A New Exciting offering from Sony – The Xperia M2 [Review]

Sony’s phones in India have been quite popular from the start. The key turning point was the ‘Walkman Series’ catering to an audience that loves their music. Over time though, other manufacturers began enticing customers with handsets with superior features, a better operating system (OS) and overall better build quality. Sony’s revival though came in the form of the Xperia Series. Android OS is standard and build quality is nothing short of fantastic. We got our hands on the newest offering, the Xperia M2.

Design

The overall design of the M2 closely resembles the OmniBalance concept introduced in the Xperia Z series phones. Sony seems to be following the old adage ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t break it’ by retaining this concept across almost all phones launched in India. The phone is very comfortable to hold in the hand and we feel that the size is quite optimum in terms of display size and carrying convenience. We did notice the bezel around the display being slimmed down considerably with the volume rocker, power button and the headphone & power jack being in the usual place for Sony phones. However, the speaker has been moved to the bottom in a welcome change.

Display

The 4.8 inch LCD TFT display has a resolution of 540 X 960, not too impressive but it gets the job done. Colours are vivid and the sharpness of images and videos is not lost. The pixel density is 229ppi which is again not overly high but it’s alright. Whites do have a tinge of blue in them, but overall, the display is just fine.

Camera

Sony is known for the superb cameras on their phones. The Xperia M2 sports an 8-megapixel rear shooter with a Sony Exmor RS sensor, f/2.4 aperture lens, and an LED flash. We were surprised to discover that when clicking photos, the camera actually shorts in 5.5MP mode. This is not the way it works on the Xperia Z1/Z2 and this surely takes some points off the board for the M2. The front camera is not the hallmark of this phone and to say we’re a bit disappointed would be an understatement. The video recording works fine but there is that fine detailing that’s missing. This is what separates the M2 from the lite smartphones. Colours and sharpness are all ok, but Sony can and has done better.

The Technical Stuff

Android 4.3 (Kitkat) comes preloaded on the phone. The now trendy quad-core, 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 chip by Qualcomm found itself a new home with the Xperia M2, and along with its trusty Adreno 305 GPU makes operating the handset very pleasant. Of course, that 1GB RAM stick sure also helps with that. The internal memory is 8GB, but you can use only 5GB of that. Don’t sweat though, you can always use a micro SD card up to 32GB.

Performance

When we first took this device out to test it in real-world conditions, we had a pretty good idea what to expect. Sony’s put out a lot of phones and this one, the M2 fits right in with them. The phone’s really easy to use and its ergonomic design makes it easy to carry around. Because of the fast processor, multi-tasking is a breeze. The camera isn’t in the league of the Z2, but it’s by no means a slouch. What we really missed is the X-factor in terms of durability. Unlike the other models in the Xperia series, this phone is neither dust-proof nor water proof. Sigh, you can’t always have everything!

Verdict

This is a good phone, make no mistake about it. It’s not perfect, but it’s got a ton of great features and Sony seems to be getting things right these days. If you’re in the market for a mid-range Android device with some great features, this should definitely be in your shopping list.