Sony Xperia C3: World’s Best Selfie Phone

The whole world is obsessed with selfies. You will often spot someone extend an arm and smile at the camera making attempts to shoot a nice picture. With most devices, the secondary camera has a low resolution and doesn’t yield good results. Most of the devices feature small sensors and average lenses. That is why people use the primary camera but it is hard to shoot using that camera as one can’t see the viewfinder. Also most devices don’t have a camera key so it is hard to shoot using the on screen key. This new device called Xperia C3 takes the selfie thing quite seriously. For that, they have put a 5 megapixel front camera on the device. There is also a soft flash so that you can shoot even in the dark. This lens has a 25 mm focal length so you can cover more area than the usual crop of front cameras. We take a closer look at the rest of this device and figure out what this device is like.

Design

The device is quite large as it comes with a 5.5 inch display. It measures 156.2 x 78.7 x 7.6 mm so even with the large display, they have kept the dimensions in control. The device is quite slim at 7.6 mm. it isn’t exactly very light at 150gms but considering the size of the device, it is acceptable. One handled operation is strictly out of question here. The slim profile helps a bit with device handling and prevents it from slipping off your hands. It carries the familiar Sony design. There is a bezel of significant thickness around the display. Also there is the familiar metal band along the sides and the big round power key on the right spine. The device doesn’t look very impressive with its plastic back but it doesn’t look bad either.

Display

There are times when it is hard to understand why manufacturers put large displays on their devices if they are not going to increase the display resolution. The Sony Xperia C3 is another such device where they haven’t bothered about the resolution for the display size. On the 5.5 inch display, they have gone for 720p resolution. Now that resolution is pretty good for displays below 5 inches in size but for this size, we need full HD. On this display, you get a pixel density of about 267 ppi. That said, the display isn’t very bad. The resolution is decent for everyday use. Although you will notice that it is far from crisp. It is an IPS display so the color reproduction is pretty good. The viewing angles are very impressive and the contrast ratio is pretty good.

Hardware

The device comes with hardware that is pretty standard on most mid range devices. There is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset with a quad core processor running at 1.2 GHz and an Adreno 305 GPU. It comes with 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal storage. To make up for the low internal storage, it comes with a micro SD card slot. The hardware is powered by a 2500mAh battery which is fairly big for the device. It also features a stamina mode which would help the user extract the most out of its battery.

There are two variants of this device. The single SIM variant supports 4G networks while the dual SIM variant doesn’t. The models will be sold in specific markets as required. Apart from this, both the models share the specifications which include support for 3G HSDPA up to 42 Mbps, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, GPS and micro USB 2.0. It gets the standard crop of sensors that you would find on an android device.

Camera

The people at Sony have been talking really big about the front camera on this device. We have seen similar resolution cameras on many other devices including some really affordable devices from domestic manufacturers. So what is it that makes it stand out? Well the first thing is that 5 megapixels is still a high resolution for a front camera and they have also included decent optics with the sensor. The lens has a focal length of 25 mm which ensures that you can cover more area without placing it too far. There is also a soft flash facing the front which would help you capture nice selfies even in low light. They have also added other software features that would allow you to capture the photos in multiple ways like the smile shutter and it also gives the option to process them easily on your device only. The primary camera of the device isn’t bad either. It is a fairly decent 8 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash. It can record full HD videos and comes with features like HDR, touch focus and face detection.

Software

The device comes with Android 4.4.2 KitKat which is fairly new. It comes with the Sony skin on top of it. The job is well executed here as they haven’t gone very radical with the changes. The app launcher is better than the stock android launcher as it allows for more customization. They have modified the notification drawer as well. The icons are different from stock android and they have replaced many apps with their own version. Some of these apps are gallery, music player and camera.

Verdict

Sony has been advertising this device as the selfie camera. We agree the front camera of the device is pretty good but rest of the device is pretty normal. The display is unimpressive and should have higher resolution. The device has got a nice design and is available in Mint color as well apart from the usual black and white. The hardware is very common and you would find it on a lot of devices. Not that it is a bad performer but it isn’t very powerful, especially with the current crop of android games.