14 DAY TRIAL // Sony Mobile has already announced that it will not focus on the North American smartphone market this year, so fans should not expect to get all the new Xperia devices announced by the Japanese company earlier this year.
Even if the handset maker doesn’t bring some of its most popular Android smartphones in the United States and Canada, it looks like some of them will eventually make their debut in North America.
One of these devices is the Xperia M2, which has just been launched by Canadian carrier Fido. Potential customers should know that Fido offers the mid-range smartphone for no less than $300 (€200) on prepaid or no-contract.
However, those who can’t afford to pay the upfront amount can grab the Xperia M2 for free with a 2-year Tab24 agreement on a Smart plan. The smartphone is also available for $100 (€67) with a 2-year Tab24 agreement on a Standard plan.
It appears that only the black version of Xperia M2 is currently available at Fido, but Sony has also launched the smartphone in white and purple colors. Perhaps Fido will introduce these color options as well.
Here is what those who decide to buy the Xperia M2 will get for the amount mentioned earlier. First of all, Xperia M2 is one of the smartphones that have been confirmed to receive an Android 4.4.2 KitKat upgrade.
For the time being, the smartphone ships with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean operating system out of the box, but Sony has confirmed that a KitKat upgrade will be available sometime in July.
Hardware-wise, Sony Xperia M2 is a pure mid-range smartphone. The device is equipped with a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, which is complemented by an Adreno 305 graphics processing unit and 1GB of RAM.
It comes packed with only 8GB of internal memory, but users can further expand storage up to 32GB via microSD card slot. The Xperia M2 sports a more than decent 4.8-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen display that supports qHD (540 x 960 pixels) resolution and features scratch-resistant glass coating.
On the back, Sony fans will be happy to know that the Xperia M2 packs an enhanced 8-megapixel photo snapper that features autofocus, LED flash and full HD (1080p) video recording, while in the front, there’s a secondary VGA camera for video calls.
It is also worth mentioning that the handset is fully compatible with Fido’s 4G network, but offers additional connectivity options, such as HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC (Near Field Communication) and GPS with A-GPS support.