Xperiencing the power of Xperia M. Review on Sony Xperia M

It has been 2 months now since I am using my Sony Xperia M. For your information it is my first smart phone. It is a single sim, white colored model. I purchased it in Rs. 12100. I am not going to discuss the specification of the phone. For that, refer to GSM Arena or even Mouthshut is good.

This review is all about my experience with the phone and how is it's

1. Battery Life

   
   




2. Camera

   
   




3. Video recording

   
   




4. Speaker

   
   




5. Walkman

   
   




6. Display

   
   




7. Gaming

   
   




8. Heating

   
   




9. Multi-tasking

   
   




10. Memory

    
    




11. Is it value for money?

    
    




12. Battery Life

    
    

On paper, the battery is Li 1700mAh which looks pretty low as compared to its competitors but in practice its equivalent. Once charged, it takes 1.25 days for the battery to completely drain with normal use and without being on stamina mode. My normal usage is as under:

Total Talk time: 1 hour

Listening music:  2 hours

Playing Game: 0: 30 hour

Internet usage:  Continuously on( 2G) . Also I keep wifi on for most part of the day.

Camera: Not used on daily basis. Occasionally 1 or 2 pics

Video Streaming: 1 hr

Charging Time: In 1 hr, it charged from 1% to 73%

1. Camera

The back camera is 5 MP. Being a brand, I did not expect such a low quality camera from Sony. The camera is good in the day light with close shots but quality deteriorates with zoom and reduction in lighting. After a click I have to hold for atleast 5 sec before I could even move my hand or do any other activity. Otherwise, the pic blurs out. Checkout the collage for the pics.

Since I never owned a camera or  a smart phone before, 5MP is pretty descent for me. I seldom use it. Colour reproduction is OK. It is no substitute for digital camera. But obvious, if I am going for a trip I prefer a digi cam as it is still better than most of the smart phones. The good ones are just out of budget for people like me. Front camera is 0.3MP. Well, there is not much to say about that. I don't use that camera.

1. Video Recording

Video recording is in HDR and is pretty well compared to other similar budget phones.

1. Speaker

Speaker of this phone is nice and loud enough to be audible. Also a plus point over it's competitors

1. Walkman

I am a diehard music lover. I personally own a sony walkman device. The only reason to buy this phone was that it comes with Walkman inbuilt like Apple's phones come with iPod inbuilt. To be honest, I was disappointed. There is a huge difference in the quality of sound and especially bass in the phone. It is no match to the real walkman. Just for the sake of saying, Sony had named the app as walkman. Though it comes with flexi adjustments and'Clear Audio' and other settings, I miss my walkman.But it is better than other phone's music players

Sony, please don't lie to your customers like this! It harms your brand value.

1. Display

Xperia M has a 4 inch TFT display. That is pretty bad to hear when micromax canvas 2+ is giving an IPS in lower price than this. I compared the display with my friend's phone having IPS screen playing the default sony's video in it. Oh! It was no match. But if you do not compare it to IPS and see from your own point of view, it is not that bad either. There is not much problem of viewing from different angles as is said to be a problem associated with TFT displays. The colour reproduction is not good. The resolution is also less but makes not much difference on that small screen.

Phones with larger displays( 4.7in, 5in) are too bulky and I don't like it. Xperia M 4 inch display is just apt for me and it really looks stylish and beautiful . The black coloured version is even more astonishing.

The notification light adds to its beauty. The way it changes the colour as per the display is really fascinating. Don't ignore it! It is a very important and useful feature that helps you know about the notifications you get on the phone, especially when it is in silent mode! I totally love it!

1. Gaming

I have played only two games on it  - Word Search and Beach Buggy Blitz.  Out of the specified 1 GB RAM approx. 768MB is only usable. Till half an hour I did not receive any problem but beyond that some lags started appearing in the Beach Buggy Blitz game. Same would be the condition for temple Run and Subway Surfer as they have equivalent graphics. Heavy games obviously you cannot play over it. Anyway, I am not a hardcore mobile gamer, so this isn't any problem for me.

I love and prefer playing console games on big TV screen or at least PC. Smaller than that, I couldn't enjoy a game.

1. Heating

The phone heats up on charging or playing game for more than 10 min. You can feel the heat if you talk on phone. Multitasking does not affect it much.

1. Multi Tasking

Xperia M comes with 1 Ghz Snapdragon S4 Dual Core processor.

I use multiple apps at a time like twitter, fb, news app, walkman, whatsapp, etc Initially it was smooth but now it shows occasional hiccups. Negligible! I can ignore! No Android phone is perfect. If you need a problem free phone, go for iPhone or closest android competitor to it - Nexus.

1. Memory

The phone has got 2 GB internal memory out which 1.3GB is available for use. Remaining is used by phone and non removable apps like google hangout and all.

2 GB is really very less. The biggest problem is useful apps cannot be stored in external sd card. If it could have been a little more, it would have been really nice.

1. Value for money

I would say with features like geo tagging, NFC, etc, Android 4.1.2, 5 MP back camera, Good Speaker, Long battery life, walkman and just at Rs 12000, it is a good deal. If you are tight on budget and planning to buy your first smart phone, then this is surely what you are looking for. I have mostly focussed on the bad part of the phone in my review but hey, the phone has got its positives too. Try it out in nearby phone outlets like Chroma or Vijay Sales and you would know that it is indeed a good phone. And yes I forgot to mention, the screen is scratch resistant and so no need of buying screen guards and all. Also, there is an app of xperia that can help you locate your device in case of loss.

Some Advice

1. The phone has negligible weight and so can easily fall off from hand.

   
   




2. Use a cover that would protect it. Prefer the flap one as it would prevent the screen to some extent from breaking if the phone ever falls. If possible don't use plastic cover. It may damage or cause scratches on the phone.

   
   




3. Turn off the wifi and bluetooth when not using. Keep Google now disable. It eats up lot of battery.

   
   




4. Use stamina mode for longer battery life.

   
   




5. Fully charge the phone on first use.

   
   




6. Don't play game over half an hour. Phones heats up too much.

   
   




7. Buy a good earphone if you are a music lover. The default one keeps falling out of ear. Also it causes pain in the ear drums if one listens for a prolonged period of time.

   
   




8. Synchronize all your accounts for getting best experience out of your  smart phone.

   
   




9. Store phone numbers on google. If you loose it, you still can easily get all your contacts back.

   
   




10. Prefer dual sim.

    
    




11. Buy a minimum 4 GB external memory card.

    
    




12. Don't keep apps that you don't use.

    
    




13. Bluetooth is slow for transferring large files. You may use Software data cable or any other such app for fast transfer.

    
    




14. Take good care of the phone and it would take good care of you.

    
    

UPDATE

Feb 11, 2014

2 months back, I experienced some problems. The speaker volume and the call quality did go bad. Speaker volume got very low and I used to get some rumbling sound in the call. I went to the service centre and got it fixed. It was a minor software issue related to software update which they fixed within a day and returned it back the next day. Since, then it is perfectly working fine. It has almost been more than 4 months and now I am proud to choose this phone! Paisa Vasool!