insanely slow camera, unreliable hardware.

Advantages: Appearance, screen, separate SIM / card slots, image quality.

User experience: less than a month

BUT

Anonymous buyer

I am writing the most truthful review that you can find on the market! And so here you can see some bots and people who didn’t go further than the communication salon with this phone) Let's start with the fact that the phone itself is large in size, thin, but at the same time very comfortable and does not create discomfort. It flies into the pocket with a bang, so don’t listen to who says that this nonsense doesn’t fit anywhere!) I’ve been using it for half a year without a cover and so far there are no scratches, no scuffs, the quality of the materials is excellent. Before Sony, I had an iPhone 5 and now I regret that I spent 2 years on it. The world is changing and the quality of Android phones has also changed, I no longer see the point in overpaying for a gnawed apple. How I bought it was android 5.1.1. everything worked perfectly, it didn’t hang, it didn’t buggy, a month later it was updated to 6.0, it would seem there is nowhere better, but after the update it generally became 10 out of 10!) There are no screen glare either, don’t listen to any slag writing here, when the phone chose itself, I read this and there were doubts, but after buying and using it, I realized that all this negativity is Botovsky slag no more than well, or dudes for 20 thousand. they wanted to have space technology with a battery for a week ... In short, the people the phone is worth its money, it doesn’t blunt, it doesn’t buggy and all the declared functions work as expected!)

Flaws: 1) It takes a long time to charge on native charging

Advantages: 1) Gorgeous screen
2) Good battery
3) Good cameras
4) Performance
5) Sound quality (both headphones and speaker)
6) 2 sim + slash

Experience of use: several months

Buyer

2 reviews

A little less than a year of use, there was a jamb when playing videos or games where there are dynamic scenes. It consists in the periodic appearance from the edge of the screen, in the area of ​​electronic buttons, of the desynchronization strip in dynamic scenes. Video example:
The defect is not eliminated when you roll back to the factory settings, update the software. and so on. Crawls out when using any video player or game.
Rented to an authorized service center Sony, the phone was accepted, after which it was returned along with an unrepaired defect and an unsubscribe, saying that "the defect was not detected or is within the acceptable limits established by the manufacturer."
An example of an act of the ASC
Disappointed in the product from Sony and the service of the ASC. If for Sony there are jambs with a screen - this is "within acceptable limits" and everything is OK, I do not recommend anyone to buy Sony smartphones.

Flaws:- Short battery life;
- Shoals with a battery, after 20% it starts to discharge to zero in a matter of minutes;
- Long charging;
- heating;
- Desynchronization of one part of the screen with another (where the electronic buttons are located) when viewing an image;
- Sony service does not fulfill warranty obligations.

Advantages:- Big screen. Convenient to watch movies and use the Internet on the road;
- Good cameras.

Experience of use: several months For a year of use, I could not get used to this phone.
At latest update before 6.0, many contacts multiplied many times. There is no way to delete clones using the phone book: neither through merging, nor through "find similar". Deleting one clone of a contact deletes all others.

Flaws: bluetooth, software, battery, heating pad

Advantages: camera, screen, heating pad

Experience of use: several months

Color

General characteristics

Smartphone type Operating system Android OS version at launch Android 5.0 Case Type Classic Housing material aluminum and plastic Control on-screen buttons Number of SIM cards 2 Multi-SIM mode alternating Contactless payment yes Weight 187 g Dimensions (WxHxD) 79.6x164.2x8.2 mm

Screen

Screen type color IPS, 16.78 million colors, touch Touch screen type multitouch, capacitive Diagonal 6 inch. Image size 1920x1080 Number of pixels per inch (PPI) 367 Aspect Ratio 16:9 Automatic screen rotation there is

Multimedia features

Number of main (rear) cameras 1 Resolution of the main (rear) camera 13 MP Flash front and rear, LED Functions of the main (rear) camera autofocus Video recording yes (3GPP, MP4) Max. video resolution 1920x1080 Max. video frame rate 30 fps Geo Tagging yes Front-camera yes, 13 MP Audio MP3, FM radio Headphone jack 3.5mm

Connection

GSM 900/1800/1900, 3G, 4G LTE, LTE-A Support for LTE bands model E5533 - Bands 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20; Model E5563 - Bands 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 28, 40 Interfaces Wi-Fi 802.11n, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.1, USB, NFC Geopositioning A-GPS, GLONASS, GPS DLNA support yes

Memory and processor

Processor MediaTek MT6752, 1700 MHz Number of processor cores 8 Video processor Mali-T760 Built-in memory 16 GB Volume random access memory 2 GB Memory card slot yes, up to 200 GB, separate

Food

Battery capacity 2930 mAh Talk time 14.4 h Standby time 728 h Music listening time 60 h Charging connector type micro USB

Other features

Control voice dialing, voice control Flight mode yes A2DP profile yes Light sensors, proximity Flashlight yes Use as a USB storage device there is

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 the purchase is not bad ...

A little about the phablet market

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

“For the first 8 months in Russia, for the first time, more phablets** were sold than tablet computers with a screen less than 8.9 inches. In total, according to the results of January-August, sales of phablets in Russia amounted to about 3.5 million devices worth almost 44 billion rubles. Tablet phone sales in Russia grew by 128% in real terms and by 140% in money 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 sold compact tablet computers. 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 as a whole in pieces.

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

The popularity of tablet phones, in addition to the form factor and functionality, is also due to their growing availability. Despite the fact that the average smartphone bill in Russia grew 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. A more modest growth dynamics of the average bill of a tablet phone 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 has noticeably increased. A year ago, half of the tablet phones in Russia were sold by 3 companies: Samsung, SONY and Lenovo. They also received 60% of revenue in this category of smartphones. With the entry 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 a rapid development allowed the company to enter the top three brands of the most popular smartphones. 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 in terms of share in rubles have also undergone changes. Samsung managed to maintain its leadership in the segment. SONY and Lenovo are also in the top three, but Apple almost caught up with them - buyers took last year's novelties very positively, 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 PC market, certain categories of these devices are in steady demand. This applies in particular to tablets powerful processor which have been successfully used with special applications and for 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 attributed to phablets. 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 formally there are still sides, they are very thin and slightly protrude above the display. When you put the device with the display down, the screen does not touch the surface. The areas at the top and bottom are visually normal, you can't say that they are larger than in other devices. In general, the device is firmly knocked down, the weight is felt, it is pleasant. The C5 Ultra looks bigger and worse in pictures, 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.

In this model, the ideas of two devices were combined at once. This is the C-series - and therefore a 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 a SIM card are hidden under the cover, there will be a version with two SIM cards. It is gratifying that Sony does not 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 goes for installing applications. True, it is worth buying a normal card - normal in terms of manufacturer and speed. So that there are no problems with running programs.

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

It's interesting that rear end here it 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 body is very easily soiled, especially in the case of a black device. We advise you to watch our video about the device.

Separately, I want to say something about this. At the famous Sharp smartphone, so beloved by Artem, there are no frames at all, that is, they really do not exist. The Sony Xperia C5 has bezels on the sides, and, in fact, there are minimal bezels, the thickness is 0.8 mm.

As for the shoot button. She has two positions: press to focus, press harder, and the picture 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 start with the latest settings (for example, 13 MP and the selected white balance preset), but with default settings.

There is no water and shock protection, so you should not drown the C5 Ultra.

Display

There is a lot written on the Internet that a smartphone can use a display different companies with slightly different features. Two companies, Innolux LCM and Truly LCM, allegedly on C5 Ultra black and mint color has a Truly LCM screen, while white has an Innolux LCM screen. With the help of the service menu (*#*#7378423#*#*) I tried to see what the screen is, but the menu fails to break through to this item, you press it, but there is no reaction. If you also have C5 Ultra, post the results in the comments.

At first I read reviews about the fact that the display is faded, in fact, I would call the picture very, very calm - although for some it will seem faded and no other. Again, I suggest you look at the screen before buying.

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

Let me remind you that the iPhone 6 Plus has a display diagonal of 5.5 inches with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, while the Samsung Note 4 has a SuperAMOLED screen diagonal of 5.7 inches with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels. And, of course, 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 have implemented a reduction in screen size: swipe up from the bottom left edge, and the screen becomes smaller, just under the thumb. You can use all the functions of the device with one hand. The screen in this state can be moved up and down, slightly enlarged if necessary. The function is not bad, useful if one hand is busy.

Performance

The device ships with Android 5.0 and uses a Mediatek MT6752 chipset (Octa core 1.67GHz). 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 memory for data. Naturally, this is not enough, immediately get ready to buy a memory card. I have already said that it is 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, its own applications - for example, an antivirus and a program for determining tracks.

The device can not be called fast, in some applications the brakes are noticeable, the launch is long, there is heating. But when using ordinary, basic programs, everything is more or less good.

Work with two SIM-cards

For SIM-cards, one tray is used, this is a convenient solution, it is easily pulled out, it is also easy to put cards in. In the menu, you can programmatically disable the use of a second SIM card, select a SIM card for data transfer, activate the Always Connected function, so calls will be forwarded to another SIM card if the second one is not available. The device supports LTE (two SIM cards), which is already becoming the norm for devices in the middle price segment. I did not notice any problems in the operation of two SIM cards, except that those who like to save contacts to a SIM card will not be able to select the one they need - why do this now, I don’t know. Have phone memory backups. Unless you are constantly rearranging the "sim cards", then yes, you need such an option.

Working hours

Uses a 2930 mAh battery, claims 8 hours of video playback time. There is an Ultra STAMINA Mode, if less than twenty percent of the charge is left, it is worth turning it on.

It takes about four hours to charge using the bundled PSU, which is a little depressing. I used to put my smartphone on charge in the evenings, connecting it to PS4. Do not forget that the prefix easily copes with such a task, just one hundred percent overnight.

With normal use during the day, the battery does not drain quickly, the C Ultra easily survived until the evening, several times lasted until the morning. In general, as with most modern devices, count on battery life for a day.

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 do not know when you will be near the outlet in the near future.

Camera

Two cameras, each 13 MP, front-facing with LED flash focused on selfies, you can evaluate the quality by examples. For both cameras, the same effects are supported, by the way, they can be additionally downloaded for Xperia cameras from the Google store. Supports HDR for both cameras, automatic scene recognition for mode selection. Of the effects, there are AR effects traditional for Sony, 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, the download takes a couple of seconds, sometimes longer. There is a photo with sound, I did not understand this effect at all, nothing particularly attractive.

When Sony talked about new line, then they especially emphasized that we would fight hard for the quality of the pictures. As far as I can tell, this struggle has also affected the devices of the middle price segment, because the C5 Ultra takes good pictures, I suggest you evaluate the pictures yourself. My opinion is this: the camera can and should be used. It does not start immediately, it infuriates a huge number of extra settings instead of one setting - “Make a good shot”. The wide-angle selfie camera allows you to fit even a large company in the frame. If you use a monopod, then a huge group will fit.

conclusions

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

• Interesting design, aluminum frame (but only plastic scratches, keep that in mind). As for the metal, it's also interesting, when people take the C5 Ultra in their hands for the first time, they are surprised, it's unexpected to see such material in a device of the middle price category. On the other hand, now is such a time - every manufacturer in an oversaturated market is trying to offer more for the same money.
• The diagonal of the display is a plus for some, a minus for some. Of course, I would like to see a higher resolution screen with such a diagonal, but we are dealing with what we have. Note that I'm talking about the diagonal.
• Two SIM cards, LTE support - someone will say that there is no point in “dual”, but my friend uses C5 as a working tool, on big screen It is convenient to watch mail, in one device work and personal SIM-cards.
• 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 often take selfies).

• Leapfrog with displays. After all, people behave predictably, “they write on the Internet that the screens are DIFFERENT,” and problems of choice, discussion, speculation, and so on immediately begin. To some extent, the C5 can achieve the desired result using the white balance in the settings, but I would advise just looking at the screen before buying. it The best way understand whether to take or not to take.
• The performance is clearly different from the flagships, this is especially noticeable when the camera is working, there is no “immediacy”. 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 disadvantage, but one cannot but say about it.

The retail price is 25,000 rubles for the version with two SIM-cards, if you search, you can find cheaper. Given the pros and cons, the price tag is quite justified. I would like to recommend Sony not to 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 matte plastic case (less fingerprints and scratches), I personally really like OnePlus One cases. Simple and tasteful. I would like support fast charging, a larger capacity battery. I suppose we can see a lot of the above in Sony's flagship phablets.