Sony Xperia M2 review: Dial M for midrange

Synthetic benchmarks

Sony Xperia M2 is running on the Snapdragon 400 mid-range chipset. It offers four Cortex-A7 CPU cores, Adreno 305 graphics and 1GB of RAM. We've already seen the S400 in action on the Motorola Moto G, the Sony Xperia T2 Ultra, the HTC Desire 816, the HTC One mini 2 and several others so it's clearly a quite popular choice. And rightfully so as it delivers a snappy performance in everyday use and quite acceptable gaming as well.

Starting off with the CPU benchmarks, the Xperia M2 posted an OK result on the multi-core GeekBench 3 cross-platform benchmark. While the score pales in comparison to the latest Krait processors, the Xperia M2 matched the performance of the Moto G and Xperia C and bettered that of the first-gen Krait and Cortex-A9 devices.

Geekbench 3

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S5
  3011
• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  2968
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  2937
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  2670
• LG Nexus 5
  2453
• HTC One (M8)
  2367
• LG G2
  2243
• Huawei Ascend P7
  1895
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  1869
• HTC One mini 2
  1526
• LG Optimus G
  1465
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  1359
• Alcatel One Touch Hero
  1321
• Huawei Ascend P6
  1315
• LG Nexus 4
  1288
• LG G2 mini
  1123
• Motorola Moto G
  1120
• Sony Xperia C
  1079
• Sony Xperia M2
  1074
• Oppo R819
  1047
• HTC One mini
  887
• Samsung Galaxy Core LTE
  647
• Samsung Galaxy Ace 3
  564
• Nokia X
  421

AnTuTu is a compound benchmark, which also takes into account RAM and GPU performance. The Xperia M2 numbers are quite good, slightly better than the quad-core Cortex-A7-powered Moto G, much better than the Xperia C, but below the Xperia T2 Ultra.

AnTuTu 4

Higher is better

• HTC One (M8)
  37009
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  36018
• LG G2
  35444
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  31109
• HTC Desire 816
  21580
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  19896
• HTC One mini 2
  17883
• Sony Xperia M2
  17808
• LG G2 mini
  17362
• Motorola Moto G
  17214
• LG Optimus G
  16943
• Oppo Find 5
  15167
• Sony Xperia C
  13948
• HTC One mini
  11434
• Sony Xperia M
  9902
• Nokia X
  7514

Basemark OS II is another all-round benchmark. It gives an overall score along with single, multi-core performance, math performance and more. We focus on the overall score and the dedicated CPU scores. The Sony Xperia M2 overall rating is quite poor, but the singe-core and multi-core performance put it very close to the Snapdragon 400-powered HTC One mini 2.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• LG G Pro 2
  1140
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  1082
• Oppo Find 7a
  1057
• HTC Desire 816
  520
• HTC One mini 2
  517
• HTC Desire 816 (anti-cheat)
  468
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  434
• Sony Xperia M2
  298

Basemark OS II (single-core)

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7a
  2580
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  2415
• LG G Pro 2
  2401
• HTC Desire 816
  1739
• HTC One mini 2
  1357
• Sony Xperia M2
  1164

Basemark OS II (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Oppo Find 7a
  10256
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  10063
• LG G Pro 2
  9802
• HTC Desire 816
  7071
• Sony Xperia M2
  4927
• HTC One mini 2
  4889

The graphics benchmark results didn't come out peachy. The GFXBench tests - both off-screen and on-screen variants - reflected some very poor performance. It did better on the on-screen tests than the Xperia T2 Ultra, which has the same chipset but packs a higher resolution 720p display.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC One (M8)
  28.4
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  27.8
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  26.3
• LG G2
  22
• Sony Xperia M2
  5.9
• HTC Desire 816
  5.9
• LG G2 mini
  5.8
• HTC One mini 2
  5.8
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  5.8
• HTC One mini
  5.6
• Motorola Moto G
  5.6
• Sony Xperia C
  2.8

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC One (M8)
  30.1
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  28.1
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  26.7
• LG G2
  23.1
• Sony Xperia M2
  15.4
• LG G2 mini
  14.9
• HTC One mini 2
  11
• HTC Desire 816
  11
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  10.9
• Alcatel Idol X+
  10.6
• Sony Xperia C
  7.3

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  11.8
• HTC One (M8)
  11.1
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  9.9
• Sony Xperia M2
  1.9
• HTC One mini 2
  1.7
• HTC Desire 816
  1.7

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC One (M8)
  11.9
• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  11.7
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 S800
  10
• Sony Xperia M2
  6.9
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo
  4.7
• Sony Xperia T2 Ultra
  4.1
• Samsung Galaxy Grand 2
  4.0
• HTC Desire 816
  3.9
• HTC One mini 2
  3.8

The BrowserMark 2.1 tests HTML 5 performance, while Mozilla's Kraken 1.1 is JavaScript-centric. The Sony Xperia M2 managed a good score in BrowserMark but rather poor in Kraken.

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  1398
• LG G Pro 2
  1346
• Oppo Find 7a
  1327
• LG Nexus 5
  1286
• Sony Xperia Z2
  1224
• HTC One mini 2
  945
• Sony Xperia M2
  903
• HTC Desire 816
  774

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Galaxy S5 (Snapdragon 801)
  6043
• LG G Pro 2
  6578
• Oppo Find 7a
  6660
• Sony Xperia Z2
  7041
• LG Nexus 5
  7148
• HTC Desire 816
  13564
• HTC One mini 2
  15684
• Sony Xperia M2
  18047

Sony Xperia M2 and its powered Snapdragon 400 chipset offer good overall performance, though the GPU benchmarks are quite uninspiring. What's really matters is real-life usage and it is great. The Android OS is as smooth as butter with no lag whatsoever, while most of the popular games run just fine.