Solid build quality, large screen, okay battery life
Lowish resolution screen, camera not great, not waterproof
The midrange is the scene of some tough battles at the moment, with Google vying to pack as high a spec as possible into its sub-£200 phones with Nexus and Moto names. Sony has its work cut out with the M2, but has it compromised too far?
Chassis and screen
At first glance, the M2 fits in nicely with the sleek, slim lines of Sony's high-end Xperia Z2. But appearances can be deceptive.
That isn't tough Gorilla Glass on the front, and nor is it water and dustproof. That said, it's a neat-looking phone and feels solidly well built, even if it isn't quite as tough as its higher-priced brother.
The 4.8in screen is plenty big enough for comfortable web browsing, video viewing and typing, but offers a sub-HD resolution of 960x540 (229ppi), which lacks the impact of the eye-popping full HD experience, especially on a larger screen like this. It's a little bit of a surprise considering the similarly priced Moto G can muster an HD resolution of 1280x720 pixels.
Processor and software
The quad-core 1.2GHz processor is backed by 1GB RAM, which is pretty much in keeping with this price range. It doesn't have quite the whizz of the 2GB+ high-enders but it certainly doesn't feel slow. Our AnTuTu benchmark test rated it at 17,620, which actually puts it just a little bit ahead of the Moto G. The good-sized 2300mAh battery does a reasonable job but as with most midrange Androids, don't expect it to see you through much more than a day of regular use.
It's running the older 4.3 Jelly Bean version of Android rather than the most recent 4.4 KitKat, though an upgrade is apparently planned soon. Not that this is immediately obvious anyway since Sony skins the basic operating system with its own interface. It also adds quite a lot of software, including PlayStation Mobile, Sony Select and Walkman, though some you can lose if you want to, like Video Unlimited, Track ID and remote control app TV SideView.
Photography
The 8-megapixel camera includes a large f/2.4 lens, plus autofocus and an LED flash. It also comes with lots of Sony settings to play with, like Timeshift burst (so you can select the best shot), AR effects (add images and animations to your pics), Panorama and Portrait retouch. There's also a basic VGA camera on the front for video calls.
All well and good, but in practise the auto setting struggles a little with light balance -- there's a tendency to over expose -- and colours aren't as accurate as we'd have hoped. There's a healthy 8GB of memory on board and you can add another 32GB via microSD card.
Conclusion
The Xperia M2 is a decent phone, but it's far from exceptional at this price point. While the processor is powerful enough to keep it running smoothly, the less-than-HD screen is a bit of a let-down and, surprisingly for Sony, so is the camera.
Software: Android 4.3 Jelly Bean
Processor: Quad-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm MSM8926
Memory slot: Yes
Display: 4.8in, 960x540 pixels
Connectivity: Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0
Ports: microUSB, 3.5mm headphone jack
Camera: 8 megapixel with autofocus, LED flash; VGA front-facing camera
Video playback: 3GPP, MP4, M4V, MKV, AVI, XVID, WEBM
Audio playback: MP3, 3GPP, MP4, ADTS, AMR, SMF, XMF, OTA, RTTTL, RTX, iMelody, WAV, OGG, FLAC
Radio: Yes
Battery: 2300mAh
Size: 140x71x9mm
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
