While there’s a chance we might see new hardware from Sony at MWC 2016, some models that were introduced last year are still being released around the world, the Xperia Z5 and Z5 Compact will make their way into the U.S. next month and the Xperia M5 is said to be available in some European countries next month as well. Following the report of the Xperia M5, only a few countries were confirmed to get the phone back then, including Poland and The Netherlands. Now, it is being reported that the Xperia M5 will also be available in the UK as Carphone Warehouse has the phone listed for pre-order
There are three color options available on the British retailer for the Xperia M5, including black, white and gold, although the gold color option will be an available exclusively if you buy the phone from Carphone Warehouse. The phone is expected to be released on February 8 and there are several UK carriers to choose from, including EE, Vodafone and O2. The phone can be purchased for as low as £14.99 per month and £129.99 upfront on a 24-month contract from EE. Otherwise, it can be purchased for as low as £22 per month with no upfront payment on a 24-month contract from Vodafone. Of course, there are additional plans with more benefits and those are priced accordingly. At the moment, the Xperia M5 can only be purchased as a carrier-locked option.
The Xperia M5 features a 5-inch display with Full HD resolution, it is powered by an octa-core MediaTek Helio X10 processor clocked at 2.0 GHz, and comes with 3GB RAM. There are 16GB of internal storage and it can be expanded using microSD cards (up to an additional 200 GB). The main camera features a 21.2-megapixel sensor with phase detection autofocus and LED flash. There’s a 13-megapixel front-facing camera with autofocus. There’s a 2,600 mAh battery, but Sony claims that the phone can last up to two-day on a single charge. The phone is rated IP68, so it is protected against water or dust. It will initially run Android 5.0 Lollipop, but an upgrade to Android 6.0 Marshmallow is planned.