GADGET GIZMO REVIEW .......................Sony Xperia M4 Aqua Dual

GADGET GIZMO REVIEW

Sony Xperia M4 Aqua Dual

Sony is one of the only brands that offers multiple phonestablets with IP68 dust and water protection. Typically, the premium Xperia range got this feature but now, with the M4 Aqua, Sony has launched a mid-range smartphone with the same levels of water and dust protection.

The M4 features Sony's Omnibalance design and looks similar to the flagship Xperia Z3. However, instead of metal and glass, it has an all-plastic construction with a glossy finish that attracts smudges.That aside, what impressed us was the overall ergonomics and the lightweight (135 grams) design that makes the phone easy to carry and use.

Up front is a 5-inch HD IPS screen with scratch resistant glass. The display is nice and vibrant with wide viewing angles and great sunlight legibility.

Hardware is similar to what you get in many sub `20,000 smartphones from brands like Xiaomi, ZTE and Micromax.Performance is as expected: no issues playing heavy games, running full HD videos or switching between running apps. Note that you only get 8GB free storage space of the 16GB advertised. Thankfully, you can expand the storage using microSD cards.Battery life is impressive -it easily lasted a full day with 15-20% battery left spare.

Sony has managed to keep the same look and feel for its custom UI -even with Android 5.0. You get the best of both user interfaces: Android 5.0 features such as lock screen shortcuts, a multiple level pull down notification area, different animations plus Sony's own customisations like small floating apps for multi-tasking.

The camera performance is where the corners have been cut we think. The 13MP rear camera has slow shot-to-shot times and most of the images have visible noise.While the colours are rich, most images lacked sharpness. Video recording suffers from similar issues. The 5MP front camera is good for the occasional selfies provided there is enough light around. Audio output from the loudspeaker is also low -you will not be able to do a voice call on the speaker unless you are in a quiet room.

Overall, the Sony M4 Aqua dual is a mixed bag. Water and dust resistance is its biggest advantage over other phones in this price range, but we think that alone is not going to attract the consumers. For the same price, you can consider the HTC Desire 820 that has a 5.5-inch display with similar hardware.

PRICE Rs 24,990

SPECIFICATIONS

5-inch IPS (1280 x 720 pixels), octa core Snapdragon 615 processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, microSD slot, dual SIM, IP68 certified water and dust proof, 13MP rear + 5MP front camera, 4G, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, Android 5.0, 2,400mAh battery, 135 grams

karan.bajaj

ET17JUN15