The Xperia C5 Ultra may be capturing some headlines due to its size and impressive selfie camera, but it’s not the only phone Sony announced at the end of July. The company also revealed the Xperia M5, a new waterproof phone that not only packs the same 13-megapixel selfie camera, but also a 21.5-megapixel rear camera.
Sony’s going all out on the photography side of the M5, and the list of features attached is long. Starting with the rear camera, Sony promises that zooming in on a subject will no longer mean a huge loss in quality, thanks to something called Clear Image Zoom. It doesn’t go into detail about how this works, though. There’s also a hybrid autofocus system that combines phase detection and contrast detection for super fast focusing, even on moving targets.
It also has an HDR mode, and will shoot video in 4K. Because the Xperia M5 is waterproof, it’ll do all of this underwater, and the IP65/68 rating is the highest given to a smartphone, according to Sony, and will keep it safe down to a depth of 1.5 meters. Flip the phone around for 13-megapixel selfies underwater too, and like the C5 Ultra, it has an HDR mode and autofocus, but no flash unit.
The Xperia M5 has a 5-inch, 1080p touchscreen and runs Android 5.0, while the processor is one of MediaTek’s new Helio X10 octa-core chips running at 2GHz. It has 3GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, plus a MicroSD card slot. Sony’s going to make both a 3G and a 4G LTE model, and there’s a 2600mA battery inside.
Frustratingly, Sony’s not saying where the Xperia M5 will go on sale, but has stated it’ll be out during August. The specification is good enough to make us excited about the M5, and we’re hoping for good news from Sony regarding its international availability.
