Database Users

Tempted to buy this phone

Hey guys my nexus 4 was recently stolen :crying: and now its time to start looking for a new phone
This is probably the best option i've found so far in my price range but... I have a few questions I'd like to ask to people who actually own the phone, not biased internet reviewers
First of all, I will not ask about benchmarks or specs as we all know they mean nothing if the software is not optimized... but here are a few doubts I have before I buy it
1- How is the overall user experience, I mean, are the transitions smooth and do apps open fairly quick?
2- What do you think from the display? Ive read that its pretty good for a mid/almost high-end smartphone but viewing angles aren´t the best
3- Should i be worried about ram? On my fist android phone, apps crashed because there wasnt enough ram, for example if I was playing a ram intensive game, while listening to music, the music suddenly stoped playing
4- How is sony's support, has anyone had any problems with their phone?
5- What are the most popular roms arround here? and kernels? This is a big one for me, as i consider my self a flashoholic hehehe I ask because after a quick look at the android development forum in here i haven´t found much althrough Im happy to see DoomLord around (remember him, and his awesome kernels for the Xperia play)
6- Is there any specific thing you hate about this phone? Anything?
7- How is the wifi reception? Ive read somewhere that it was terrible but that seems unlikely, so what do you think about it?
8- Camera... How is it? And how does the front facing camera perform? I use it a lot in low light situations, and my nexus camera was kind of terrible
9- Finally, would you recommend a different phone (in a similar price range of course) over this one? How do you think it compares to the s4 mini, or an lg L7 as those are probably the only other options available in my country

1- How is the overall user experience, I mean, are the transitions smooth and do apps open fairly quick?
Yes - it's a fast phone. A high clock speed and the fact it renders to 720p rather than 1080 means it's very snappy
2- What do you think from the display? Ive read that its pretty good for a mid/almost high-end smartphone but viewing angles aren´t the best
A good screen, not great like flagship devices. Viewing angles are fine IMO - Sony has a bad rep for this but the SP's viewing angles are a vast improvement on their older xperia phones
3- Should i be worried about ram? On my fist android phone, apps crashed because there wasnt enough ram, for example if I was playing a ram intensive game, while listening to music, the music suddenly stoped playing
I don't think you should be worried, this is improving with each update, but people have complained about this.
4- How is sony's support, has anyone had any problems with their phone?
Sony have a good support network, but there are some issues they seem unwilling/unable to address with this phone. Wifi is clearly a problem
5- What are the most popular roms arround here? and kernels? This is a big one for me, as i consider my self a flashoholic hehehe I ask because after a quick look at the android development forum in here i haven´t found much althrough Im happy to see DoomLord around (remember him, and his awesome kernels for the Xperia play)
A relatively new device and not especially common IMO, but development is steady, a rom a week maybe. I don't know which are popular, but stripped back ROMS and ones attempting to give the feel and look of flagship Xperia devices dominate. Kernels are all stock based at the moment, but FreeXperia and some independent developers are planning to bring CM10.1 and CM10.2 to the phone. After that I expect things to gather pace - MIUI and AOSP roms should follow on pretty quickly I imagine. There are a decent amount of mods as well
6- Is there any specific thing you hate about this phone? Anything?
The internal storage - around 5gb is available for the user, this is just about adequate, coming from a 2011 device I thought it would be enough, but because you can't move apps to an external SD, it get's used up quickly. I'm not a power user and it doesn't feel like enough. There are ways around it if you're rooted, but you wish Sony would do what Samsung have done and mod their builds to allow this
7- How is the wifi reception? Ive read somewhere that it was terrible but that seems unlikely, so what do you think about it?
I think it helps if you've got a newish router, but my experience isn't great and this is echoed by many others here and on Sony's support forums. There are ways to improve it, but out of the box performance for some users is unacceptable IMO. However with the tweaks in place I now get reception in parts of my house where none of my other devices (laptop, netbook, old phone) get reception - for me range has always been excellent, but connecting in the first place sometimes took several attempts or needed a phone reboot
8- Camera... How is it? And how does the front facing camera perform? I use it a lot in low light situations, and my nexus camera was kind of terrible
The camera is average, don't know whether this is a hardware issue or Sony's image processing - but the fact that people complain about the cameras on better Xperia devices suggests that Sony's software may be at fault. They definitely cut costs with the front camera - fine for video calls and basic snaps but not suitable for photography. Ultimately, whoever the manufacturer, people complain about cameras
9- Finally, would you recommend a different phone (in a similar price range of course) over this one? How do you think it compares to the s4 mini, or an lg L7 as those are probably the only other options available in my country
The S4 mini has a smaller screen (lower resolution too?), but more RAM, I think it's a better device if you want a more compact phone. The SP feels better in the hand IMO, it is somewhat chunky and heavy but feels solid and well made. If you've come from an N4 going to a smaller screen may be difficult. The SP is almost flagship standard - the corners cut aren't that important to sensible users, do mobiles really need 4 core processors, 1080p and 2gb of ram? I don't think you can do much better for the price - so it's really about the screen size when it comes to choosing between this and the S4 mini. I don't know about the L7

Parkside said:
1- How is the overall user experience, I mean, are the transitions smooth and do apps open fairly quick?
Yes - it's a fast phone. A high clock speed and the fact it renders to 720p rather than 1080 means it's very snappy
2- What do you think from the display? Ive read that its pretty good for a mid/almost high-end smartphone but viewing angles aren´t the best
A good screen, not great like flagship devices. Viewing angles are fine IMO - Sony has a bad rep for this but the SP's viewing angles are a vast improvement on their older xperia phones
3- Should i be worried about ram? On my fist android phone, apps crashed because there wasnt enough ram, for example if I was playing a ram intensive game, while listening to music, the music suddenly stoped playing
I don't think you should be worried, this is improving with each update, but people have complained about this.
4- How is sony's support, has anyone had any problems with their phone?
Sony have a good support network, but there are some issues they seem unwilling/unable to address with this phone. Wifi is clearly a problem
5- What are the most popular roms arround here? and kernels? This is a big one for me, as i consider my self a flashoholic hehehe I ask because after a quick look at the android development forum in here i haven´t found much althrough Im happy to see DoomLord around (remember him, and his awesome kernels for the Xperia play)
A relatively new device and not especially common IMO, but development is steady, a rom a week maybe. I don't know which are popular, but stripped back ROMS and ones attempting to give the feel and look of flagship Xperia devices dominate. Kernels are all stock based at the moment, but FreeXperia and some independent developers are planning to bring CM10.1 and CM10.2 to the phone. After that I expect things to gather pace - MIUI and AOSP roms should follow on pretty quickly I imagine. There are a decent amount of mods as well
6- Is there any specific thing you hate about this phone? Anything?
The internal storage - around 5gb is available for the user, this is just about adequate, coming from a 2011 device I thought it would be enough, but because you can't move apps to an external SD, it get's used up quickly. I'm not a power user and it doesn't feel like enough. There are ways around it if you're rooted, but you wish Sony would do what Samsung have done and mod their builds to allow this
7- How is the wifi reception? Ive read somewhere that it was terrible but that seems unlikely, so what do you think about it?
I think it helps if you've got a newish router, but my experience isn't great and this is echoed by many others here and on Sony's support forums. There are ways to improve it, but out of the box performance for some users is unacceptable IMO. However with the tweaks in place I now get reception in parts of my house where none of my other devices (laptop, netbook, old phone) get reception - for me range has always been excellent, but connecting in the first place sometimes took several attempts or needed a phone reboot
8- Camera... How is it? And how does the front facing camera perform? I use it a lot in low light situations, and my nexus camera was kind of terrible
The camera is average, don't know whether this is a hardware issue or Sony's image processing - but the fact that people complain about the cameras on better Xperia devices suggests that Sony's software may be at fault. They definitely cut costs with the front camera - fine for video calls and basic snaps but not suitable for photography. Ultimately, whoever the manufacturer, people complain about cameras
9- Finally, would you recommend a different phone (in a similar price range of course) over this one? How do you think it compares to the s4 mini, or an lg L7 as those are probably the only other options available in my country
The S4 mini has a smaller screen (lower resolution too?), but more RAM, I think it's a better device if you want a more compact phone. The SP feels better in the hand IMO, it is somewhat chunky and heavy but feels solid and well made. If you've come from an N4 going to a smaller screen may be difficult. The SP is almost flagship standard - the corners cut aren't that important to sensible users, do mobiles really need 4 core processors, 1080p and 2gb of ram? I don't think you can do much better for the price - so it's really about the screen size when it comes to choosing between this and the S4 mini. I don't know about the L7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer everything I asked!!!
This really seems like a good phone, specially for the price. Regarding the screen size, thats why im interested in this phone more than any other "budget" phone, I know it will be hard to go any smaller than 4.5" and 720p. Anyways thanks a lot for your time, guess Ill try to go to a store where I can use it for a while and compare it with others

fcb-1899 said:
Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer everything I asked!!!
This really seems like a good phone, specially for the price. Regarding the screen size, thats why im interested in this phone more than any other "budget" phone, I know it will be hard to go any smaller than 4.5" and 720p. Anyways thanks a lot for your time, guess Ill try to go to a store where I can use it for a while and compare it with others
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Plus... If you're a gamer, then this is it! Amazing performance!
Sent from my C5303 using xda app-developers app

Go for it mate.. Using it since 3 months.. Amazing performance.. With the latest Update all bugs are solved for me.. Camera is not great but not bad.. And u will get upcoming android 4.3 and 4.4 ( may be)

Rajeev said:
Go for it mate.. Using it since 3 months.. Amazing performance.. With the latest Update all bugs are solved for me.. Camera is not great but not bad.. And u will get upcoming android 4.3 and 4.4 ( may be)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I will! thanks a lot man, I've seen you around a lot on this forum, glad to know we have people like you guys helping the community!
I have one more question, do I have to unlock my bootloader in order to intall custom roms and kernels, or iin order to make them perform better? If so , I hope any of you can guide me on how to unlock the bootloader without loosing any features as I've read that you'll loose bravia engine and some other stuff... Please excuse my ignorance but the method to do this on the N4 was pretty straight forward and Im a little confused right now lol
Btw: I know I don't even have the phone yet but usually the first thing I do is rooting and unlocking the bootloader and installing a rom so I really want to know a bit more before doing anything stupid :silly:
Thanks again

To open the bootloader it is easy but not like n4, if you open bootloader then you will loose be2 etc.
You can root and install cwm without opening bootloader.
Many Sony xda members use software called flash tools to install ftf files these contain all the stock ROM files.
To install custom stock ROMs you generally can use on locked bootloader, for some custom ROMs like cm 10.xx you will need to unlock bootloader to use kernels(this applies to all kernels)
Sent from my C5303 using xda premium

zolaisugly said:
To open the bootloader it is easy but not like n4, if you open bootloader then you will loose be2 etc.
You can root and install cwm without opening bootloader.
Many Sony xda members use software called flash tools to install ftf files these contain all the stock ROM files.
To install custom stock ROMs you generally can use on locked bootloader, for some custom ROMs like cm 10.xx you will need to unlock bootloader to use kernels(this applies to all kernels)
Sent from my C5303 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah thats what I thought, but I think ill install a "stock enhanced" rom or something similar, Xperia pureness seems to be a good rom with a bit of customization while keeping all Sony features. No custom kernel for me, although I was kind of exited to try doomlodr's
Once again, I appreciate your quick response and support. Think ill buy this little guy today

fcb-1899 said:
Hey guys my nexus 4 was recently stolen :crying: and now its time to start looking for a new phone
This is probably the best option i've found so far in my price range but... I have a few questions I'd like to ask to people who actually own the phone, not biased internet reviewers
First of all, I will not ask about benchmarks or specs as we all know they mean nothing if the software is not optimized... but here are a few doubts I have before I buy it
1- How is the overall user experience, I mean, are the transitions smooth and do apps open fairly quick?
2- What do you think from the display? Ive read that its pretty good for a mid/almost high-end smartphone but viewing angles aren´t the best
3- Should i be worried about ram? On my fist android phone, apps crashed because there wasnt enough ram, for example if I was playing a ram intensive game, while listening to music, the music suddenly stoped playing
4- How is sony's support, has anyone had any problems with their phone?
5- What are the most popular roms arround here? and kernels? This is a big one for me, as i consider my self a flashoholic hehehe I ask because after a quick look at the android development forum in here i haven´t found much althrough Im happy to see DoomLord around (remember him, and his awesome kernels for the Xperia play)
6- Is there any specific thing you hate about this phone? Anything?
7- How is the wifi reception? Ive read somewhere that it was terrible but that seems unlikely, so what do you think about it?
8- Camera... How is it? And how does the front facing camera perform? I use it a lot in low light situations, and my nexus camera was kind of terrible
9- Finally, would you recommend a different phone (in a similar price range of course) over this one? How do you think it compares to the s4 mini, or an lg L7 as those are probably the only other options available in my country
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1- So far very smooth and great experience. I have around 50 apps installed and so far no noticeable lag or performance issues.
2- The display is pretty good, the viewing angles are not very good but it doesn't bother my much as I'm usually holding my phone straight or have it propped up against something. Other than that the screen is very crisp and beautiful.
3- Like in point #1, no ram issues so far but I haven't tried any resource intensive apps to test it to it's limit yet.
4- Haven't needed to contact Sony so far hope it stays that way. Bear in mind their support services might change from one region to another.
5- Personally I'm really enjoying the stock rom so I didn't feel like I need to install any custom ones. There are a few custom roms out there though including Cyanogen Mod
6- There is something that bothers me about this phone but I don't hate it, it's just an annoyance. The phone feels a bit fragile and if you're clumsy or paranoid like me you'll want to get a case for it. The problem is this model doesn't have that much accessories out for it (and no official accessories) so you might have a hard time finding something. I had to order stuff for it online and it was quite costly.
7- WiFi reception is pretty bad, especially when I use it side to side with my other devices. There is a couple of WiFi fix threads on this forum, I haven't read them yet but you should definitely check them out.
8- Camera isn't amazing but it's not bad either. In low light conditions you have to fiddle around the settings a bit first to get a decent shot. Again there's a thread on this forum with users' camera shots to give you a good idea on how good or bad the camera is
9- The Galaxy S4 mini is a decent competitor for this phone, it has a better camera and better viewing angles if that's important for you, but it has a smaller screen.
The Sony Xperia ZR is slightly more expensive than this phone but has higher specs and some extra features. Mind that the water proof models have all their ports covered with water tight flaps and the sound on the speakers sound a bit muffled probably also because they are made water proof. (http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_xperia_zr-5421.php)
There are some nice mid-range HTC phones but the new HTCs often have internal battery and memory (no SD card slot).
Overall I'm absolutely in love with this phone. I love the battery life, the screen and the sound (loud speakers included). If you're into gaming this phone performs good and it also supports Sony Playstation's Dual Shock 3 controller which is a nice little bonus. (Hook it up to your TV and play with the controller :victory: )
fcb-1899 said:
I think I will! thanks a lot man, I've seen you around a lot on this forum, glad to know we have people like you guys helping the community!
I have one more question, do I have to unlock my bootloader in order to intall custom roms and kernels, or iin order to make them perform better? If so , I hope any of you can guide me on how to unlock the bootloader without loosing any features as I've read that you'll loose bravia engine and some other stuff... Please excuse my ignorance but the method to do this on the N4 was pretty straight forward and Im a little confused right now lol
Btw: I know I don't even have the phone yet but usually the first thing I do is rooting and unlocking the bootloader and installing a rom so I really want to know a bit more before doing anything stupid :silly:
Thanks again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good thing you asked this because I stupidly unlocked my bootloader without paying attention and I permanently gimped my phone in the process. Xperia devices have a hidden partition that contains DRM keys. Without them the Bravia Engine and certain non-essential features in the Walkman app won't work. There is a way to back up and restore that partition before unlocking the bootloader. This will keep your phone's full features and warranty intact if you need them.
Check this thread here before unlocking the bootloader :
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2292598

ByteFalcon said:
1- So far very smooth and great experience. I have around 50 apps installed and so far no noticeable lag or performance issues.
2- The display is pretty good, the viewing angles are not very good but it doesn't bother my much as I'm usually holding my phone straight or have it propped up against something. Other than that the screen is very crisp and beautiful.
3- Like in point #1, no ram issues so far but I haven't tried any resource intensive apps to test it to it's limit yet.
4- Haven't needed to contact Sony so far hope it stays that way. Bear in mind their support services might change from one region to another.
5- Personally I'm really enjoying the stock rom so I didn't feel like I need to install any custom ones. There are a few custom roms out there though including Cyanogen Mod
6- There is something that bothers me about this phone but I don't hate it, it's just an annoyance. The phone feels a bit fragile and if you're clumsy or paranoid like me you'll want to get a case for it. The problem is this model doesn't have that much accessories out for it (and no official accessories) so you might have a hard time finding something. I had to order stuff for it online and it was quite costly.
7- WiFi reception is pretty bad, especially when I use it side to side with my other devices. There is a couple of WiFi fix threads on this forum, I haven't read them yet but you should definitely check them out.
8- Camera isn't amazing but it's not bad either. In low light conditions you have to fiddle around the settings a bit first to get a decent shot. Again there's a thread on this forum with users' camera shots to give you a good idea on how good or bad the camera is
9- The Galaxy S4 mini is a decent competitor for this phone, it has a better camera and better viewing angles if that's important for you, but it has a smaller screen.
The Sony Xperia ZR is slightly more expensive than this phone but has higher specs and some extra features. Mind that the water proof models have all their ports covered with water tight flaps and the sound on the speakers sound a bit muffled probably also because they are made water proof. (http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_xperia_zr-5421.php)
There are some nice mid-range HTC phones but the new HTCs often have internal battery and memory (no SD card slot).
Overall I'm absolutely in love with this phone. I love the battery life, the screen and the sound (loud speakers included). If you're into gaming this phone performs good and it also supports Sony Playstation's Dual Shock 3 controller which is a nice little bonus. (Hook it up to your TV and play with the controller :victory: )
Good thing you asked this because I stupidly unlocked my bootloader without paying attention and I permanently gimped my phone in the process. Xperia devices have a hidden partition that contains DRM keys. Without them the Bravia Engine and certain non-essential features in the Walkman app won't work. There is a way to back up and restore that partition before unlocking the bootloader. This will keep your phone's full features and warranty intact if you need them.
Check this thread here before unlocking the bootloader :
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2292598
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you talking about the TA partition? Just curious...i did back it up before i unlocked bootloader..so if i restore it, will my "features" be back? Also..any special procedure for restoring the backup? By the way i am on .254 ..i made the backup while on .245 . So will restoring, in any way, harm the device? And also. Does restoring TA wipe data of the phone? ..sorry for so many questions.
Sent from my C5303 using xda app-developers app

That was quick! Congrats on your new phone
Yep, I mean the TA partition. What did you use to back it up? Either FlashTool or TA_Backup script (the .bat file) should give you the option to restore, so use the same one you used in the first place. Yes, it should restore all your features back. I haven't tried restoring before since I lost mine, but I would assume it would wipe your phone since it also re-locks your Bootloader.
As for firmwares, I'm not sure. You can check this thread (use the "search this thread" box) or maybe even ask them directly. If you're feeling brave you can go ahead and try it. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2292598
Edit: Sorry, my internet is a bit slow today. I did a quick search and it seems it's safe to restore to any firmware. I still highly recommend you check the thread for yourself first. Don't take my word for it.

That was quick! Congrats on your new phone <br />
<br />
Yep, I mean the TA partition. What did you use to back it up? Either FlashTool or TA_Backup script (the .bat file) should give you the option to restore, so use the same one you used in the first place. Yes, it should restore all your features back. I haven't tried restoring before since I lost mine, but I would assume it would wipe your phone since it also re-locks your Bootloader.<br />
<br />
As for firmwares, I'm not sure. You can check this thread (use the "search this thread" box) or maybe even ask them directly. If you're feeling brave you can go ahead and try it. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2292598<br />
<br />
Edit: Sorry, my internet is a bit slow today. I did a quick search and it seems it's safe to restore to any firmware. I still highly recommend you check the thread for yourself first. Don't take my word for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh thanks man and i'm not the one who made this thread XD i just wanna restore to stock completely
Sent from my C5303 using xda app-developers app

Sadman Khan said:
Oh thanks man and i'm not the one who made this thread XD i just wanna restore to stock completely
Sent from my C5303 using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
Oops! Looks like my internet isn't the only thing that's slow today xD
Sent from my C5303 using xda app-developers app

ByteFalcon said:
Oops! Looks like my internet isn't the only thing that's slow today xD
Sent from my C5303 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha XD and just letting you know, i did a full wipe and returned to .245 , then rooted it and THEN restored TA partition. Afterwards i clean flashed 245 and updated to 254 via OTA.everything's fine now and i finally feel the effects of Bravia Engine
Sent from my C5303 using xda app-developers app

Very Very good phone.
Hi,
I'll try to give you my most honest feedback, unbiased as much as possible. I'd like to state that XSP is my 1st droid phone ever, my last phone was nokia E52 (which had a high velocity encounter with a wall) so it is quite a change so my opinion might be and prolly is influenced by that. Ofc i played around with other droid phones like my brother's HTC wildfire S so i have some minor comparison to the inferior phones. Lest get started...
fcb-1899 said:
Hey guys my nexus 4 was recently stolen :crying: and now its time to start looking for a new phone
This is probably the best option i've found so far in my price range but... I have a few questions I'd like to ask to people who actually own the phone, not biased internet reviewers
First of all, I will not ask about benchmarks or specs as we all know they mean nothing if the software is not optimized... but here are a few doubts I have before I buy it
1- How is the overall user experience, I mean, are the transitions smooth and do apps open fairly quick?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The overall Xperia'ence is very good if not great. I would say that 99% of apps you will find run flawlessly, the one i remember that manages to stutter having influent scrolling is A1 SD bench (it also doesnt recognize SD card as a external card). Every game i installed and toyed with ran beautifully be it Osmos, PvZ or nearly anything else. The most extreme fps drop i've managed to get is in (this is the "nearly") arcane legends where there is like 30 people at once on the screen. i think that fps might drop there to like ~25 fps, personally i find it a very secluded and specific case and i am not bothered with it. For crying out loud this little gadget runs full HD 1080p mkv movies like its nothing... The processing power is insane and you really have to find/do some crazy stuff to encounter any kind of unsmooth transition. The only other situation i can think of when things get a bit jerky is the first few seconds after boot up. But i guess it's normal when there is a crapload of things to load up at once.
fcb-1899 said:
2- What do you think from the display? Ive read that its pretty good for a mid/almost high-end smartphone but viewing angles aren´t the best
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At first when i got the phone i was in 3 days awe, things looked insane. When i started to read reviews there is indeed some truth to it but lets face it... why would anyone need some sick viewing angles on a 4.6" display? Its not a display large enough to view from to great distance to get in the bad angle range. When you are looking at it straight or even on some minor angle, like 3 people looking at the display at once things look great. So... angles aren't THE best, true but are really really great. Not only for this price, but in general they display is performing great. You also have to be aware that you (you as eye-brain) get used to things. So if you are using a very high end IPS display day to day with 120 Hz+ refresh rate you are likely to be not satisfied ONLY due the fact are used to something so much better. I use S27B350 Samsung display daily so my eye is used to similar class or quality and i am very satisfied with XSP display. I am sorry i cant give you any angle values but i didnt measure it so i can only give some examples from practice.
fcb-1899 said:
3- Should i be worried about ram? On my fist android phone, apps crashed because there wasnt enough ram, for example if I was playing a ram intensive game, while listening to music, the music suddenly stoped playing
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Click to collapse
I dont think you should be worried about that. I very rarely seen app crash but i did nonetheless. I cant even recall what were the apps to crash since it was so rare. At some point i used Google navigation, music and had a browser opened in the back - no problem, phone not breaking a sweat (apart from insane battery drainage and some heat).
fcb-1899 said:
4- How is sony's support, has anyone had any problems with their phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be influenced a little by your country. I once called polish support, since i am polish, and the lady i talked to... god id rip her throat out, quite a b*tch she was. The one problem i encountered is the LTE. Let me explain, when my phone is set to LTE (preffered) / WCDMA / GSM the gsm reception (signal) is often lost - i get 0 bars and red x for few seconds. This goes away when i set to WCDMA (preffered) / GSM.
fcb-1899 said:
5- What are the most popular roms arround here? and kernels? This is a big one for me, as i consider my self a flashoholic hehehe I ask because after a quick look at the android development forum in here i haven´t found much althrough Im happy to see DoomLord around (remember him, and his awesome kernels for the Xperia play)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I cant help on this one i use stock, rooted, locked bootloader (btw rooting with DoomLord's method nearly always generate an offline charging bug - fixable but needs some work). Isnt Cyanomod an option?
fcb-1899 said:
6- Is there any specific thing you hate about this phone? Anything?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes in fact there is but minor. I hate the color inconsistency of apps. I would shoot in the head the one responsible for not making black/dark gui (only white) as a stock option for sms phonebook etc. I love that smartconnect in stock is black but hate with passion that updates are white and no longer support gps toggle. Last one is more about 4.1.2 not XSP, i hate that i cant get a popup when i connect to PC via USB asking which mode to connect in. The option to choose either Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) or Mass Storage mode (MSC) is only manual and "hidden" very deep in options (settings > Xperia > USB connectivity > USB connction mode).
fcb-1899 said:
7- How is the wifi reception? Ive read somewhere that it was terrible but that seems unlikely, so what do you think about it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That one might be true. Prolly one of the biggest if not the biggest issue of this phone - quite bad wifi antenna. It really works bad with weak signals, where laptops or other devices have like ~30% wifi strength the XSP might not have it at all. Where my silly old E52 had 100% the XSP has 50-75%... It is also very likely to lose wifi connection on very weak signals. Some people claim that the 2.254 soft fixed the issue but the only fix i noticed, compared to 1.257, is that i dont need to wait few seconds after unlocking the phone to connect to wifi (at home situation). Sadly I cant see the signal strength to be one bit better.
fcb-1899 said:
8- Camera... How is it? And how does the front facing camera perform? I use it a lot in low light situations, and my nexus camera was kind of terrible
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Personally i am not too satisfied with the camera, neither of the 2.[Rear] I think that compression of images is way to great. I wouldnt mind having 4 MB photos from 8 Mpix camera and not 2-2.2 MB like now. I cant compare to your nexus but i feel that camera could have been a tiny bit better. However, many/most people say it is very good and are happy with it. I dont do too many photos so i am living with that but if you really like or need to do good photos... you might wanna think twice. [Front] And front facing? It's a tiny, little thing in VGA, let's not expect miracles from 640x480 resolution form optics that are the size of a needle (?). Although, I dont know if you would get anything better in that price range...
fcb-1899 said:
9- Finally, would you recommend a different phone (in a similar price range of course) over this one? How do you think it compares to the s4 mini, or an lg L7 as those are probably the only other options available in my country
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Personally i hate samsung phones mostly cos they **** them out like they had a diarrhea which leaves little time to introduce updates. Only because like 50% of the market is samsung doesnt mean its good. The LG L7 i dont know... literally i have no opinion. I for one am very happy with XSP. It has one of the highest capacity batteries out there: 2370 mAh, compared to high end considered Xperia Z's 2330 mAh it looks darn good. Beaten by far afaik only by Xperia's Z ultra's 3050 mAh battery. With moderate and reasonable usage the battery can last even 2 days which is quite a feat for any new generation smartphone with a display of that size. XSP to this day has one of the best dual core CPUs and GPU which performs superbly in practice. It is also made quite well, u dont see any "cheapness" in the material. If i were to chose again from the three S4 mini vs LG L7 vs XSP id still go for the Xperia. One more good thing is that we are expecting the 4.3 JB update soon, which gives hope that this phone won't be disregarded and leaves hope for upgrades in foreseeable future. The phone seems optimized dead on in terms of software efficiency which perhaps why many people on XDA are quite glad with stock rom - simply it really is good and well made, not perfect simply because there is are no perfect things in this world.
Personally i think it is the best choice it its class.:good:

Any Front camera samples?
Not expecting any miracles tbh just want to see how it looks.
They should'v ereally put a 1.3 on the front tbh

I can vouch for Sony Support, a few drops of water were in my screen and the aluminum casing was totally messed up(scratched and chipped) from an awful fall, I sent it in using warranty, saying that the display was acting up, and they replaced the screen and the aluminum casing ^_^

it seems that there are fairly decent reviews for SP in this thread.
Actually, I cant decide between a N4 and a SP since I can get either one for the exact same price
I am an average user who tends to do some light gaming, browsing and whatsap
I just wish to have a smooth user experience. Personally I am inclined to have a sony sp, given that the various bugs (wifi, touch screen sensitivity) are actually solved by the recent updates.
Are they major differences between the two handsets ( apart from 3g and 4g) or I would be happy with either one of them?
Thank you.

Main issue for me is the lack of internal storage on the n4. The n5 is rumored to only be a month away and its supposed to be quite competitively priced. Only a rumour though.
Sent from my C5303 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Im between several phones tbh.
Been looking at the HTC One X, not brand new but used, better camera and what not but I heard the battery lifes horrible.

you don't like your Z1, here is the solution

I have had my Xperia Z1 for a week now and I love everything about it, the camera quality is the only thing that annoys me, but hopefully its a software issue and will be fixed soon, apart from that, the phone is stunning and if the time went back I will go with it again.
This is purely my personal opinion and I can see that there are people in this form hating the phone and wish to swap it with another one if they could. Thats why I made this post because the form is full of topics about how someone hate something about this phone and there are not many "useful" informations for the current or future buyers. anyway, what this article is about is that there is no phone is the best ever, Phone A might have better screen, phone B have better camera, Phone C has better battery ... etc. Every phone has its advantages and disadvantages, you would understand if you go and visit forms of other phones, I just went to the note3 form and guess what??? people there complaining about poor performance
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2461881
poor camera
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2462053
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2459647
poor speaker
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2461599
and the phone has just been launched. iPhone 5s users also complaining about different issues so there is no perfect phone that does everything well
I am not bashing no-one and I am not happy because note3 or iPhone 5s users are having problems with their new phones. But if you go to any form you will see unhappy users. It is YOUR responsibility to choose a phone depending on your needs, play with it and read reviews before spending your hard earned money. Sony, Samsung and apple try to show you that their phone is the best and after you buy it, they don't care anymore.

Fair enough , but I have the Note 3 ( octa version ) and have NONE of those problems.. the device almost feels perfect...right off the bat ..
I absolutely love my Z1 but it feels like Sony should have waited a little longer before releasing it.
IMHO these are the device's only issues.
1. The yellow tint from the screen. ( which strangely,the more I use the easier I find it on the eyes )
2.The Sudden black screen hang ( had it only once so far, but makes me worry about how reliable the device is, will my alarm ring ? )
3. Terrible cam performance On auto mode. (The cam only sucks on auto mode,especially in low light......but if you use manual mode it's quite lovely )
Hopefully these things can be fixed via an update .Or people will start returning their phones thinking they've bought defective pieces.Heck, I'm kind of wondering too.
If Sony can fix these things and fix it quick it could be the closest to a perfect phone. ( at least for me )

No yellow tint on my screen. Have not had the black screen hang but agree with the quality of photos. O2 has been rolling out the updates from Sony quickly enough, so the first two issues may have been resolved already?

hoezay said:
Fair enough , but I have the Note 3 ( octa version ) and have NONE of those problems.. the device almost feels perfect...right off the bat ..
I absolutely love my Z1 but it feels like Sony should have waited a little longer before releasing it.
IMHO these are the device's only issues.
1. The yellow tint from the screen. ( which strangely,the more I use the easier I find it on the eyes )
2.The Sudden black screen hang ( had it only once so far, but makes me worry about how reliable the device is, will my alarm ring ? )
3. Terrible cam performance On auto mode. (The cam only sucks on auto mode,especially in low light......but if you use manual mode it's quite lovely )
Hopefully these things can be fixed via an update .Or people will start returning their phones thinking they've bought defective pieces.Heck, I'm kind of wondering too.
If Sony can fix these things and fix it quick it could be the closest to a perfect phone. ( at least for me )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have a exynos version, same as me in gs4, major problem is touchwiz and cm until now for my device dont work fully.
Sent from my GT-I9500 using xda app-developers app

hoezay said:
Fair enough , but I have the Note 3 ( octa version ) and have NONE of those problems.. the device almost feels perfect...right off the bat ..
I absolutely love my Z1 but it feels like Sony should have waited a little longer before releasing it.
IMHO these are the device's only issues.
1. The yellow tint from the screen. ( which strangely,the more I use the easier I find it on the eyes )
2.The Sudden black screen hang ( had it only once so far, but makes me worry about how reliable the device is, will my alarm ring ? )
3. Terrible cam performance On auto mode. (The cam only sucks on auto mode,especially in low light......but if you use manual mode it's quite lovely )
Hopefully these things can be fixed via an update .Or people will start returning their phones thinking they've bought defective pieces.Heck, I'm kind of wondering too.
If Sony can fix these things and fix it quick it could be the closest to a perfect phone. ( at least for me )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have the first two issues just the camera. But again the camera isn't the worse, when I compare mine to my wife's SGS4, mine open alot faster, here's take 5-10 seconds to open. The colors are equally good. The only thing is the noise in my pictures.
ptoner said:
No yellow tint on my screen. Have not had the black screen hang but agree with the quality of photos. O2 has been rolling out the updates from Sony quickly enough, so the first two issues may have been resolved already?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same as her
matheus_sc said:
You have a exynos version, same as me in gs4, major problem is touchwiz and cm until now for my device dont work fully.
Sent from my GT-I9500 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same as my wife's. I expected alot more from the SGS4 when I got it, but now I find my Z1 way better. Z1 performance alot better because of more powerful chip and lighter skin, Z1 screen Alot better, battery slightly better ... etc. Actually this is why I didn't get the note 3, I was considering both but after my issues with SGS4, I went with the Z1

No yellow tint on mine either, had a note 2 n was desperately waiting for note 3 thought give it a try on Z1 and I love it plus I am impressed with the performance its amazingly quick and so is the screen resolution and is water proof and a much better design, well done sony, not getting the note 3 now, cheers to everyone, enjoy ur Z1 guys
Sent from my C6903 using Tapatalk 4

Of course there is no yellow tint, or multiple different display manufacturers, or any other crap or conspiracy mentioned, people are full of crap. I have Z1 and the phone is absolutely spectacular. Huge inprovement over Z.

naga.nino said:
Of course there is no yellow tint, or multiple different display manufacturers, or any other crap or conspiracy mentioned, people are full of crap. I have Z1 and the phone is absolutely spectacular. Huge inprovement over Z.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please don't generalize. I love this phone too but mine does have the yellow tint. Fanboy behavior helps no one.

Those Note3 threads are hilarious. Either they're trolls or received defective devices or something, because I know what the Note3 is as I've had it for 5 days now and counting. They are complaining about performance in a device that currently tops the charts. Speakers? Well it's a bloody phone speaker, not a home surround system, it does as much or as little as other phone speakers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP5Ov4zcJE0). There are even threads complaining it's plastic. Really? Did you buy the phone, open the box and only then discovered it was made in plastic? There are a lot of jokers in these forums.
The Z1 seems to be a great device from what I've read and seen. Three of my friends will buy it as soon as it hits the shelves here, so I can't wait to get a hands on it and see what they think.

true true , I have a Note 3 and it is quite awesome , very little to crib about.

MohJee said:
Those Note3 threads are hilarious. Either they're trolls or received defective devices or something, because I know what the Note3 is as I've had it for 5 days now and counting. They are complaining about performance in a device that currently tops the charts. Speakers? Well it's a bloody phone speaker, not a home surround system, it does as much or as little as other phone speakers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP5Ov4zcJE0). There are even threads complaining it's plastic. Really? Did you buy the phone, open the box and only then discovered it was made in plastic? There are a lot of jokers in these forums.
The Z1 seems to be a great device from what I've read and seen. Three of my friends will buy it as soon as it hits the shelves here, so I can't wait to get a hands on it and see what they think.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My point exactly, no phone is perfect (not even the Z1, note 3 or even iPhone 5s), every phone has its advantages and disadvantages. Different phones suits different people. Everyone should look carefully for what he/she like/prefer/want before spending their hard earned money.

ahomad said:
My point exactly, no phone is perfect (not even the Z1, note 3 or even iPhone 5s), every phone has its advantages and disadvantages. Different phones suits different people. Everyone should look carefully for what he/she like/prefer/want before spending their hard earned money.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 for this one. I chose my Z1 because I would love to take underwater pictures. And I love the manly feel of it, unlike the curvy s4 or note 3, no offense. And the bezels actually help me because I have big hands, it's easier to type and easier to scroll and hold. Unlik the s4 again which I accidentally touch the back key from time to time..

For the ones complaining about the speaker: go to settings, sound, sound effects, settings and tick xLOUD. Makes my speaker more than loud enough
Sent from my C6903 using Tapatalk 4

If you don't like your Z1, Sell it to me, I will buy it at half the price

How companies cheat their performance....
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ahomad said:
I have had my Xperia Z1 for a week now and I love everything about it, the camera quality is the only thing that annoys me, but hopefully its a software issue and will be fixed soon, apart from that, the phone is stunning and if the time went back I will go with it again.
This is purely my personal opinion and I can see that there are people in this form hating the phone and wish to swap it with another one if they could. Thats why I made this post because the form is full of topics about how someone hate something about this phone and there are not many "useful" informations for the current or future buyers. anyway, what this article is about is that there is no phone is the best ever, Phone A might have better screen, phone B have better camera, Phone C has better battery ... etc. Every phone has its advantages and disadvantages, you would understand if you go and visit forms of other phones, I just went to the note3 form and guess what??? people there complaining about poor performance
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2461881
poor camera
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2462053
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2459647
poor speaker
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2461599
and the phone has just been launched. iPhone 5s users also complaining about different issues so there is no perfect phone that does everything well
I am not bashing no-one and I am not happy because note3 or iPhone 5s users are having problems with their new phones. But if you go to any form you will see unhappy users. It is YOUR responsibility to choose a phone depending on your needs, play with it and read reviews before spending your hard earned money. Sony, Samsung and apple try to show you that their phone is the best and after you buy it, they don't care anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok now put a and b and c together and u got lg g2 muahahaha, i sold my z1 after almost three months and got this baby from lg and i never looked back... Much better in every aspect and let me tell all those saying that in manual modes z1 camera is better: I honestly don't care. I am an average user and i wouldn't know how to use the manual modes, and if i did i would probably own a big dslr camera for pictures. Lg ui may appear childish and overcolourful but hey it can be themed cause their launcher supporst themes and worst case u get another launcher from playstore. Knock-on to unlock rocks and u dont abuse ur power button and yes the buttons in the back are really convenient after a couple of hours of playing with the thing. Phone is smooth and overall user experience is way better than what i had with z1. Which leaves the z1 with only one thing and that is build quality (Which is not bad at all on the g2, it just doesnt have all those fancy materials), which again i'd trade for the pocketability of the g2 any day of the week. Did i mention the awesome battery life i get out of it?

I don't liked the z1 at all. When I was thinking about buy it, I stayed for days between z1 and note 3. Now I almost can't sleep thinking that I must had bought the note 3. What do you think about I switch z1 to note 3?
Enviado de meu C6943 usando Tapatalk

jimakos29 said:
Ok now put a and b and c together and u got lg g2 muahahaha, i sold my z1 after almost three months and got this baby from lg and i never looked back... Much better in every aspect and let me tell all those saying that in manual modes z1 camera is better: I honestly don't care. I am an average user and i wouldn't know how to use the manual modes, and if i did i would probably own a big dslr camera for pictures. Lg ui may appear childish and overcolourful but hey it can be themed cause their launcher supporst themes and worst case u get another launcher from playstore. Knock-on to unlock rocks and u dont abuse ur power button and yes the buttons in the back are really convenient after a couple of hours of playing with the thing. Phone is smooth and overall user experience is way better than what i had with z1. Which leaves the z1 with only one thing and that is build quality (Which is not bad at all on the g2, it just doesnt have all those fancy materials), which again i'd trade for the pocketability of the g2 any day of the week. Did i mention the awesome battery life i get out of it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny, with me is the other way around, after using the lg g2 for a week(loaned) all i can say is that im happy to have the Z1
The lg is pretty awesome and the Screen is definetly better than the Z1(not rolfstomp better)
But the Z1 is just better in every other way for me, best droid I've ever used and I've tried a lot of them
Sent from my C6906 using Tapatalk

lecomiquelin said:
I don't liked the z1 at all. When I was thinking about buy it, I stayed for days between z1 and note 3. Now I almost can't sleep thinking that I must had bought the note 3. What do you think about I switch z1 to note 3?
Enviado de meu C6943 usando Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure I go through phones like crazy I've had the s3, g2, note 2, s4 and I will say this that if you want good battery life on a Samsung you have to turn off their 40 features that drain the battery and you never use those stupid features.
As for the g2 I had issues with the phone stuttering but the battery life was killer but I think I finally found my phone and that is the z1
Sent from my C6906 using xda app-developers app

jimakos29 said:
Ok now put a and b and c together and u got lg g2 muahahaha, i sold my z1 after almost three months and got this baby from lg and i never looked back... Much better in every aspect and let me tell all those saying that in manual modes z1 camera is better: I honestly don't care. I am an average user and i wouldn't know how to use the manual modes, and if i did i would probably own a big dslr camera for pictures. Lg ui may appear childish and overcolourful but hey it can be themed cause their launcher supporst themes and worst case u get another launcher from playstore. Knock-on to unlock rocks and u dont abuse ur power button and yes the buttons in the back are really convenient after a couple of hours of playing with the thing. Phone is smooth and overall user experience is way better than what i had with z1. Which leaves the z1 with only one thing and that is build quality (Which is not bad at all on the g2, it just doesnt have all those fancy materials), which again i'd trade for the pocketability of the g2 any day of the week. Did i mention the awesome battery life i get out of it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't had G2 so I can't compare it with the Z1. But I have SGS4 for over 6 months, I had nexus 5 for 2 days, I had the HTC ONE for over a month and I had iPhone 5s for over a month (these are just last year flagships). What I learnt is that you can't say phone A is better than phone B especially when comparing flagships, because it really depends on what are you looking for in the phone. if you want to get best performance, you will get N5 iphone 5s or Z1, if you want camera, you will get Z1 or iphone 5s, if you want feature, you will get SGS4, if you want quality you will get Z1 or HTC ONE (and probably iphone 5s) and so on.
from all of these phone, I will get the Z1 any day (if i had to choose one). But that does not mean the Z1 is the best phone in every aspect, it just provide what I want from my phone. However, I think the Z1 is either 1st or 2nd in almost all aspects. 1st in quality, useful features(not useless like samsung and doesn't lake feature like the iphone), battery, camera, performance (same level as nexus 5 and iphone 5s) and 2nd in screen(only HTC is better), speaker (only HTC is better)

Will you be getting rid of your phone?

Just wondering if you will be getting rid of your Xperia phone now that Xperia is gone.

Xperia is not gone yet. Even if Sony sells the division, we don't know what will change.

Why would we sell the phone just because of that?

Sprkd1 said:
Just wondering if you will be getting rid of your Xperia phone now that Xperia is gone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now that it's gone??
O really is it!? Source!
It's been only rumors and you're acting as if anything conclusive has been said.
And even if Xperia is gone, so what. We're on XDA where we can make our own ROM's. Many of us payed +400$ for their devices, it's not as if we have another 400+ just laying around to buy another phone.

Ok so following your reasoning I should get rid of my Nokia 3210?

I was just wondering because there could be a lack of future updates/support and whatnot depending on how and where the division ends up. This is my first Android experience and don't want to mess with custom ROMs and stuff (at least for now).

doublefacepalm.jpg

No, of course not! I would not sell this phone as there's no better option from any other manufacturers at this format, and I really like the phone.

No reasons until it's working and specially if the community is still active on it. In my optinion one of the best phone ever.

Oh snap I best sell my house quick because the brick company has gone.. Doh!
Sent from my D5803 using XDA Premium HD app

Sprkd1 said:
I was just wondering because there could be a lack of future updates/support and whatnot depending on how and where the division ends up. This is my first Android experience and don't want to mess with custom ROMs and stuff (at least for now).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sony said the phone will get the Lollipop update, in addition an Xperia Z4 should be released (and the last one according to the rumor) that mean that for at a least a year updates should come. Then even if it is not updated to the next major release of Android (after Lollipop) and the community do not make a custom ROM it will still be fine with upcoming apps for another year or so. Also the Z3 uses widely spread components (Qualcomm SOC) so it should not be that are to adapt a custom ROM for it.

Apparently the community find nothing valuable in discussing this.
I personally find it very heartbreaking of this news from Sony.

vikingsail said:
Apparently the community find nothing valuable in discussing this.
I personally find it very heartbreaking of this news from Sony.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
heartbreaking, yes because Sony is the only one to make a phone like the Z3C but that news isn't a reason to change. The Z3C is or is not a good phone for you when you brought it.

pleko said:
heartbreaking, yes because Sony is the only one to make a phone like the Z3C but that news isn't a reason to change. The Z3C is or is not a good phone for you when you brought it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's exactly what I'm taking about. Sony is one of the few manufacturers who doesn't do much sh1t like curving screen/ultra saturated color/huge display which results in half day battery life. These crap are good for catching eyes and advertising. But still basically just pure crap for common use. And surprisingly those manufacturers are selling millions of cheap plastic crappie devices with marketing. That's the most heartbreaking part of this whole situation. I almost lost faith in humanity. Damn.

Sprkd1 said:
Just wondering if you will be getting rid of your Xperia phone now that Xperia is gone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"WILL be getting rid of your Xperia phone NOW"
Hmm... I don't quite understand the future and present tense meant together in the same sentence.
Surely everyone WILL get rid of their phones at one point or another. Nothing lasts forever and I'm sure there will be many phone in the future that everyone of us will like better than the Z3C.
With the current technology and design available, the Z3C isn't combined of all the best. Weak construction with plastic frame, poor display quality, weak water proofing flaps and worst of all is Sony ecosystem bloatwares which have users constantly connected to Sony store while already being connected to Google store, for the same thing at the same price. The Z3C system size together with bloatwares is almost twice as large as vanilla Android. Another headache with DRM keys for the mediocre performance camera on TA partition when unlock the bootloader.
For the NOW, I would get rid of it ASAP if it wasn't rooted. I'm sure in a few months, there will be some better phones.

i would sooner get rid of my swimsuit supermodel rocket scientist girlfriend than this phone.
this is the first Android phone i've owned where i didn't feel a compelling reason to immediately slap a mod on or otherwise tinker with, especially after my experience with Samsung phones. (well, besides the volume of the loudspeaker, which i expect to fix after i root.) Sony's skin has some really useful, well though out touches, so i've left it stock. i have no issues with the camera, and no cracked glass or other manufacturing faults. and after all the plastic crap that is a typical Android phone, the industrial design is really refreshing and attractive. i like the walkman, movie, and album apps (again, much better than Samsung or HTC equivalents), and the BATTERY LIFE IS INSANE. not having to charge for four, five, six days? AWESOME.

I won't. Everything stock and im perfectly happy.

vikingsail said:
Apparently the community find nothing valuable in discussing this.
I personally find it very heartbreaking of this news from Sony.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heartbreaking news from Sony???? Nothing conclusive has been said and nothing has been said at all by Sony. This topic is only based on speculations and rumors.
Sent from my D5803

Mine is going for sure. As soon as S6 comes out (assuming no glaring faults in that)
Its an ugly little phone for starters, the construction choices are poor, glass is not cool. I would much prefer nexus 5/moto x plastic. mUch better.
Camera/camera software is terrible.
Battery is ... at best ok. Using it just as a phone, calls and texts and a bit of whatsapp. Its really good. Using anything else, games, maps etc its awful.
Screen... not bad. Amoled is better though.
Since the new root I have gone from I dont like it to its not a bad little thing. But its not enough.
Im not surprised they are pulling the pin to be honest.

jarayn said:
Mine is going for sure. As soon as S6 comes out (assuming no glaring faults in that)
Its an ugly little phone for starters, the construction choices are poor, glass is not cool. I would much prefer nexus 5/moto x plastic. mUch better.
Camera/camera software is terrible.
Battery is ... at best ok. Using it just as a phone, calls and texts and a bit of whatsapp. Its really good. Using anything else, games, maps etc its awful.
Screen... not bad. Amoled is better though.
Since the new root I have gone from I dont like it to its not a bad little thing. But its not enough.
Im not surprised they are pulling the pin to be honest.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to hear this, but are you sure you are not using an actual brick as phone?
If you have issues with games and maps (maps!) I think you should get your unit checked, might be that it's faulty. On battery life you don't have to take my word, just read any review site that you want and they will tell you that it's among the best (if not the best) that you can get now - get your device checked buddy!

Worth Buying Nov 2016?

I am thinking of buying the Z5 Premium, do you think its worth getting at this point, and how is the Battery life under normal usage?
I just wanted general feedback from what you owners of the Premium think.
Thanks!!

Torguy said:
I am thinking of buying the Z5 Premium, do you think its worth getting at this point, and how is the Battery life under normal usage?
I just wanted general feedback from what you owners of the Premium think.
Thanks!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you are SONY fan and can compromise over some of the hardware v/s price features then YES, buying Z5p in December 2016 is still fruitful
- the device has amazing resolution, each pixel shines!
- already have 6 patches/updates by SONY and soon will goto Nougat (android N)
- LAST Flagship of Z series (started in 2012) (Z /ZL / Z1 / Z2 / Z3 / Z4 and finally Z5)
- Last flashship device that came out on LP android 5.1 , so you can root without unlocking bootloader and can extract DRM KEYS before updating to MM

It's a good fone. However Sony support and updates are woefully slow. I only just got the August security release. If you plan on rooting and have never done it on a Sony fone, good luck. It's not the easiest... Battery life is good but not as good as my Z2.
Sent from my SGP311 using XDA Free mobile app

I was just about to ask the same question, when I saw this thread. I usually don't need any extra motivation when it comes to Xperia phones, as I'm in love with this brand since the day one.
However, it seems to me that there was never an Xperia phone so promising on paper, but being plagued with so many issues regarding hardware and/or software. So I have few questions that I hope you people with Z5's will know answer to.
First, regarding construction and build quality, is the back of this phone really made out of plastic and is it prone to scratches easily, like internet wants you to think?
Is that famous 3,5mm jack really so fragile, and is it the same across the whole production lifespan, like earliest models are exactly the same as latest production models?
Is there any real benefit with this 4K screen, besides watching the 4K video content, or are there some other situations when full 4K resolution is in action? And also, when it is, is the back panel really "cooking" hot like some people claim?
This beauty currently sells for about 420 euros in my country, so I'm really tempted to try it out.

Coming from the Note5 I was waiting for the Note7 battery issue to clear up. When they finally recalled it I came back to the Zed series. I am glad I did. My last Sony was the Z2 and I liked it enough but went back to the Note4 then the Note5. After only about a month with the Z5 Premium I do not think I will go back to the Note series. Do not get me wrong there are things I miss but I am thoroughly pleased with this device. I would not say that Sony is any slower than Samsung when it comes to updates. As for the build quality of the Z5 I do not think I could be happier. I am not sure about the comment of a plastic back as I put a protector on it immediately as well as a glass protector on the front and a Ringke case. Every thing I have seen says the back is glass. It boils down to how often you want to change devices. I would buy this phone again.

mr_torture said:
I was just about to ask the same question, when I saw this thread. I usually don't need any extra motivation when it comes to Xperia phones, as I'm in love with this brand since the day one.
However, it seems to me that there was never an Xperia phone so promising on paper, but being plagued with so many issues regarding hardware and/or software. So I have few questions that I hope you people with Z5's will know answer to.
First, regarding construction and build quality, is the back of this phone really made out of plastic and is it prone to scratches easily, like internet wants you to think?
Is that famous 3,5mm jack really so fragile, and is it the same across the whole production lifespan, like earliest models are exactly the same as latest production models?
Is there any real benefit with this 4K screen, besides watching the 4K video content, or are there some other situations when full 4K resolution is in action? And also, when it is, is the back panel really "cooking" hot like some people claim?
This beauty currently sells for about 420 euros in my country, so I'm really tempted to try it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
over the years i have purchased 5 Xperia phones and this is how i would rate z5p
1. hardware 8/10 - look, feel, shining everything stands out. the brightness of screen dims when fone is hot to protect processor
2. 4k works only on HD movies, othwise its regular 1080p
3 audio jack .. so far i never reached to the point where audio jack failing. but then i use it rarely since mostly i use bluetooth headphones
---------- Post added at 10:09 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:04 AM ----------
CodeNameRedNeck said:
Coming from the Note5 I was waiting for the Note7 battery issue to clear up. When they finally recalled it I came back to the Zed series. I am glad I did. My last Sony was the Z2 and I liked it enough but went back to the Note4 then the Note5. After only about a month with the Z5 Premium I do not think I will go back to the Note series. Do not get me wrong there are things I miss but I am thoroughly pleased with this device. I would not say that Sony is any slower than Samsung when it comes to updates. As for the build quality of the Z5 I do not think I could be happier. I am not sure about the comment of a plastic back as I put a protector on it immediately as well as a glass protector on the front and a Ringke case. Every thing I have seen says the back is glass. It boils down to how often you want to change devices. I would buy this phone again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you! the STOCK ROMs of SONY are better than of samsung in terms of minimal bloatware and somewhat better ram management. there are better roms out there who efficiently keeps ram at lower end (oxygen of oneplus3) however the whole feeling of xperia stockrom is better.
I never bought samsung for myself but my sister uses galaxy mega. i know samsung's rom and the performance. I might never buy samsung

To add to what @yusuHamed wrote about the headphone jack, I use mine 5 days a week on my way to work. I've never had a problem with it. I use different headphones as well, changing them nearly every week. And to add to what @CodeNameRedNeck wrote, I've semi retired my SGS3. I loved that fone. I also have a Z2 which I use daily. Sony devices are good but expensive. My Z5P might be my last one. The jury is still out. If I had broken it a day after I bought it, rest assured I would have bought another one as a replacement immediately. Now, I'm not so sure even the XZ would be a replacement I'd want.

guhvanoh said:
To add to what @yusuHamed wrote about the headphone jack, I use mine 5 days a week on my way to work. I've never had a problem with it. I use different headphones as well, changing them nearly every week. And to add to what @CodeNameRedNeck wrote, I've semi retired my SGS3. I loved that fone. I also have a Z2 which I use daily. Sony devices are good but expensive. My Z5P might be my last one. The jury is still out. If I had broken it a day after I bought it, rest assured I would have bought another one as a replacement immediately. Now, I'm not so sure even the XZ would be a replacement I'd want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
for many whom I chat / talked, they keep saying z5 will be their last SONY PHONE, and yes it will be my last sony Phone also! I don't know about others but for me
- I think over the years Sony is not pushing their devices in the market the way it should have been.
- this creates -ve impact
- Sony xperia buyers / lovers don't find Support, accessories easily and if they do , after so much of leg work and on high prices
- the manufacturers are focusing on mid range cost effective devices and the market is saturated with so many devices offering similar specs (and some time even more than sony's) on a very reasonable prices
- Boxing Packing of Xperia's are missing covers, protectors, book covers (high end). I believe if sony has Boxed Z5/ Z5p with 9H protector and atleast one Leather book case on such high price for the device, it would have made a huge different for user like me who is still wandering for quality accessories/protectors
- one more reason of what i think sony getting extinct from market is that GOOGLE NEVER adopted Xperia for any of its NEXUS series!! (accept Z ultra which was using Google's origina AOSP and Sony had to REDUCE their price after some conflict). Had there been Nexus 8 on XPERIA it would had boosted / help Xperia Alot!. The complain of SONY releasing STOCK ROM very late, atleast would have subsided for NEXUS Xperia!

Even though Sony makes exceptional devices, I do not think they are good enough at marketing them.
That's a phone that I had to pick from a limited range of phones which I could buy with a contract from my carier as installment is forbidden for phones in Turkey. And actually I was there for either a Huawei P9 or Xperia Z3+. I didn't even know a Z5 Premium existed as the shelves are full of Xperia "X" derivatives and I wasn't following the market since I had my hard times with my Xperia Z2, even though it was my best phone at the same time.
Still, looked at it's photo scores, laying one point under the Pixel phone with an 88 and bought it.
+ 1080/4K conversion is the cleverest thing ever! Do not be afraid of 1080p this much. You don't race your devices technology, instead focus on the screen quality and it is awesome. Also, being a device of Snapdragon 810 in a S820 era, 1080p gives it the necessary GPU advantage as the S820 rivals have fixed 2556*1440 screen.
+it also saves battery
+the material quality is superb. I jumped from Sony to LG G4, then Nexus 5 and now back again to Sony. It is great. Not a fan of glass back though, Z5 was better at that with a full aluminum body. I picked Premium just for a bigger screen for only 70$ more.
+so far the best music experience from my Android phones always came with Sony. This one is no exception.
+battery life is the best amongst my phones.
+I like Sony's Android implementation. They are slow on updates but stable, also the Woodward is light. That's the opposite on LG G4.
+The bootloader is unlockable and device is easily rootable.
+good headphones in the box
+I listen to music ever day, and never had any problems with the jack.
+camera has greater field of view than the other one on the market, that allows you to capture more area into the frame. With a Samsung, you would be taking the same photo from 10 steps further
+it is good that Sony got rid of flaps from USB ports.
-of your hands are wet or sweaty, fingerprint sensor probably won't work. That's bad for a water proof phone.
-Glass back is so 2012 matter of preference though..
-DRM backup thing requires a bit reading before jumping into the custom software world. Or there is no going back.
-Sonys are a little bit expensive in my country. This costed me nearly 1000$. For comparison; a brand new iPhone 6S 64gb is like 1350-1400$.
-the touch screen is extremely sensitive, so much that I can NOT write at full speed since it reads my two thumbs as one seriously! G4 was on a bit a heavy side when it came to touch sensitivity, thus one recognizes my finger almost before I make contact with the screen..
-never had a chance to try another one but the with-came headphones are low on volume, even though the sound clearness is %100
-it may get hot on the glass panel.
-in a regular room temperature, after 55 min of full HD video it gave me an error saying the device was too hot and needed to get cool for a little time.
-not that I see it a con, but the front camera is a low mp for today's standards..
-I just can't seem to get used to the Album app, I prefer Google's Photos instead.
-back in the days, there was this team called Free Xperia. They were always one step ahead when it came to custom ROMs and kernels on Sony devices, also worked side by side with Cyanogen Team. However, nowadays Xperia Z devices lag behind other devices on especially Custom ROMs. I didn't know that when I was buying the device but was sure I would be able to unlock the bootloader. So it kind of was disappointing for me.. I have to make do with the original ROM for now I guess.. That's a big negative for me.
-the accessory side of Sony is so weak. At least here, don't about the rest of the world.
These are my observations. Hope helps. Which devices I would trade my Z5 Premium?
1)Nexus 6P (not officially in Turkey's market, slightly cheaper).I believe Pixel is something in the history we all will try to forget.. So best Nexus is the best phone on the world.
2) Oneplus 3. That one is great, and the price is great too. But couldn't find it on Turkey. (found it in one store, without a certain origin and the guy tried to sell me at 800$)
3) HTC 10. Noo, not me. Some may like it but I can't trust HTC after One X fiasco..
4) Xperia X seems nicer and thinner. If only I could accept a smaller screen..
That's all.

I don't know, I'm still undecided between this phone and Huawei P9, which sells for about 30 euros less right now. Another phone with Sony IMX 286 sensors and another one which "miraculously" manages to produce great looking photos out of Sony sensors. :/
I still think it is a crime what Sony is doing with its own phones regarding cameras and post-processing algorithms, and seeing what other phones with Sony sensors are capable of, but that's another story not related to this topic. When you think about it, almost all of Sony flagship phones in Android era were plagued with issues this or that kind, and again I end up buying most of them. It's probably going to be the case this time again. I have to be honest and say that with Nexus 6 and Nexus 6P especially, I had great experiences, but after each of these phones I returned to Xperias again, solely for my love for Sony. I'm getting a little bit tired of "unfinished" flagships one after another to be honest, but there is still some passion left in me for Xperia phones so I guess I will give this phone a chance, maybe one last time after 6 years of unconditional love for this brand.

mr_torture said:
I don't know, I'm still undecided between this phone and Huawei P9, which sells for about 30 euros less right now. Another phone with Sony IMX 286 sensors and another one which "miraculously" manages to produce great looking photos out of Sony sensors. :/
I still think it is a crime what Sony is doing with its own phones regarding cameras and post-processing algorithms, and seeing what other phones with Sony sensors are capable of, but that's another story not related to this topic. When you think about it, almost all of Sony flagship phones in Android era were plagued with issues this or that kind, and again I end up buying most of them. It's probably going to be the case this time again. I have to be honest and say that with Nexus 6 and Nexus 6P especially, I had great experiences, but after each of these phones I returned to Xperias again, solely for my love for Sony. I'm getting a little bit tired of "unfinished" flagships one after another to be honest, but there is still some passion left in me for Xperia phones so I guess I will give this phone a chance, maybe one last time after 6 years of unconditional love for this brand.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the race against time value, money and fair trade has never been so tighter before for xperias! as you mentioned the "unfinished flagships" is still the case even now with sony xperias where so many other flagship devices are offering so much more for competitive prices, boxing honestly to delight end users and enriching their experience by rich after sale support! its not just one area sony xperias are getting beaten up! its almost every ground, marketing, branding, hardware, pricing, after sale support, replacements, slow updates!
but then agian! as a die hard xperia fan! after z5p, i will buy next xperia somewhere in 2018. By then perhaps 5g will be out and my country will have VOLTE and sony may be giving 6gb ram with snapdragon821 processor, 64gb inbuild, 256gb sdcard, awsome android with switch between nav bar and or touch bar (like oneplus3). BOX containing screen guards and leather book cover .... and ROOTING option in DEVELOPER OPTIONS (like CYNOGENMOD ROMS).............
AM i imagining too much ?

I don't know what to do, literally. :/ I want this phone so much, and yet at the same time, I'm listening to music so much, that idea of audio jack failure in short time is driving me crazy. I guess I will have to choose between X, regular Z5 and Huawei P9 or even Mate 8 (although I find EMUI terribly ugly and unpractical).
*Now going in bed to watch all the Z5P unboxing videos over and over again.

mr_torture said:
I don't know what to do, literally. :/ I want this phone so much, and yet at the same time, I'm listening to music so much, that idea of audio jack failure in short time is driving me crazy. I guess I will have to choose between X, regular Z5 and Huawei P9 or even Mate 8 (although I find EMUI terribly ugly and unpractical).
*Now going in bed to watch all the Z5P unboxing videos over and over again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have had two z5 premiums, one for 8 months and another for a month now. No headphone jack issue for either one.

If you can't get a model that can support an unlocked bootloader, then just skip this disaster of a device. I regret every minute of owning mine.

pattmyn said:
If you can't get a model that can support an unlocked bootloader, then just skip this disaster of a device. I regret every minute of owning mine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Care to elaborate this in few words? Why disaster? I can't seem to find any disastrous failure with this phone beside that headphone jack issue. At least reading the web doesn't reveal any additional disaster.

mr_torture said:
Care to elaborate this in few words? Why disaster? I can't seem to find any disastrous failure with this phone beside that headphone jack issue. At least reading the web doesn't reveal any additional disaster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's mostly how most carriers in North America locked down the bootloader, meaning there was zero way for most of us to root the phone unless we bought it straight from Sony. Without root, the phone looks great on paper but there's so much untapped potential going on that it's ridiculous.
Not sure how things operate over in Sarajevo, but there's a "phone number" you slap into the dialer to bring you to a status menu of sorts that indicates if the phone's bootloader is locked or unlocked. If it's unlocked, I'd say it'd be an amazing piece of tech. But without being able to root it (as a power user) it feels like having a Ferrari that you can't drive more than 10km/h in - looks great, but it's all just looks. I can go more into detail via PM if you want to know more. I'm just salty and felt like I got burned by a company that's supposed to embrace the dev community.

Have you tried this?
http://developer.sonymobile.com/unlockbootloader/unlock-yourboot-loader/
Edit: never mind I see what you are saying.

I move from Samsung to Sony after having issues with Samsung phones and bough the Z5 premium as wanted high def music and 4k feature and to be honest I LOVE the phone I recently rooted the device which was a complete hassle and I wish i hadnt done it but that aside the phone is great, battery life is pretty good and when viewing photos it automatically goes into 4k mode which is just awesome, i listen to high def music alot and got rid of my FIIO E17 as the phone does a good enough job

pattmyn said:
....I'm just salty and felt like I got burned by a company that's supposed to embrace the dev community.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your complaint should be addressed to your carrier...Sony sells phones with unlockable bootloaders, carriers force them to completely lock it down...
And nowadays in the US at least, carriers don't even subsidise phones any more, so might as well buy straight from the source and no more bootloader worries...

You know what, I just bought this one, so I guess that's it when it comes to my opinion is it worth bying or not. And wow, the package itself is amazing, as well as contents inside. Free screen protector, UHC10 quick charger, MH750 headset... Seems quite premium if you ask me, because somebody earlier mentioned how the package seem a bit poor compared to rivals.
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Some things that you must know about your Moto Z Play/Play Droid

Hi everybody, i open this thread in order to archive some important things and some questions about the Moto Z Play/Moto Z Play Droid, like a guide for the new owners and the old ones like me or some of you.
I wish that you could colaborate posting in this thread important news. Let's start.
Be careful with your Z's screen
In xda there is a user that posted an image with his MZP broken, but he is not the only one, in other forums (htcmania as an example) another user reported that his phone was cracked at the first drop leaving the phone completely useless, i have heard about some people in whatsapp groups with the same problem (the first drop broke the phone), in reddit two users posted the same problem, their screen was cracked and it turned off forever. In the following links you will see the proof:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Moto_Z/comments/5a63md/cracked_screen_moto_z_play/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Moto_Z/comments/57g52h/moto_z_play_display_crack/
http://www.htcmania.com/showthread.php?t=1245224
http://forum.xda-developers.com/moto-z-play/help/type-screen-glass-scratch-resistant-t3462455
The back of the phone is covered with plastic
This images has a better description than my word haha, but let me explain why that plastic is very important:
The plastic must remain with the phone, because in case of a fall, if the glass breaks, that will remain it together.
Gorilla glass 3 or 4?
Some people says that the Moto Z Play has gorilla glass 3 because is cheaper than the 4, but in lenovo forums they say that is gorilla glass 4, you can check it here:
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Moto-Z-Play/Moto-Z-Play-glass-protection/m-p/3452157#M55
Scratches in the main camera?
As the back glass panel, it seems to be that the camera lens has a plastic, but if not, the glass gets scratched very easily, so if you can, buy a plastic protector
IMEI 0 after flashing a new rom?
Some people has this problem with his MZP, after flashing another version (like the verizon one or something like that, i don't know about U.S. carriers) their imei gets 0, so i recommend that stay in your current rom.
Moto Z force and Moto Z Play can wear the same cases?
It's like a rumor, but in youtube you can see some reviews about MZP cases that were builded for the Force edition and it fits perfectly but the only one problem is the place of the headphone jack, actually i have a case that says "MZ Force" and it fits like it was builded for the Play edition.
Apps non optimized for MM
There are some apps (specially that ones which has some time without an update that wastes the battery, for example the "Xperia digital clock" that Is a widget which shows time and weather but it drains the battery giving to me only 8 hours of screen. At the final of the post you will see the averrage of my battery (work in progress)
If you have something to share with us, leave a reply.
ps, sorry for my bad english haha

Reserved...

The screen will obviously crack if you drop your phone and it lands on the screen. That's obvious and not exclusive to this phone. Saying that we should be careful and use a case and screen protector is absolutely redundant.

I've flashed a stock ROM to unroot my device. At that moment there was no RETBR rom on the stock rom thread, so I tried LATAM.
Now my IMEI is 0 even after flashing the RETBR or any other ROM. (dialing *#06#*).
But when I enter fastboot and give the command "mfastboot getvar imei" it gives me back my correct IMEI number.

Nice post! Think realistic battery life (%/hr with screen on and %/hr with screen off) might be good to add so people can figure out if they have wakelocks. This phone hides it well, but once you figure those out, the battery life is honestly on another level. Again, great post, can't wait to see it grow as we all collectively learn more!

xxBrun0xx said:
Nice post! Think realistic battery life (%/hr with screen on and %/hr with screen off) might be good to add so people can figure out if they have wakelocks. This phone hides it well, but once you figure those out, the battery life is honestly on another level. Again, great post, can't wait to see it grow as we all collectively learn more!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Later ill add this images to the post

How difficult was it to take that back plastic off?
Sent from my XT1635-01 using XDA-Developers Legacy app

BigTrimma said:
How difficult was it to take that back plastic off?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im not pretty sure but it would be a bit hard, my Xperia Z1's plastic was very though

The Bankshooter said:
Im not pretty sure but it would be a bit hard, my Xperia Z1's plastic was very though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gotcha. I'm thinking of replacing it with a dbrand skin. Hopefully removing the plastic and replacing it with the skin will help with the mod staying on since the skin makes it slide a little.
Sent from my XT1635-01 using XDA-Developers Legacy app

rfameli said:
I've flashed a stock ROM to unroot my device. At that moment there was no RETBR rom on the stock rom thread, so I tried LATAM.
Now my IMEI is 0 even after flashing the RETBR or any other ROM. (dialing *#06#*).
But when I enter fastboot and give the command "mfastboot getvar imei" it gives me back my correct IMEI number.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
dude, have you fixed that? I'm facing the exact same problem :/

Got another one that's not super obvious: the Z play, unlike most phones that use the snapdragon 625, is running 32-bit android. That's why it has 3gb ram instead of the now very common 4gb (32-bit android doesn't support more than 3gb). If you look at both battery and performance of the Z play vs sd625 phones that run 64-bit android (Moto g5+, Xiaomi note 4, Redmi 4 prime, etc) the Z play blows them out of the water. This is why. Afaik it is the most powerful 32-bit phone ever.

The Bankshooter said:
Later ill add this images to the post
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this for real? Amazing SOT, what type of use do you give to the phone? WiFi, 4g? Tell me more please, I have a htc10, and normally 5 hours of SOT, and 20hours of use is the norm.

IMEI 0 any way to fix this tried flashing stock ROMs all day and custom no fix I guess.

From Nougat to Oero the place where the IMEI is stored changed. if you downgraded, the IMEI can't be found. But be aware that AFAIK there is risk to completely brick the device when doing the upgrade again after a downgrade, and I'm not sure if a suiting blank flash is available to revive it if that happens.