We put the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua’s waterproof construction to the test [VIDEO]

On paper the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua isn’t the most exciting of handsets. Don’t let the lack of premium ‘Z’ branding fool you though, the Xperia M4 Aqua packs a compliment of features that aren’t that far off from last year’s Sony Xperia Z3 into a plastic frame with an approachable price.

But the real selling point is the M4’s waterproof design and construction. As the Aqua name implies, Sony took some time to improve this aspect of the handset, earning both IP65 and IP68 ratings while skirting the need for physical flaps to cover the device’s ports. No more need to worry about sealing off the USB. The Xperia M4 will survive submersion in 1.5 meters of water for up to 30 minutes. The design itself is reminiscent of previous Xperia releases while cutting back on some of the more expensive build options like metal accents.

We didn’t have 30 minutes to sit around and see what would happen after the time limit ran up, but we did get a chance to dunk the Xperia M4 Aqua in a fish tank. As promised, the phone not only functioned while underwater but emerged unharmed.

So what can we expect from the M4 Aqua? Here’s the details:

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processing


• 2GB RAM


• 13MP Exmor RS/5MP front camera


• 2400mAh battery


• 7.3mm thick, 136 grams

The Xperia M4 Aqua will launch this spring at a price of 299 euro (~0). That’s an amazing off-contract price for a phone that gets you pretty close to Sony’s most recent flagship devices.

Only 1.26GB of the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua’s 8GB of storage are usable

It’s become an industry expectation to have less available storage than what’s advertised on the box, but we’re not sure the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua’s case can be excused. The phone apparently comes with just 1.26GB of usable storage out of 8GB.

8GB of storage isn’t a lot by today’s standard, mind you, but it should be enough to have at least 4GB of freely available storage, if not more. According to the storage analysis on Android 5.0, the phone’s system is taking up roughly 4GB alone, while pre-installed apps account for over 2GB.

Even more damning is the fact that the device’s user manual suggests there should be as much as 3GB of usable storage, which is double of what is actually available (but still a pretty pathetic expectation). Some will point out that you can expand storage thanks to the device’s microSD card slot, but that does nothing for things that can only be placed on internal storage such as apps and cache.

The crime here isn’t that the phone has 8GB of storage. It’s a budget phone that will naturally come up short in this area. The problem is Sony (and probably Google with all of the apps these companies are required to include as part of their Android license) are not doing proper optimization of their user experience to give as much of that storage to users as they can, and we hope they’ll address it in a future software upgrade. We’ll be reaching out to the company for a comment on whether this is an error, and whether they have plans to eradicate it at some point.

[via XperiaBlog]