Sony Xperia M4 Aqua 16GB GSM/LTE Unlocked Cell Phone - Black (U.S. Warranty)

Only had the phone a day so keep that in mind when reading this review....My last phone was the Nexus 4. I had it just under 3 years. Great phone. Its lack of LTE bands and limited space (16GB with no SD card) was a problem. Other than that I'd still have the phone. I have no interest in paying the premium for a flagship phone as midrange phones are plenty for my needs. I tried a couple different refurbished phones but each on had problems...I assume because they were used/refurbished. So I knew I had to go with a new phone. I did get the invite for the OnePlus X but canceled my order when I decided that it lack too many LTE bands to be as useful as it could be in the US (really band 4 was the only option). I was thinking about getting a Z3 but even used ones were still way too expensive IMO. So I saw this one.I knew when I ordered it that it was not a flagship phone. It has a 13megapixal camera which is not flagship quality but...its not a flagship. The battery is only 2400+ which is low compared to flagship but...its not a flagship phone. CPU...not flagship quality but... you know.Its not a flagship phone but it is also 1/3 the price of a flagship phone. It offers all the gsm LTE bands you could want (for the US). Its thin. The battery isn't 2 days as Sony says but in the 1 day I've had it I've been impressed (Nexus 4 was smaller battery so this better). Camera is only 13megapixal but its better than the 8megapixal I was use to. Its practically stock android (something I am use to).On a personal note: I like the design of the phone. I never liked the rounded back you get on many phones now a days. I like when my lays on a table that it doesn't rock when you click on the screen. I like the relatively squared corners of the M4. It gives the illusion of a good phone to screen size ratio. I completely understand others might not share these opinions. Its just my preference.For the money its a good phone. For now I'll give it 5 stars as my limited experience has been nothing but great.While I appreciate what flagship phones give you (my Nexus 4 was a flagship phone in its time) and I could afford it if I wanted but what you get for the cost just doesn't out weigh a number of mid-range phones priced in the $~200 range.Edit #1 (1 week):Absolutely no complaints. Its a beautiful phone..especially in its price range. The battery has been absolutely fantastic for my use. I am confident I could get almost 2 days on my normal use. My more significant use (when my son gets his hands on it) does drain the battery faster but I can still get over a day with it. This is the first phone I've had where I know I do not have to plug it in during the day and can probably skip charging every night.Edit #2 (2 months):Fantastic phone. For the money I am shocked how good it is. It is only running Lollipop but I can only assume that the Sony customization to the OS has added something to improve battery life (like what Marshmallow gives you today). When I am at work I probably listen to music (from the SD card) for about 4-5 hours a day. Add in a little internet usage throughout the day and I still have ~60% battery life by the end of the day. As I said before when pushed the phone can drain quickly (son playing lots of games or watching YouTube videos) but for my normal usage this is quite nice for me. My Nexus 4 would not make to the end of my work day without needing to be plugged in if I did the same thing (music and some internet browsing).The camera is? Well the camera itself is quite nice. But the Sony camera software isn't quite right. Its slow. The Android camera app is a definite improvement. So I am not going to change my 5 star review for a slow camera app (that would be silly).I did find one problem though: I had paired my phone with my car (Honda Fit). Everything was working fine for days/weeks. Then one day I realized the car was not informing me of text messages from my phone. Seems the phone had some sort of issue with bluetooth and its saved pairing with the car seemed broken. I had to delete the pairing my phone and car had and recreate the pairing. Its been fine since then. Not sure what happened or what caused the issue but all seems fine now. I suppose if I could do 4.5 stars I'd consider lowering my review but since I cannot I am sticking with 5 as I think it is better that 4 stars. Plus....its possible my car was the problem and not the phone (but I did not have this problem with my previous phone).Anyways....love the phone.

I started using ios a few years ago. After a few years, I got bored of it. So I sold my iPhone and got this (it was on sale for$200). I got it 2 moths back (November 7). First thing, this is an honest review; I am not being paid to review this product.Build quality/ hardware- the phone is 7.3 mm. It's pretty slim and feels sturdy in your hand. The power and volume buttons are weirdly placed at the right middle side of the phone. In my case, this proves to be a good thing because I have small-medium hands. There is one front facing speaker, SD card slot on the left, charging port on the left, micro simcard on the right, a headphone jack on the top, and a camera button on the bottom right( to take photos instead of touching the screen) . The back of the phone is plastic but looks like glass. The back and front of the phone are very vulnerable to scratches; I recommend buying a screen protector and cover. There are no physical home buttons. The phone is water proof, but you should wipe your screen after putting it in water as it tends to become unresponsive when you touch the screen.Software- the phone is pre-installed with Android 5.0 and loaded with about 23 apps of which only around 7 are useful. After deleting apps and cache I had 12 gb left. The skin is very close to stock lollipop android. So far no apps have crashed. Something I found nice is the ability to record your screen when you long press the power button.Camera- I'm not a selfie guy, but alot of people take photos of their duck lips and food so I included this part. The camera is pretty good, but not the best. There are lots of settings to enhance your photo experience. Something I found fun was that is has a virtual reality camera mode that allows you to talk photos/videos of dinosaurs, undersea,etc. A very big setback is its lack of flash. So if you live in a dark cave, too bad. You can zoom in too, but it gets blurry and hard to adjust. Something I found useful is that the camera recognises where you are, so if your driving and taking a video it makes the videos look not blurry.Performance- Im a gamer, and performance is key in every product I purchase for gaming. The phone has 2 gigs of ram and a snapdragon 615. It tends to heat but not as much as lava on your hand. The heating problem is not a big deal. I have 21 games on my phone( no SD card) of which include modern combat 4, Nova, asphalt 8, minecraft, and terraria. These games played pretty well with occasional lag, although it's almost unnoticeable. The phone scored 25841on antutu, single core 527 on geekbench 3, and multicore 1905 on geekbench 3. Decent enough.Conclusion: overall I am very pleased and satisfied with the experia m4 aqua. It has a low price but simply beats others of its price range due to ram,waterproof, snapdragon 615, and good slim build. I would recommend this phone to anyone.

I originally wanted the Sony Xperia Z3, but for less than half the price I finally decided to buy the M4 Aqua GSM/LTE Unlocked. All in all it's a great phone (so far after 1 month). Build quality is good, processor is fast, and the screen is beautiful. Battery lasts for 2-3 days but I'm not a heavy user. Regarding the heating/overheating issues mentioned in other reviews, I only encountered this while I was playing a game - the phone did seem hot but wasn't too bad because I was using a protective case and the phone performance wasn't affected. One other point: I previously used a Sony Xperia S and the camera was terrible - the camera on the M4 Aqua is much better and takes great photos so this is a definite improvement. I'm very pleased with this phone and for the price it's a winner!