Official 2015: Which Smartphone Should I Get?
Nov 5, 2015, 9:11 pm
#256
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: NYC
Programs: AA LT PLT, SPG Gold
Posts: 2,564
That Sony M4 allegedly has a horrible camera, not to mention pretty poor on board storage.
Nov 6, 2015, 10:17 am
#257
Join Date: Sep 2007
Programs: DL Silver, AS MVP, UA Silver, HHonors Diamond, Marriott Plat, SPG Plat, National Exec Elite
Posts: 3,883
Nov 7, 2015, 8:51 pm
#258
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Denver, CO
Programs: UA Silver, Bonvoy Gold, Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 21,530
Not really phone-related, but my Nexus 7 (2013) finally got the Marshmallow OTA. This OS is legit. The Doze functionality is incredible.
Nov 7, 2015, 10:40 pm
#259
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: NYC
Programs: AA LT PLT, SPG Gold
Posts: 2,564
Nov 10, 2015, 1:50 pm
#260
Join Date: Sep 2007
Programs: DL Silver, AS MVP, UA Silver, HHonors Diamond, Marriott Plat, SPG Plat, National Exec Elite
Posts: 3,883
The Sony Xperia M4 Aqua arrived yesterday and it seems like a real winner, especially at the $200 price point. It's snappy, the screen is great, and while not as thin as the Vivo Air LTE, it's on-par with the current crop of flagships and the 5" screen size really is the sweet-spot. The camera is so-so but not as horrible as some reviews have made it out to be. From a functionality standpoint, the stand-alone shutter button with half-press actually makes the camera more usable, even if low-light PQ isn't the best.
The skin is slightly heavier handed than I like, but Google Now Launcher, Google Messenger, Google Keyboard, Google Camera, and Google Photos took care of the worst of it (the dialer and contacts apps being the last bit I can't get around, and they're not really objectionable). It's nice to have NFC and Android Pay back. Wireless charging and/or QC2.0 are the only real omissions, with the latter being the only one I really care about... that said, the battery/CPU combo seems robust enough that it's less of a concern.
At $200 for the 16gb US version, I'd put this at the top of the list of anyone looking to go with an ATT or TMO MVNO UNLESS camera quality is the absolute number one priority, at which point I'd probably look at the Moto G 2015 16gb/2gb instead.