Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Review

Table of Contents

OS, Apps and UI

Sony skinned Android 5.0 Lollipop with their own customization and unlike Samsung or LG, it has little footprint and doesn’t differ much from stock Android. Most of the changes are just icons and the app drawer. Small apps are also available for use, which is great since you have a lot of screen real estate to work at.

XperiaC5Ultra-screenshots2

There are a lot of pre-installed software. Some are Sony services, while others are third-party applications. If you don’t want them on your new device, you can easily uninstall them. Aside from that, Google services are also immediately available upon boot up.

XperiaC5Ultra-screenshots3

The device’s operating system will jump to Android 6.0 Marshmallow early next year, if Sony will keep its promise. Anyhow, Lollipop doesn’t lack any feature to keep this thing running well.

Camera and Multimedia

Both the front and rear camera have 13-megapixel Exmor RS shooter with single LED flash. Whichever you use, you’ll get almost the same results.

XperiaC5Ultra_camera

The rear camera can snap quickly with good amount of details. Saturation levels are in check but exposure seems to struggle a bit sometimes. Here are some samples taken:

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Compared to other smartphones, the rear camera is nothing new, but the front camera, that’s where the C5 Ultra gets the award. It produces identical results from the rear camera but with a wide-angle lens. Here are some selfies by the Mi Bunny:

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Video quality is good. Both sensors can record up to 1080p @ 30fps. Continuous autofocus works fine, as well as exposure compensation. Digital stabilization is doing pretty good too, but not as smooth as optical stabilization. Check out a sample from the rear camera below:

As mentioned earlier, content sharing is the phablet’s core function. Viewing videos or photos on a large high-resolution display is definitely better than on any tiny, pixelated devices. The display does a pretty good job in delivering visuals, but the speaker? Not that much.

The device has two slits in front, giving the illusion of stereo speakers, yet the loudspeaker only fires from one side. The sound comes from the bottom slit of the device in portrait and it bugs us a bit when in landscape due to the fact that only the right (or left, depending on your orientation) side has audio. It makes us feel that we only have one functioning ear. On the brighter side, the loudspeaker can get strong and is able to fill in a small room.

Next Page: Performance and Benchmarks / Call Quality and Connectivity / Battery Life / Conclusion

Daniel Morial

This article was contributed by Daniel Morial, a film school graduate and technology enthusiast. He's the geeky encyclopedia and salesman among his friends for anything tech.

http://www.yugatech.com

13 Comments

IVM says:

9 years ago

I saw this in the mall. It looks great and build quality is ok. But why 18k for Mtek processor and 2G ram? That’s not gonna get you far! Before this year ends, with all the updates you sure will be receiving, those specs will fail you soon enough!
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C5 user says:

9 years ago

I was so excited when I purchased Sony C5 last October because of its superb features but a month after, the delay in auto rotate started til it finally wont rotate. Various problems came in, one after another; battery drains faster, back is extremely hot while watching video, jack rejects earphone plug . So I took it to Sony sevice center, there I found 2 other customers having almost same isue as mine. Also, my friend got one too and having issues also, sigh. I love Sony and it’s my fourth Sony phone but never had this issue before. I’m dismayed but I still believe in Sony, I hope they will fix it.
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Teeyoy says:

9 years ago

Dear C5 user, planning to get this for my wife (camera/selfie buff). Any updates on the service status? thanks

MhaskEdRider says:

9 years ago

Ganda ng spex…. mukhng mas mgnda sa hands on lolz
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kabebegirl says:

9 years ago

Anguapo naman ng phone na’to, parang yong author ng article lang hihihi *kiligmats*
- Reply

mac ho says:

9 years ago

Best Comment foe the author… reply naman jan author para di masayang ang effort ni KABEBEGIRL! hehehe

James says:

9 years ago

2gb ram and a mediatek cpu? Good luck Sony.
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Roni says:

9 years ago

Sony Pricing is its biggest problem. Some say it’s because they are more durable. From a c4 user I can say its not true.
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John E. Decena says:

9 years ago

Beautiful body and screen but with less than 10k specs…
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FIELDER says:

9 years ago

So ano ngang sub10K na phone ang itatapat mo sa C5?
John Decena says:

9 years ago

Its the inside that counts and not the brand, sony nga ganda ng design pero midrange lang ang loob, there are mediatek phones that are way powerful for a 10k price tag…you want the rel deal??? Get the sony premium flagship phones if the price doesn’t matter to you…
Fielder says:

9 years ago

Get out of here if you think this phone have less than 10K specs.

anong itatapat na phone mo dito worth 10k or less?

Sony phones are way overpriced but this is not a sub-10K phone.

IMO i think this should be somewhere around 13.5k-15K with official Sony warranty. Around 11-12K for grey units.