SONY XPERIA M2 REVIEW

Key Features : 4.8-inch 960 x 540 pixel screen; Snapdragon 400 CPU
Manufacturer: Sony
Sony Xperia M2 review | First Impressions
Who really needs to spend £500 on a phone?
The Sony Xperia M2 is the cheapest phone in Sony's Android line-up to
offer a look that's pretty high-end. Sony's mid-ranges phones are
pretty popular, and this one offers some pretty significant design
upgrades that – on first impression – make it pretty close in some
surface respects to the Sony Xperia Z2 .
However, this phone costs less than half the price – around £180.
There are a few cut-down specs that mean it's not the bargain a Moto
G is, but some people will be willing to pay the extra for that Sony
style, and the Sony name.
SEE ALSO: Xperia M2 vs Moto G
Sony Xperia M2 – Design
A new design is probably the most important upgrade the Xperia M2
offers over the Sony Xperia M. That older phone is popular, despite
having a fairly ordinary design and spec list.
The original M's plain plastic body has been traded-up for one that
looks more like the Xperia Z2's. It's still largely plastic, but now
there's a sheet of what appears to be glass on the back. It could be
hard plastic, but my usual glass identification trick of tapping it on a
tooth would probably have gained me some unwanted attention from
Sony's staff. We'll look for clarification on this.
It has also adopted Sony's 'Omni-balance' design – the sort of term
that sets off our nonsense radar. What this means in practice is that
the eye-catching power button on the side sits bang in the middle of
the phone. There's not much to it, but I do think the M2 is a solid
aesthetic upgrade over the original Xperia M.
There's a flap on the phone's side that covers the Xperia M2's SIM and
microSD card slots, but unlike the Xperia Z2, this is not a water-
resistant phone. You'll find an exposed microUSB socket on the left
edge, further reducing the symmetry that Omni-balance promises (not
that it matters).
This is a good-looking phone, and a decent impersonation of Sony's
more expensive phones. It doesn't feel as expensive, though. It's
lighter, and in-hand it is fairly clear that the Xperia M2 is made of
plastic rather than metal. It is thicker too, but at 8.6mm it's hardly
chunky.
Flappy? Yes. Waterproof? No
Sony Xperia M2 – Screen
Aside from the loss of waterproofing, the design is pretty good for a
sub-£200 phone. However, there are some clearer compromises in the
screen.
Resolution is the most serious issue. It's a 960 x 540 pixel screen that
is 4.8-inches across. This gives a relatively low pixel density of 229ppi,
and you can tell. Text looks less sharp than it would on a Z2 or – more
importantly – a Motorola Moto G. This is a shame, and it's the one
part of the phone I find genuinely disappointing. Sony boasts about
having the largest-in-class qHD screen in its release materials, but
that's actually a bad thing.
However, the Xperia M2 does seem to benefit from the screen
calibrations improvements Sony has made recently with phones like
the Xperia Z1 Compact. Colours appear nice and vivid without
oversaturation. However, I was looking at the phone under the
unnatural lighting of the MWC 2014 show floor, so won't come to any
conclusions just yet.
In use the phone is also slightly held back by some residual visual
stuffiness in the custom Sony interface – things like the unnecessary
'outlining' of app icons in the apps menu. Sony seems to have cut this
out of the Xperia Z2, so we don't know why it's still here.
Sony Xperia M2 – Camera
If the screen is one area where the Xperia M2 loses out to the Moto
G, the camera should be one where it can win. It has an 8-megapixel
sensor that I'd bet will be of the standard 1/3.2 inch size.
Despite the Exmor RS lens we're not expecting a smartphone camera
star, but it could be able to comfortably outperform many sub-£200
rivals.
Sony Xperia M2 – Other Specs
I've compared the M2 a few times to the Moto G, and they are natural
rivals on some level. However, the M2 does have a bunch of things
missing from Motorola's budget star. You get 4G mobile internet with
this phone, and NFC.
Their processors are the same, though – a quad-core Snapdragon 400.
It's a solid mid-range CPU that will easily be able to handle most high-
end games, especially given the low screen resolution.
First Impressions
It has a few screen limitations, but I expect the Sony Xperia M2 will
sell well on the high street. It has much of the visual snazziness of
Sony's more expensive phones while selling at a fraction of the price.
However, if you're a bargain hunter and don't mind missing out on
4G, the Moto G offers a pretty alluring alternative.