Sony has been criticised in the past for being slow to market with some of their handsets – at least in their mid-tier range. THat seems to be at an end with the Xperia M5 and Xperia C5 handsets, both announced only a couple of months ago showing up on the Sony Australia website with pricing.
Though both handsets aren’t yet shipping (they’re listed as out of stock currently), they should be ready to launch soon. The Sony Xperia M5 will be available in Australia in White, Black and Gold colour options for $599 with free shipping from Sony Australia. The Sony Xperia C5 will also be shipping for free from Sony Australia in White, Black and Mint colour options for $549.
Xperia M5
The Xperia M5 comes with an IP65/68 rating with a capless microUSB port. The Xperia M5 drops the ‘Aqua’ tag of its predecessor the Xperia M4 Aqua which launched in Australia in early August on Optus.
The Xperia M5 comes with a focus on the camera with a 21.5MP rear camera with a familiar 5x Clear Image Zoom that was also announced for the higher end Xperia Z5. The ‘selfie’ experience has been much improved with a 13MP front facing camera added to the M5.
Hardware wise, the Xperia M5 comes with a 5″ FullHD Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 display and is powered by a 64-bit Mediatek elio X10 octa-core processor clocked at 2.0GHz with 3GB of RAM. The M5 also comes with 16GB of storage, but offers the option of using up to 200 GB microSD card.
Xperia C5 Ultra
The Sony Xperia C5 line is fast becoming known as their ProSelfie line, with 13MP cameras on both the front and rear but with a focus on ‘Selfies’ you’ll be pleased to see a front mounted flash on the Xperia C5 Ultra to make sure you’re never fumbling in the dark for the perfect shot.
The Xperia C5 ultra uses Exmor sensors for the camera with HDR for both still shot and video. The Camera software also offers auto scene recognition for best results on ‘Auto mode’ because in all honesty, that’s what almost everyone shoots in. The hardware on the selfie cam is enhanced by a 22mm wide-angle lens to make sure you get all your friends in those ‘Groufies’ when you’re out and about.
Under the hood you’ll again find a MediaTek processor, though this time clocked at 1.7GHz and 2GB of RAM. There’s 16GB of storage on the C5 Ultra, but again you can add up to a 200GB microSD card.
Analysis
There’s unfortunately no IP rating for the Xperia C5 Ultra, which makes the $50 price difference between the two mostly about whether you want to save the money and get a front-facing flash and slightly lower internal specs. At this stage we’d really recommend going for the M5 as the M4 Aqua turned out to be a great phone.
We’ll be in touch with Sony Australia for more information on the launch date for the phones, so stay tuned.
