Specifications

Reviews

The Sony Xperia M4 Aqua is another midrange from the Japanese brand, which, on paper, might not seem that exciting. However, it's in the design that the interest lives, offering a premium disguise for a phone with middling specs.

Sony's decisions with phone creation are interesting, mimicking Microsoft's Lumia range in a way. The idea is to make a recognisable flagship phone, something the world will clamour for, and then try and pretend that cheaper variants are similar, thus inciting those that can't afford the high-end Z range to go for the next step down.

And it's certainly managed that with the Xperia M4 Aqua, which looks every bit like the Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z3 Compact, yet costs €299 (about £220, $340, AU$435).

The outer rim looks like it's encased in metal, in the same manner as its bigger siblings. However a few taps of the fingernail reveals that it's actually polycarbonate... but so solid that it'll take a few seconds to work out that it's definitely not the premium material.

The screen is a 5-inch affair, with a 720p resolution. Like the Z3 Tablet Compact, which had a 1080p screen compared to the 1920 x 1200 of its rivals, Sony has used its Bravia tech to cover up some of the fuzzy edges through enhanced colour and contrast ratio, thanks to the IPS technology used in the LCD display.

Side by side, the lower resolution is noticeable, but nothing that you wouldn't expect for a phone that's half the price of a flagship option.

The Xperia M4 Aqua is water and dust resistant to IP68 rating, which means you can dunk it in fresh water for a fair old while and then roll it around in sand without worrying. The edges have the same nylon covers as the Z3, which means even a drop onto hard concrete should protect the chassis from marks.

That chassis is pretty important to Sony's desire consumer, which is why it's playing heavily on its colour options. The coral (well, pink), black and white options are all pretty decent looking, with the colour pervading throughout the chassis, rather than a lick of paint on top.

The onboard camera duo is strong too: a 13MP Exmor RS sensor on the back is given all of Sony's tricks in terms of superior auto mode (designed to give you the best picture in all conditions) and augmented reality, which is fun for kids to play with.

The front facing camera has the same superior auto mode, and at 5MP should result in some decent selfies... if you're into such things.

However, it's with the camera that the limitations of the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua rear their head: the Snapdragon 610 at the heart of this phone doesn't seem up to the task of taking photos at full speed.

You'll be waiting a few seconds to properly take a snap – although in fairness it's worth noting that, like battery, the camera is one of the last things to be optimised for performance before release, so could well improve by launch.

That chipset from Qualcomm, added in to keep the cost of the phone down compared to the flagship range, is also the reason you won't find a lot of the awesome Sony goodies that really impress on the more expensive phones in its range.

For instance, there's no Remote Play on board here to allow you to connect up to a PS4 from your phone – which is one of the best features of the Z3 and new Xperia Z4 Tablet.

There's no high resolution audio enabled either, which is a shame as I had expected that to be more of a software tweak than hardware component, although it does make sense that there's a dedicated chip in there to improve the sound of your cheap MP3s.

The inbuilt 8GB of storage is something of a worry here as well. Sony seems to think that it's not a problem, as it's placed a microSD slot in there to help with media expansion.

While that will help with storing photos and movies, in reality most apps will want to install themselves to the phone's memory. And with only just over 4GB available at launch, that's going to fill up quickly (especially as apps are getting ever larger) and Lollipop doesn't like to let you move apps to SD card.

It probably won't be a big deal to most, but add in a few higher power games (that the Adreno 405 should be able to easily manage) and you'll quickly get the dreaded message asking you to delete some stuff to free up storage.

Early verdict

Sony knows it needs to keep a complete range of products doing well in all markets to have a hope of turning its smartphone division around, and in the absence of a massive flagship launch at MWC, the Xperia M4 Aqua needs to be that silver bullet for now.

The issue I can see is that it's still hard to define the 'mid range'… for the prospective buyer wandering into their local phone emporium and seeing this new Sony phone, will they think it's a good investment?

It'll be cheaper than the Z3 Compact, but will be missing the higher power processor, PS4 Remote Play and hi-res audio… with a fuzzier screen to boot.

Sony is hoping that the Xperia M4 Aqua's premium design will be enough to convince users they're getting a premium device at a bargain. Waterproofing and decent screen tech might be enough to tip a few into purchase, but it's hard to see a really solid reason to point to this phone if someone asks for a good choice without spending a fortune.

• Check out the rest of our MWC 2015 coverage