Sony this morning hit the high note with the Xperia Z4, but they could have another hit on their hands in the mid-range market with the Xperia M4 Aqua. Sony has introduced the phone as the first in what they call the ‘Super Mid-Range’ offering a more premium product without having to head into their Z range pricing.
The Xpera M4 Aqua is unashamedly plastic. It has the same design stylings as the Xperia Z series and actually appears camouflaged away amongst the other Xpera Z series phones on the display counter. When you pick up the phone it’s remarkably light and has a softer feel than the Xperia Z series phones and it’s also a little smaller due to the smaller screen than the Z3.
The phone feels great in the hand, there’s a small feeling that you’re missing out on the premium glass backed devices in the Z3 family, but it’s a price-sensitive product and the plastic is a worthy replacement and fits in with the waterproof IP65/68 nature of the phone.
The phones trim holds all the ports such as the microUSB, microSD and SIM card slots – which are obviously hidden behind covers for waterproofing. Though it’s a lower end phone, Sony have still included all the trimmings with the separate camera button, as well as the usual Volume rocker and power key.
The camera is a fairly decent 13MP sensor, but we really need to get this into the wild for a closer look. If selfies are your game, the 5MP sensor on the front will do.
The phone is actually fairly responsive thanks to the 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor inside and though it only has 2GB of RAM inside that’s more than enough for a smooth user experience. There’s quite a lot of Sony apps pre-installed just as we saw on the Xperia Z4 Tablet, but again, it’s a fairly stock Android 5.0.2 experience and handles quite nicely.
The Xperia M4 Aqua will cost around €299 which should hit the $450-$500 price point here in Australia but it makes for quite a decent top end mid-range phone.
