Xperia M4 Aqua review: A waterproof mid-ranger that brought IP rating down to an affordable price.
Waterproofing for the masses.
M4 Aqua brought Sony's IP68 rating to an affordable mid-ranger. The look and battery were strong, but the Snapdragon 615 throttled and the small storage filled fast. A flawed but pioneering "rugged-for-cheap" experiment.
01Display
56/10056/100 is one of the weaker display results among mid-range phones of 2015 — 10 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
02Camera
56/10056/100 trails the 59-point cohort average for mid-range phones of 2015.
03Performance
50/10050/100 trails the 56-point cohort average for mid-range phones of 2015.
04Battery
58/10058/100 is one of the weaker battery results among mid-range phones of 2015 — 7 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.
05Build
66/10066/100 — right at the average for mid-range phones of 2015.
06Value
56/10056/100 trails the 59-point cohort average for mid-range phones of 2015.
- IP68 waterproofing at a mid-range price.
- Two-day battery life for light use.
- Slim 7.3 mm.
- microSD + jack.
- Snapdragon 615 throttled badly.
- Notorious storage-bloat issues at launch.
- HD display only.
- Updates ended quickly.
How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 42-phone cohort of mid-range devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .