14 DAY TRIAL // Sony fans in India will be pleased to know that the Japanese handset maker has introduced the mid-range Xperia M2 dual smartphone in their country, but they will probably be unhappy with the way the company has decided to price the device.
As AndroidOS points out, Sony Xperia M2 dual will be available in India beginning April 25 for no less than Rs 21,990 ($360 / €260) outright. Customers will be able to pick from any of the three color options available at launch: black, white and purple.
This might not be too high for a mid-range Android smartphone manufactured by Sony, but the Indian market is flooded with much cheaper devices than the Xperia M2 dual, which also offer better specs.
We expect the Xperia M2 dual’s price tag to go lower in the next few weeks, but it will be interesting to see by how much Sony will be willing to cut the smartphone’s price in order to keep it profitable.
For those unfamiliar with the smartphone’s specs sheet, here is a quick recap. Sony Xperia M2 dual will come with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean operating system out of the box.
For the time being, it’s unclear whether or not Sony will offer an Android 4.4.2 KitKat upgrade for Xperia M2 dual. Hopefully, the Japanese company will reveal its plans regarding this mid-range smartphone sooner rather than later.
On the inside, the Xperia M2 dual is armed with a decent 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snpadragon 400 processor, which is complemented by an Adreno 305 graphics processing unit and 1GB of RAM.
The smartphone is packed with around 8GB of storage, but additional internal memory can be added via microSD memory card (up to 32GB).
Sony Xperia M2 dual sports a 4.8-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen display that supports qHD (540 x 960 pixels) resolution and features scratch-resistant glass coating.
The device includes lots of connectivity options, such as 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC (Near Field Communication) and microUSB 2.0 with On-the-go support.
On the back, the smartphone features an enhanced 8-megapxiel photo snapper with autofocus, LED flash and full HD (1080p) video recording, while in the front, there’s a secondary VGA camera for video calls.
Last but not least, the smartphone is powered by a high-capacity non-removable 2300 mAh battery, which should provide up to 580 hours of standby time (up to 600 hours in 3G mode) or up to 11 hours of talk time (up to 12 hours in 3G mode).