Sony Xperia C vs Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos: A comparison

New Delhi: The large-sized 'phablets' are getting popular in the Indian smartphone market. Recent numbers released by IDC shows that sales of phablets — devices with a screen size of 5-7 inches that combine the functionalities of a smartphone and a tablet — grew 17-fold in the second quarter of calendar 2013.Phablets are mostly liked for their large screen real estate to view media, watch movies, for note taking and reading articles. The recent entrant to join the phablet race is the Xperia C phablet, which competes against the popular Samsung Galaxy Grand duos in the market. The device has a 5-inch screen, Android 4.2, dual-sim functionality and a quad-core processor, with a price tag of Rs 21,490.On the other hand, Samsung Galaxy Grand is a mid-range smartphone that has Galaxy Note-like aesthetics and offers lots of good features – like a better camera, bigger screen, and a faster processor.Here is a detailed comparative analysis of both these devices: Design and buildThe Xperia C carries Sony's design aesthetic forward with its well defined rectangular shape and a curved back panel. Available in white, black, and purple, the phone is reminiscent of Sony's premium build quality. The Xperia C measures 141.5 x 74.15 x 8.88 mm and weighs 153 grams. In terms of build quality and looks, Samsung is not a slouch either. The Samsung Galaxy Grand has a shiny body, which adds to its look and is not too slippery. The smartphone is surrounded by a solid metal strip which can easily withstand a few falls. The handset measures 143.5mm x 76.9mm x 9.6 mm and weighs 162grams. The placement of the volume rocker (on the top left side), the power button (on the right hand top), a 3.5 mm jack and micro USB port (both on the top) are well planned.DisplayThe Samsung Galaxy Grand I9082 has a 5-inch TFT LCD display with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. This translates into 187 ppi, which is far lower than the company's Note devices. In comparison, the Galaxy S4 has a PPI of 441. However, the screen offers decent viewing angles and colour reproduction. However, a major disadvantage of LCD screens emanate from the black colors. It results in a problem when watching videos (e.g. YouTube) Overall, screen of the Galaxy Grand is pretty okay. The resolution could have been higher but there is still no problem in reading text, playing games or watching videos. Sony has given its phone a TFT qHD display that sports a resolution of 960 x 540 pixels and a pixel density of 220ppi.CameraThe Xperia C comes with an 8-megapixel rear camera with LED Flash, Exmor R sensor which allows user to capture images in challenging light conditions. In addition the phone is also capable of shooting videos in full-HD (1080p) mode. The camera comes with features like face detection and Sweep Panorama. The phone also sports a 0.3-megapixel front camera. Also, the phone body comes with a dedicated camera button that lets you access it in a jiffy.Samsung Galaxy Grand also has a 8 MP primary camerathat comes with an LED flash and a very powerful BSI sensor. The smartphone comes with features such as geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection and image stabilization. The camera allows HD filming at 30 frames per second. The phone has a 2 MP secondary camera. The primary or the rear camera comes equipped with picture modes catering to user requirements. The user can also adjust the brightness of the shooter to take clearer and brighter images with the camera even in dull indoor conditions. Some great camera modes in the camera include the Burst, Smile and Panorama. The Panorama mode provides a maximum angle 180 degree for the panorama pictures.User interface and OSThe Xperia C runs on Android 4.2.2. The operating system is both intuitive and smooth was well as easy to use.The Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos (Review) natively ran Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean). The Samsung Grand DUOS uses Samsung's own Nature UX interface. This interface can also be found on the Galaxy SIII and Galaxy Note II devices for example. However, due of Samsung's own system requirements, the company had to downgrade it's Nature UX version a bit to make it run smooth on the Galaxy Grand. One such smart feature that the phone does have is Smart Stay which you can use to detect if you're using the device or not by monitoring the front camera. Another feature is multi-window. Due to its big size, the device can easily open two windows at the same time. The Nature UX used on the Galaxy Grand has a homescreen, menu and widgets. This is the same as for the other devices using the Nature UX. The widgets are resizable in both width and height. Once you get several apps running, you can use the task switcher to go back and forth between them. It's a Jelly Bean-style vertical list with a screenshot and a name for each app. Swiping an app sideways removes it from the list.An interesting feature of Grand Duos UI is the dual-SIM interface. The feature allows you to select which SIM card you wish to dial numbers from (which displays as a number on the taskbar), as well as which SIM's data service network to use. You can also quickly switch between both SIM cards from the notification area.Processor and performanceSony Xperia C comes with a 1.2 GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6589 processor and is backed by 1GB of RAM. Such raw processing power makes you blaze through apps, the web, stream live videos and do multitasking. On the other hand, the Galaxy Grand is powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core Broadcom BCM28155 processor based on ARM Cortex-A9 and VideoCore 4 GPU. This makes Grand duos fast enough to give the end user an enjoyable experience for daily usage. BatterySamsung Galaxy Grand duos has a 2100mAH battery which is enough to cover a full day of intensive use of this device. With regular use the battery can last about 1 to 3 days. For intensive use of the device it will last about one full day. The standby time of the device is about 2 to 3 weeks. Sony has packed the Xperia C with a 2390 mAh battery which can easily withstand a full day performance. The device also has a battery stamina model which dramatically extends the battery life by automatically cutting of syncing of apps when the device is idle. The stamina mode also cuts Wi-Fi and data traffic to extend battery but will not hamper calls, texts, alarms and the music player.ConnectivitySony's latest Xperia C comes with the wide connectivity options like 3G HSPA+, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, MHL and on top of that it also supports dual SIM (GSM + GSM) with dual standby mode.Connectivity options for Galaxy Grand Duos include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, microUSB, 3.5mm jack and GPS.VerdictThe analysis suggests that the Xperia C fares better in terms of having a quad-core processor, powerful battery and better resolution. On the other hand, Samsung scores in terms of storage capacity and better front facing camera. On Flipkart.com, the Galaxy Grand Duos is available at Rs 18,400 while the Xperia C is priced around Rs 20,429. Since there's not much big price difference, it would certainly be a smart choice to go for Experia C as it gives you a good handset in terms of processing power and camera.