Pros
- Attractive build
- Waterproof
- Competent camera
Cons
- Only 8GB storage
- Inconsistent battery life
- Slippery rear
Key Features
- Fully waterproof
- 5-inch HD screen
- octa-core chip
- 4G/LTE support
- 13MP camera
- Omnibalance design
- NFC
- Manufacturer: Sony
- Review Price: £199.99
What is the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua?
Sony’s mobile division is often tough to praise, but it does get two things right: consistent design across all price points, and waterproofing.That’s the ethos that drives the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua, an attractive mid-range Android smartphone that – as the name suggests – can be dunked in water without issue.
It’s a cross-sequel to both the Xperia M2 Aqua and the Xperia M3, which gels with Sony’s third mobile maxim: frequent and confusing iterative updates.
Aside from the waterproofing, the M4 Aqua has respectable innards. It features a 5-inch HD display, an octa-core processor, a 13-megapixel camera, and 4G support.
You can buy the M4 Aqua for £229 on Pay As You Go. It’s also available on contracts from various carriers starting at £15.50 per month. This gets you a 24-month plan with no upfront fee, offering 150 minutes, 5,000 texts, and a miserly 250MB of data.
Sony boasts that the M4 Aqua represents a ‘renewed mid-range focus’ and has ‘no compromises’. But how does that claim hold up under scrutiny?
Sony Xperia M4 Aqua: Design
The Sony Xperia M4 Aqua will look familiar to anyone who’s ever seen a recent Sony smartphone. It features the ‘Omnibalance’ design aesthetic that Sony has built its Xperia range is built around.image: http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/000034acb/e4d9/s10.jpeg
Related: Best Android Smartphones 2015That seriously counts in the M4 Aqua’s favour, because it looks very similar to the flagship Sony Xperia Z3+. It’s glossy, rounded, and slim at 7.3mm. That makes it slimmer than the EE Harrier and the Honor 6. However, the mid-range Samsung Galaxy A5 is even more dieted-down at 6.7mm. The Sony Xperia M4 Aqua is also lightweight at a feathery 136g, which is lighter than both the Moto G (2015) and the Honor 6. It’s still weightier than the 123g Galaxy A5, mind, but by no means cumbersome.
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The Sony Xperia M4 Aqua feels sturdy, although being coated in glass on the front and back may be a cause for concern for buttery-fingered users. It also means your handset will slide across every surface you set it down on. Fortunately, the corners are nylonised, which purportedly helps protect it from falls. We found this not to be true on our Sony Xperia Z3 however, which now has a smashed corner and a cracked back, after a fall from a paltry height of two feet. So much for nylonised corners, eh? On the plus side, when we press our thumbs hard against the ends of the M4 Aqua, it barely flexes, which is a good sign of robustness.
image: http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/000034ace/121d/s13.jpeg
Related: Sony Xperia Z6 release dateThe M4 Aqua is, of course, built for submersion – a nice feature for a mid-range handset. It’s IP68 waterproof certified, which means it’ll last for 30 minutes underwater at a depth of one metre. We didn’t test that claim to its limits, but we dunked the handset several times without issue. Don’t forget that thanks to the waterproofing, the microSD card and SIM trays have to be hidden behind flaps – we don’t access these frequently enough for that to be an issue though. Also, unlike the Xperia Z3, the Micro USB port remains uncovered. That’s a big improvement on last year’s Sony flagship.
The volume rocker and power button are less pronounced than on the Xperia Z3. They’re slightly more difficult to press, but the phone feels better in the hand as a result. Sony also decided not to include a magnetic charging pad on the side. It won’t be missed by most users.
The 5-inch screen is slightly smaller than the Xperia Z3+’s display by 0.2-inches. Some of the ports have been moved around too, but it’s otherwise identical. One key departure is that the phone’s edging is polycarbonate on the M4 Aqua, unlike the metal Xperia Z3+. It’s easy enough to grip though, and looks just fine. The bezels are thin, but big enough to hold on to comfortably when using the phone in landscape.
image: http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/000034ad0/b49f/s15.jpeg
Related: Best Android Apps 2015We reviewed the black version of the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua, but it’s also available in white and pink.
Sony Xperia M4 Aqua: Screen
The Sony Xperia M4 Aqua has a 5-inch display, which is about the norm for a smartphone in 2015. Users with exceptionally small hands might find the M4 Aqua awkward to navigate, but we were able to reach the top of the screen without any difficulty.We thought it was a shame that the M4 Aqua’s display is only 720p, because cheaper rivals come with a 1080p display. There’s really no excuse for skipping Full HD at this price. It’s especially annoying because this is a 4G phone, and would be able to handle streaming native 1080p content with ease.
Fortunately,
the screen does look sharp and clear, despite the slightly lacklustre
resolution. The M4 Aqua has good viewing angles, displays colours
vibrantly and accurately, and the screen is just about bright enough to
use outdoors on a sunny day.Sony Xperia M4 Aqua: Software
The Sony Xperia M4 Aqua is an Android smartphone, and runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop. That’s the latest version of Google’s operating system, and it’s both slickly designed and easy to navigate.Like most manufacturers, Sony has added its own spin to Android in the form of new features, wallpapers, and apps – Music, PlayStation, Movies, and Xperia Lounge, to name a few. The PlayStation app is a useful way to keep keep tabs on your PS profile on the move, and the Xperia Lounge gives you a chance to enter some exclusive competitions.
Some of the bundled software can be uninstalled, although a few items can only be disabled, which means they still take up storage on the device. That’s not great for a phone with a paltry 8GB of memory.
image: http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/000034ac3/09ea/s02.jpeg
Related: Android 5.0 Lollipop reviewWhat you probably want to know is whether the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua will get an upgrade to Google’s upcoming Android 6.0 Marshmallow? Unfortunately, we don’t have the answer to that just yet. Sony won’t announce its update schedule until later this year. However, considering this is a relatively new Xperia smartphone, there’s a good chance it’ll see Android 6.0 at some point in 2016.
Sony Xperia M4 Aqua: Performance
The Sony Xperia M4 Aqua uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 615 chip. This is a new-ish mid-range processor that only launched back in February. We found it performed well on the phone. It has eight cores clocked at 1.46GHz, which makes it capable of handling most tasks well. The phone did suffer some sluggishness when trying to run content-heavy apps – Snapchat was prone to crashing when playing videos – but its performance was otherwise fine.The phone also works well for gaming, although we find the EE Harrier performs slightly better, despite having the same chip. We played a number of games on the M4 Aqua, including Crossy Road, Tetris, and this reviewer’s favourite title – Robot Unicorn 2. The phone handled the games well, but there were occasional bouts of sluggishness and the handset did get warm very quickly.
We tested the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua on the 3DMark's Slingshot simulation, which gives us a rough idea of the gaming credentials. The phone scored 439 on the benchmark, which isn't great. However, it still beats the Alcatel OneTouch Idol 3 (175), the Vodafone Smart Prime 6 (173), and even the more expensive Moto X Play (217).
image: http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/000034ae1/3df4/s32.jpeg
We
tested the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua on Geekbench 3, a processor benchmark
that gives us a general idea of how the phone stacks up against its
rivals in terms of performance. The average multi-core score over five
tests was 2,167. By comparison, last year’s flagship Sony Xperia Z3 managed 2,772 – that’s a little way off, unsurprisingly. The phone did trump some of its mid-range rivals, including the 2nd-gen Moto G (1,140), the new 3rd-gen Moto G (1,617) and the Huawei Ascend G7 (1,343).Unfortunately, it failed to beat the EE Harrier (2,417), and the hugely powerful Huawei Honor 6 (3,080), both new mid-range handsets.
The M4 Aqua has 2GB of RAM, which is plenty for a mid-range device. RAM is where content that you’re using at any given time is stored. So theoretically, more RAM generally means improved multi-tasking because you can have more things open at once. We didn’t have any issues with running a couple of tasks simultaneously. Power users who are used to having tonnes of heavy apps running at the same time will find the phone slows down to an unusable pace though. It also gets very warm.
image: http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/000034ad5/690c/s20.jpeg
Related: Android 6.0 Marshmallow featuresThe worst thing about the M4 Aqua is its storage. The phone has a measly 8GB of internal memory, which is simply not good enough. It’s made even more painful by the fact that the Android OS takes up 4GB of storage, leaving you with just half of the intended amount. We only installed 10 or so apps on the device, and quickly found ourselves hitting the storage limit. The bright(ish) side is that you can expand the storage with a microSD card, which apps can be saved to.
As we mentioned earlier, Sony crammed plenty of bloatware onto the device. That makes the storage issue even worse. We’d rather the bundled content was offered as an optional download, rather than included straight out of the box.
Sony Xperia M4 Aqua: Camera
We live in an age where Instagram likes are an important social currency, so getting the camera right on smartphones is important for both manufacturers and selfie-fanatics alike.Fortunately, we were impressed with the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua camera set-up, and were more than happy to peddle our snaps on social media.
The rear-facing camera uses a 13-megapixel sensor, which means you’re getting photographs that contain plenty of pixels. That means that unless you blow the photos up to full size, images taken with the M4 Aqua look sufficiently detailed. Enough for Facebook, anyway.
image: http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/000034abf/2911/03.jpeg
Related: How to switch from iPhone to AndroidAs most M4 Aqua owners will be using the Superior Auto Mode for taking their photos, that’s how we took the majority of our pictures. We wouldn’t exactly called the resulting images “superior” ourselves, but they weren’t bad for a £200 phone. Colour was accurately recorded, and the camera captures an impressive amount of detail close up.
This detail drops off in the distance, but it’s hard to notice unless you zoom in. The autofocus was quick for a mid-range phone even in low-light, although flagship handsets like the iPhone 6 or the LG G4 will outpace it significantly.
image: http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/000034ac0/367e/04.jpeg
image: http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/000034abd/5619/01.jpeg
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We do have some complaints about the M4 Aqua camera however. The phone is a little slow to take pictures, which makes it easy to blur photos. If you’re completely still then your images will look fine, but for those of us that don’t have the unshakable nerves of a monk, any hint of motion will ruin a picture completely.
Pictures were also slightly dull; even naturally bright objects lacked vividness. That may jar with those of you who are used to saturation-happy flagship smartphones.
The
front-facing camera uses a 5-megapixel sensor, which is also
respectable for a mid-range phone. You won’t want to be uploading
pictures of your face with this thing, because detail seriously sucks.
But it’s more than good enough to video call with, and you’ll probably
get away with a heavily filtered Instagram selfie.As with all Xperia phones, you get a good selection of camera modes, although most are gimmicky. The AR Fun mode is great if you want to superimpose a cat face onto all future selfies, but we have a hard enough time getting social approval as it is. There’s also a dedicated camera button. It’s not incredibly useful, although it does mean you can take pictures underwater – trying to use the touchscreen while the phone is submerged is very frustrating.
Sony Xperia M4 Aqua: Battery Life
The Sony Xperia M4 Aqua uses a 2,400mAh battery, which is sizeable for a mid-range phone. However, it’s still shy of the EE Harrier’s 2,500mAh cell.Regardless, we used the M4 Aqua for several weeks, and it never died before the day was out. Sony claims the M4 Aqua can keep trucking for two whole days, but we only squeezed that much usage out of it twice.
Confusingly,
the M4 Aqua’s battery performance was very inconsistent. On Wi-Fi, we
could be browsing the web or playing games for twenty minutes and only
lose a few %. However, when on 4G, we saw drops of up to 15% in just
half an hour of use. If you’re willing to be a little cautious with how
you use your device, and you don’t insist on intensive use while off
Wi-Fi, you could probably manage two days.We should note that Sony does offer “Stamina Mode” and “Ultra Stamina Mode”, both of which improve battery life at a cost of handset functionality. The former turns off various connectivity features when the phone is on standby, while the latter reduces your handset to bare-bones features.
The best thing about the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua’s battery is that it charges quickly. You can take it from dead to full in less than two hours. That’s great if, like us, you often forget to charge your phone overnight, and have to quickly juice it up before work in the morning.
Sony Xperia M4 Aqua: Sound and call quality
The audio capability of the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua isn’t anything to write home about, but that’s par for the course with mid-range phones. The maximum volume is good enough for video playback, but audiophiles will want to plug in a pair of headphones for decent listening. The sound is slightly muddy and tinny, and there’s a noticeable lack of audio depth. There’s almost no bass either, but that’s not surprising on a cheap phone. The M4 Aqua gets the job done cheaply, but you won’t be amazed by its sound.Fortunately, the call quality is more than satisfactory. Outgoing voice clarity is good, and most background noise is cancelled out. Incoming audio is good too, but suffers from slight muddiness. Loudspeaker only serves to further distort the sound. The quality of hands-free calling is sufficient for brief conversations, but users will find it tedious with extended use. Don’t try using this in a moving car, folks. Your chin-wagging will quickly be drowned out.
image: http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/000034ace/121d/s13.jpeg
Should I buy the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua?
The Sony Xperia M4 Aqua is a great phone for the price; it’s got a classy design, it generally runs smoothly, the primary camera is capable, and you get nifty features like NFC and 4G support.But what else can you get for your money? Well there’s the Samsung Galaxy A3 (£200), but we’d say the M4 Aqua wins out. It’s got a more recent version of Android on board, and the camera is a little more consistent. There’s also the EE Harrier (£199), an exceptional 4G from UK network EE that offers impressive battery life and exceptional performance.
Of course, you are limited to a single carrier, but we’d say it’s a better proposition overall. And we can’t forget the Vodafone Smart Ultra 6 (£125), a handset that doesn’t look as good as the M4 Aqua, but will certainly keep pace with it. It’s carrier locked like the Harrier, but it’s a great device that won’t burn such a big hole in your wallet.
Perhaps the main competitor at this price point is the third-gen Moto G – its price ranges from £159 to £209 depending on which model you get. We’d still say go for the Aqua though, because the design is more attractive, it outpaces the Moto G on Geekbench 3, and it’s completely waterproof.
Of course, there’s one smartphone that throws a huge spanner in the works of any handset in this middling price range – the OnePlus 2. For just £239 – £40 up on the Aqua – you can get a flagship-grade handset kitted out with a top-end processor, solid camera, fingerprint scanner, and premium build. As such, if you’ve got a little more cash to spare, we’d definitely recommend grabbing a OnePlus 2 – if you can get your hands on a purchase invite, anyway.
All said, if you’ve only got £200 to spend on a handset and you’re a fan of Sony design, you won’t be disappointed by the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua. Plus you can probably get away with telling your mates that it’s the latest Sony flagship.