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Sony’s Xperia M is on sale now here in Blighty. In case you missed it, the M is a mid-range affair, quite stylish, but a lot easier on the wallet than Sony’s flagship Xperia Z. It’ll set you back just £189.99 SIM-free from Unlocked Mobiles. That’s cheaper than the Lumia 625, and not much more than the bargain bin Lumia 520.
So what do you get for your cash? The 4-inch screen is the same size as the iPhone 5, but it’s nowhere near as sharp, with a resolution of 480×800 pixels. The iPhone 5 has a resolution of 640×1,136 pixels, in comparison, which is quite a lot higher, as you can see. The ppi (pixels per inch) ratings of both phones bear this out, too — the iPhone 5 is 326 ppi, while the Xperia M a lowly 245 ppi.
While the display might not be as clear and crisp as Apple’s flagship, the Xperia M does have a few tricks up its sleeve — like NFC, for example. This lets you pay for items by just touching your phone against a sensor, or share pictures between devices by tapping them together. You can also listen to music by tapping your phone against an NFC-equipped speaker. Here’s a video dripping in dubstep to show you how it works.
Woom woom woom woom woom woom!
Inside, a 1GHz dual-core processor powers things, which pales in comparison to higher-powered mobiles, but should be fine for basic tasks. You’ll only get 4GB of internal storage, and only 2GB of that can be used for apps. You can slap in a 64GB microSD card, but the Android Jelly Bean OS won’t let you install apps on external storage devices. The 5-megapixel camera, and 0.3-megapixel front-facer are also a bit of a letdown.
Still, that price is pretty tempting. Will you give the M a look? Or could you do better for your money? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page.
