Sony Xperia C4 Dual is an upgrade to Sony Xperia C3 and targeted to higher mid range smartphone users who are crazy for Selfies. We have used Xperia C4 Dual for more than two weeks and this review is based on our experience during that period. The competition in Indian smartphone market is cut-throat one and many OEMs are vying for different consumer segments.
The pricing of Sony Xperia C4 dual puts it into the initial premium category or the higher mid range budget category in Indian market with devices like OnePlus 2, Moto X Play, Nexus 5 etc. are some of the key or popular devices. Let’s check out how good Sony Xperia C4 dual is and if it gives some competition to other devices or not.
Sony Xperia C4 specifications
- Display : 5.5-inch Full HD IPS with Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 display, scratch resistant glass for protection
- CPU : 1.7 GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6752 processor
- GPU : 700 MHz Mali 760 MP2
- RAM : 2 GB
- Storage : 16 GB internal, up to 128 GB expandable via microSD card
- OS: Android 5.0 (Lollipop)
- Dual SIM support
- Camera : 13 MP rear camera with LED flash, Exmor RS sensor, 1080p video recording and 5 MP front-facing camera with 25 mm wide-angle lens, Exmor R sensor & 1080p video recording
- Dimensions : 150.3 mm x 77.4 mm x 7.9 mm
- Weight : 147 grams
- FM Radio with RDS
- Connectivity : 4G LTE / 3G HSPA+, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, NFC
- Battery : 2600 mAh
Design, Hardware and Build Quality
In terms of design and build quality, it looks like almost any other Xperia device. Even though the it is a premium device, the plastic back cover often may give you a feel of non premium device. The back cover is non-removable, but you may get confused by the build that it can be removed or opened. It is also a dirt magnet and can get dirty if placed on a dirty table or surface.The back part consists of the 13 MP rear camera with LED flash at the top and the speaker grill at the bottom along with the usual Xperia & Sony logo.
The right side of the device comes with the power button ( big circular & metallic) ,Volume rocker button and the dedicated camera button. The same side also holds the two nano SIM card slots and SD card slot (three separate slots). The other side of the device comes with the micro USB port which can be used for data transfer and charging. The bottom part comes with mic. There are no physical buttons but only the on-screen menu or navigation keys just like Nexus 4. The side corners are round and smooth.
The front camera with LED flash are placed at the top-right corner on the front side or the screen.
Even though it is 5.5 inch device, you wont feel odd while holding it. The weight of the device is just 147 gms and you will feel that it is lighter than almost any other big phone that you have ever used.
The front camera and LED flash is grouped into the top-right corner
It is powered by 1.7 GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6752 processor with 700 MHz Mali 760 MP2 GPU along with 2 GB of RAM giving it good enough power to run it smoothly under varying conditions.
Xperia C4 Device Shots
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Display
Sony Xperia C4 Dual sports a 5.5-inch Full HD IPS with Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 display with scratch resistant glass for protection. The display appears crisp and clear with good Colour reproduction in varying lighting conditions and even in direct sunlight. The viewing angles are good and we didn’t face any issues in terms of viewing angles. The ambient light sensor works great which lets you use the device display even in direct sunlight.
Performance, Gaming and Benchmarks
During our review period of one week, we didn’t encounter any issues like lags in the UI or any other problem which hangs up the smartphone. Everything worked great without any issues. Even when you play graphics intensive games like Asphalt 8, you won’t face any lag or frame drops. The graphics and color reproduction during the game play is great. Similarly if you are multitasking and too many apps including heavy games are open, then also the device performs great without any issues. In terms of heating, we didn’t feel much of heating and it was only few degrees even after playing for 15-20 minutes of Asphalt 8 continuously.
In terms of Benchmark scores, it came out with a score of 45,300+ score which is a good score which is almost equivalent to Antutu scores of Oneplus one, Oneplus 2 and ASUS Zenfone 2.
It comes with 16 GB internal storage along with support for expandable memory via microSD card up to 128 GB. Approximately 10-11 GB of storage space is available for the end-user as almost 5-6 of space is used by Android operating system and other pre-installed apps. It also supports USB OTG devices and hence you can add external storage using USB OTG flash drive to expand your storage along with the micro SD card.
It comes with dual SIM 4G support which means that you can use two 4G SIMs at the same time. We used it on Airtel 4G network SIM during all our testing / review period and it worked great. We were able to get good speeds on 4G network based on the signal present in the area at the moment.
The sound from speakers are decent but not too much loud.
Camera
Xperia C4 Dual comes with 13 MP rear camera with LED flash, Exmor RS sensor and 5 MP front-facing camera with 25 mm wide-angle lens, Exmor R sensor. Both cameras come with support for 1080p video recording. We used both the cameras for almost a week shooting images in different lighting conditions. The main rear camera even though produced some good shots, but it did produce some bad shots even in normal lighting conditions. In some of the shots, colors were washed out. The performance in low light conditions was better, but still if it goes too dark then you wont be able to take good pictures.The front selfie camera was able to produce some good selfies, but yes don’t expect it to take pics which are not selfies. You can feel the amount of noise, washed out colors in some of the front camera shots.
The camera app came with different modes for clicking pictures which do help you click some good shots under different conditions. It came with few creative modes for taking selfies and you can click some amazing selfies by inserting different objects in your selfies in real-time without doing anything special. You can check out the main camera samples below.
Camera Samples
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Battery
The device is powered by a2600 mAh Li-Polymer non-removable battery. In terms of battery life, the performance was good and we were able to use it easily for more than a day under our usual usage of browsing, twitter, Facebook, emails and whatsapp etc along with the usual calling. Under moderate or heavy usage, it did last almost full day and needed to be charged again in the night.
The device OS comes with different battery modes which can help extend battery life. Some of the battery modes that are included are : Stamina mode, Ultra Stamina Mode and Low Battery Mode. Each of these mode comes with different sets of settings which can be used when your battery starts reaching near to lower level , say 15%.
Operating System and UI
We at Androidpure always prefer a stock Android operating system on a smartphone instead of OEMs own custom UIs and this one does look near to stock UI. Even though Sony has put its own UI on top of Android Lollipop, the integration is quite good. We liked the UI and it was quite smooth.
The only grudge that we have with the operating system UI is, additional apps that came pre-installed. Even though some apps are useful to different set of consumers, yet we do prefer stock UI with no extra apps. That’s our opinion at Androidpure.
You can customize the looks and feel of the device by changing themes, wallpapers, clocks and even status bar icons.
It also gives you an option to use ” one-handed operations” mode if you are feeling uncomfortable sometime due to the size of the device.
Screenshots
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Conclusion
In short, Xperia C4 dual turned out to be great device. But it faces some stiff competition in same price range from popular devices like Oneplus one, Oneplus 2, Moto X Style etc. We feel the device is a bit priced at Rs. 29, 490 even though you can get it at discounts on online portals too. We do understand that Sony devices are priced a bit more as they claim to offer the brand value and quality, yet we believe a better pricing of the device would have helped consumers by pushing them a bit more to buy the device.
