Sony Xperia M2, USB OTG & Omnibalance design

With the desire to still hold some territory in the mid-range platform, Sony released the Xperia M2 with balanced features and a reasonable price. From the onset, the screen size, battery life, user interface and the cute design are its strong points. On the other hand, low screen resolution and pixel density might turn off ardent gamers and video viewers.

Sony Xperia M2
With the 4.8 inch TFT capacitive touchscreen with 16M colours, the display is really awe-inspiring. But why on earth did Sony put in such little effort in screen resolution? 560 x 960 pixels translates to a density of 229 pixels per inch which places the Xperia M2 on the lower rank compared to other devices in this category. The screen is protected by Corning gorilla glass 3 though the entire body is plastic and thus susceptible to scratches and easy breakage if poorly handled.

On purchase, you will be giving yourself 8GB of internal memory despite the fact that you will not be able to put the whole of it to your own use. You can however ace up to 32GB with a microSD card. Expansion of the storage space may be necessitated by the desire to download more games, movies or songs. This is because the Xperia M2 supports 2G, 3G and 4G networks. In addition, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and USB (plus USB hotspot) backing makes for easy data transfer.

At the back is an 8MP camera with 3264 x 2448 pixels, which most reviewers have vehemently attacked for lagging behind. However, even though 8MP is not so competitive at this time, the accompanying auto focus ensures user friendliness. Furthermore, the LED flash guarantees usage in circumstances where poor lighting may render photo taking a useless task. Additional features that may attract more photographers include geo-tagging, touch focus, smile detection, HDR and panorama. With regard to videos, Sony did not disappoint; 1080p@30 fps makes sure that the videos you shoot are not blurry.

A number of users have lamented that the phone is prone to heating while operating and it hangs sometimes. I am yet to come across a mid-range smart phone that does not hang! It is however appalling since with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean OS; 1.2 GHz Quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU; Adreno 305 GPU and Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset should make its operation seamless and fluid. Add the 1GB of RAM to this and you would be expected to multitask without sluggish speed and hanging.

The Sony Xperia M2 has been lauded for its enduring battery life. This is no joke. The 2300mAh battery has a standby time of up to 588h on 2G and up to 633h on 3G network. You can enjoy a talk time of up to 13h 25mins on 2G and 14h 36mins on 3G. For those interested in entertainment, you have 58h 25mins of music play.

Even though there is no exclusive feature that one can point at and bet that it will pull in customers, the Xperia M2 has satisfactory specs for its price. The good display and stable battery life may contribute to a high demand. You only need to close your eyes to the average pixel density and camera quality.

Technical specifications

Device type- Smartphone
Dimensions- (LxWxD) 139.7 x 71.1 x 8.6 mm
Weight -148 grams
OS- Android OS, 4.3 Jelly Bean
Processor- 1.2 GHz Quad-core, Snapdragon- 400 chipset
RAM- 1GB
GPU Adreno- 305
Internal storage- 8GB
External storage- MicroSD, up to 32GB
Screen size- 4.8 inches
Resolution- 540 x 960 pixels
Pixel density- 229 ppi
Screen type -TFT capacitive, 16M colors
SIM- Micro-SIM
Speed- HSDPA 42/21Mbps DL, 5.76Mbps UL, LTE 150Mbps DL, 50Mbps UL
Wi-Fi- Yes
Bluetooth- 4.0
Battery -2300mAh, 633h 14h 36 min 3G, 588h 13h 25 min 2G
Camera- 8MP, 3264 x 2448 pixels
Video -1080p@30fps