Sony announced a waterproof version of its M2 smartphone, which it said is “the first…to bring Sony’s popular waterproof technology to a mid-range price point”.

The company said that the IP65/68 rating is the highest for any smartphone.

“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,” said Calum MacDougall, director of Xperia marketing at Sony.

Xperia M2 Aqua is powered by a 1.2GHz quadcore Qualcomm processor, and includes LTE support. It has an 8MP camera and 4.8-inch screen.

The original Xperia M2 was announced at Mobile World Congress earlier this year.