Sony Xperia C5 Ultra review: Crowd selfie

Performance

The Sony Xperia C5 Ultra is powered by the Mediatek MT6752 SoC - the same one ticking inside the Xperia C4. It pack eight Cortex-A53 CPU cores clocked at 1.7GHz and capable of working simultaneously.

The octa-core processor is coupled with a Mali-T760MP2 GPU and 2GB of RAM, and since those handle 1080p apps, the C5 Ultra should offer the same synthetic performance as the previous C4 model.

The battery of tests starts as usual with Geekbench 3.0, which measures RAW CPU performance. Mediatek's True octa-core concept is a real beast and C5 Ultra posts a beastly score - the same as its C4 predecessor, but unmatched among its rivals in the midrange.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  4242
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  4226
• LG G Flex2
  3604
• Samsung Galaxy A8
  3375
• Motorola Nexus 6
  3285
• Oppo R7 Plus
  3204
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  3094
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  2709
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  2670
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  1359

The popular Antutu benchmark has become an industry standard for overall performance, and it evaluates CPU, graphics, memory and storage, the lot. Another great performance here, the Xperia C5 Ultra smokes the S615-powered Oppo R7 Plus and is on par with the S810-equipped LG G Flex2. Its GPU isn't shining, but it compensates with its powerful processor.

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• Motorola Nexus 6
  49803
• Samsung Galaxy A8
  49554
• LG G Flex2
  47680
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  46502
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  46307
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  45632
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  42460
• Oppo R7 Plus
  37750

The Xperia C5 Ultra fails to impress in Basemark OS II 2.0, but does as much as a Snapdragon 615 device would do (Galaxy A8, Oppo R7 Plus).

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• LG G Flex2
  1726
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  1353
• Motorola Nexus 6
  1267
• Samsung Galaxy A8
  1089
• Oppo R7 Plus
  968
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  939
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  931

Single core-performance is led by the Snapdragon 801s, though they rely on an entirely different quad-core architecture and thus obviously pack more punch per core.

Basemark OS 2.0 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi Note
  6068
• Motorola Nexus 6
  5624
• LG G Flex2
  5597
• Samsung Galaxy A8
  4338
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  2900
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  2872
• Oppo R7 Plus
  2707

Unsurprisingly, the Xperia C5 Ultra and its C4 sibling lead the way in the multi-core test, with S615 Oppo R7 Plus a mile behind, and noticeably faster than the top-dog Snapdragon 810.

Basemark OS 2.0 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  24035
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  21809
• Samsung Galaxy A8
  21753
• Motorola Nexus 6
  21026
• LG G Flex2
  18856
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  17882
• Oppo R7 Plus
  16784

Graphics performance is less exciting but mostly adequate for the mid-range class. The results are not what they initially appear though, as the top spots are occupied mostly by the 2014/2015 flagships, which benefit from their superior GPUs.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• LG G Flex2
  49
• Motorola Nexus 6
  38.9
• Samsung Galaxy A8
  31
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  28
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  27.2
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  23
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  16
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  15
• Oppo R7 Plus
  15
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  5.8

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• LG G Flex2
  22
• Motorola Nexus 6
  18.6
• Samsung Galaxy A8
  13
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  11.3
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  11
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  6
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  6
• Oppo R7 Plus
  6

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• LG G Flex2
  48
• Samsung Galaxy A8
  30
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  28
• Motorola Nexus 6
  27.4
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  19.5
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  16
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  15
• Oppo R7 Plus
  15
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  10.9

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• LG G Flex2
  22
• Samsung Galaxy A8
  14
• Motorola Nexus 6
  11.9
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  11
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  6.9
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  6.4
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  6.4
• Oppo R7 Plus
  6.3
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  4.1

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Motorola Nexus 6
  20901
• LG G Flex2
  19360
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  13075
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  11875
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  11606
• Samsung Galaxy A8
  8838
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  5695
• Oppo R7 Plus
  5349

Moving on to browser benchmarks, things don't look all that well for the Xperia C5 Ultra. Even though it's running nothing but Chrome, thus supposedly avoiding blunders by the manufacturer's software engineers, the C5 Ultra is consistently trailing, both in the JavaScript-focused Kraken 1.1 and the broader BrowserMark 2.1.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• LG G Flex2
  4621
• Samsung Galaxy A8
  5094
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  6072
• Motorola Nexus 6
  6088
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  6382
• Oppo R7 Plus
  11908
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  15815
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  17157

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• LG G Flex2
  2086
• Samsung Galaxy A8
  1992
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  1543
• Motorola Nexus 6
  1447
• Oppo R7 Plus
  1224
• Sony Xperia C5 Ultra
  860
• Sony Xperia C4 Dual
  793
• Xiaomi Mi Note
  748

All in all, the Sony Xperia C5 Ultra proves to be a capable performer, with strong results in processor benchmarks and average graphics for its class. It does have its weak spot, and that's browser performance, though.