The Sony Xperia M4 Aqua Is a Powerful Waterproof Phone

Sony Xperia M4 Aqua in water

As Sony looks to revive its ailing smartphone business, the Japanese company announces the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua waterproof smartphone.

It’s been widely reported these past few weeks that Sony’s profits aren’t looking so hot. By the time the current financial year ends on April 1st, Sony will have lost over $1 billion, losses that would be significantly worse had it not been for the phenomenal success of the PlayStation 4 which had sold just over 20 million units as of this month. One reason for their financial instability is their smartphone business; Sony just can’t compete with Apple, Samsung and co. and everyone is telling them to sell it off. Alas, those at Sony are a stubborn bunch which is why they have now announced the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua which partners processing power with a waterproof body.

On the inside, the Xperia M4 Aqua is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 615 processor (two quad core processors of 1.5 GHz and 1.0 GHz) and has 2GB of RAM. Essentially, this means that Sony’s phone is a stellar mid-range effort that will be able to handle most intensive apps with little to minimal trouble. The phone also has a a 13 megapixel camera on the back and a 5 megapixel camera up front – these are great specs on their own but given that Sony’s camera business is another thing keeping them afloat right now, your selfies and Instagram updates are certainly in good hands.

As for the waterproof side of things, the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua is offering a waterproof phone without any of those usual annoying rubber fixtures. However, waterproof does not mean indestructible and so Sony has advised the following: don’t submerge the phone in water deeper than 1.5 metres, don’t put the phone in salt water and don’t put it in chlorinated water (swimming pools etc.) and if you do get chlorinated water on it, you have to rinse it off afterwards. You’ll also need to make sure the phone is dry again before you charge it: this seems obvious but if you don’t want to accidentally blow the electrical socket/your phone up or endanger yourself, you should heed Sony’s warning.

Also providing a good reason to buy the Sony Xperia M4 Aqua is its price. Sony is selling the handset for a reasonable 299 Euros and it will be available in 80 countries (excluding the United States).

Source: Sony

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Sony introduces their new waterproof gadgets

Sony waterproof phone

Sony seems ready to get rid of their mobile division, but not just yet, as MWC 2015 saw them introduce a few new waterproof phones and tablets.

The latest phones and tablets introduced by Sony at MWC 2015 in Barcelona were the Xperia M4 Aqua and the Xperia Z4 tablet, a couple of waterproof gadgets that might be amongst Sony’s latest offerings in the mobile department, ever.

The phone is capable of resisting half a meter of water pressure for some 30 minutes, which is ideal for withstanding accidents by the pool or beverages spilling. The Xperia M4 Aqua has a 5 inch screen (1280 x 720), an 8 core processor at 1,5GHz, 2GB RAM, and comes in two version of 8 and 16GB storage with front and back cameras of 5 and 13 megapixels respectively – the best part being that Sony claim the battery is good enough for some 48 hours. This phone will retail for €299 in Europe.

The tablet, the Xperia Z4, is one of the slimmest tablets in the market at barely 6,1 mm. It’s powered by a Snapdragon 810 processor, 3GB RAM, and 32GB of storage, which can be expanded via Micro SD cards. Of course, both devices will run Android Lollipop as their default OS.

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Sony’s Google Glass Rival to Launch in March

Sony SmartEyeGlass

While Google Glass is still a work in progress and Microsoft’s HoloLens is still some time away, Sony prepares to launch it’s own headset called SmartEyeGlass.

Sony has not had the best of years. For the financial year ending in March the company will face a $1 billion loss as their smartphone and TV sectors fail to beat out competitors such as Samsung, Apple and LG. Just this Wednesday, Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai announced plans to focus on camera sensors, entertainment and the company’s PlayStation gaming brand.

With all that in mind, it may seem unusual then that the company is preparing to enter a brand new market with untested waters and lots of competition. Going up against the big dogs at Google who are trying to make augmented reality (AR) popular with their Google Glass headset, Sony is going to launch an AR headset of their own.

The device is still in development but it’s called the SmartEyeGlass (kudos for originality on that one) and it looks to be a partnership or Google Glass as well as a ‘lite’ version of the holographic tech demoed in Microsoft’s HoloLens headset. As the above video shows, the Sony SmartEyeGlass will use “holographic waveguide technology” in 3mm AR lenses to put info right in front of your eyeballs. Although that demo video only shows messaging, along with directions it will also have its own suite of apps. Sony has said that Facebook and Twitter have their own apps and they’ve also rolled out an SDK (software development kit) so that developers who want to have a tinker around and make software for the SmartEyeGlass can do just that.

So far, so Google Glass clone. The only glaring difference wit the SmartEyeGlass (I really do hope they change that name) is the odd attachment that it comes with. Rather than just being able to listen to your voice commands automatically, or being controlled via hand gestures, SmartEyeGlass wearers will have to use the little black gadget to swipe along its interface or press its ‘Talk’ button in order to for voice commands to be heard. That seems a little counterintuitive if I’m honest because the point of these sorts of devices is that they give you access to things easily when you’re on the go, not with fiddly controls and button presses. However, it may stop wearers from looking insane as they talk to themselves and swipe madly in front of them, so maybe Sony is onto a trick there.

Other important specs include: 3MP camera, 80 minutes of battery life (when in use), 150 minutes of battery life (when on standby) and it supports Android 4.4 (it can be connected to your Android phone too). The SmartEyeGlass goes on sale in March in the US, UK, Germany and Japan for $840, 640 Euros and 100,000 yen.

Source: Sony

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