Sony Xperia M2 Aqua: ‘Most waterproof smartphone ever’ arrives in mid-range

Sony has made another splash in the mobile market with what it has dubbed “the world’s most waterproof smartphone”.

The Xperia M2 Aqua, which will be released in the UAE in mid-September, allows users to take pictures both above and underwater, so fears of dropping it in the bath, sink, swimming pool or sea are a thing of the past.

While Sony’s flagship Xperia Z2 already provided high-level water resistance, the Aqua M2 is positioned in the mid-range with a price tag of Dh1,299.

With a waterproof rating of IP65/68, Sony says the M2 Aqua is protected against the ingress of water and dust to the highest levels specified by the Ingress Protection standards.

65 means it is dust tight and resistant to jets of water, while 68 means it is waterproof on submersion to 1 metre for more than 30 minutes.

It has been reported in the past week that an Xperia Z2 was dropped by a water-skier in Sweden and survived for six weeks at the bottom of the sea before being collected by a scuba diver.

A statement from Sony said there are some devices in China which could be considered equal best, such as the Huawei Ascend G350 and Konka W880 with IP68, however “these are on very limited distribution in comparison to the Xperia M2 Aqua, and do not specify IP65 as well as IP68 unlike the Sony device”.

“Xperia M2 Aqua is a significant milestone in our product portfolio as we bring yet another of our signature technologies to a new category of smartphones,” said Spyridon Gousetis, director of Marketing Middle East and Africa at Sony Mobile.

“The popularity of Xperia M2 showed us that there was a huge demand for premium Sony features at an affordable price-point. Following consumer feedback, we’ve now taken this a step further by bringing our waterproof expertise to a mid-range smartphone for the first time with Xperia M2 Aqua.”

The phone also features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor with quad-core 1.2 GHz CPUs2 and 4G LTE capabilities and an 8MP camera with Timeshift, which allows 31 pictures to be taken in two seconds.

The device will be available in black, white or copper.

Last month Sony unveiled the Xperia C3, which it labelled "the ultimate selfie smartphone".

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”