What's good
- Vibrant display with good viewing angles
- Generally smooth performance
- Comfortable to hold
- Good low light picture quality for rear camera
What's bad
- Front camera quality picture grainy and lacks detail
- Frame rate drops for newer 3D games
- Poor outdoors performance for rear camera
- Mediocre battery life
The smartphone market is saturated with hundreds of devices ranging in price from low to high. It is a difficult world for many manufacturers to break through and they must find ways to stand above the crowd. Sony hopes to do just that with their self-focused smartphone – the Xperia C4.
Sony hopes to attract the younger crowd by marketing the Xperia C4 as the selfie-phone. Armed with a 13MP main camera and 5MP front camera, the Xperia C4 certainly has potential. When tested, the main surprised critics by taking excellent low light pictures. Surprisingly, in good light settings they found the camera struggled and pictures often were blurry or washed out. The front "selfie" camera did not fare better under the scrutiny of experts. The pictures they took often came out pixelated with bleached out colors. It became even worse indoors as their pictures often lacked detail and appeared grainy. It does have a couple features critics enjoyed such as front facing LED flash and a wide-angle lens that allowed them to fit more people in the shot.
Looking past the camera, the Xperia C4 is an adequate smartphone. Design-wise it neither excited nor disappointed reviewers. The curved back and matte finish made it easy for critics to hold despite its relatively large size of 5.9 x 3 inches. While made entirely of plastic, they also note build quality was solid with no apparent creaking or bending. Due to its unibody design, the back cover and therefore the battery are non-removable.
At the forefront of the device is a 5.5-inch full-HD (1080 x 1280p) IPS display. Reviewers praise its good viewing angles, excellent color reproduction and good brightness. They did notice it was slightly reflective, making it difficult to read in sunlight. Still, the screen comes with plenty of features that offset this slight issue. There are two image enhancements: Mobile Bravia Engine 2 (which enhances image and video quality) and Super Vivid Mode (which maximizes color while viewing photos and videos). It also comes with Glove mode so you don't have to worry about taking off your gloves during the winter to tap on the screen. When reviewers put it to the test they saw no decline in responsiveness when tapping with their naked or gloved fingers.
A 1.7GHz octa-core processor and 2GB of RAM power the Xperia C4. It also comes equipped with 16GB of internal storage, which is expandable up to 128GB via microSD card. For the most part, reviewers experienced no serious lag or hiccups when navigating the menu or even doing some light multi-tasking. They did, however, notice frame rate drops when playing newer 3D games though there was no such issue with older ones. Still, it performs well enough that Digital Versus states, "…overall this phone won't disappoint anyone who wants to play Android games. They won't be getting amazing benchmark results…but they will be able to run almost all games fairly smoothly." The 2,600mAh battery lasted reviewers around 12-14 hours with light to moderate use with this number dropping down to 5-6 hours when gaming heavily.
While the Xperia C4 has its good points, reviewers cannot recommend it as there are better phones for the price. Digit states, "It's really unfortunate, that despite being 'good' in a lot of aspects, the Sony Xperia C4 is simply no 'good enough'."
What the Critics Are Saying...
- Souvik Das, DigitIt’s really unfortunate, that despite being ‘good’ in a lot of aspects, the Sony Xperia C4 Dual is simply not ‘good enough’. It is not a standout brilliant performer, the front camera seriously lags, talking on calls became an issue because of the down-firing microphone...
Prices (Where to Buy)
Common Questions
We've got you covered! Download a free PDF copy of the Sony Xperia C4 user manual here.
Sony backs up the Xperia C4 with a 1 Year parts & labour warranty.
If your Xperia C4 has problems and is still within its warranty period, you could contact Sony support or the retailer you purchased the phone from. You'll find Sony's contact information here. If your phone is off warranty and needs repair for a physical problem such as a broken screen or bad battery, you should visit an authorized service centre or a local phone repair shop. You can also connect with others in The Informr Community Forum to find and share answers to questions.
Resources
Manuals / User Guides
- Sony Xperia C4 Manual (PDF)
Maybe one of your friends will find this review helpful? Please help us spread the word.
