Sony Xperia M5 Review
Pros |
Cons |
+ Solid battery life |
- Only 16GB of storage |
+ Great screen |
- MediaTek processor |
+ Impressive camera |
- Few extra features |
Verdict:
"The Sony Xperia M5 is almost a flagship but without the price tag. Great specs, a stylish design and a waterproof build ensure it punches well above its weight".Full Review and Specification for the Sony Xperia M5
Looking at the specs list of the Sony Xperia M5 is an eyebrow raising affair, as this supposedly mid-range phone in many ways seems to have almost as good specs as the Soney xperia z5, especially when it comes to its camera.
Yet as a mid-ranger with a roughly £300
price tag it's a lot cheaper than Sony’s top tier handsets. So is it
really as good as it looks? Read on for our full review.
Screen
The Sony Xperia M5 has a
5.0-inch 1080 x 1920 IPS LCD display with a pixel density of 441 pixels
per inch. It strikes a great balance of size and resolution, being big
enough to comfortably use, small enough to comfortably carry and sharper
than even some flagships.
It uses the Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 for
improved contrast and it’s an all-round impressive screen, with good
viewing angles, colours that pop and fairly accurate colours. We’ve seen
brighter, more vivid displays and we’ve seen sharper ones, the Samsung galaxy s7 for example ticks all of those boxes, but given that this has a mid-range price we’re highly impressed.
Design
A glass back and stainless steel corners
coupled with Sony’s iconic OmniBalance design leaves the Xperia M5
looking fairly high end and attractive.
It’s fairly slim too at 7.6mm thick and
it’s got more than just a stylish design, as it’s also IP68 certified
dust and water resistant to depths of up to 1.5 metres for up to 30
minutes. So you can use it in the rain, the shower or even the swimming
pool without worry.
It’s not quite as premium looking as the
Sony Xperia Z5, as only the corners are metal and while the OmniBalance
design looks good it’s also arguably overfamiliar at this point, but
these are small complaints against an otherwise good looking and durable
smartphone. It could almost pass as a flagship, and that's high praise
given that it's not one.
Power
There’s a 64-bit 2.0GHz octa-core
MediaTek Helio X10 processor and 3GB of RAM at the heart of the Sony
Xperia M5, so it’s got a hefty amount of power.
MediaTek chips are typically cheaper and
less powerful than their Snapdragon counterparts and that's evident in
use, particularly if you push it with demanding tasks. But nevertheless
this is a high-end processor, which in general isn't noticeably much
slower than the Snapdragon 810. That’s impressive for a mid-range phone.
Camera
The camera is perhaps the best thing
about the Sony Xperia M5, as there’s a 21.5MP sensor on the back and a
13MP one on the front. In terms of sheer megapixel numbers both of those
have most flagships beat. Of course there’s more to judge than
megapixels, but with support for 4K video and 5 x digital zoom without
noticeable loss of quality there’s a lot to like here.
There are plenty of camera apps and
modes too, letting you easily add effects and edits to your snaps. In
most scenarios the snapper can't quite rival that of the Samsung galaxy s6 or LG G4,
let alone the Samsung Glaaxy S7, but it can certainly take impressive
photos and in optimal conditions with good light it's not too far off
matching those phones.
Features
Most of the Xperia M5’s features fit
into other sections of this review, but with its stylish waterproof
design, high powered camera, speedy processor, 4G and long-lasting
battery it’s hardly lacking for selling points.
Battery life, memory and connectivity
The Sony Xperia M5 has a 2,600 mAh
battery, which Sony claims can last for up to two days of use, or more
specifically for up to 8 hours of video, 63 hours of music or 12 hours
of talk time and you can take it even further with STAMINA Mode and
Ultra STAMINA Mode, which limit the phones functions to eke out even
more juice. It largely lives up to those figures, though if you use the
phone a lot it's not going to last two days. Still though, the battery
life is comfortably above average.
There’s 16GB of built in storage in the
phone, which isn’t a huge amount, but it also supports microSD cards of
up to 200GB, so there’s loads of storage potential.
There’s no shortage of connectivity options either, with Wi-Fi, 3G, 4G, Bluetooth 4.1 and NFC all supported.
Conclusion
The Sony Xperia M5 is an impressive phone. With a stylish design, a high end processor, a great camera, decent battery life and a water resistant build there’s a lot to like here and very little in the way of missing features or cut corners.
So why isn’t it a flagship? There’s the MediaTek processor for one. It’s good but it’s not quite the best. Then there’s the build, which isn’t quite as high end as the Xperia Z5 and there’s the lack of supplementary features like a fingerprint scanner or optical image stabilisation.
But these are all minor issues and given that the Sony Xperia M5 has a mid-range price they’re not really problems at all.
Sony Xperia M5 Review Scoring
Style and Handling: 4/5User Friendliness: 4/5
Feature Set: 3.5/5
Performance: 4/5
Battery: 4.5/5
Overall score: 4/5
Sony Xperia M5 Specification
Weight: 142.5g
Screen size: 5.0” (1080 x 1920)
Screen Resolution: 1080 x 1920 display resolution
Pixels Per Inch (PPI) : 441
Processor: Octa-core application processor
RAM: 3GB
On-board Memory: 16GB (microSD card supported)
Camera: 21.5MP (rear) 2160p@30fps 13MP (front-facing)
Operating system: Android 5.1
3G / 4G LTE: Yes / Yes
Bluetooth / NFC : Yes / Yes
Battery capacity: 2600mAh
Colours: Black, White, Gold
Launch Date: Out Now
Price: £300
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