Mobile phone sony xperia c5 ultra dual. Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual E5533 is a “selfie giant” without boundaries. Packaging and accessories of the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual smartphone

Sony Xperia C5 smartphone - review

On my last visit to Moscow, the Russian representative office of Sony did not have the opportunity to give me a new smartphone Sony Xperia Z5 to study (they had not yet appeared in the required quantity), and Sony offered to test another rather interesting smartphone - Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual. Having looked at this smartphone, I immediately agreed, because its characteristics looked very impressive. First of all, what attracted attention was the hefty six-inch display (I love these) 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 what is important, 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, it’s better to get to know this smartphone better. So - Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual, welcome!

Traditionally for Xperia, stereo speakers 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 in any way contribute to the “grip” of the device. The camera with flash is located in the center, which is very correct: for some reason, some manufacturers put the camera in a corner and this is very strong increases the likelihood that your finger will accidentally cover the camera while shooting. The right end has a round, convex power button, a volume rocker, which, in my opinion, is located a little low, and at the very bottom is the camera call button, traditional for Sony phones. I wholeheartedly approve of the presence of such a button. All three buttons have a short travel, and they are pressed rather indistinctly.
The top end is the output for the headset.
The left end is a flap, under which there is a slot for a memory card and a retractable slot for two nanoSIMs.

Well, this smartphone is next to the flagships from Samsung: Galaxy S6 edge+ and Galaxy Note 4.
The build quality and materials are, as expected, very high. The aluminum edges protrude slightly from the screen, and some reviewers expressed concern that they could cause cuts - in my opinion, this is complete nonsense. Display As we remember, in the Xperia series, users and experts had many complaints about the displays of some models. There is an IPS-matrix display made using OGS technology. Viewing angles are tolerable, however, when the vertical/horizontal deviation is somewhere from 45 degrees, the brightness noticeably drops, the colors fade, and 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 visible. It even, perhaps, looks better than on many other smartphones. The display has an anti-glare filter and an oleophobic coating. The image quality, colors, and fonts are at a good level. That is, in general, the display is without any delights, but of quite decent quality. Device operation Android 5.0, shell and proprietary applications - from Sony. Main desktop.

By the way, there are nuances with on-screen buttons. There are (from left to right) the “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 am used to the “Return” button being on the right. In all the smartphones that I came across, even if there was no “Menu” button (it is often changed to “List” running tasks"), then this menu could nevertheless always be called up by long pressing "Return" or "List of running tasks". For some reason this is not here - this is the first time I have seen this. Moreover, I corresponded with the developers - yes, this is kind of a feature. No. On the one hand, it’s not such a problem, because many applications contain an icon that calls up the menu. But not in all of them. For example, in the Nova Launcher shell there is no such icon and its settings were called up by the on-screen menu button. So you can't call here. This, of course, is avoided because there is a special icon for calling the Nova menu in the application window, but it is still somewhat unpleasant. Applications installed on the system.

The application window has advanced sorting and filtering capabilities - something that is sorely lacking from many other manufacturers.

Quick switch area. It's 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 several on the screen. 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 one-handed operation mode. 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 are holding it with), you can also change the image size and expand it to full screen. This is very well done!

Talk mode.

The sound quality during conversations is very good. The noise reduction system works quite effectively. But at first there were some strange problems with the mobile Internet. I think for the first time in the last few years I was faced with the fact that the mobile Internet did not work on the installed SIM card. Well, that is, the required APN was not automatically registered. You insert the SIM card into another phone - it works without problems. You insert it into this one - it doesn’t work. You call “Internet Options” in the settings - it tries to get the settings, but it gives an error. And it didn’t work until I found out which APN needs to be registered for this operator, and I 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 register it. I measured the speed of the mobile Internet - everything is in order.

There are a lot of options for selecting tracks, including folders.

Playback menu. Throw mode - playback media content (audio, images, video) from your phone to compatible devices wirelessly.

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.

Myst Nail2 armature earphones are not bad: the sound is clear, clear, volume is average, highs are moderate, bass is not noticeable at all.

Bose QuietComfort 25 over-ear headphones are mediocre: the sound is dull, a little “wobbly”, the bass is half-hint, the highs are generally bad.

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

Xperia specific features.

Select 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 simplified mode looks like with larger fonts.

Display settings.

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

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

The Stamina saving system has always worked well in Sony smartphones. Moreover, you don’t need to configure it specifically: just turn it on, after which the battery life improves noticeably.

Stamina settings.

Screen pinning function (prohibiting exit from a running application).

One-handed operation settings.

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 according to PC Mark. (Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ 5260.)

From a purely practical point of view, the performance of the smartphone is quite sufficient; it did not cause any 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 for calling the camera here works somehow strangely. When pressed normally, it does not call up 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 this 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 you call the camera using a button, the camera application appears with a characteristic sound signal that lasts about two seconds. And it doesn't turn off at all. The signal sounds even when all sounds are turned off in the camera application. Annoying - scary. At the same time, when you call the camera using the application icon, the signal does not sound. The camera interface is standard for Xperia. In the settings of shooting modes, there are traditionally a lot of all sorts of special effects: superimpose your face on a friend’s face (what a joy), inserting your face into a photo, photos with background sounds, artistic effects, shooting with virtual characters, and so on. You can also download additional applications there for processing photos when shooting.

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

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





In daylight, sometimes the exposure is a little messy - it gets too dark.





Text.





The front camera here is exactly the same as the rear one - a feature of the smartphone model, which is positioned as a “smartphone for selfies.” Well, what can I say, the quality of self-portraits is really excellent. Although our selfie lovers are mainly of the fair sex, and the phone is specifically unfeminine - large and heavy. Here are a couple of selfie examples. Example video.

By the way, the video is filmed, as they say, “not a fountain.” But as a camera it is at a good level. Very decent detail, good dynamic range, rich colors, white balance is not too bad, focuses well. Sometimes it gets a little dark, but that's easily fixed. (As you know, you can almost always pull out a slightly darkened frame, but with an overexposed one everything is much more difficult.) Battery life For a six-inch display, the battery here is not very powerful. However, the manufacturer claims a capacity of 2930 mAh, and my device showed that from scratch the battery gains 3341 mAh.
I first conducted 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-adjustment. All wireless types of communication are turned on, the page in the browser is updated every 30 seconds. 6 hours 35 minutes. Video. The screen is set to the comfortable 10th brightness level of the player (maximum 15th), auto-adjustment is disabled, the “Airplane” mode is turned on, and a television series with hardware decoding is playing in a loop in MX Player. A little less than 6 hours. It really sucks. 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 boot with various standard actions. This is what happened. (The Galaxy S6 edge+ with QHD resolution and almost the same battery has 7 hours 41 minutes.)

Then I turned on 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 normal use, everything also noticeably depended on whether the power saving mode was turned on. Without it, the smartphone survived normally until the evening (about 20-30 percent remained), but it did not survive for two days. With Stamina mode enabled, the smartphone could survive until the evening of the next day, but it was already on its last legs. So even with the use of Stamina mode, this smartphone must be charged at night. Observations during operation and conclusions The smartphone works stably and reliably, I did not notice any problems with it. The only glitch is that the camera is not always called up even when you long press the corresponding button. But this button generally works very strangely. Heating of the back cover only appeared when running “heavy” applications (for example, 3D games), but was quite insignificant. In general, I think that for such a price the phone turned out to be very interesting and worthy of attention. Branded 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, a smaller display, but a bigger battery and better camera - it costs €80 more in Europe. Between the two of them, I would, of course, choose this smartphone. P.S. But the Sony Xperia Z5 is common 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 09/17/15. The first thing that surprised me was after 2 weeks - when watching a video, the phone froze and no buttons responded, I had to press the reset button. On 11/17/15 I already sent it in for repairs under warranty - there was light on the screen - they changed the display on 11/24/15. About the long charging, the service department said that they found no defects. 12/7/15 - took it to the service center - the power button fell into the case. The service department said that they found no defects, but they put the button in the normal position. 12/10/15 it was ready. Apparently, when replacing the screen, it was installed incorrectly. At the same time, the metal frames of the case edging were scratched. I presented it to the service, wrote a complaint, they said that the answer would be within 10 days and they would call me. On 12/22/15 I called myself and went to see them. They wrote that it was like this before the delivery and the receiver didn’t notice. They did not answer the questions about how the examination was carried out, what methods and instruments were used to determine the age of the scratches, I asked to show photos before and after delivery (some services have this), they did not have them. The attitude towards customers is simply terrible. Sony claims to be a leader, but with such an attitude towards clients they will never achieve this. On 12/25/15 I submitted it for repair AGAIN!!! This time, when you touch the screen in one area, the phone detects a touch in another. This is not always, but periodically. 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 is tested normally, 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, my wife had a Z3 compact, there are many friends who have Sony phones, and all phones have terrible build quality. There is a Sony TV, a camera and a tablet and everything works well without any complaints, but all Sony phones suffer from build quality! Now I’m dissuading my friends from buying Sony phones, I bought a Chinese one for my wife on New Year’s Eve, and I won’t buy a Sony phone for myself again. VERY DISAPPOINTED!!!

Flaws: All the advantages are nothing compared to the build quality, so 1 point. Opening the camera takes 10 seconds, no less! The back surface is very scratched - cheap plastic. The battery is weak, waking up in the morning at 7 o’clock the charge is 10-15% - I recharge it with a 2 Amp charge to about 34-45% while I’m getting ready for work, when I come to work I set it to charge with my original charger, at 6 pm the charge is 100% at 18:30 I leave From the job. So judge, while I’m driving home I listen to music, read, watch videos, the journey is 2 hours, at home I don’t use it so actively anymore, call, write... That is. In 13 hours, 85-90% of the charge is consumed, the backlight is at a minimum, it costs 1 SIM. An unrealistically long charge, more than 4 hours if you don’t touch it!!! If you use and charge, it will be 5-6 hours. It reached 8 (it was charging all day long) The support service said that according to the passport, the charging duration in safe mode is 4 hours 45 minutes!!!

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

A

Everything is clear with the screen, I hope. After a year and a half of use, the battery stupidly dies in half a day, flashing the firmware did not help, sometimes it simply does not charge.

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

Advantages: Performance, screen, camera.

Use experience: more than a year

TO

Buyer

I myself used Sony phones several years ago. Now Sony has come a long way in its ability to make a budget phone that will make you regret your purchase. In just over a year, one SIM card slot has burned out and the camera no longer works. Constant memory overflow, software glitches. As impressive as the phone is on the outside, it's also terrible on the inside. The next phone will be from any company, but not Sony.

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

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

Use experience: less than a month

A

I am writing the most truthful review that YOU can find on the market! And as you look at, there are only bots and people who have never gone further than a 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 convenient and does not create discomfort. It fits into your pocket with a bang, so don’t listen to anyone here who says that it won’t fit anywhere! This is nonsense!) I’ve been using it for half a year, wearing it without a case, and so far there are no scratches or abrasions, the quality of the materials is excellent. Before Sonya, I had an iPhone 5 and now I regret that I spent 2 years using 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, didn’t hang, didn’t glitch, a month later I updated to 6.0, it seemed that it couldn’t be better, but after the update it became 10 out of 10!) There’s no screen glare either, don’t listen to all the rubbish writing here, when I chose the phone myself, I’ve read a lot of similar things and there were I have doubts, but after purchasing and using it I realized that all this negativity is nothing more than bot slag, or dudes for 20 thousand. they wanted to fuck space technologies with a battery for a week... In short, people the phone is worth the money, it’s not stupid, it’s not glitchy and all the declared functions work as expected!)

Flaws: 1) It takes a long time to charge on the original charger

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

Experience of use: several months

Buyer

A little less than a year of use, a jamb appeared when playing videos or games with dynamic scenes. It consists of a periodic appearance at the edge of the screen, in the area of ​​electronic buttons, of a desynchronization strip in dynamic scenes. Example video:
The defect is not eliminated by rolling back to factory settings or updating the software. and so on. It comes out when using any video player or game.
I took it to an authorized Sony service center, they accepted the phone, and then returned it along with the unresolved defect and a statement saying “the defect was not detected or is within the acceptable limits established by the manufacturer.”
Example of an ASC act
Disappointed in the Sony product and ASC service. If for Sony the problems with the screen are “within acceptable limits” and everything is ok, I do not recommend that anyone buy Sony smartphones.

Flaws:- Short battery life;
- Battery jambs, after 20% it starts to discharge to zero in a matter of minutes;
- Long charging;
- Heating;
- De-synchronization 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:- Large screen. Convenient to watch movies and use the Internet on the go;
- Not bad cameras.

Experience of use: several months After a year of using it, I still couldn’t get used to this phone.
With the latest update to 6.0, many contacts have multiplied many times. There is no way to remove clones using the phone book: neither through merging, nor through “find similar”. When you delete one contact clone, all others are deleted.

Flaws: bluetooth, software, battery, heating pad

Advantages: camera, screen, heating pad

Experience of use: several months

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 because there are 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.

The overall system performance in the AnTuTu Benchmark tests turned out to be approximately the same as that of the aforementioned Qualcomm Snapdragon 808, but there we have six cores, here we have eight.

In general, the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra has enough performance for smooth operation of the operating system (until the next Android update at least), for running any applications, for watching videos in Full HD and even for playing games. True, the MediaTek MT6752 platform in general and the Xperia C5 Ultra in particular have very little reserve for the future.

Autonomous operation

Recent Sony smartphones have had long battery life, especially the Xperia Z3 line. But the C5 Ultra has a larger screen, and the hardware is different. Frankly, I was a little afraid that the autonomy would be worse, but this did not happen. In tests, the smartphone showed very good results. In video playback mode, the smartphone lasted 6 hours 40 minutes, in reading mode – a little more than 10 hours, and under load (Epic Citadel with high quality graphics) – exactly 4 hours.

Let us remind you that battery life is tested with the energy-saving mode disabled at a brightness of 200 cd/m2. In the case of the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra, this was about a third of the maximum value.

Color

General characteristics

Screen

Multimedia capabilities

Connection

Memory and processor

Nutrition

Other features