Sony Xperia C review

Ketan Pratap, November 11, 2013

Mid-range smartphones might not attract as much attention as their flagship or high-end counterparts, but there is no denying that in markets like India, they are in massive demand.
Sony's new smartphone, the Xperia C is the company's attempt to win back some of the market share in mid-range segment it has lost over the past few years. The Sony Xperia C is also company's first tryst with a MediaTek processor.
Can the Xperia C with Xperia's signature design, dual-SIM support, and MediaTek quad-core processor deliver where the company's dual-core devices failed in the same segment? We try to find out.

Design/ Build
Sony seems to be following a consistent design strategy across the new Xperia range - the Xperia C boasts Sony's OmniBalance design, first seen in its flagship phone, Xperia Z, but misses out the rear glass panel and aluminium frames. The front and back of the Xperia C have a smooth finish, though the display is fingerprint magnet.

When we said it borrows design cues from its high-end Xperia siblings we weren't kidding, especially the distinctive metal power / lock button which is located half way down the right panel of the Xperia C. The power button protrudes out and was first seen in the Sony Xperia Z, although it's much smaller this time. Further, much like other Xperia handsets, this one also features a volume rocker and dedicated camera button on the right panel, all of which are easy to hit one-handed.

The straight soft touch plastic rear panel does mean that the Sony Xperia C sits comfortably in the hand and offers a good level of grip. The smartphone's rear, unlike the Xperia Z, is removable, hiding the dual-SIM and microSD card slots. Even though the phone has a removable back cover, the battery is notably non-removable.

Opening the back cover of the Xperia C is again not an easy task, and for the first time we opened it, we had to take some help from YouTube user-guide videos, just to ensure we avoided breaking the soft touch plastic rear panel.

The Sony Xperia C is a well balanced smartphone and although it may look chunky at the sides, it comes with dimensions measuring 141.5x74.1x8.8mm. The Sony Xperia C also comes in three colour variants - Black, Purple and White. We received the Black variant for review.

The front of the Xperia C is dominated by the 5-inch display with the standard Android buttons for back, home and recent apps appearing onscreen instead of below it. There is a Sony logo printed on top of the front panel, below the earpiece grill, where it the secondary VGA camera is placed. On the top edge lies the 3.5mm audio jack, while on the left panel is a micro-USB port for charging and transferring data.

The rear panel of the Xperia C houses an 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash; also on the back is Sony's logo printed on the centre while an Xperia logo can be found at the bottom, just above the speaker grill.

The handset can be used with one hand, and does give a sturdy feel in the hands, better than some Samsung Galaxy phones. All in all, the Sony Xperia C looks decent enough, but is slightly bland in design.

Display
The Sony Xperia C features a 5-inch TFT display with a resolution of 540x960 pixels, and pixel density stands at the mediocre 220ppi. Sony has given a miss to BRAVIA Engine for the display, which is expected since it's a mid-range phone. The Xperia C's 5-inch display is the same in size as that of the Xperia Z's display.

The Xperia C's 540x960 pixels qHD resolution display is pretty standard for a mid-range phone and we had to zoom in to read text on Web pages. The resolution and pixel density of the Xperia C is far lower than some of its competitors in a similar price segment, like the Micromax Canvas Turbo and Spice Pinnacle FHD, which boast of full-HD displays.

The display produced bright whites and vibrant colours; however the Xperia C's TFT display does not produce deep blacks, especially when compared to an AMOLED or IPS display. While the Sony Xperia C renders images and text sharply, we observed that high-resolution images didn't appear to be as sharp on the phone's display, due to its low overall resolution. The viewing angles on the smartphone are not that great, and when you tilt the Xperia C, one can notice colours losing their saturation.

The touch sensitivity of the Sony Xperia C is decent and we did not encounter any issues while using the device.

Sunlight legibility on the Xperia C was good when we used the phone with brightness set to the highest level, though the screen is reflective to some extent.

Camera

In terms of photographic ability, Sony has equipped the Xperia C with an 8-megapixel rear camera, accompanied by an LED flash with Exmor R for mobile image sensor. The rear camera sports features such as 4x digital zoom, HD (1080p) video recording, touch to focus and sweep Panorama. The Xperia C also includes HDR mode for video recording, which has been seen on some high-end Xperia siblings. 

Other features seen on Xperia C's camera app include portrait retouch, self-timer, self-portrait voice guide, smile shutter, focus mode, ISO, exposure value and one can even adjust camera resolution.

The dedicated camera button on the right panel of the Xperia C makes it easier to launch the camera app and click images, without depending on the onscreen app.

We did limited testing of the Sony Xperia C's rear camera in outdoor, dim and indoor environments and found that picture quality was average, though a bit washed out and grainy at edges.