There’s more to Sony than the Xperia Z5 and its other flagships. Look a little lower down the range and you’ll find the almost-as-impressive Sony Xperia M5 and its predecessor the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua.
The Xperia M5 is undeniably a great phone, with a sharp screen, an impressive camera and lots of power, but is it a big upgrade on the Xperia M4 Aqua? Read on for a full comparison, so you can see at a glance how they’re similar and how things have changed.
Sony Xperia M5 (145 x 72 x 7.6mm 142.5g metal, glass and plastic) vs Sony Xperia M4 Aqua (145.5 x 72.6 x 7.3mm 136g glass and plastic)
The Sony Xperia M5 and Sony Xperia M4 Aqua have similar designs. They both have a rectangular look with a glass back and a plastic frame, but the M5 has metal corners, adding a slightly more premium edge.
However, the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua is actually marginally slimmer and lighter, at 7.3mm thick (to the M5’s 7.6mm) and 136g (to the M5’s 142.5g). It’s a negligible difference but one which works out in the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua’s favour.
The best aspect of the design of both phones is their water and dustproofing though and they’re equal there. Both are IP68 certified, meaning they can be submerged up to 1.5 metres deep for up to 30 minutes.
Sony Xperia M5 (5.0-inch 1080*1920 441ppi) vs Sony Xperia M4 Aqua (5.0-inch 720*1280 294ppi)
While the Sony Xperia M5 and Xperia M4 Aqua both have 5.0-inch IPS LCD screens they’re far from equal, as the Xperia M5 has a resolution of 1080 x 1920, while the Xperia M4 Aqua is just 720 x 1280.
The knock-on effect on pixel density is that the Xperia M5 is a crisp 441 pixels per inch, while the Xperia M4 Aqua is 294 pixels per inch. That’s still reasonably sharp, but it’s no match for the M5, which is actually the same resolution as the flagship Sony Xperia Z5.
Sony Xperia M5 (2.0GHz octa-core 3GB RAM) vs Sony Xperia M4 Aqua (1.5GHz octa-core 2GB RAM)
There’s a significant difference in power between these two phones as well, though they’re both fairly well equipped.
The Sony Xperia M5 has a 2.0GHz octa-core MediaTek processor and 3GB of RAM, while the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua has 2GB of RAM and an octa-core Snapdragon 615 chip, with four cores running at 1.5GHz and four clocked at 1.0GHz.
While Snapdragons tend to be pricier processors, the 615 is lower end and slower than the MediaTek one in the Xperia M5. The M5 also has an extra gigabyte of RAM, so performance is smoother and speedier, even when multitasking. It’s not quite a flagship spec, but it’s not far off.
Having said all that, you can still expect quite slick performance from the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua.
Sony Xperia M5 (21.2MP rear 13MP front-facing) vs Sony Xperia M4 Aqua (13MP rear 5MP front-facing)
Sony tends to stick impressive cameras on even lower end phones and these two are no exception. The Xperia M4 Aqua has a 13MP snapper on the back and a 5MP one for selfies, which is a distinctly mid-range spec.
But the Sony Xperia M5 has it beat with a 21.2MP snapper on the back and a 13MP one on the front. That’s one of the highest spec front-facing cameras you’ll find on a phone at any price.
Video quality has improved too on the new handset. The Xperia M5 can shoot in 4K with its main camera and up to 1080p with its front-facing one, while the Xperia M4 Aqua is capped at 1080p on its rear camera and 720p on the front-facing one. Plus, there’s 5x zoom on the M5 and only 4x zoom on the M4 Aqua.
Sony Xperia M5 (2,600 mAh 16GB 4G) vs Sony Xperia M4 Aqua (2,400 mAh 8/16GB 4G)
The Sony Xperia M5 has a 2,600 mAh battery, which you can get up to two days of life from with mixed use. The Sony Xperia M4 Aqua has a smaller 2,400 mAh juice pack, but with the lower resolution screen it can actually keep the phone going for roughly as long.
There’s 16GB of storage built into the Sony Xperia M5 and a choice of 8GB or 16GB in the Xperia M4 Aqua. That’s not a huge amount in either case, but the phones both also have a microSD card slot, with support for cards of up to 200GB in the Xperia M5 or 128GB in the Xperia M4 Aqua, so there’s plenty of room for expansion.
Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, 3G, 4G, NFC and Bluetooth 4.1 on both handsets, which makes them well-connected for the money.
The Sony Xperia M4 Aqua is a solid phone, with a waterproof build, plenty of power and a long-lasting battery. But the Sony Xperia M5 has it beat in almost every way. The camera is vastly improved, it’s even more powerful and has a sharper display.
There’s not a huge difference in storage capacity, build quality or battery life, but in most other ways the Xperia M5 is the better option and other than being a little thicker and heavier there’s no area where it’s worse than the M4 Aqua.
Of course the Xperia M5 is likely to be quite a bit more expensive than the M4 Aqua, which can now be picked up from around £160, but it will still undercut the likes of the Sony Xperia Z5 and should be well worth the money.
