Sony Xperia C3 and C3 Dual review: Let me take a selfie

The Sony Xperia C3 is touted as a PROselfie smartphone but it could've easily been missed in a growing crowd of handsets boasting high-res wide-angle front cams. Sony's first 5MP front-facer with a 25mm wide-angle lens sure took a while, yet latecomer Xperia C3 is keen to jump the queue. It's one of the few to offer a LED flash on the front, taking selfie photography to the next level.

   
Sony Xperia C3 official pictures

As a midrange package, the Sony Xperia C3 looks nearly spot-on. The 5.5" IPS display of 720p resolution is enhanced by the Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2, while the Snapdragon 400 chipset with four Cortex-A7s clocked at 1.2GHZ and 1GB of RAM must've been an easy pick. The Xperia C3 comes in two flavors: one with LTE connectivity and a dual-SIM version that's said to have dual-call support, still quite a rare option.

The rear camera of the Sony Xperia C3 got none of the special treatment the front cam received. The Xperia C3 has the 8MP ExmorRS BSI sensor that has been the popular choice in Sony's midrange since the original Xperia C. This time around, it is paired with an even more powerful LED flash, so it will hopefully do better in low-light.

Let's check out the complete feature list.

Key features

• Available as Xperia C3 dual with Dual SIM support or Xperia C3 with LTE support, cat. 4 LTE (150/50Mbps);
• 5.5" Triluminos IPS LCD, 720 x 1280 pixels, 267ppi
• Android 4.4.2 KitKat with Xperia UI on top
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset with quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A7 processor, Adreno 305 GPU and 1GB of RAM
• 8MP rear camera, single LED flash, 1080p video recording
• 5MP wide-angle front-facing camera with LED flash and HD video recording
• Wi-Fi b/g/n; Bluetooth 4.0; ANT+; GPS/GLONASS; FM radio with RDS; USB On-The-Go; NFC
• 8GB of built-in storage, expandable via a microSD card slot
• Active noise cancellation with a secondary microphone
• 2,500mAh battery; STAMINA Power Saving Mode

Main disadvantages

• Thick bezels make the device bigger than 5.5" peers
• Battery isn't user-replaceable
• The 5MP front cam doesn't offer 1080p video recording
• The Xperia C3 dual seems to lack the advertised dual-call functionality

The bezels are perhaps the biggest issue of an otherwise pretty good design. Above the screen, the upgraded front cam complete with an LED flash is a pretty good excuse, but the unused space below the screen is hard to explain. The selfie cam cannot shoot Full HD video and this is another questionable decision.

Otherwise, the Snapdragon 400 is still capable of pulling its weight and the choice between LTE and Dual-SIM is boosting the pair's prospects. We are reviewing the Dual SIM flavor of the smartphone, but in terms of looks and functionally, the two models are identical.

   
Sony Xperia C3 Dual live picture