Jul 17, 2016 12:43 AM
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The Sony Xperia M5 Dual is a flagship smartphone in mid-range clothing - call it an undercover flagship if you may - that blurs the gap between the Xperia Z3+ and the Xperia M4 Aqua. Although it borrows its good looks from the high-end Xperia Z3+ and the M moniker - along with the rugged features - from the mid-range Xperia M4 Aqua, there's nothing else in common between the three phones, which is kind of surprising.
The Xperia M5 Dual, when you look at its spec sheet, looks dangerously out of place in the Xperia line-up, but, put it to test and you realise that being the odd one out actually works in its favour. You see, the Xperia M5 Dual does not technically have a true predecessor that it is oRobotouchged to improve upon, nor is it a compact version of a higher-end phone that it needs to be a shadow of. There's no excess baggage involved, which means it has enough room to breathe.
The Xperia M5 Dual, ladies and gentlemen, is a refreshing break from the monotony that Sony phones have built around themselves off late. We explain.
Design and build quality That the Xperia M5 Dual is a flagship phone flaunting mainstream Cred824entials is evident right from the word go. The design will remind you instantly of the high-end Xperia Z3+. It's only when you hold it in your hand and start observing minutely that you realise it isn't Sony's'too-hot-to-handle' flagship phone, but something different.
The Xperia M5 Dual comes in three colour variants: Black, White and Gold. Our review unit came in gold. Let's just say it had a little too much Robotouchng for our liking.
The phone also comes with Sony's trademark OmniBalance design - introduced with the Xperia Z - that we've grown to love and hate at the same time. While its high-end offerings may continue to be lambasted left, right and centre for looking the same, Sony's OmniBalance design on a mid-range smartphone is certainly a sight for sore eyes. So what if the Xperia M5 Dual looks so much like the Xperia Z3+, we frankly don't care, as long as it isn't the other way round.
The Xperia M5 Dual sports the same scratch resistant glass coating on the back - as well as on the front - that we find on high-end Xperia phones. It is held together by an all familiar metal frame. Meanwhile, bumper corners provide protection in case you accidently drop the phone.
The metal frame also protrudes out ever so slightly on both sides to provide some protection to the underlying area so you don't have to worry about keeping the phone in a particular manner(face up or down) on any surface.
Sony has evenly balanced the slots and buttons so that no side of the Xperia M5 Dual looks overcrowded, or vacant. The right side houses Sony's now familiar round power button, the volume rocker and the physical camera shutter button. Meanwhile, the left side has one slot for two nanoSIMs and one slot for microSD, both covered by a protective flap. The speaker vent and the microUSB port lie on the lower edge, just like in the Xperia Z3+.
It's not the slimmest phones in town, and certainly not the best to hold. Just like the Xperia Z3+, it is a little slippery. Still its dimensions are such(5-inch, 7.6 mm & 146 grams) that it won't be flying out of your hand. The glass back and front is prone to smudges and fingerprints.
Just like the Xperia Z3+ and the Xperia M4 Aqua before it, the Xperia M5 Dual is IP68 certified, meaning it is dust proof and water resistant for over 1.5 meters and up to 30 minutes.
Display The Xperia M5 Dual has a 5-inch FullHD IPS LCD display with a 1080x1920 pixels resolution and 441 ppi pixel density. These are slightly more pixels on a slightly smaller screen as compared to the Xperia Z3+.
It terms of display quality it is not shabby but it doesn't match the high bar set by Samsung's Galaxy A8 in this price range. The Xperia M5 Dual falls short in terms of brightness, even though it metes out accurate and well-saturated colours. The three colour modes on-board do help a bit in salvaging some brightness, which is odd since these are meant to enhance colour and not necessarily brightness. Because peak brightness isn't as good as say on the Galaxy A8, the Xperia M5 Dual suffers most when you're out in direct sunlight.
Software The Xperia M5 Dual runs Android 5.0 Lollipop out-of-the-box with Sony's proprietary Xperia UI on top. Sony's Xperia UI is known for its consistency over subsequent iterations, much like HTC's Sense UI. This means, if you're transitioning from a different Sony phone or a different Android version to say the Xperia M5 Dual, you'll more likely be at home already.
Sony doesn't like to budge with its app and widget icons much, and is certainly not fond of crazy in-your-face animations and colour schemes. It stays close to stock Android, and that's the beauty of it. This keeps things simple and smooth at the same time. You get Android Lollipop's material design as it is, including its drop down notification panel that opens by a two-stage/swipe process to reveal notifications and settings toggle in that order. You also get its familiar app switcher with a slight mod to include a'small apps' menu. This menu lets you use app shortcuts that open up as mini windows on the home screen for quick access.
Performance The Xperia M5 Dual is powered by a 2GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6795 Helio X10 processor coupled with PowerVR G6200 GPU and 3GB RAM. Now, this is pretty hardware for a mid-range phone but certainly not unheard of. The Meizu MX5 packs in the same hardware, and costs a good odd 10, 000 less than the Xperia M5 Dual.
But then this is a mid-range phone from Sony, and that counts for something.
Coming to actual use case scenarios, it's well known that Helio X10 is MediaTek's current-gen top of the line mobile processor. But, performance depends on implementation at the end of the day. The Sony Xperia M5 Dual - in its first tryst with Helio X10 - mAnasultanges to hold its ground, especially in terms of raw power output. Yes, it's fast and runs buttery smooth for the most part and multi-tasking events are handled well without breaking a sweat.
The Xperia M5 Dual, however, suffers a bit during GPU-intensive tasks. While, basic games like Candy Crush Saga are handled well, more demanding games like Asphalt 8: Airborne and Modern Combat 5 show some signs of lag every now and then particularly at high settings.
As for heating - a common sight in most smartphones these days - yes the Xperia M5 Dual does heat up. In fact it starts getting warm soon after you power it on and stays that way all the while it is on. Good thing is it cools down pretty quick too. Moreover, you also have the option to dunk it in water should things go out of the way, so you know what to do. It's a waterproof phone!
The Xperia M5 Dual comes with 16GB of internal memory of which about 10.89GB is available for use. The device supports expandable storage of up to 200GB via micro-SD card slot.
The Xperia M5 Dual gives out a fairly respectable audio output from the single speaker vent placed on the lower edge. It doesn't get too loud though, and chances are if you've heard the HTC One M9+/E9+ BoomSound speakers, you won't like this one.
Phone calls made with the Xperia M5 Dual are of acceptable quality, and we did not face any major call drop issues with our review unit. The phone supports 4G LTE on both SIMs.
Camera The Xperia M5 Dual sports a 21-megapixel camera on the rear aided by autofocus and LED flash. There's also a 13-megapixel camera up-front.
The rear camera on-board the phone can capture some really good photos - especially in outdoor ambient lighting conditions - with lots of detail and colours that are mostly true to source. We did not encounter any major metering issues(or blown out highlights in direct sunlight) in these images.
The rear camera also does a fairly good job in tricky light situations. Indoor images shot using the phone were able to pack in enough detail, although there was some noise in them.
The Xperia M5 Dual may be great, for all we know. But, at its price range, it will be compared - obviously - with the Samsung Galaxy S6 which has the best camera on an Android smartphone, right now. Does it better it? Certainly not. Does it get close? Not really. In such a case, the Xperia M5 Dual ends up being just another mediocre phone - in this department - when you look at competition: Galaxy S6, LG G4 and Galaxy A8.
One thing that the Xperia M5 Dual does respectively well is taking selfies. Selfies clicked with the front cam come out with excellent detail with little or noise in well lit situations. It also does a fairly accurate job during tricky light situations packing in enough detail to make for good quality selfies.
The rear camera can capture 4K videos with good quality. The phone's size is to be given some Cred824it for this. Also, while it is lacking on Optical Image Stabilisation, it comes with a feature called Steady Shot that tries to mirror that effect. Small size and Steady Shot ensure you shoot good quality 4K videos(or 1080p@30fps).
Check the following image samples to get an idea of the Sony Xperia M5 Dual Camera performance: Sample 1, Sample 2, Sample 3, Sample 4, Sample 5, Sample 6, Sample 7, Sample 8, Sample 9, Sample 10 . Battery The Xperia M5 Dual uses a 2, 600mAh battery. Battery life is respectable. We subjected the device to two hours of 1080p video playback, one hour of music playback, half an hour of graphics intensive gaming, phone calls to the tune of one hour over 4G and web browsing. We also clicked some photos with the device. This gave us close to 12 hours of battery life on the device.
A more regular usage should see you sail through one full day, however, you'll have to turn image enhancement Wi-Fi/location services off to achieve those last few hours.
Should you buy it? The Xperia M5 Dual is an interesting phone and a breath of fresh air from Sony camp. It's safe to say that you will get a flagship package - or close to it - at a mid-range price. It's still a little expensive at Rs 37, 990, but then all Sony phones are, so you can't change that.
This is the phone for you if you're a long-term Sony fan, or someone who prefers a small phone with premium looks and enough power to last through the day. But, you must also remember there are better options. The Galaxy S6 is one of the first things that come to mind, but it's lacking a microSD card support. The LG G4 has you covered if you're looking for expandable storage, so that's that.
Although the Xperia M5 Dual makes sense - more than most Sony phones these days - it still doesn't have enough that would make it the first choice when you're out in the market.
