After a long run as an exclusive to emerging and Asian markets, Sony’s mid-range Xperia M5 is finally coming to “key markets” in Europe. The phone took a while getting out of its initial run of markets, but should be available in a good portion of Europe soon. Sony’s mobile divisions in Poland and The Netherlands have confirmed a mid-February arrival, though no specific information on pricing was given. T-Mobile’s Netherlands arm, on the other hand, spilled the beans on a price tag of 440 Euros, roughly $480 USD. A specific date was not nailed down, so expect it to hit within the mid-February timeline given by Sony.
Some of you may be wondering why a mid-range phone would be worth such a sum. To recap the specs, the familiar-looking phone with metal corners boasts a Mediatek Helio X10 processor, used in many Chinese flagships in 2015 such as Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 2. This is bolstered by 3GB of RAM and a Rogue G6200 graphics unit. A fairly small 2,600 mAh battery runs the show, but Sony claims that it can run for up to two days. Mediatek processors are known for power efficiency, so this may just be the case, but we’ll have to wait for reviews to know for sure. A 5.0-inch 1920 x 1080 IPS LCD display boasting a fairly impressive 441 pixels per inch is also on board. There’s 16 GB of internal storage and a MicroSD slot for your storage needs.
The headline feature to justify the rather high price, however, is the camera capabilities. On the back, you’ll find a 21.5 megapixel Exmor RS sensor boasting ISO 3000 and a quarter-second hybrid autofocus. The front camera is a 13 megapixel affair with integrated autofocus on board, though not quite as fast as the main camera. The front camera can take Full HD video, making video chatting and Vines just as high-quality as some phones’ main cameras. To top all of that off, the whole package boasts an IP68 certification for water and dust resistance and no ugly caps on the USB or headphone ports. All said and done, it’s roughly equivalent to 2014’s Xperia Z3, albeit a hair smaller and with a slightly less premium design.