Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Hands on: Sony Xperia M4 Aqua

We dive into the mid-range with Sony's Xperia M4 Aqua

Sony has found a way to condense its top of the range experience into the M4 Aqua and offer it at a decidedly mid-range price point.

Few people were surprised when Sony rolled back its plan to unleash a new flagship every six months. The Xperia Z3 didn’t add a great deal compared to the Z2, for example; clearly there’s a reason most manufacturers stick to an annual update schedule.

Amazon

But Sony didn’t leave us empty-handed in the smartphone department at Mobile World Congress this year. In addition to the headline-worthy Z4 Tablet was an unassuming mid-ranger called the M4 Aqua.

And it’s surprisingly wonderful.

At first glance you could mistake the M4 Aqua for one of its pricier Xperia cousins, but wrap your hand around it and you’ll notice the glass back has given way to plastic, though the metallic frame and shiny aluminum power button remain. In terms of hardware this is essentially a scaled down Xperia Z3, but Sony has chosen where to cut back and where to stand firm very carefully.

It’s a light phone, at 4.8 ounces, and it’s fairly slim too with a profile of just 7.3mm. The balance and weight feels right and it’s comfortable to handle. The M4 Aqua is available in black, white, and pink, which Sony is calling coral — that’s right, no aqua body for the Aqua.

Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
Simon Hill/Digital Trends

The 5-inch display is a disappointment on paper because of the 1,280 x 720 pixel resolution, but it looks better than it sounds. Sony’s display know-how shines through, and you could easily mistake this for a higher resolution panel.

The 64-bit octa-core processor is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 615, which pairs two quad-cores clocked at 1.5GHz and 1.0GHz with 2GB of RAM. If that means nothing to you, just keep this in mind: There’s plenty of processing power here. It’s a fast, fluid experience to tap and swipe your way through Sony’s mercifully light user interface, sitting atop the beautifully animated Android 5.0 Lollipop.

Sony’s display know-how shines through, and you could easily mistake this for a higher resolution panel.

As the name would suggest this is a waterproof phone and it scores IP ratings of 65 and 68, which means you can fully submerge it in water without fear. Sony has even found a way to ditch the flap on the microUSB port.

The big compromise is the battery life, a jewel in the crown of the Z3. The M4 Aqua has to make do with a 2,400mAh battery, versus the 3,100mAh battery in the Z3V. And even with a less demanding display, that’s going to mean a fairly average experience with regards to power. Sony reckons you’ll still get two days between charges, but we’ll have to put that to the test when we do a full review of the M4 Aqua.

Another area Sony has been championing in its flagship Xperia range is the camera. The M4 Aqua’s main camera is 13 megapixels, which falls well short of the 20.1 rating in the Z2 and Z3, but it boasts the same range of interesting camera modes and seems fairly snappy. The front-facing camera is better than you may have expected: It’s rated at 5 megapixels and has a super-wide-angle lens that’s perfect for getting group selfies.

Sony Xperia M4 Aqua
Simon Hill/Digital Trends

The M4 Aqua also boasts LTE support and has a reasonable 16GB storage with a microSD card slot that can take expansion by another 32GB. It even has dual front-facing speakers, though you won’t find the laundry list of sound enhancements that are on the Xperia Z4 Tablet.

Conclusion

Perhaps the biggest story here is the price tag. Sony has generally stuck to the top end of the market in the past, and we haven’t been overly impressed by its dips into the mid-range segment. The Xperia M4 Aqua is going on sale this spring for 300 euros. That’s going to be around $335, though you’re unlikely to see it stateside unless you buy from Sony direct. At that price it measures up really well, offering a level of quality and a lack of compromise that’s rare in this category. If you’re shopping for a new Android smartphone on this kind of budget we urge you to take a look.

Highs

  • Fast processor
  • Waterproof
  • Decent battery life
  • Great selfie cam

Lows

  • Plastic body
  • Screen resolution

Editors' Recommendations

Simon Hill
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Simon Hill is an experienced technology journalist and editor who loves all things tech. He is currently the Associate Mobile…
The Sony Xperia Pro is the $2,500 phone videographers have been clamoring for
sony xperia pro price availability 1

Sony wants to make its smartphones a little more useful for creative professionals. The company may not make the best-selling (or the best) phones out there, but it is among the best in other areas -- one of those being its video and photo tech. Now, the company is finally launching the previously announced Xperia Pro -- which integrates with its video equipment for a heightened professional workflow.

The device offers both hardware and software features that enable integration with Sony equipment, with perhaps the most immediately obvious feature being the HDMI input. This allows the Xperia Pro to act as a large, high-quality monitor for Sony cameras.

Read more
The Xperia 1 II brings Sony’s mirrorless camera tech to a smartphone
sony xperia 1 ii camera launch date xperia1ii lifestyle design man large

Sony’s Alpha-series mirrorless cameras are known for the best-in-class autofocus and fast continuous shooting, and those same features are now trickling down into Sony’s latest phone. The Xperia 1 II will ship July 24, with pre-sales beginning June 1, Sony announced today. The Android 10 device also borrows tech from Sony’s gaming and entertainment products.

No, the phone won't get a large APS-C or full-frame sensor like an Alpha camera, but Sony is integrating several key performance features of its camera line into the Xperia 1 II, like a 20-frames-per-second burst mode. That's as fast as the sports-oriented -- and $4,500 -- Sony A9 II mirrorless camera.

Read more
Widescreen Xperia 1 II super phone is full of Sony’s camera and visual expertise
sony xperia 1 ii photos launch price availability news 10 mk2 top

If MWC 2020 had not been canceled and had gone ahead as usual, Sony would have started the first day of the show with its own smartphone launch. While the event itself may not be happening, we’ve still got the details of Sony’s new phones — the Xperia 1 II and the Xperia 10 II.

Leaving the unusual decision to use numbers rather than letters to differentiate these updated models aside, here’s what you need to know about the new widescreen Sony smartphones.
Xperia 1 II
The Xperia 1 II (or Xperia 1 Mk2 as it’s also known) is a serious upgrade over last year’s flagship Xperia 1 Sony phone, and the good news is it comes with the latest tech most will demand from a phone in 2020. It also continues the strategy seen in the Xperia 5, where it pulls in expertise from other parts of the Sony empire to enhance the new phone.

Read more