Sony Xperia M4 Aqua hands-on

The Sony Xperia M4 Aqua is the new mid-ranger for Sony: a phone with water-protection, the familiar omnibalance design language, and the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop skinned with the company’s light custom user interface.

We got to spend some time with the Xperia M4 Aqua at MWC 2015, and we’re eager to share our first hands-on impressions with the phone.

Design and Display

When you look at it from apart, it’s not hard to mistake the Xperia M4 Aqua for the more expensive, flagship Xperia Z3 model. Go up close, though, and you start noticing the differences. Rather than featuring a metal frame, the M4 Aqua sports a lighter, plastic body with plastic on the back as well (instead of the glass on the Xperia Z3).

Save for its plastic nature, there’s a lot that we like about this phone: it’s light and fairly slim, with a svelte profile. The exact dimensions measure 5.73 x 2.86 x 0.29 inches (145.5 x 72.6 x 7.3 mm).

The Xperia M4 Aqua features a 5-inch display with a 720 x 1280-pixel resolution (pixel density stands at 294ppi), and at first sight it’s a fairly decent display when it comes to color reproduction.

Processor and Memory

Sony’s new mid-ranger sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 (MSM8939) system chip with an octa-core 1.7GHz Cortex A53 array. It’s a 64-bit chip and makes perfect use of the 64-bit support in Android 5.0 Lollipop. There’s also 2GB of RAM which is a welcome addition for such an affordable device.

Internal storage is set at 16GB with the option to expand on this with microSD cards of up to 32 gigs.

Camera

The 13-megapixel camera on the Xperia M4 Aqua is a statement that the phone has some higher ambitions as a good snapper. Megapixels don’t tell the whole story, but in this price segment, this is usually the measure most manufacturers use. On top of the main cam there is a wide-aperture, f/2 lens. The main cam is capable of recording 1080p video as well. There’s also a 5-megapixel selfie cam.

Expectations

All in all, the Xperia M4 Aqua is a well-built device with a very likable design and a svelte appearance. The price for the phone is set at $335 (299 euro) off contract and the phone should arrive on store shelves this Spring in more than 80 countries (no word on U.S. availability, though).