Sony Xperia Z2 - one week impressions - Xperia Z2 General

I have been using the Sony Xperia Z2 for a week now, purchased online from a vendor in Taiwan.
Coming from iPhone 5S for the past 3 months after having used Lumia 920, Xperia S, Iphone 4 - so these impressions are about the Z2 and Android KitKat.
Packaging : this is the Taiwan version packaged with the cradle and headphones. Packaging is simple, on par with previous Xperia phone, soft cardboard feels nice but could be a little better for a Premium phone (I reckon I am a little harsh on this one but feel like a premium phone can use premium packaging).
The phone:
Out of the box Android 4.4.2
Build : 17.1.A.2
TMobile USA (in NYC)
Used the phone with this config and out of the box Sony theme for a week then updated on 4/5. Tried OTA update but it could not find any update, plugged in computer and immediately found 17.1.A.2.55.
I did not notice any difference in responsiveness after update.
Installed Nova Launcher to replace stock Sony (which was really good) because I wanted more options for notifications.
The phone felt a little big in hand but actually feels good after a few days for a 5.2", I have a preference for 4.5" phones for size and coming from an Iphone 5S was definitely a big difference, in hand but also when in my pocket (I always leave my phone in my front pants pocket).
The setup was a breeze, phone is very responsive (better than I remember from my Xperia S). Stock email is pretty good and imported all my MS Exchange contact, emails, calendar very quickly. Despite the over 1000 contacts the phone still responds really well and searches very fast (A big improvement from previous Android which had trouble loading contacts and was updating slowly in background - was on JellyBean at the time on the Xperia S). TMobile data setup for SMS, internet was automatic and works without problem.
Signal is mostly good in NYC and catches LTE - I noticed that I have less "bars" than I have on my iPhone but this is a non-problem as the phone always works fine and receives signal.
I could not get the included Sony Voicemail option to work properly : it worked when setup for 8sec wait before going to voicemail but if I manually refused a call it would still go to the TMobile voicemail. Decided to download the Visual Voicemail app instead and it works great.
Call quality is good but I find the volume to be a little low even at max volume. This is also felt for ringtones and notifications, while I never had problems hearing my iPhone in my pocket I rarely hear the Z2, thank god the vibration is better than iPhone so I rely on it when the phone is in my pocket when in crowed environment. Inside office or house the sound is not a problem at all and can clearly be heard.
Installed all my favorite apps and all work without any problem (Bank apps, Uber, DropBox, Nest, Hue, Rdio, various news reader, eBay, Google apps, VPN....) - the only app that refused to work was a game (Simpsons Tap Out).
Using Hangouts for text messages works fine but seems to get SMS with a small delay compared to iPhone, not sure if it is a Z2 thing or Google. I am very impressed with Voice Recognition, which is more of a Android thing than Sony but it picks up everything correctly when I dictate a SMS in the street (I am in NYC with a lot of surrounding noise). Definitely a plus as Siri would need several tries and I gave up quickly on my iPhone - no problem with the Z2 so I will definitely go back to Voice on the Z2/Android.
Using MS Exchange with stock email app and Gmail for personal, both work great and no problem to report with lockscreen using gesture to unlock (no request for Exchange password).
All apps are very responsive and multi-tasking is a breeze.
I was happily surprised that Google Wallet / NFC works out of the box. This was not the case on my previous Xperia S which would return that the phone was not approved. Don't know if it's a change in the app from Google but once I installed Wallet and signed in it was automatically added as default NFC payment option.
I am still not used to Android notification so installed "you missed it!" to get "badge icons" like on the iPhone- I still prefer this option than the regular Android notification system. Works well for stock email and gmail, no such luck with Hangouts for SMS.
Images/Photos: I have not tested this extensively (I am a terrible photographer) but the options seem plenty, the few pictures I took came out nicely (about 8mb each for the hi-res - still an Android problem but need to install an app to resize to SMS or email).
Screen: the screen is very bright, colors are sharp - overall a very good display. As expected it is a real fingerprints magnet, at first I even thought it scratched in my pocket but all marks disappeared after I wiped it. Just expect to wipe/clean it often if you cannot stand a display with prints/marks all over.
Battery life : I am mostly pleased and impressed by battery life, I remember the first day with my Xperia S (when I "toyed" with the phone and would run out of juice by 2pm) . Despite installing apps, checking web, watching video... the Z2 would go till 9pm without a problem. Remember this is on the first few days when I toy with the phone more than I usually would in normal use.
On a normal day use the phone was still holding 30% battery around midnight (taken out of the charging dock at 9am). I had an extra battery case on my iPhone for heavy use as I sometimes would go through 2 charges a day when on the road, I will probably need to recharge the Z2 on those heavy days but am positive that on normal use you will go through an entire day without need to recharge.
Memory: 16GB included with additional SD sounded good on paper... that is until I discovered that KitKat has some new rules for Apps and SD Cards. After 2 days my phone kept telling me to free space. I found out that the culprit was the Rdio app which I use for music. I had synced 4GB of music and with the other apps installed the 16GB ran out. I found a quick manual fix on the Rdio app to trick the phone into saving music on the SD card. This is not ideal but works.
I still feel that the 16GB will quickly be insufficient for the Z2 based on new rules for SD in Android KitKat. This will quickly become unmanageable for regular folks who do not want to spend time (or don't have the tech skills) rooting phone and or manually changing directory in apps.
From the Z2 and without tech knowledge the only directory you can direct to the SD are pics, video and transfered music. for people with Spotify, Rdio or other apps that sync your data it will automatically end up on internal memory and overload your phone in days. This is mostly Kitkat's fault but in this case it means that for future phones and general public use, phones like the Z2 should have at least 32gb.
Built quality: even if this should have been towards the beginning of a review I kept it for last because... my back glass cracked after 3 days!
The phone itself feels premium and the built quality is great, holding the phone in hand is mostly pleasant despite sometimes feeling a little angular due to the recess on left side for dock charging.
Regarding the back glass cracking : I have always kept my phone in my left front pocket or jeans (not skinny) with back facing outside and never had a problem with Xperia S, iPhones, Lumia... I am 100% positive that I did not drop the phone, hit anything while in my pocket. I took a stroll the other day, phone in pocket and hands in pocket and when i took the phone out the back glass is shattered, there is no clear "breaking point", it is just completely shattered.
The only possible explanation for me is that while my hand was in my pocket, covering the phone, I put some pressure on the back glass while walking and it cracked !!! This is very surprising to me as it has never happened to me with any other handset I have used, no matter the size, brand... This is quite surprising for a flagship handset that this would happen. Once again I am positive that the phone was not directly hit by anything nor dropped.
Overall I am really please with the Z2 (technically) and this is the first Android handset I own which would make me stay with Android and not go back to iPhone (which I have always done in the past due to some apps I used not being available - more of an Android issue - or previous version of Android/Phone not being spiffy enough). Based on my experience with the cracked back glass I would definitely recommend the use of a cover (which I personally hate as I am a strong believer that cellphones should be built strong enough for normal use).
Aside from the issue of the glass issue the phone is definitely a great one for Android and most of the annoyances I still have comes from Android (notifications, stock email app...) and not from the phone itself.

"Call quality is good but I find the volume to be a little low even at max volume. This is also felt for ringtones and notifications, while I never had problems hearing my iPhone in my pocket I rarely hear the Z2, thank god the vibration is better than iPhone so I rely on it when the phone is in my pocket when in crowed environment. Inside office or house the sound is not a problem at all and can clearly be heard."
Has anyone experienced in calls and ringtones the same low volume on the z2?
Anyways, I think you have super human powers bro, if you managed to crack the back cover with your hand! Just jokin'...nice review!

It came with 4.2.2 ?

paddylaz said:
It came with 4.2.2 ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, typo, it was 4.4.2

Howdoin said:
Yes it did.
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Click to collapse
Hope you mean 4.4.2.

regarding cracking the back glass
I think you should easily be able to replace the back glass... At least for Z1 I saw that you can find a replacement glass for £10 on ebay... It shouldnt be too risky to change (cant think of any reason why it would be) since there is not digitizer on the back
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-B...sPouches&var=440310304210&hash=item20e1f1ba8c
---------- Post added at 05:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:55 PM ----------
regading Spotify and the internal memory being limited, I read on spotifies website that :
The Spotify Android App will store data wherever you have the most free space. So if you have more room on your SD card than in your internal memory, that's where Spotify will save offline playlists.
If you're having problems, try deleting your cache:
I dont know if its valid for all android versions though

Have you experienced a higher volume when playing music on it?

solwretep said:
I think you should easily be able to replace the back glass... At least for Z1 I saw that you can find a replacement glass for £10 on ebay... It shouldnt be too risky to change (cant think of any reason why it would be) since there is not digitizer on the back
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-B...sPouches&var=440310304210&hash=item20e1f1ba8c
---------- Post added at 05:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:55 PM ----------
regading Spotify and the internal memory being limited, I read on spotifies website that :
The Spotify Android App will store data wherever you have the most free space. So if you have more room on your SD card than in your internal memory, that's where Spotify will save offline playlists.
If you're having problems, try deleting your cache:
I dont know if its valid for all android versions though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you - I keep looking for one in the US but can't find any yet - the link you sent only ships to UK/Europe - I guess I'll have to be a little more patient.
Regarding Spotify/Rdio problem : I use Rdio and upon install you can select to sync all music to Ext SD by default, unfortunately with new restrictions from KitKat this no longer works (you can select external in the app but it will still sync all music to internal) - until they update the app itself this is a no go (and I am not sure if they can update the app as it would go against KitKat TOS). There is however a "fix" available http://help.rdio.com/customer/portal/questions/5647750-unable-to-sync-migrating?b_id=681

debrandman said:
Have you experienced a higher volume when playing music on it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds the same to my hear - good sound but pretty low volume (ClearAudio+ activated in Walkman). Not a problem when I use headphones.

Please, post photo of cracked glass !!!

Howdoin said:
Thank you - I keep looking for one in the US but can't find any yet - the link you sent only ships to UK/Europe - I guess I'll have to be a little more patient.
Regarding Spotify/Rdio problem : I use Rdio and upon install you can select to sync all music to Ext SD by default, unfortunately with new restrictions from KitKat this no longer works (you can select external in the app but it will still sync all music to internal) - until they update the app itself this is a no go (and I am not sure if they can update the app as it would go against KitKat TOS). There is however a "fix" available http://help.rdio.com/customer/portal/questions/5647750-unable-to-sync-migrating?b_id=681
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Click to collapse
are you able to save photos to the externel SD card at least?

camera performance?
Can you give some comments in regards to the responsiveness of Z2's camera ? how does it stand against iPhone 5S?
I have yet to find an Android phone with a camera that is as precise as iPhone for taking photos with just a single touch on screen.

xtbk9999 said:
Can you give some comments in regards to the responsiveness of Z2's camera ? how does it stand against iPhone 5S?
I have yet to find an Android phone with a camera that is as precise as iPhone for taking photos with just a single touch on screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No disrespect intended but I have never and will not use an Apple product. The proprietary nature of their software, media, apps etc keeps me away.
Sent from my D6503 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

xtbk9999 said:
Can you give some comments in regards to the responsiveness of Z2's camera ? how does it stand against iPhone 5S?
I have yet to find an Android phone with a camera that is as precise as iPhone for taking photos with just a single touch on screen.
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Click to collapse
I haven't gotten my Z2 yet (on order). My s4 blows my wife's 5s out of the water picture wise. She complains mine takes better photos all the time. The photos taken posted from the Z2, seem to be better. JMHO

Hi there. I am mainly a lurker and hardly post but once I saw your post I knew I had to reply.
I think I know why your phone cracked. Can you check your phone and see if it is slightly bent as well?
It's a relatively common problem with the Z and the Z1. If you keep it in plastic(or other material that doesn't conduct heat) covers, heat can't get out so phone gets hot. Z1's frame is made of aluminum while the case is glass. Metal changes length more than glass when exposed to heat so the phone bends... the bend causes the glass to crack. Many z1 users reported the phone bending without ever having used a phone case as well though. I had the same issue with my old Z1. I had heard of people bending their z1s and naturally thought it was due to their stupidity or because they put it in the front pocket of their tight jeans and bent the phone from that. I was wrong. I had my z1 for about a week and had never put it in any tight pockets at all... but one day while charging I found that the phone had bent. I was stunned. This bend also eventually caused the screen to crack.
I was really hoping sony had addressed this issue but I guess not. I really wanted this phone but I will just wait for the z3 as it will have a design change.
Also - if you go to google and type in 'Bent sony xperia z1" you will find countless threads of z1 users reporting that their phone had bent "all by itself" lol. I thought this was silly and impossible at first but I soon found out that it is a real issue! Sony would not replace my phone either when I sent it back which was a real bummer.
Very disappointing to hear that the z2 may suffer from the same fate as its predecessors. I really wanted this phone but I am afraid that the "self bending" issue is still very much there?

remyb25 said:
Hi there. I am mainly a lurker and hardly post but once I saw your post I knew I had to reply.
I think I know why your phone cracked. Can you check your phone and see if it is slightly bent as well?
It's a relatively common problem with the Z and the Z1. If you keep it in plastic(or other material that doesn't conduct heat) covers, heat can't get out so phone gets hot. Z1's frame is made of aluminum while the case is glass. Metal changes length more than glass when exposed to heat so the phone bends... the bend causes the glass to crack. Many z1 users reported the phone bending without ever having used a phone case as well though. I had the same issue with my old Z1. I had heard of people bending their z1s and naturally thought it was due to their stupidity or because they put it in the front pocket of their tight jeans and bent the phone from that. I was wrong. I had my z1 for about a week and had never put it in any tight pockets at all... but one day while charging I found that the phone had bent. I was stunned. This bend also eventually caused the screen to crack.
I was really hoping sony had addressed this issue but I guess not. I really wanted this phone but I will just wait for the z3 as it will have a design change.
Also - if you go to google and type in 'Bent sony xperia z1" you will find countless threads of z1 users reporting that their phone had bent "all by itself" lol. I thought this was silly and impossible at first but I soon found out that it is a real issue! Sony would not replace my phone either when I sent it back which was a real bummer.
Very disappointing to hear that the z2 may suffer from the same fate as its predecessors. I really wanted this phone but I am afraid that the "self bending" issue is still very much there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He didn't say that the phone bent but only that the glass had cracked!

debrandman said:
He didn't say that the phone bent but only that the glass had cracked!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, but there could be a very slight bend in the phone which he hasn't noticed yet:fingers-crossed:

remyb25 said:
Yep, but there could be a very slight bend in the phone which he hasn't noticed yet:fingers-crossed:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, then lets just ask him about that!

I just ordered the phone, coming in by the end of the week also from taiwan . Hope this doesn't happen ._.

emptybox333 said:
I just ordered the phone, coming in by the end of the week also from taiwan . Hope this doesn't happen ._.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope too..but it is plausible as the frame is made out of aluminium and we all know this type of metal isn't that hard to bent(but not by itself how someone wrote!). Taking as an example the iphone 4(4S) in comparison with the Z2, they both have about the same design language but the only major thing that differs between the two(in design language), is the metal frame that the iphone incorporates and which is made not out of aluminium but steel. I wonder why....?

Related

I used to love the X1, but now I have re-accessed my opinion. Here is my new review.

Two out of Five stars. (Amazon Review)
"This phone was a nightmare! I hate it with a passion", May 31, 2010
Here is a review of the Xperia X1. I have owned the X1, HTC Touch Pro2, HTC HD2, Nokia E90, Nokia E72, Nokia N95 and Apple iPhone. Other than the iPhone, I really hate this phone.
1) Build Quality - the plastic on this phone peeled off everywhere! The finishing on this phone is very susceptible to friction. The plastic chrome will peel off. The paint on the metal battery cover will scratch or peel off. The internal housing will crack. It's like the device had an earthquake and cracked itself. I didn't even sit on the device or drop it on anything. There is no way to prevent the plastic from cracking and peeling. All of this happened within 6 months.
The keyboard will also loose sensitivity. Over time, you will have to press on the keys harder and harder when you want to type something. The keyboard will only satisfy you for a year. And on top of that, the keyboard sucks. Don't even think about speed typing on this bad boy.
2) Efficiency - the phone is very inefficient. The terrible feedback on the keyboard forces me to use the virtual keyboard on the phone. On top of that, the screen is so small that using the virtual keyboard is a nightmare. This prevents me from being efficient with contact management and note taking. In deterred me from actually using the calendar and responding to text messages and emails. Unlike on the E72, I was not motivated to be organized with the software.
The phone is also very, very slow. Even with the latest firmware, it is very slow. This made me abhor using this phone for any reason. Don't even think about installing software that runs in the background, because it will eat your battery and retard your phone. The only way to make the device run at decent speeds is to minimize the software and the ROM.
3) Battery - the battery life is terrible. It only lasts 12-15 hours on standby without 3G enabled.
4) Camera - the camera doesn't beat the N95, but it's alright. The camera software is sluggish and is very uncomfortable to use. The camera has bad auto focus and weak flash LED.
5) Multimedia - the speakers on the phone is very weak so don't even bother watching movies or listening to music. Since this is a touch screen device, the screen isn't big enough for me to enjoy videos or web-browsing.
The sluggishness of this device also applied to it's Wi-Fi. That's why I avoided web-browsing altogether. It was just plain terrible. In fact, I prefer the Nokia E90 or Nokia E72 for web-browsing (they are non touch screen phones).
6) Phone - the call quality and loudness was at least better than my Nokia E72. However, the X1 speakerphone can't even compare to the E72 speakerphone. Please recall that phones usually have two separate speakers: the speakerphone/loudspeaker and the normal speaker. Well, the X1 has a very bad speakerphone/loudspeaker.
8) Internet - the internet is slow, the screen is small, and the CPU needs an update. This should conclude everything.
9) Price - at 800 U.S. dollars, it was an expensive piece of junk. But now that it is sold for 400 dollars brand new, it's a little more forgiving.
10) Something to consider - regardless of all of the cons I have provided, I enjoyed using the phone because it was highly customizable. Unfortunately, it lacked everything I expected from what was advertised: an awesome keyboard, perfect build quality, fast processor. I tried to make the best of it by customizing it with software and 'tricks' and that alleviated some of the pain. Also, so many people complemented on the beauty of my X1.
11) History on X1: When the X1 first came out, all of the reviewers gave the phone high marks for it's amazing build quality. Within a year, everyone noticed that its cosmetic and physical condition deteriorated greatly. The phone reviewers returned the X1 to the 'lenders' before they got the chance to witness the true nature of this phone.
I recently bought a X1 to use instead of a HD2 I also own, for emails etc. because of the hardware keyboard. I bought the X1 on ebay for £150 mint boxed condition, the HD2 was about £450 new. So far I am really loving the X1 vs the HD2 and wish I'd not bought the HD2 really.
I probably wouldn't be so happy with the X1 if I'd paid full retail price for it though!
Something is wrong with your particluar X1 if it cant last more than 12 hours in standby - leave mine on standby over night not charging at say 50 percent, wake up and its usually about 49 percent so maybe a problem with your battery.
Obviously its not perfect and it has many many problems but i've had it since it came out in the UK and i'm still with it (different one obviously since its been sent back so many times) but it works for me, its does what i want and how i want so its great, and internet browsing is greate and easy! Have you tried Opera Mini Beta? download it from their website - can easily look stuff up on the go!
Hey if i wasn't so much in a rush, i'd post a solution for almost every problem your facing. iv'e had my x1i for a month now and although it took me quite some time searching and posting throughout this forum! iv'e maximized as best as i could,My phones super fast,super stable,not to mention the internet. made mine alot louder both in speakerphone and music without any distort or damage,and all while having a look so good that makes peoples mouth water! anyone else agree?
Zeyn Karim said:
Hey if i wasn't so much in a rush, i'd post a solution for almost every problem your facing. iv'e had my x1i for a month now and although it took me quite some time searching and posting throughout this forum! iv'e maximized as best as i could,My phones super fast,super stable,not to mention the internet. made mine alot louder both in speakerphone and music without any distort or damage,and all while having a look so good that makes peoples mouth water! anyone else agree?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with everything you said . I've had my phone for 8 months now and have never had to send it in to get repaired for anything?
I agree with the second poll option but i'm not supprised that this was XDA's #1 device, at the time this device was awesome and sleek.
poetryrocksalot said:
Two out of Five stars. (Amazon Review)
"This phone was a nightmare! I hate it with a passion", May 31, 2010
Here is a review of the Xperia X1. I have owned the X1, HTC Touch Pro2, HTC HD2, Nokia E90, Nokia E72, Nokia N95 and Apple iPhone. Other than the iPhone, I really hate this phone.
1) Build Quality - the plastic on this phone peeled off everywhere! The finishing on this phone is very susceptible to friction. The plastic chrome will peel off. The paint on the metal battery cover will scratch or peel off. The internal housing will crack. It's like the device had an earthquake and cracked itself. I didn't even sit on the device or drop it on anything. There is no way to prevent the plastic from cracking and peeling. All of this happened within 6 months.
The keyboard will also loose sensitivity. Over time, you will have to press on the keys harder and harder when you want to type something. The keyboard will only satisfy you for a year. And on top of that, the keyboard sucks. Don't even think about speed typing on this bad boy.
2) Efficiency - the phone is very inefficient. The terrible feedback on the keyboard forces me to use the virtual keyboard on the phone. On top of that, the screen is so small that using the virtual keyboard is a nightmare. This prevents me from being efficient with contact management and note taking. In deterred me from actually using the calendar and responding to text messages and emails. Unlike on the E72, I was not motivated to be organized with the software.
The phone is also very, very slow. Even with the latest firmware, it is very slow. This made me abhor using this phone for any reason. Don't even think about installing software that runs in the background, because it will eat your battery and retard your phone. The only way to make the device run at decent speeds is to minimize the software and the ROM.
3) Battery - the battery life is terrible. It only lasts 12-15 hours on standby without 3G enabled.
4) Camera - the camera doesn't beat the N95, but it's alright. The camera software is sluggish and is very uncomfortable to use. The camera has bad auto focus and weak flash LED.
5) Multimedia - the speakers on the phone is very weak so don't even bother watching movies or listening to music. Since this is a touch screen device, the screen isn't big enough for me to enjoy videos or web-browsing.
The sluggishness of this device also applied to it's Wi-Fi. That's why I avoided web-browsing altogether. It was just plain terrible. In fact, I prefer the Nokia E90 or Nokia E72 for web-browsing (they are non touch screen phones).
6) Phone - the call quality and loudness was at least better than my Nokia E72. However, the X1 speakerphone can't even compare to the E72 speakerphone. Please recall that phones usually have two separate speakers: the speakerphone/loudspeaker and the normal speaker. Well, the X1 has a very bad speakerphone/loudspeaker.
8) Internet - the internet is slow, the screen is small, and the CPU needs an update. This should conclude everything.
9) Price - at 800 U.S. dollars, it was an expensive piece of junk. But now that it is sold for 400 dollars brand new, it's a little more forgiving.
10) Something to consider - regardless of all of the cons I have provided, I enjoyed using the phone because it was highly customizable. Unfortunately, it lacked everything I expected from what was advertised: an awesome keyboard, perfect build quality, fast processor. I tried to make the best of it by customizing it with software and 'tricks' and that alleviated some of the pain. Also, so many people complemented on the beauty of my X1.
11) History on X1: When the X1 first came out, all of the reviewers gave the phone high marks for it's amazing build quality. Within a year, everyone noticed that its cosmetic and physical condition deteriorated greatly. The phone reviewers returned the X1 to the 'lenders' before they got the chance to witness the true nature of this phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have had my Xperia for over a year (since feb 2009) and I am still happy with it,
1 My Xperia is the silver version so no paint to scratch off. Usually I carry it around in a case so no real scratches. It does have a couple of the notorious cracks though, (Just under the volume control and above the camera) but they are not noticible unless you look for them and they do not affect the functionality of the device.
2. The keyboard is mostly good for me. It seems to have a few rare times when it is being tempramental but on the whole no issues. I use the onscreen keyboard occasionally and can type relitively well without using the stylus if I have to.
3. My batttery life with the R3A rom was over and around 3 days with light use. My current rom (Christians full rom) requires charging around once a day so I am going to change to a lighter rom.
4. The camera is a bit slow, and the LED flash isnt the best, but I find it does what I need it to do, I use it as my main camera since I cant be bothered carying around two devices and have no complaints. It takes scenery and people quite well, for dark scenes it may take a bit of playing around.
5 Yes the loudspeaker is bad, But I watch movies and play multimedia with the headphones, sound quality is great then. I only run into problems when I want loud speaker for phonecalls in noisy environments, which isnt often.
6 I manage web browsing fine, yes its true I would use a device with a larger screen if I bought one along, but I often dont because the xperia is extreemely portable and web browsing is no problem for me.
7. I haven't run into any problems with the wifi, the wifi seems to operate as well as anyone elses phone.
8. Yes I agree that when it was released it was overpriced, but arnt most devices? the age old lesson is that you should wait a bit before buying somthing, Dont get caught in the hype.
Their is a simple fix for the sound on the Xperia X1. It's called "optxperiabeta02". I've been using it for 7 month's now.
hungry81 said:
I have had my Xperia for over a year (since feb 2009) and I am still happy with it,
1 My Xperia is the silver version so no paint to scratch off. Usually I carry it around in a case so no real scratches. It does have a couple of the notorious cracks though, (Just under the volume control and above the camera) but they are not noticible unless you look for them and they do not affect the functionality of the device.
2. The keyboard is mostly good for me. It seems to have a few rare times when it is being tempramental but on the whole no issues. I use the onscreen keyboard occasionally and can type relitively well without using the stylus if I have to.
3. My batttery life with the R3A rom was over and around 3 days with light use. My current rom (Christians full rom) requires charging around once a day so I am going to change to a lighter rom.
4. The camera is a bit slow, and the LED flash isnt the best, but I find it does what I need it to do, I use it as my main camera since I cant be bothered carying around two devices and have no complaints. It takes scenery and people quite well, for dark scenes it may take a bit of playing around.
5 Yes the loudspeaker is bad, But I watch movies and play multimedia with the headphones, sound quality is great then. I only run into problems when I want loud speaker for phonecalls in noisy environments, which isnt often.
6 I manage web browsing fine, yes its true I would use a device with a larger screen if I bought one along, but I often dont because the xperia is extreemely portable and web browsing is no problem for me.
7. I haven't run into any problems with the wifi, the wifi seems to operate as well as anyone elses phone.
8. Yes I agree that when it was released it was overpriced, but arnt most devices? the age old lesson is that you should wait a bit before buying somthing, Dont get caught in the hype.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I owe and use every day my X1 as a main and only
pocket computer since December 2008.
Use is heavily.....
And I must say basically it still rocks.
Regarding the problems from the first post:
I agree that a keyboard gets a bit worse after that time. I didn't happen to SE P990 which I've also used for 1,5 years.
Now I owe also X2 and THIS IS THE KEYBOARD!!
The paint on the black back cover got scratched but
this is what happens to every device.
Plastic peeled off only on the 4 direction pad.
The rest is perfect.
The one crack I have is only be because it dropped badly and nothing else happened actually.
Battery is perfect. If not used heavily it's like 2 days.
The speed: that's interesting.
I don't know what did you do with your X1
@poetry
My X1 is still on R1 firmware (!!!!!)
and it is lightning fast!
I mean really fast....
I also saw lately Omnia I who somebody owned:
that was a crap man......
@poetryrocksalot: I do not agree with you. So far I have only made the best experiences with my Xperia X1.
Build quality: Like I stated on various occasions here at XDA the build quality of my Xperia X1 is absoluetely ok. Ok the paint of the baterry cover comes of but this is only a minor issue. In fact every phone has it's weak points and this one is really not serious. What's more my phone is completely free of cracks.
Battery: Are you kidding me? I have not seen many smartphones that have better endurance with one battery than the X1. I have got two batteries and if I mind how often I use the phone those two batteries easely last 4 days and there is still some power left after those 4 days. There are only a few smartphones out there that last more than a day with one charge.
Screen: What influence has the fact that the X1 is a touchscreen phone on it's performance when it comes to multimedia features (such as playing videos). Would the screen be big enough so you could enjoy your videos if the screen wasn't touchable? Where is the context in this statment? I consider the screen still among the best on the market as long as we talk about quality. It could be bigger that's true but SE never claimed to sell the phone with the biggest display. Show me all phones out there that are capable of playing 800 * 480 movies fluently. There aren't many and the X1 was launched in 2008.
Internet: What makes you think the X1 is bad for webbrowsing? I use Opera 10 and it's by far not sluggish. Normally the speed of webbrowsing depends on the connection whitch itself depends on your provider and the network coverage. Even the HD 2 is slow when using GPRS Once again my phone is not slow neiter on WLAN nor on HSDPA/ UMTS.
Price: It's true the initial price of 800 $ was too much. Thats why I did not get it when it came out. I bought my phone back in November 2009 and I paid 570 Swiss Francs. In $ that is approximately 450. And that was without a contract. It's an old story: Early adopters will always pay the price.
I could go on like this for several lines but I think I have already made clear my attitude. The X1 has its flaws like every product but it's by no means a bad product.
Some remarks from me below. I've had my X1 since september 2008.
Build Quality
Seems to differ a lot from batch to batch, and from color to color. I have a black X1. Noting have peeled off anywhere, but a letter in the SE logo. Almost no scratches on the battery cover. No cracks in the usual places although I've dropped it rather frequently.
However, I do have a crack in the metal surrounding... but the hit the phone took when that appeared made me surprised the phone is still alive at all.
Keyboard. No issues whatsoever. Might need a little cleaning soon.
Cooling of LED bad. Made my vibrator stop working... 'til I dropped the phone the next time. Plastic lens cover broken. Got squeezed into a table corner when I moved.
2) Efficiency
Software updates from SE... sucks.
3) Battery
Not as good as when it was new, but it's ok. Always on 3G.
4) Camera
Can live with it. Not good.
5) Multimedia
Speaker utterly rubbish. The lack of xvid support is crap.
6) Phone
Ok. Nothing more. Nothing less.
8) Internet
Always using Opera Mini 5, way better when Opera Mobile IMHO. Fast and stable.
9) Price
Eh... I don't know. The discounts here in Sweden are very, very, very, very good if you sign up for two years. I pay about the same price as seven Big Mac & Co a month for flat rate data and I can still use all those money to make calls with. Phone was free of charge.
Conclusion: Will probably go for a Desire in two months. Or Iphone 4G. Or something else. Not a Win Mob phone.
Build quality isnt soo good - i noticed the black paint comes off so i got some cheap carbon fiber looking tape and covered it, its protects it well.
i hate the silver parts on it - thought it was metal till one day i noticed there was a crack and i haven't dropped yet,so i attached a piece of string on the bottom to decrease the chances of cracking on its own.
the battery is good in my opinion lasts 3,4 days for me
camera sucks because you have to press down on the button to take a picture which may put the phone focusing out of place, but htc sense roms with touch focus to take a pic is alot better
speaker is weak when outside.
i still think its a great phone, but i dislike the O\s when it comes to efficiency
the processor and its hardware should be fine for a phone.
I acquired a second-hand semi-broken X1 very recently, after owning, testing, repairing or playing with most WM phones on the market. My own conclusion - not bad at all, most impressed by the screen.
Got Nuts ROM and sound optimizer loaded - like it even more, can't say I would ever be happy with the original ROM, but with TF3D ports I got everything I needed. Every device will have its own little quirks and bogies, none will ever be perfect, my only gripe with X1 is the keyboard, but only because I also keep my old trusty 128Mb HTC Universal as a second device and its QWERTY simply can't be beaten. Even Wizard has better keyboard!!!!
X1's keyboard is miserable and next to useless - button feedback is misleading, general inconsistency in pressure requirement and double-typing is common, buttons are fiddly, even for my small and adept fingers - all leading to slow and deliberate usage, which is counter-productive.
No issues whatsoever with anything else. From past experiences with X1s brought in for repairs, main issue is, of course, flex. But that is simply called 'all-slide desease' and should be expected regardless of the make and model.
I do believe the silver version is a much better option, silver metallic parts can be lightly polished and be as good as new, I have no peeling paint or other obvious cracks, apart from tiny, barely noticeable ones here and there. The battery door opening could be better thought out design-wise, even a simple spring lock would be preferable to peeling it off with your fingernails.
Optimizations, tweaks and various add-ons are out there - don't complain about lack of this or that - find the solution!
Almost forgot - those complaining of lack of playback support for this or that - find the solution and you will be surprised how well everything will play. As far as browsers are concerned - nothing beats Opera 10 for me (well, for now anyway), got Opera mini 5 running on my LG Arena - had gutsful, but had no choice, so glad I don't have to on Xperia

Build quality of this phone

Hello,
so as a user of Xperia Z2 I have my rights to complain. This phone is nothing but amazing when it comes to functionality but sucks at build quality. My phone has a gaps around the frame of the display. At top right there is a small gap, on bottom left and on the left of the phone. These places, especially the gap in left side of display, collect dust and other trash. Also the USB flap is popping off all the time dispite having been cleaned and replaced by polish warranty service, propably because the phone's frame has a little arch in there. Also back of the phone had a bit of a move. It has been replaced by afore mentioned service and it does not sqeak anymore when pressed but the top of frame of the phone has been scratched in the process.
So my experience with service has been quite bad. They did replace back and USB flap(so they say but taking into the account it has had dust on silicon seal when I received it I am not so sure) but it left a scar on the phone. So the flap is popping off anyway, making phone not waterproof and annoying.
Now I would like to point out that I use magnetic charger so the port has not been opened too many times actually. Also sending the phone off for repair is not an option now because it will take them another 3 weeks time to repair it.
To be honest I wrote this to scare off some potential Sony buyers because build quality simply is not too good or at least make them check their new phones thoroughly and return if they are flawed.
HugePotato said:
Hello,
so as a user of Xperia Z2 I have my rights to complain. This phone is nothing but amazing when it comes to functionality but sucks at build quality. My phone has a gaps around the frame of the display. At top right there is a small gap, on bottom left and on the left of the phone. These places, especially the gap in left side of display, collect dust and other trash. Also the USB flap is popping off all the time dispite having been cleaned and replaced by polish warranty service, propably because the phone's frame has a little arch in there. Also back of the phone had a bit of a move. It has been replaced by afore mentioned service and it does not sqeak anymore when pressed but the top of frame of the phone has been scratched in the process.
So my experience with service has been quite bad. They did replace back and USB flap(so they say but taking into the account it has had dust on silicon seal when I received it I am not so sure) but it left a scar on the phone. So the flap is popping off anyway, making phone not waterproof and annoying.
Now I would like to point out that I use magnetic charger so the port has not been opened too many times actually. Also sending the phone off for repair is not an option now because it will take them another 3 weeks time to repair it.
To be honest I wrote this to scare off some potential Sony buyers because build quality simply is not too good or at least make them check their new phones thoroughly and return if they are flawed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for this bro
My xperia z2 i buy in Brazil,is perfectly build,no gaps no flaps coming out,i buy in pré order,i might be Lucky,ask for a total replacement if you have warranty, it might help
Got no buildproblems with my z2 that was bought back in September, but there could be some z2 with build quality issues as indicated by the op
you could post your problem here - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2744197 + telling your batch number. If people from the service made any damage to your phone you have to complain about it and ask for a new device since it was not your fault... its kinda late now i guess.
I myself have always used Samsung phone in the past until this year when I got the Z2 after many hours reading and watching reviews. Never once did a read or watch a bad review regarding the build quality of the Z2.
For me, the Z2 totally outshines my previous Samsung phones on the build quality site of things. It totally feels like a premium device to me.
I have similar issues as well. Flaps pop out repeatedly after cleaning and replacement. Had gaps in phone, which caused water damage...
Sent from my D6503 using XDA Free mobile app
Plain Water said:
I have similar issues as well. Flaps pop out repeatedly after cleaning and replacement. Had gaps in phone, which caused water damage...
Sent from my D6503 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One of the reasons that gaps open itself (if they are clear with no dust in it) is the pressure in the phone that is coused in situations for example like in your pocket and you run/bend.Thats why when you drop it to the ground the flaps are opening to release the pressure.The water test which is provided in the menu of the Z2 have the same way of working as well - pressure determinate that if the phone is sealed and ready for a swim when you bend it abit. :highfive:
my Z2 has gaps in the corners on both front and back side
can it be waterproof with the gaps?
HugePotato said:
Hello,
so as a user of Xperia Z2 I have my rights to complain. This phone is nothing but amazing when it comes to functionality but sucks at build quality. My phone has a gaps around the frame of the display. At top right there is a small gap, on bottom left and on the left of the phone. These places, especially the gap in left side of display, collect dust and other trash. Also the USB flap is popping off all the time dispite having been cleaned and replaced by polish warranty service, propably because the phone's frame has a little arch in there. Also back of the phone had a bit of a move. It has been replaced by afore mentioned service and it does not sqeak anymore when pressed but the top of frame of the phone has been scratched in the process.
So my experience with service has been quite bad. They did replace back and USB flap(so they say but taking into the account it has had dust on silicon seal when I received it I am not so sure) but it left a scar on the phone. So the flap is popping off anyway, making phone not waterproof and annoying.
Now I would like to point out that I use magnetic charger so the port has not been opened too many times actually. Also sending the phone off for repair is not an option now because it will take them another 3 weeks time to repair it.
To be honest I wrote this to scare off some potential Sony buyers because build quality simply is not too good or at least make them check their new phones thoroughly and return if they are flawed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You just describe exactly what is happening with mine. Just the same issues.
Quite sad that Sony can't give you a well built phone for this price...To be honest after having Desire 816 for 3 weeks in the meantime as Sony was being serviced I started regretting that I didn't buy M8. It would be **** specwise compared to Sony but the build quality is just marvelous...Or wait for Z3. I think I could call myself Sony fan some time ago but now I am not so sure. Will have Z2 in mind when buying next phone in 1.5 year time.
Not trying to offend anyone but I believe that a great bunch of us XDA members are extremely anal about our devices.
Every device I've owned has had people complaining about the most minor of issues that no regular users ever hear of.
"MY PHONES CAMERA IS 0.01MM AWAY FROM BEING CENTRED, IS SONY FOR REAL, HOW COULD THEY DO THIS, BLAH BLAH"
I bought my Z2 being incredibly happy with the build quality and i still am.The metal/glass body is exceptional in terms of build quality. Compared to the plasticy build of the G3/other devices, our phone is amazing.
The issue is more of a quality control issue but the thing is that the "issues" we have are so very minor. The gaps form no actual issue, same with off centred camera (that i know of), the flaps popping off is an actual issue but i dont personally know anyone who has had this happen to them, only a few xda users. (Probably due to the constant opening for flashing purposes/other purposes)
Sending it back should fix it, and if it doesnt then send it back again.
Also, all phones have issues. Look on any other phone forum. Our phone is actually better off when compared to others in terms of quality control.
hi guys i want to buy this phone soon and i just wanted to check if the build quality issues i read about are real or not
1) do the flaps really pop up on their own? and if yes what has caused them to do so?is it a manufacturing error?
2) i read about some camera issues with not starting from lockscreen
3) some devices has reported that because of the size of the phone the device has suffered from cracks and niggles caused by the pressure while in pockets?
and please if u can give me your overall experience with the phone and should i buy it or not
p.s : i'm coming fro htc one m7 but the m8 is too expensive and i want to try sony now
thanks in advance to all
super-user2.3 said:
hi guys i want to buy this phone soon and i just wanted to check if the build quality issues i read about are real or not
1) do the flaps really pop up on their own? and if yes what has caused them to do so?is it a manufacturing error?
2) i read about some camera issues with not starting from lockscreen
3) some devices has reported that because of the size of the phone the device has suffered from cracks and niggles caused by the pressure while in pockets?
and please if u can give me your overall experience with the phone and should i buy it or not
p.s : i'm coming fro htc one m7 but the m8 is too expensive and i want to try sony now
thanks in advance to all
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Not for me, most problems are there with early batches which are harder to comeby now
2. Camera seems to launch fine from lockscreen although a rather large delay
3. The self cracking issue i cant realy tell, my device undergoes my fat behind sitting on it also being extremly hot to cold, i left it in my freezer one time at -30 celcius for a hr and its fine
alb3rtt said:
"MY PHONES CAMERA IS 0.01MM AWAY FROM BEING CENTRED, IS SONY FOR REAL, HOW COULD THEY DO THIS, BLAH BLAH"
terms of quality control.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with some of these issues arent realy issues
Ive had 4 Z2 replacements and i only had them replaced due to serious heating issues, large quantities of dead pixels and one if not both speakers being dead
Im happy with my off centre Camera and my dim led light and my single dead pixel
So Dear other users
If it doesnt affect your handling of the device its best to forget about it.
super-user2.3 said:
hi guys i want to buy this phone soon and i just wanted to check if the build quality issues i read about are real or not
1) do the flaps really pop up on their own? and if yes what has caused them to do so?is it a manufacturing error?
2) i read about some camera issues with not starting from lockscreen
3) some devices has reported that because of the size of the phone the device has suffered from cracks and niggles caused by the pressure while in pockets?
and please if u can give me your overall experience with the phone and should i buy it or not
p.s : i'm coming fro htc one m7 but the m8 is too expensive and i want to try sony now
thanks in advance to all
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Not for me. Probably extreme use/excessive opening.
2. Nope. Perfect here.
3. Well i personally havent had this happen. I have dropped my phone onto concrete without a case while running from my pockets and its still perfect with literally only 1 small not noticble mark on the corner so i doubt itll crack from pressure in your pocket.
Go for the z2. Its a great phone imho.
---------- Post added at 12:30 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:25 AM ----------
Envious_Data said:
I agree with some of these issues arent realy issues
Ive had 4 Z2 replacements and i only had them replaced due to serious heating issues, large quantities of dead pixels and one if not both speakers being dead
Im happy with my off centre Camera and my dim led light and my single dead pixel
So Dear other users
If it doesnt affect your handling of the device its best to forget about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
4 Z2's?!?!? Holy sheet metal. Wow you are very unlucky. I personally have a 100% perfect no issues at all z2. If your current phone has issues, just keep returning it. I had 3 nexus 5's, all with various actual issues before i got a perfect one... then i water damaged it. Lmao
build quality issues can affect waterproofing?
maddboss said:
build quality issues can affect waterproofing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
headphone port, gaps and speaker grill problems can potentially hurt the devices water resistance ability
alb3rtt said:
The gaps form no actual issue, same with off centred camera (that i know of), the flaps popping off is an actual issue but i dont personally know anyone who has had this happen to them, only a few xda users. (Probably due to the constant opening for flashing purposes/other purposes)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Envious_Data said:
I agree with some of these issues arent realy issues
Ive had 4 Z2 replacements and i only had them replaced due to serious heating issues, large quantities of dead pixels and one if not both speakers being dead
Im happy with my off centre Camera and my dim led light and my single dead pixel
So Dear other users
If it doesnt affect your handling of the device its best to forget about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so you're sayin that gaps can't affect waterproofing?
maddboss said:
so you're sayin that gaps can't affect waterproofing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well the gaps and headphone port issues im not too sure realy.
Envious_Data said:
Well the gaps and headphone port issues im not too sure realy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
anyway I'll try it sometime but I'm a bit scared about the gaps
maddboss said:
so you're sayin that gaps can't affect waterproofing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They dont. If you want to make sure that it is waterproof, go on the test if waterproof without water thread.

Thoughts on Z3 after a couple months of use

This is the most expensive phone I ever bought and I'm pretty satisfied with it, and also the one I have the least amount of gripes with, but it's not perfect unfortunately. My previous phone was the Galaxy S4 which I absolutely loathed from day one (made me wish I never exchanged my Xperia S for it), and the Z3 was a huge jump in quality compared to it.
Things I like a lot about the phone:
Stereo speakers sound pretty good (and by that I mean you can actually listen to it without wanting to tear your ears off), I actually like to listen to stuff using them, on the S4 and XperiaS the sound quality from speakers was unbearable.
Screen is nice, compared to S4 it's a bit less saturated but it seems much more neutral and accurate, white is actually white and not yellowish like on the S4, but black depth is obviously not absolute, but still pretty good. I think I prefer this screen to the AMOLED on S4 and AMOLEDs in general.
The phone is extremely fast and smooth, I'm a smoothness freak and I couldn't stand how laggy the S4 was.
The waterproofing is nice to have, makes you worry a little less about rain and water spills when using the phone near the shower or stuff like that.
Battery life is great, it lasts 3x what my S4 used to last. I still can't get a full day when I do extra heavy usage with hours of google maps.
Camera is pretty good, I don't know why everyone complains about it, it's not the best on the market but it's still in the top 3 best phone cameras available from waht I can tell. I'm more interested in videos on a phone since I have a decent compact camera, and I think the Z3 makes the best videos.
The phone does not overheat, the S4 was often worryingly hot and it also suffered from CPU throttling that basically cut performance in half.
Things I don't like about the phone:
I had a dead pixel on the first one I bought, brought it back and got it replaced, I examined the replacement for dead pixels and couldn't find any, too bad 2 weeks later I noticed a dead green subpixel but it was too late to exchange it (as it isn't covered by the store's warranty, previous one was replaced under customer satisfaction program). I absolutely hate dead pixels but this one is near the bottom and harder to notice.
The device seems extremely fragile and I am getting paranoid after reading a ton of reports from people who had bent phones, cracked glass, failed waterproofing, and all sorts of other breakage. Right now I have one micro scratch on the front glass that I have no idea how it happened, but it's extremely faint and only viewable in a certain angle, at which the touch grid also becomes visible so it's not really a big deal. Other than that I also found a minor scratch on the power button that is noticeable if you look at it closely.
I don't like the new Lollipop firmware, the colors are especially crappy and there doesn't seem to be any way to customize them properly. I'd like to have dark blue accents but there's no way to do so, and even if I select the blue theme, many accents are orange and I don't like it. I still think the Sony interface was at its best on the XperiaS and the original Z.
The SCR24 cover is absolutely worthless. I really can't find any positive qualities in it other than the fact that it saves the back glass from scratches. A cheap ass cover with cheap glitchy software. Except it costs 40€.
Stock keyboard is very nice and fast but I keep running into a glitch while typing in chrome where the stuff I delete using the backspace key keeps coming back. Another glitch that ruins my workflow is the email app which no longer autocompletes addresses in Lollipop and drives me nuts. Hopefully they'll fix these issues.
It happened twice already, out of nowhere I found my phone pretty much unusable as apps kept crashing all over the place (mostly com.android.phone, "enterprise service" and google play service) and I had to reboot. It happened once on Kitkat and once on Lollipop. On Lollipop I also had a random reboot. Did a factory reset and everything seems fine, but I wonder why these android phones keep having issues after OS updates until you factory reset. I had similar issues with the S4, except much worse (something like 3 reboots per day).
Lollipop multiuser mode is worthless, since gues users can also mess up your phone and access the SD card. There should be a way to limit usage only to certain apps, disable installing of apps, and stuff like that. I miss the baby mode from the S4, which came in handy when I wanted to let my little sis or someone try out my phone without having to worry about them accessing stuff I don't want them to.
Another thing I miss from the S4 is dual app multitasking, it was very limited and slowed the already laggy phone to a crawl, but it was great to play youtube in the background or use WhatsApp while doing something else at the same time. SmallApps are nowhere near as useful.
Soft Keys are awful and they make the screen feel smaller than the one on S4. This is noticeable only in some apps, for example Chrome or certain games that are not optimized to hide soft keys.
Overall I'm satisfied with it but I have major worries the phone will break and sometimes I dust off my S4 when I do something risky such as rollerblading, I can already imagine my Z3 shattering as soon as I fall once (which happens very rarely but is obviously still a risk). Not sure it was worth 565€ but so far it has worked better than any other phone I ever had. The dead pixel is also a cause of minor buyer's remorse every time I notice it.
I'd agree with most of that.
I bought a Ringke Fusion case from Amazon for mine, as the phone is obviously made of the worlds slippiest material! I got a clear one, as I like showing off the copper colour of my Z3. I think the phone may be tougher that it looks. I've dropped mine on a tiled floor, and had it slip off a bathroom shelf into an empty porcelain sink without any damage whatsoever.
I also bought a 9H tempered glass screen protector. Best buy ever. I always thought they were an unnecessary luxury, but it makes the screen a pleasure to touch when compared to a "normal" screen protector. Cuts down on fingerprints too.
I'd invest in a magnetic dock too. Saves wear and tear on the flap for the micro USB, which if it's anything like my original Z, will work loose after a few months.
The couple of things I'd add would be that the camera shutter is too close to the end of the phone, and that the lens itself is too far into the top corner. I keep putting my finger over the lens when I hold it landscape!
warface said:
I'd agree with most of that.
<snip>
I'd invest in a magnetic dock too. Saves wear and tear on the flap for the micro USB, which if it's anything like my original Z, will work loose after a few months.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Regards the mentioned flaps, XZ and X3, what are your thoughts on it after some time on them compared with the XZ? Are they designed better and more robust? I've replaced an XZ one before, but it failed already unbeknown to me and it got wet and is dead now. So I'm in the market for a phone...

Xperia Z5 problems finally sorted - 5th attempt!

This is absolutely ridiculous! I have replaced the Xperia Z5 four times now the 5th unit I have finally has no issues. I ordered it directly from Sony (luckily not from Amazon as they probably would just kept “repairing” the same unit by resetting it to factory settings and each time it would take me weeks to get my phone back…) That's what it took to finally get the phone without any problems...
The first phone did not have any build quality issues and had absolutely no gaps between the screen and the frame. For a flagship phone, not being able to store my “pocket fluff” between the screen and the frame is absolutely unacceptable so I asked for a replacement.
Second unit did not randomly restart even once! I tried everything and it just would not restart at all. I really wanted to see the LED light blinking red at least once but apparently Sony decided that random restarts are not what the customer wants! Again I asked for a replacement.
Third phone's both speakers were equally loud. I was expecting that the bottom speaker will be noticeably quieter. My left ear is not as good as it used to be (courtesy of Vietcong) so was hoping the sound will be nicely balanced. Unfortunately this was a problem for me because you cannot adjust the L/R speaker balance in YouTube app so every time I watched videos the sound was much quieter on the left side of the phone. It was very annoying so again I asked for the phone to be replaced.
At this point you probably wonder why I didn’t give up and go for a different brand. Well, I just really like the Omni balance design and you can easily call me a Sony fanboy as almost all of my electronics are Sony. It did however make me consider switching camps but ultimately I decided to give them another chance.
Fourth phone I really hoped will have all these amazing features people here are talking about. And it did!! Unfortunately the heating element did not work properly and I was able to record the 1080p 60fps and 4K videos for longer than 3 minutes in room temperature (UK room temperature not Bangkok room temperature). I even managed to record 4K video for 15 minutes once! Who on earth would need such long videos! On top of that I was really hoping to use it as a hand warmer in the winter but since the heating element did not work properly I was unable to. In addition, when playing demanding games the phone would not shut itself off after 5+ minutes and because of that I almost got addicted to Candy Crush Saga. I thought that I’m now so close to getting a perfect unit I have to try for the last time…
And it finally happened!!!! The fifth phone I got is perfect and it finally has all these amazing features mentioned in this forum! It has a nice gaps to store my pocket fluff, the speakers are amazingly unbalanced, it does randomly restarts itself to make my life more unpredictable and it warms up nicely when making videos or playing games to the point when it shuts itself off.
And now the cherry on the cake…are you ready for it????!!!
All previous four phones were missing Sony’s amazing built in filter giving this cool effect of blurring the left side of the photos!!! Yes!!! You read it right!!! I finally have the Z5 that does have a proper “left-hand-side-photo-blur” (“LHSPB”) effect built in!!!! Now I can finally uninstall Instagram as this is the only filter I will ever use!!
Anyway, apologies for the long post but I just wanted to share my happiness and thank Sony for amazing customer service and all the fun I had replacing all these phones
P.S. Here’s the link to the photos I took to prove that I have the phone with the LHSPB filter that’s working properly!!
goo.gl/WGbQjS
Seems like you are plagued by bad luck bre.
Happy for you for finding a suitable and perfect device which meet all commercial announcement.
From my side I did not succeed yet to have a phone with all elements working as they should be.
I currently am waiting for a 12th replacement... I am staying with this brand as a lot of people are satified with (and also becuse I am coming from the perfect XZ).
Nevertheless, Sonny has to take care about their manufacturing quality issue as from my point of view it is becoming unacceptable...
I will post later on if the 14th device is the good one...
Finger crossed...
For the story, I have encountered :
- Left hand blur issue (x3)
- Screen Issue (white spot on different areas) (x2)
- Camera Button issue (focussing but not shooting)
- Unglued back glass
- Bad speaker (x2)
- Jack hole not working
- Heating issue while recording
- Soft brick or HW brick after MM Update
@chrisftlse, that's a real dedication to sticking with Sony I'd probably do the same and people like us are probably part of the problem. If people just stopped buying Sony phones after experiencing problems they would have to do something in the end.
I also experienced smaller issues which I didn't mention earlier:
1. Rattling vibration module;
2. Uneven and sticking out sim card flap;
3. Bluetooth skipping after MM update (surprisingly the phone I have now seems to be OK);
4. Shutter button not working properly; and
5. Camera focus problems (in 2 out of 5 units I had);
I hope this time you'll finally get the proper phone that's in usable condition. Fingers crossed!
Sent from Tapatalk
Thanks for your encouragements,
I will keep you posted as soon as I receive my New Device
@ OP.. lol. Really enjoyed reading your post. Hillarious (excellent sense of humour) as it is but I do feel for you as I've myself been that route! Anyway, good luck and enjoy your phone with "LHSPB filter".. lol!
Sensination said:
@chrisftlse, that's a real dedication to sticking with Sony I'd probably do the same and people like us are probably part of the problem. If people just stopped buying Sony phones after experiencing problems they would have to do something in the end.
I also experienced smaller issues which I didn't mention earlier:
1. Rattling vibration module;
2. Uneven and sticking out sim card flap;
3. Bluetooth skipping after MM update (surprisingly the phone I have now seems to be OK);
4. Shutter button not working properly; and
5. Camera focus problems (in 2 out of 5 units I had);
I hope this time you'll finally get the proper phone that's in usable condition. Fingers crossed!
Sent from Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's the revision number of your last z5, on the box. Thanks
Sent from my E6653 using Tapatalk
Sensination said:
...
All previous four phones were missing Sony’s amazing built in filter giving this cool effect of blurring the left side of the photos!!! Yes!!! You read it right!!! I finally have the Z5 that does have a proper “left-hand-side-photo-blur” (“LHSPB”) effect built in!!!! Now I can finally uninstall Instagram as this is the only filter I will ever use!!
Anyway, apologies for the long post but I just wanted to share my happiness and thank Sony for amazing customer service and all the fun I had replacing all these phones
P.S. Here’s the link to the photos I took to prove that I have the phone with the LHSPB filter that’s working properly!!
goo.gl/WGbQjS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you post a picture taken with the new device, the one that has no blur?
---------- Post added at 07:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:56 PM ----------
[/COLOR]
chrisftlse said:
Happy for you for finding a suitable and perfect device which meet all commercial announcement.
From my side I did not succeed yet to have a phone with all elements working as they should be.
I currently am waiting for a 12th replacement... I am staying with this brand as a lot of people are satified with (and also becuse I am coming from the perfect XZ).
Nevertheless, Sonny has to take care about their manufacturing quality issue as from my point of view it is becoming unacceptable...
I will post later on if the 14th device is the good one...
Finger crossed...
For the story, I have encountered :
- Left hand blur issue (x3)
- Screen Issue (white spot on different areas) (x2)
- Camera Button issue (focussing but not shooting)
- Unglued back glass
- Bad speaker (x2)
- Jack hole not working
- Heating issue while recording
- Soft brick or HW brick after MM Update
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nobody can be crazy enough to go through 14 replacement units.
I don't believe you
millicent said:
What's the revision number of your last z5, on the box. Thanks
Sent from my E6653 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rev 3
Sent from Tapatalk
frankm87 said:
Could you post a picture taken with the new device, the one that has no blur?
---------- Post added at 07:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:56 PM ----------
[/COLOR]
Nobody can be crazy enough to go through 14 replacement units.
I don't believe you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've added a link to the photos at the bottom of my post. If I post it here it will be down scaled.
Sent from Tapatalk
Sensination said:
I've added a link to the photos at the bottom of my post. If I post it here it will be down scaled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the bit that I do not understand: are these photos blur-free, or do they exhibit blur?
I can't understand with your first post if these are indeed supposed to be blur free or not.
Nobody can be crazy enough to go through 14 replacement units.
I don't believe you [/QUOTE]
------------------------
Yes I can understand your point of view but I currently am engaged with a provider contract (Orange to name it) and unfortunately they are refusing to either propose me another brand/model either to cancel the contract so I have escalated this to their complaint manager.
BTW, as this XZ5 did not work for me, I do not pay any monthly fee since November last year... small compensation
I am waiting their call and perhaps switch to the XZ5 Premium instead of the normal one as I do not want either to go to another and available brand from their catalog (iPhone, Samsung, Huawei) may be I will decide to switch to the HTC 10 but I really prefer the Sony one
I don't think there is. Previous phones I had were severely affected but unfortunately I don't have any photos. Maybe XDA-Developers community could judge?
Also you can find a long thread here that has many examples of photos blur.
goo.gl/40Q9Mw
Sent from Tapatalk
Sensination said:
I don't think there is. Previous phones I had were severely affected but unfortunately I don't have any photos. Maybe XDA-Developers community could judge?
Also you can find a long thread here that has many examples of photos blur.
goo.gl/40Q9Mw
Sent from Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Following the link provided in your first post goo.gl/WGbQjS, look at the trees in the top-right areas. And your device probably has slight right hand side blur, I would say.
ALL Z5 devices will exhibit blur. I've been through all the messages in this forum and in the Sony Mobile forum, and there always is blur in the corners. Most people agree here, right? But I go further: there is always a side which is a tiny little bit blurrier than the other. In all cases. The lens is never 100% well centered.
But where you're right is that, in some cases, the blur is just too pronounced. In this case, you see it clearly, and the only solution is to exchange the device.
I don't believe many devices are really bad, and I also don't believe the Revision number makes a difference. I have a Rev 1 device bought last month, and I only have slight blurring on the right side, that, I take, is a side effect of the wide angle lens, more than a manufacturing defect from Sony.
On this forum and on Sony Mobile, you will find here and there a few pictures with blur-prone lighting conditions in the corners which nevertheless are 100% blur free : these are FAKES. The reason is extremely simple: even on the left corners of my pictures, that is, my clear, non-blurry side, there is a tiny bit of blur, that I can see and measure. Meaning all corners are affected to some extent. Meaning it is not possible to get a blur-free picture (corner blur). It's that simple.
chrisftlse said:
Yes I can understand your point of view but I currently am engaged with a provider contract (Orange to name it) and unfortunately they are refusing to either propose me another brand/model either to cancel the contract so I have escalated this to their complaint manager.
BTW, as this XZ5 did not work for me, I do not pay any monthly fee since November last year... small compensation
I am waiting their call and perhaps switch to the XZ5 Premium instead of the normal one as I do not want either to go to another and available brand from their catalog (iPhone, Samsung, Huawei) may be I will decide to switch to the HTC 10 but I really prefer the Sony one
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't believe it is possible to have 14 faulty devices in a row - this is what I meant. In probabilistic law, the chances are incredibly low. Go play and play the lottery, I would say
Well, the Xperia X will be available very shortly. It would be silly to switch to another brand if you like Sony.
It seems the X won't have a very compact version like the Z5 have. Makes me comfortable with my choice of the Z5C. And BTW the Z5P seems affected just as much as the Z5 and Z5C.
@frankm87, I think you're missing a point here a little bit. Nobody is really complaining about the blur and darkness in the corners as this is a normal effect caused by light in the lens called "vignetting" and every camera in the world suffers from it to some extent. The LHSPB problem with Z5 is a completely different thing and shows as a very distinctive and pronounced blur only on the left hand side of the photo which looks a little bit like smudged picture when you move your camera. you can also spot a very pronounced border where the blur ends in most cases and when you turn the phone upside down, the blur will be on the right side. In addition, every camera will have a bit softer focus on the side of the photo but this is different then the smudgy blur in Z5. In my opinion the camera I got does not suffer from the LHSPB issue and all softer focus is either vignetting or normal softer focus in the far edges.
@chrisftlse, One guy in UK had the same issue and actually threatened Sony with lawsuit and Sony agreed to buy him out from his contract and offered compensation. His problem was similar as he kept getting faulty Z5's and network operator refused to exchanged it to a different model as he signed contract for Z5. At least they offer you different models.
Sensination said:
@frankm87, I think you're missing a point here a little bit. Nobody is really complaining about the blur and darkness in the corners as this is a normal effect caused by light in the lens called "vignetting" and every camera in the world suffers from it to some extent. The LHSPB problem with Z5 is a completely different thing and shows as a very distinctive and pronounced blur only on the left hand side of the photo which looks a little bit like smudged picture when you move your camera. you can also spot a very pronounced border where the blur ends in most cases and when you turn the phone upside down, the blur will be on the right side. In addition, every camera will have a bit softer focus on the side of the photo but this is different then the smudgy blur in Z5. In my opinion the camera I got does not suffer from the LHSPB issue and all softer focus is either vignetting or normal softer focus in the far edges.
@chrisftlse, One guy in UK had the same issue and actually threatened Sony with lawsuit and Sony agreed to buy him out from his contract and offered compensation. His problem was similar as he kept getting faulty Z5's and network operator refused to exchanged it to a different model as he signed contract for Z5. At least they offer you different models.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you talking about CerberusSco? He did keep the phone, and offered it to his son. Proof Sony's phones aren't THAT bad, huh
As for the left hand blur issue, I don't think it is as binary as you say. And none of the pictures I have seen on the forums with the blur issue have a pronounced border where the blur ends.
frankm87 said:
Are you talking about CerberusSco? He did keep the phone, and offered it to his son. Proof Sony's phones aren't THAT bad, huh
As for the left hand blur issue, I don't think it is as binary as you say. And none of the pictures I have seen on the forums with the blur issue have a pronounced border where the blur ends.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that's the guy I was talking about Never said they're bad, it's just that Sony's quality check process is lacking and they're not exactly the best in terms of customer service I love my Xperia Z5 and I also had Z2 which was a great phone but with its own unique problems. All in all, Sony does make great phones
Yeah, I agree it's not so black and white with the LHSPB. Maybe I wasn't explaining properly but the border is not like sharp line, more like an area where you can start seeing that the blur gets much smaller.
Sent from Tapatalk
frankm87 said:
I don't believe it is possible to have 14 faulty devices in a row - this is what I meant. In probabilistic law, the chances are incredibly low. Go play and play the lottery, I would say
Well, the Xperia X will be available very shortly. It would be silly to switch to another brand if you like Sony.
It seems the X won't have a very compact version like the Z5 have. Makes me comfortable with my choice of the Z5C. And BTW the Z5P seems affected just as much as the Z5 and Z5C.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds to me like the store/vendor is providing him with returned phones hopping one of them will stick. 14 faulty ones in a row just is impossible if you buy in a regular store. That or there is something fishy going on with the storytelling here. You know unicorns and magic wands. But I believe he is being played out by the store. Would be interesting to know the serial and revision number from all of the 14 phones.
EQ2000 said:
Sounds to me like the store/vendor is providing him with returned phones hopping one of them will stick. 14 faulty ones in a row just is impossible if you buy in a regular store. That or there is something fishy going on with the storytelling here. You know unicorns and magic wands. But I believe he is being played out by the store. Would be interesting to know the serial and revision number from all of the 14 phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi XZ5 lovers,
Just to update my situation, my carrier finally came back to me with a proposal:
1- Change again the defective XZ5 with a brand new one (new box)
2- Change to any other model
I have selected the 2 option and now running the HTC 10
I am very sad cause I liked this phone so much (despite all encountered issues) but I have decided to turn the Sony's page for now on...
But I did not tell my last word I am purchasing a brand new XZ5 for my wife
chrisftlse said:
Hi XZ5 lovers,
Just to update my situation, my carrier finally came back to me with a proposal:
1- Change again the defective XZ5 with a brand new one (new box)
2- Change to any other model
I have selected the 2 option and now running the HTC 10
I am very sad cause I liked this phone so much (despite all encountered issues) but I have decided to turn the Sony's page for now on...
But I did not tell my last word I am purchasing a brand new XZ5 for my wife
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So.. You bought a used one and/or had your Z5 exchanged for used ones by the store instead of brand new ones? That explains why you got so many faulty ones one after another. You where getting returned faulty phones as exchange units. So in short this has nothing to do with Sony and all to do with the store playing faul game with you.

Durability

Everything about this phone is pretty amazing but, my main concern is the durability. HTC can do pretty well in bend tests based on what I've seen. The problem with this phone is there is a lot of chassis missing for that glass back.
I know it's a bit soon to speculate but, it's no longer a small risk when it comes to the initial outlay and I may just sit this one out for once as my 6p and 5x are both doing quite well considering I went naked after about a month. The 5x is my work phone and I have dropped it all over the place, spilled tea on it, and it lives in my back pocket during transit.
I really hope Google did their homework on this one because all eyes are on them now.
yeah, the glass panel's exposure scares me a bit. HTC's had a history of absolutely bang-on build quality, so that leaves me feeling good, but glass is glass. honestly, i was really hoping for a soft curved back like HTC has been known for, which is a crazy help for keeping wear down on normal use (obviously doesn't help drops). I am reluctantly awaiting potential bumpers since clear skins never last or look worth a crap, or maybe just go full retard on a Live Case.
fitchpuckman said:
yeah, the glass panel's exposure scares me a bit. HTC's had a history of absolutely bang-on build quality, so that leaves me feeling good, but glass is glass. honestly, i was really hoping for a soft curved back like HTC has been known for, which is a crazy help for keeping wear down on normal use (obviously doesn't help drops). I am reluctantly awaiting potential bumpers since clear skins never last or look worth a crap, or maybe just go full retard on a Live Case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha! I always start with an i-Blason or anything really robust. After the screen starts to fade it comes off for something smaller or fully naked depending on the device. I think with this phone it will never see the light of day.
GMonkey said:
Haha! I always start with an i-Blason or anything really robust. After the screen starts to fade it comes off for something smaller or fully naked depending on the device. I think with this phone it will never see the light of day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
for sure. once it's in hand for a few days, I'll make a call, plus more case options will have surfaced by then, and people wills tart weeding out the dumb OEMs that misalign port openings on their first manufacturing runs. i'm hoping to keep this naked as long as possible. historically, cases weren't for me, but that changed with my 5x. love the diztronic on my it, it's done a masterful job of protecting the phone's shell from the embarrassing amount of discoloring it experienced in the first 3 weeks i owned it and didnt have it dressed up..."get the blue-ish colored one, they said. yeah it's matte but it wont collect dirt, they said...". jerks.
The glass on the back worries me.
And what annoys me about it is that there doesn't seem to be any functional justification for it.
fitchpuckman said:
for sure. once it's in hand for a few days, I'll make a call, plus more case options will have surfaced by then, and people wills tart weeding out the dumb OEMs that misalign port openings on their first manufacturing runs. i'm hoping to keep this naked as long as possible. historically, cases weren't for me, but that changed with my 5x. love the diztronic on my it, it's done a masterful job of protecting the phone's shell from the embarrassing amount of discoloring it experienced in the first 3 weeks i owned it and didnt have it dressed up..."get the blue-ish colored one, they said. yeah it's matte but it wont collect dirt, they said...". jerks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just wish I had the patience to wait. I think I'll be settled once I see the relevant tests. If I could drop the case I'd be well happy
catachresistant said:
The glass on the back worries me.
And what annoys me about it is that there doesn't seem to be any functional justification for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not just the glass. There are 2 antenna slots in the frame at random places. I fear bendgate
catachresistant said:
The glass on the back worries me.
And what annoys me about it is that there doesn't seem to be any functional justification for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NFC antenna is there, it won't work through metal
Sent from my GT-I9505G using XDA Free mobile app
You know, people do say a lot of bad things on Nexus 4's glass back. Mine still intact perfectly after almost 4 years of use...
lazinase said:
You know, people do say a lot of bad things on Nexus 4's glass back. Mine still intact perfectly after almost 4 years of use...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well that depends....mine got a hard scratch a few weeks later for laying it on a Glass table. Probably a bad movement and a tiny grain of sand under the phone
So after this I always try to put the charger's cable under the phone.
Sent from my Nexus 5X
Matridom said:
NFC antenna is there, it won't work through metal
Sent from my GT-I9505G using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And yet my HTC One manages NFC just fine (presumably through the large circular camera hole).
catachresistant said:
The glass on the back worries me.
And what annoys me about it is that there doesn't seem to be any functional justification for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
RF radiation passes through glass, not metal. Your antennas are behind the glass.
doitright said:
RF radiation passes through glass, not metal. Your antennas are behind the glass.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The phone has antenna lines.
catachresistant said:
The phone has antenna lines.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, but Google chose the glass back for a reason. Clearly it was more expensive to do than just a full metal back with antenna lines.
My guess is they did this for a very good reason.
catachresistant said:
The phone has antenna lines.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Says who?
Note: a line doesn't mean an antenna.
Ok, so I caved in and got an iPhone 7 a week ago on their upgrade program. That way I'm not spending so much in one hit. I've bought a smart battery case and I got nearly 12hrs usage yesterday with a lot of camera activity and gaming thanks to the double battery power. I can do most of what I was doing on my 6p and in a lot of cases more. There seems to be some minor perks for the iOS versions of the Google apps. For once I'm going to wait for my contact renewal in January and keep an eye on all the news with these phones. If they turn out to be the real deal then I can get more than what I would have got if I was buying it like I normally would a Nexus. So in 3 months the winner can be my daily driver and the runner up can be my work phone. I must admit iOS has certainly matured since I last had a serious look. If you actually take the time to configure it to your way of working it's actually the same. I still use all the same apps I was using, even my password keeper. All my friends and family have started to wonder if I'm having a midlife crisis because I was so anti Apple and I can only admit I was wrong. It's something you have to openly experience to understand.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
GMonkey said:
Ok, so I caved in and got an iPhone 7 a week ago on their upgrade program.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GMonkey I've just asked if anyone here have used an iPhone recently and after that I read you post.
Do you recommend me to try the iPhone 7 now that the Google Phone has the same price?
My last phones: Galaxy S3 (I hate Touchwiz) -> Galaxy Nexus > Nexus 4 > Nexus 5 > xperia Z5 Compact (I regretted this decision. Bad camera) > Nexus 5X (excellent camera like the Nexus 5 and 6P)
I'd like to know how is the iPhone 7 compared to the 5,X (specially the camera without HDR+) and using only Google Apps and Google Sync (not iCloud, iTunes, etc. Just Google apps). Can you replace Siri with Google Now?
Considering this...do you recommend me that jump? Or I'll miss Android a lot?
Thanks
Sent from my Nexus 5X
thesebastian said:
GMonkey I've just asked if anyone here have used an iPhone recently and after that I read you post.
Do you recommend me to try the iPhone 7 now that the Google Phone has the same price?
My last phones: Galaxy S3 (I hate Touchwiz) -> Galaxy Nexus > Nexus 4 > Nexus 5 > xperia Z5 Compact (I regretted this decision. Bad camera) > Nexus 5X (excellent camera like the Nexus 5 and 6P)
I'd like to know how is the iPhone 7 compared to the 5,X (specially the camera without HDR+) and using only Google Apps and Google Sync (not iCloud, iTunes, etc. Just Google apps).
Considering this...do you recommend me that jump? Or I'll miss Android a lot?
Thanks
Sent from my Nexus 5X
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a tricky one because there are pros and cons. The good thing is that you have 2 weeks to make your mind up and apple are pretty good at disputes from what I hear so you could always try it for a bit. It's another world compared to the 5x (which I'm still using as my work phone) because of battery, camera, and the fact it's water resistant. It depends on what you like about Android. If you like all the Nougat features with notifications etc and rely on quick charge then you may struggle. If you don't mind losing out on the openness of Android then you'll like iOS enough to switch. I use inbox, google play music, movies, books, keep, YouTube, google drive, sheets, docs, and slides in exactly the same way as before. Google has been clever in building its own ecosystem within iOS and I can still share things to drive and keep etc as I did before. You can still keep documents offline and keep them synced. Google photos still syncs and it also supports iOS only features like moments. Drive and it's related apps have a password feature which is nice to have. I still use a password manager. In apps it only works on some, others you need to copy and paste. It works fine in safari if you press the share button on a log in page. My photos are far better than my 5x and 6p. 3D Touch is amazing, anyone who says it isn't hasn't given it a good shot. It's given me the ability to hold down on an app icon for shortcuts or preview links or images etc. People complain that google puts more effort into iOS apps and it's just because it's easier to cater for a small number of devices. Other developers seem to be doing the same. The only limitations are what the OS won't allow which I prefer out of privacy. Remember with Google we are the product and the ad space buyers are the customer. There are 2 main ways to make money in the software space. 1. Is by selling a solid solution and 2. By offering a free solution that has other ways of making money. This is why Facebook is the largest media company in the world without ever uploading a single photo of their own. It's been built by our efforts and so has Google. With this in mind you know who will be the better option when things go wrong. I used to avoid Apple shops like it was someone else's church so I had no idea how they operated. They didn't have an issue with me being an android user and they spent so much time with me even after the sale was made. I've been back in since to ask questions as it's not for from my office and it's like I've got my own little XDA shop to walk into but, I won't get shot down if someone disagrees with me. When you realise that some of your favourite android blogs also have sister sites that are iOS based and all the fanboy anger is driven by them you realise it's ok to like both and I now visit both websites and follow both podcasts. Sorry to have gone on for a bit, I just wanted you to know it's not just about the product as the service behind it and the community that support it are equally as important.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Hey and what about replacing Safari with Chrome. Apple Keyboard with Google Keyboard and Apple Maps with Google Maps? Is this a good idea? I have years of custom words saved in Google Keyboard.
Can you also replace the main gallery with Photos?
I'm really tempted to try an iPhone 7. However I don't think I can buy it just to try it. If I bought it, I would use carphone warehouse shipping it to Barcelona. (Here in Spain it's much more expensive than there).
Regarding Nougat stuff...well I'm using a lot the new DoubleTap to fast switch between the last 2 apps and I love it... But sometimes it lags in the poor 5X with limited RAM.
Sent from my Nexus 5X
I was lucky enough to run into a Google Rep at a Best Buy. From the short demo she was kind enough to give me it looked like she was using the phone as her daily driver. The device had a nick in it on the corner from what looked like a drop but the back and the glass seemed fairly flawless to me.
The back glass is Gorilla Glass based off of the tech specs. Also one thing I'd like to note is that the FRONT of the device is NOT 2.5D, the back window is. At least nowhere near as 2.5D as the iPhone.

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