The Sony Xperia M5 and Motorola Moto X Style are among the latest high-end Android smartphones on the market. The Xperia M5 is among the very few fully water and dust resistant smartphones. Sony in the past usually only offered this technology in the flagship Xperia Z series devices, but has now also started integrating the same into mid-range devices as well. The Moto X Style on the other hand is a new variant of the company’s flagship Moto X 2nd-gen smartphone. This one isn’t totally waterproof, but comes with a water repellent coating.
The Sony Xperia M5 and Moto X Style offer excellent designs, latest software, great camera specs, and configuration. So if you have been eyeballing these two devices, let’s compare the Xperia M5 and Moto X Style.
Sony Xperia M5 vs Moto X Style: comparison of water resistant smartphones
Design
The Xperia M5 flaunts Sony’s iconic OmniBalance design with stainless steel edges and a glass-made rear panel. The phone offers head-turning appealing design, and measures 7.6mm around the waist and weighs 143 grams. It gets IP68 certification to offer water and dust resistance. The device can be submerged in water up to a depth of 1.5 meters for up to 30 minutes. The Motorola Moto X Style comes with a sturdy metal frame and a curved back panel. You can choose whatever hues or material choices you want for the rear panel using Moto Maker. The phone’s is tad thick with a waistline of 11mm, and weighs 179 grams. It’s not really fully waterproof, instead comes with a water repellant nano-coating.
Display
The Sony Xperia M5 sports a 5-inch full HD display with a pixel density of 441ppi and Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 to ensure quality media experience. The Motorola Moto X Style flaunts a much bigger 5.7-inch TFT LCD quad-HD display with a whopping pixel density of 520ppi and a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The Moto X Style offers much vivid colour reproduction than the Xperia M5. Software-wise, the Sony Xperia M5 runs Android 5.0 Lollipop with the brand’s in-house apps. The Moto X Style on the other hand offers the latest Android 5.1.1 Lollipop that is quite close to the stock version, but also includes several unique features from the brand in addition to the usual Lollipop experience.
Configuration
Coming to the configuration, the Sony Xperia M5 utilises a powerful 64-bit 2GHz octa-core MediaTekHelio X10 processor, coupled with 3GB of RAM and a PowerVR G6200 graphics processor. The Moto X Style is powered by a 1.8GHz hexa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor, aided by an Adreno 418 GPU and 3GB of RAM. For storage, the Xperia M5 offers 16GB of inbuilt memory, further expandable up to 200GB via a microSD card. The Moto X Style on the other hand is available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB internal memory variants, and accepts microSD cards up to 128GB in size. Overall, performance-wise, they offer quite similar experience, but the Moto X Style has multiple storage choices.
Camera
Talking about the camera, the Sony Xperia M5 sports a 21.5MP rear shooter with an IMX230 Exmor RS sensor, an LED flash, and 4K recording. The primary shooter is aided by Sony’s super-fast Hybrid autofocus technology, which allows capturing images via super-fast AF speed of just 0.25 seconds. For self-portraits, the device is equipped with a handsome 13MP snapper. The Moto X Play boasts a 21MP primary camera with phase detect autofocus, a dual-colour LED flash, 4K videos, and slo-mo recording. For selfies, it sports a 5MP wide-angle lens and f/2.0 aperture. It offers better selfies than the Xperia M5 under low-light conditions thanks to the front-facing LED flash.
Connectivity and Battery
In terms of connectivity, the Sony Xperia M5 and Moto X Style offer similar options including 4G LTE support, dual-band Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth 4.1, and A-GPS. The Xperia M5 is powered by a 2,600mAh battery that delivers two days of mixed usage on a single charge. The Moto X Style on the other hand has a beefier 3,000mAh unit, which thanks to Turbo Charging offers 10 hours of battery life from only 15 minutes of charge.
Conclusion
The Sony Xperia M5 and Moto X Style, both devices offer excellent features including appealing premium designs, latest software experience, great camera specs, 4G LTE support, 4K video recording, and water repellent bodies. The Sony Xperia M5 is for those who have small hands and like compact devices. The Moto X Style on the other hand will impress those users who love phablet sized phones with immersive media experience. As far as the pricing is concerned, the Xperia M5 is priced at Rs 37,990, while the Moto X Style is expected to be offered in India at the starting price of Rs 25,000, so which one is your pick? Share in the comments.