The Xperia C is Sony's first device we meet running on the MediaTek's best quad-core chispet. It is powered by a quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A7 low-powered processor, with PowerVR SGX544 graphics and 1GB of RAM.
The Cortex-A7 processor clocked at 1.2GHz delivers a decent mid-range performance very close to the Cortex-A9 chips, with the added benefit of lower power consumption.
Our first test is all about single-core performance, where the Xperia C scored similar results to most of the Cortex-A9-powered competitors.
Benchmark Pi
Lower is better
LG G2 99
Sony 115
Sony Xperia Z Ultra 115
Samsung Galaxy S4 Active 130
Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa) 132
Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600) 132
HTC Butterfly S 135
LG Optimus G Pro 147
HTC One 151
Samsung Galaxy S4 mini 166
Sony Xperia Z 264
HTC Butterfly 266
Oppo Find 5 267
HTC One X+ 280
LG Optimus G 285
HTC One mini 293
Samsung Galaxy Note II 305
HTC One X (Tegra 3) 330
LG Optimus 4X HD 350
Samsung Galaxy S III 359
Sony Xperia C 374
Nexus 4 431
Next up, we put all four cores to the test in the multi-core version of the Linpack benchmark. The Sony Xperia C either had some problems with the test or it is just that bad. Anyway its score is almost identical to the quad-core LG Optimus 4X HD.
Linpack
Higher is better
LG G2 1054
Sony Xperia Z Ultra 1034
Sony Xperia Z1 1004
Samsung Galaxy S4 Active 818
Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa) 791
Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600) 788
LG Optimus G Pro 743
HTC Butterfly S 669
HTC One 646
Sony Xperia Z 630
HTC Butterfly 624
LG Optimus G 608
Oppo Find 5 593
Samsung Galaxy S4 mini 413
HTC One mini 320
Samsung Galaxy Note II 214.3
Nexus 4 213.5
HTC One X+ 177.7
Samsung Galaxy S III 175.5
HTC One X 160.9
LG Optimus 4X HD 141.5
Sony Xperia C 132.3
We also run the GeekBench 3 CPU benchmark. The Xperia C matched the score of the Oppo R819, which is powered by the same MT6589 chipset, both occupying bottom spots in our chart.
Geekbench 3
Higher is better
Sony Xperia Z Ultra 2670
Sony Xperia Z1 2638
LG G2 2243
HTC One 1972
Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600) 1869
LG Optimus G 1623
Huawei Ascend P6 1315
LG Nexus 4 1288
HTC Butterfly 1257
Sony Xperia C 1079
Oppo R819 1047
HTC One mini 887
AnTuTu 4 gauges the overall device performance instead of just the CPU and the Sony Xperia C managed to output half the scores of the top Snapdragon 800 chips. The Quadrant test does the same as AnTuTu, but the Xperia C fell in the bottom of our chart there among the quad-core Crotex-A9 droids.
AnTuTu 4
Higher is better
Sony Xperia Z1 30850
LG G2 30243
Sony Xperia Z Ultra 29185
Samsung Galaxy S4 27613
HTC One 26389
LG Nexus 4 17006
Sony Xperia C 13948
Quadrant
Higher is better
Sony Xperia Z1 20388
LG G2 19815
Sony Xperia Z Ultra 18177
HTC Butterfly S 13130
Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa) 12446
Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600) 12376
LG Optimus G Pro 12105
HTC One 11746
Samsung Galaxy S4 Active 11346
Sony Xperia Z 8075
HTC One X+ 7632
LG Optimus G 7439
Samsung Galaxy S4 mini 7153
Oppo Find 5 7111
HTC One mini 6048
HTC One X 5952
Samsung Galaxy Note II 5916
Samsung Galaxy S III 5450
Sony Xperia C 4941
Nexus 4 4567
It's time to test the PowerVR SGX544 graphic processing unit. We ran both GLBenchmark tests in off-screen mode, testing raw GPU power. The Xperia C fell at the bottom of our charts, which means the PowerVR SGX544 GPU is the weaker among all 2013 chipsets.
GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt (1080p off-screen)
Higher is better
Sony Xperia Z1 60
Sony Xperia Z Ultra 60
LG G2 54
Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa) 43
HTC Butterfly S 42
Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600) 41
Samsung Galaxy S4 Active 41
HTC One 37
Oppo Find 5 32
Google Nexus 4 32
Sony Xperia Z 31
Sony Xperia ZL 31
Sony Xperia SP 31
Apple iPhone 5 30
LG Optimus G Pro 30
LG Optimus G 21
Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 17
Samsung Galaxy S4 mini 17
Samsung Galaxy Note II 17
HTC One mini 15
HTC One X 11
Sony Xperia C 10
GLBenchmark 2.7 T-Rex (1080p off-screen)
Higher is better
Sony Xperia Z1 23
Sony Xperia Z Ultra 23
LG G2 22
Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600) 17.1
Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa) 17.1
Apple iPad 4 16.8
HTC Butterfly S 16
Samsung Galaxy S4 Active 16
Google Nexus 10 13.9
LG Optimus G 13.9
Sony Xperia Z 13.5
Sony Xperia Tablet Z 13
Sony Xperia ZL 12.8
Samsung Galaxy S4 mini 6.4
Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 6.3
HTC One mini 5.6
Samsung Galaxy Note II 4.9
Sony Xperia C 2.8
We also ran Epic Citadel benchmark on the Ultra High Quality setting. Here the Xperia C showed even though its GPU may be struggling to handle 1080p screens, the PowerVR SGX544 graphic chip offers nicely playable framerates on the qHD resolution display. And a strong case can be made that this is what actually counts.
Epic Citadel
Higher is better
Sony Xperia Z1 54.9
Sony Xperia Z Ultra 54.9
LG G2 51
Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600) 37.2
Sony Xperia C 36.3
HTC One 35.6
HTC Butterfly 29.6
The JavaScript performance of the Sony Xperia C's Chrome browser is is quite decent, matching the Snapdragon S4 quad-core gang.
SunSpider
Lower is better
Sony Xperia Z Ultra 750
Sony Xperia Z1 845
LG G2 908
Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600) 1046
HTC One 1174
LG Optimus G 1293
Sony Xperia C 1319
HTC One mini 1375
LG Nexus 4 1379
HTC Butterfly 1397
Oppo R819 1423
Huawei Ascend P6 3858
The combined BrowserMark 2 benchmark results were also a match for the Samsung flagships from 2012.
BrowserMark 2
Higher is better
LG G2 2718
LG Optimus G 2555
Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600) 2438
Sony Xperia Z Ultra 2419
Sony Xperia Z1 2398
HTC Butterfly S 2378
Samsung Galaxy S4 Active 2338
Samsung Galaxy S4 mini 2314
HTC One 2262
Sony Xperia Tablet Z 2170
HTC One mini 2164
Sony Xperia ZL 2107
Sony Xperia Z 2093
Sony Xperia C 1984
LG Optimus G Pro 1801
Oppo Find 5 1797
Nexus 4 1794
Nokia Lumia 920 1774
Google Nexus 10 1773
HTC Butterfly 1475
Samsung Galaxy S III 1247
Finally, the Sony Xperia C placed near the bottom of the chart in the Vellamo browser benchmark, but its score is actually quite close to those in front.
Vellamo
Higher is better
Sony Xperia Z Ultra 2944
LG G2 2908
Sony Xperia Z1 2904
HTC Butterfly S 2592
Samsung Galaxy Note II 2418
HTC One 2382
HTC One mini 2252
Sony Xperia Z 2189
HTC One X (Tegra 3) 2078
Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600) 2060
Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa) 2056
Samsung Galaxy S4 mini 2019
Samsung Galaxy S4 Active 1936
HTC Butterfly 1866
Oppo Find 5 1658
Samsung Galaxy S III 1641
Sony Xperia C 1582
LG Optimus 4X HD 1568
LG Optimus G 1522
Nexus 4 1310
The Sony Xperia C might not be the benchmark beast geeks would dream about, but it's not underpowered by any means. The MT6589 is powerful enough to provide fast, fluid and lag-free performance on the qHD resolution of Xperia C and will handle well every app and game out there. And in this price range, this is more than enough.
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