Overall love - Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact Real Life Review

Yes, yes, it's possible to love a phone. Heck, you sleep next to it, don't you? Rate this thread to indicate your love for the Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact, all things considered. A higher rating indicates that the Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact is an incredible phone that you enjoy tremendously. You love it.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!

i must say im a little annoyed the back of the phone vibrates when using speakers (music/audio), but overall happy with my purchase!

i am pretty happy with the phone. i definitely feel like i got what i paid for. performance is great. size is perfect. build feels strong. screen is plenty sharp. battery life is great. i like the design a lot more than i thought i would. i've found that i actually prefer the fiberglass to metal. all around a very functional device, even for a power user like myself.
camera is good enough. i am coming from an s8, so i know where this camera is lacking. it is not as bad as the nay-sayers are nay-saying. it's easy to get lost in the fine details coming from something like an s8, but ultimately if you care that much about photography you should be carrying a camera. the distortion mentioned elsewhere is there, but only under certain circumstance. the distortion will only be an issue if you need pictures of brick walls or checkerboards to be accurate. it is not apparent with everyday people/pet/place pictures. selfie camera is good. the wide angle on it makes selfies much easier than ever before.
i expected the speakers to be louder, based on some reviews and specs i saw, but they are definitely loud enough. the stereo sound is very clear, meaning i don't have to crank it up to hear as much. s8 was a hair louder, but sound quality was terrible on s8 (like, 'shame on you' terrible, sammy).
android O is fantastic. i call it a step in the right direction. power management seems to have taken a large step forward.
i wish the theming platform was more extensive. most of the themes only provide a wallpaper. i would like to darken the menus (like settings) to save my eyes. i have no idea why android is still defaulting to bright, bright white after all these years. bad for the eyes, and the battery.
all-around love is at a 9/10.

I give it 4 stars.. I still have the Z5C in my mind, except for that disgraceful SD810. To me, the XZ1C doesn't feel or look as good as the Z5C did. It looks bigger and heavier than I expected. The buttons are not as clicky as I wish they were. Other than that, I love it. There's nothing that comes even close to it today.

Best smartphone for me.
Fits my small hands.
Fast, not much bloatware. It feels as responsive as the first pixel phone. I'm impressed.
I'm really glad that SONY brought back the flagship phone in a compact body.
I've previously owned a Z3c, and I loved it. I then went on to a Samsung phone (GS7), and now I'm glad to be back using a SONY compact phone.
I really appreciate that SONY made key improvements over the Z3c. No more plastic flap to access the usb port, louder speakers, and better camera.
It's close to being the perfect phone, to me.

Pros
+good size
+Very good battery life
+Nice figerprint placement
+Nice screen
+Good speaker
+Nice design sim slot and sd card slot( no need paper clip)
+ Ip65/68
+ Very durable( dropped mine 2m accidently and survived)
+Love the dedicated camera button but very hard to not shake the camera when pressed
+Nicely placed nfc symbol
+Phone stays cool
+3.5mm jack
Cons:
-3.5mm jack is not loud enough
-speakeris good for music but not human voice
-microphone didn't work well in loud area
-Cant slow down vibration
-Fingerprint not always recognized
-Small electicity when charging near top
-nofm radio
-noir blaster
-noremoveable battery
-nodual sim
-notall preinstalled software can be disabled
-updateis not for everyone
-worsesignal than other flagship
-nogalileo support g8441 sg
-left and right of the screen is less sensitive(potrait mode)

After having this phone for a while I think I'm ready to do a summary.
Pros:
+Great performance, especially in 3D intensive games thanks to 720p
+Pixel density is good enough that it doesn't bother me. About the same as iPhones and the colors are very nice for a LCD panel
+Stereo speakers are balanced enough, sound pretty good. Not as loud as some other phones but loud enough for me.
+Fingerprint scanner is fast! (See cons)
+Strongest build of any phone I've owned. This thing feels indestructible even without a case.
+Looks are very subjective but I think this phone looks awesome
+Battery lasts forever, I get about 8h sot with heavy use
+Just the right size, every inch of the screen is in thumbs reach
Cons:
-Camera just doesn't cut it for a flagship. 960fps recording is next to useless, you can only record a few seconds of slow mo at a time, and the timing is very hit and miss (Seems to be a random delay sometimes). Low light performance is terrible. Now RAW support. In usual Sony fashion the camera is the worst part of the hardware.
-3D scanner is just pointless bloat.
-Fingerprint scanner is too fast. It's almost impossible to just check your lockscreen
-Sony's firmware getting dumbed down. We need double tap to wake on this phone. There was zero reason to drop this feature. The fact that core Oreo features like fingerprint gestures are missing on the first phone to launch with it kind of sucks.
-Sony's support is garbage and they talk to you like you're an idiot.
-Crippled bootloader. Sony haven't been kind with DRM this time. There isn't even a warning on their website about what this can do to your camera. I think that is unnecessarily cruel on their part.

I agree with almost everything above but about the fingerprint. If I want to check notifications but without unlocking it, u just use another finger. Very simple man...
The thing that really annoys me is that Sony still didn't fix the Smart Lock blank bug. But I'm having doubts at this point: this is probably a Google problem, since One Plus users also had this bug for months but then a Google update solved the problem...

This phone is unique. All newer phones is biger and biger and never stop to grow. Biger screens with biger consumation. Biger battery. And total uncofortable for dynamic usage. Only Sony make phone for dynamic people. Bravo!

Good small phone with some big firmware issues
A bit of history:
Nexus 4: Loved this phone and was very sad when it jumped out of my pocked and shattered on the garage floor
Galaxy S5 (Exynos): I hated this phone with a burning passion. It is huge. Touchwiz is absolutely awful. There are some good ROMs out there, but you get weird issues, (like the one ROM where the camera would crop images to a square in portrait mode), and random crashes. The final straw was when I turned off the phone at a movie (completely off, not just screen-off), and discovered that the battery had dropped from 40% to 11%, over two hours, while off. It then crashed on the homescreen, and did it's best impression of a hot-plate. That being said, it is a seriously well built, solid, indestructible phone, physically.
I immediately ordered this phone, and have had it for two weeks. I am in the US, which seems to have received the September firmware update in the third week of January. I put the latest GEL firmware on it over the weekend, which swapped some problems for others.
Xperia XZ1 Compact:
Pros:
size - it's ridiculous this is considered a "compact" phone, but it's a nice size. I read a lot of ebooks on my phone, so was a bit worried I might not like going back to a smaller phone, but I could still go smaller, if such a thing existed. I do admit, though, that the keyboard is slightly cramped in portrait orientation.
build quality - Feels solid, other than the screen - see "Mehs"
industrial design - I like the look. "It's very square," is a common comment, but I like that it's different from every other phone.
stock ROM - it's not perfect, but I feel no need to replace it. It's rather shocking that I haven't even felt the need to root it
headphone jack - missing it would probably not be a dealbreaker, but I would have looked at alternatives a lot more
firmware is close to stock
Cons:
firmware update situation - WTF Sony? (for the record, I am in the US) Since we got the September update in January, does this mean we get the October one in July?
the camera is absolutely awful. Not just bad. It's awful.
Bluetooth - streaming to a speaker works fine. Definitely some issues with control and media information with the headset in the car. GEL firmware seems to have helped a bit, and I'll try tweaking the AVRCP version in the Developer settings, like suggested in one of the posts
wifi - The US firmware has problems with things like walls, doors, windows, people and air, getting between the phone and the WAP. GEL firmware seems to have fixed all of the problems, but this should be in the released firmware.
Smartlock - oh, that's what all of the "SmartLock screen is blank" messages mean. SmartLock works fine with the US firmware. With GEL, not only is the settings screen for it blank, it doesn't work at all - not even if previously set up. That being said, I'll take wifi that stays connected when I breathe out a bit too hard, over not having to put in my pin code when I pick the phone up.
Mehs:
The screen is very mushy. It moves a lot when you press it. I thought it had to be my imagination, at first, but you can see reflected light warp around your finger when you touch the screen, if you put the phone on a stable surface. I got used to it, but it was disconcerting at first.
Bezels are not bad, could be smaller - especially wehn compared with other current phones. I've gotten used to having on-screen button again, but there is plenty of room to have them off-screen in the gap to the bottom speaker.
stock apps - these are never ideal, but they are easy to find and get rid of with ADB. Most are unobtrusive, but Facebook, and that Xperia News thing had to go
fingerprint reader - I don't use it, so I don't care much. I hear it works great if you have non-US firmware
merged storage - The build-in storage is big enough, so I don't miss it much, but it's weird that it's only accessible through adb (I hear - haven't gone looking for it, yet)
non-replaceable battery - technically, this is not good, but I have never wanted to replace the battery on a previous phone, so...
The Xperia firmware is close enough to stock that I don't feel an immediate need to replace it, or even root it. It seems that one of the reasons to stay with official firmware is the DRM-signed drivers. What are these for other than the camera? I supposed going from pixellated, mis-coloured **** for pictures to blurry, mis-coloured **** is technically a degradation, but I already wouldn't want to use the camera for anything other than a necessary snap of a car license plate.
Anyway. I like the phone. I am mostly happy with it and have no intention of retrieving the Galaxy S5 back from my son. The hardware is solid (is the camera problem HW or SW?). User experience of the software is good. My runner-up when purchasing this was the Essential PH-1, and I don't feel like I should have gone for that one instead. At least, yet. I can't recommend the XZ1-Compact 100%, but for somebody who wants a small phone, doesn't need a camera and can live with the firmware issues, it is definitely worth looking at. If you don't live in the US, or the idea of flashing your firmware doesn't freak you out, it seems that Sony releases regular updates. Hopefully in the next month or two, they can release a firmware that can do both SmarkLock and wifi, at the same time.

snwokeep said:
A bit of history:
Nexus 4: Loved this phone and was very sad when it jumped out of my pocked and shattered on the garage floor
Galaxy S5 (Exynos): I hated this phone with a burning passion. It is huge. Touchwiz is absolutely awful. There are some good ROMs out there, but you get weird issues, (like the one ROM where the camera would crop images to a square in portrait mode), and random crashes. The final straw was when I turned off the phone at a movie (completely off, not just screen-off), and discovered that the battery had dropped from 40% to 11%, over two hours, while off. It then crashed on the homescreen, and did it's best impression of a hot-plate. That being said, it is a seriously well built, solid, indestructible phone, physically.
I immediately ordered this phone, and have had it for two weeks. I am in the US, which seems to have received the September firmware update in the third week of January. I put the latest GEL firmware on it over the weekend, which swapped some problems for others.
Xperia XZ1 Compact:
Pros:
size - it's ridiculous this is considered a "compact" phone, but it's a nice size. I read a lot of ebooks on my phone, so was a bit worried I might not like going back to a smaller phone, but I could still go smaller, if such a thing existed. I do admit, though, that the keyboard is slightly cramped in portrait orientation.
build quality - Feels solid, other than the screen - see "Mehs"
industrial design - I like the look. "It's very square," is a common comment, but I like that it's different from every other phone.
stock ROM - it's not perfect, but I feel no need to replace it. It's rather shocking that I haven't even felt the need to root it
headphone jack - missing it would probably not be a dealbreaker, but I would have looked at alternatives a lot more
firmware is close to stock
Cons:
firmware update situation - WTF Sony? (for the record, I am in the US) Since we got the September update in January, does this mean we get the October one in July?
the camera is absolutely awful. Not just bad. It's awful.
Bluetooth - streaming to a speaker works fine. Definitely some issues with control and media information with the headset in the car. GEL firmware seems to have helped a bit, and I'll try tweaking the AVRCP version in the Developer settings, like suggested in one of the posts
wifi - The US firmware has problems with things like walls, doors, windows, people and air, getting between the phone and the WAP. GEL firmware seems to have fixed all of the problems, but this should be in the released firmware.
Smartlock - oh, that's what all of the "SmartLock screen is blank" messages mean. SmartLock works fine with the US firmware. With GEL, not only is the settings screen for it blank, it doesn't work at all - not even if previously set up. That being said, I'll take wifi that stays connected when I breathe out a bit too hard, over not having to put in my pin code when I pick the phone up.
Mehs:
The screen is very mushy. It moves a lot when you press it. I thought it had to be my imagination, at first, but you can see reflected light warp around your finger when you touch the screen, if you put the phone on a stable surface. I got used to it, but it was disconcerting at first.
Bezels are not bad, could be smaller - especially wehn compared with other current phones. I've gotten used to having on-screen button again, but there is plenty of room to have them off-screen in the gap to the bottom speaker.
stock apps - these are never ideal, but they are easy to find and get rid of with ADB. Most are unobtrusive, but Facebook, and that Xperia News thing had to go
fingerprint reader - I don't use it, so I don't care much. I hear it works great if you have non-US firmware
merged storage - The build-in storage is big enough, so I don't miss it much, but it's weird that it's only accessible through adb (I hear - haven't gone looking for it, yet)
non-replaceable battery - technically, this is not good, but I have never wanted to replace the battery on a previous phone, so...
The Xperia firmware is close enough to stock that I don't feel an immediate need to replace it, or even root it. It seems that one of the reasons to stay with official firmware is the DRM-signed drivers. What are these for other than the camera? I supposed going from pixellated, mis-coloured **** for pictures to blurry, mis-coloured **** is technically a degradation, but I already wouldn't want to use the camera for anything other than a necessary snap of a car license plate.
Anyway. I like the phone. I am mostly happy with it and have no intention of retrieving the Galaxy S5 back from my son. The hardware is solid (is the camera problem HW or SW?). User experience of the software is good. My runner-up when purchasing this was the Essential PH-1, and I don't feel like I should have gone for that one instead. At least, yet. I can't recommend the XZ1-Compact 100%, but for somebody who wants a small phone, doesn't need a camera and can live with the firmware issues, it is definitely worth looking at. If you don't live in the US, or the idea of flashing your firmware doesn't freak you out, it seems that Sony releases regular updates. Hopefully in the next month or two, they can release a firmware that can do both SmarkLock and wifi, at the same time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice review.
Camera problem is fixed in the new firmware. That said I've noticed that you have to keep the camera extreamly still to beable to get a good picture. Best with tripod.
I registerted an account on the Sony forum to raise the issue of firmware rollout, thinking that someone from Sony might actually read it. Both of the threads I started were deleted by the moderator as 'unhelpful'.
Smartlock is alegedly fixed in Oreo 8.1.
Thanks

Didgesteve said:
Nice review.
Camera problem is fixed in the new firmware. That said I've noticed that you have to keep the camera extreamly still to beable to get a good picture. Best with tripod.
I registerted an account on the Sony forum to raise the issue of firmware rollout, thinking that someone from Sony might actually read it. Both of the threads I started were deleted by the moderator as 'unhelpful'.
Smartlock is alegedly fixed in Oreo 8.1.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow. If this is fixed, I'm glad I didn't try the camera before I switched the firmware to the latest. If I need to carry a tripod, I may as well take the point-n-shoot, instead. I'll try some non-stock camera apps tonight during my son's soccer practice to see if I can get any improvement. Good to hear that SmartLock is coming back in 8.1. Looks like we should get it in the next month or two.

Hi there all, sorry if I post in the wrong section.
I really into this phone because only Sony that offers compact size phone nowaday. I want to go for xz2 compact but the price still high besides I really doesn't like the design of xz2 compact, so this phone is only my option or stay with my mi5 longer with awful GPS. But I want to ask before decide to go for it.
1. Is it worth buy this phone right now? Because I read some WiFi problems with the phone firmware and still no fix til now. I don't really care about gaming, I just need fast, all functional phone with compact size and good GPS performance.
2. Is it true that Sony phone especially this phone will lose the camera quality if we unlock bootloader and install root? Cause I can't live without root. I use root for some adblock and kernel tuning.
Thank you very much everyone. I'll really appreciate any answers.

Ad.1 If you buy it and have constant problems with WiFi - just replace/return it. Most of people doesn't have any problems. I had it on a few FW versions (let's say for 2-3 months) on 5GHz but it's perfectly working now. Some people could have hardware fault in their phones because their problem differ from mine and looks like FW independent.
Ad.2 If you really need root - it's not the best phone for you (and I think all Treble Android 8 phones). There are difficulties after root, you can read about it in root threads. I myself was thinking I need root, too. Because I've always had a rooted phone. But XZ1c and Android 8 are really good stuff so after a few months I've just forgot about a root. The only thing I need to let go was easy ad-blocking, but there are other moethods for this.
I'm really happy with my XZ1c and I don't see any other phone I could buy right now.

Battery life after 2 and half year
XDA_RealLifeReview said:
Yes, yes, it's possible to love a phone. Heck, you sleep next to it, don't you? Rate this thread to indicate your love for the Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact, all things considered. A higher rating indicates that the Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact is an incredible phone that you enjoy tremendously. You love it.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Impressive battery life ! 7h 30min of games or movies with some 20 percent battery or second type of using, around 60+ hours standby with some hours of calling, LTE, lot of apps... Never freezed, scuttering or something else.
From christmas 2017 of buying, until this day as primary phone/daily user, i tested battery with command adb shell dumpsys battery, take a look on photo.
Some recommendations ?

I love this xz1c since one year i have it ,good batterylife, great multitasking/photos etc, but for me who is dualshock 4 android player, it's the massive - because of high input lag over bluetooth and no otg support = no controller with otg , but it doesnt change anything of those many qualities that phone has

still my fav phone, bought some new ones but keep coming back to this phone, even to day it is a capable phone.. long live the king

I come back to say that my first xz1 compact still works after 3 years but the screen popped out ahah, insane device!!

asseforlife said:
I come back to say that my first xz1 compact still works after 3 years but the screen popped out ahah, insane device!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My Screen is popping out of the frame too. Tried different adhesives but all fails after few days. Did you try anything?

rsk_kelkar said:
Mi pantalla también se sale del marco. Probé diferentes adhesivos pero todos fallan después de unos días. ¿Intentaste algo?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ORIGINAL screen adhesive from Ebay: https://www.ebay.es/itm/254942940651

Related

General thoughts so far....

For those of you that now have this phone, what are your thoughts? I'm liking this phone more and more but do I need it, well, not really. I'm perfectly happy with my Nexus 4 running PA but there's something about this that has me wanting it. I think part of it is the fact that it's kind of the underdog. It will be exciting to see what the dev's come up with, ROM wise. Anyway, my brain is just spinning as usual, haha.
davela72 said:
For those of you that now have this phone, what are your thoughts? I'm liking this phone more and more but do I need it, well, not really. I'm perfectly happy with my Nexus 4 running PA but there's something about this that has me wanting it. I think part of it is the fact that it's kind of the underdog. It will be exciting to see what the dev's come up with, ROM wise. Anyway, my brain is just spinning as usual, haha.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm coming from a sony X10 but the oppo find 5 is working good, I had no dead pixels everything worked out of the box.
I have some problems with contact syncing and gmail updates. Photographs are beautiful, but HDR is not really good on dark spots. (lots of noise because of ISO value's)
I did not wanted the nexus 4 because of the glass back. But I think I would also be happy with the nexus 4. But it is overpriced in the Netherlands, my oppo is cheaper then the nexus 4.
It is super fast compared to my X10. No idea how fast the nexus 4 is.
I think you can better donate some money to charity instead of buying yet another high-end phone
nice
previous phone: HTC Sensation
+ Display: WOW! youtube trailer in HD and people start peeping their eyes out!
+ Sound: I never heard a phone playing it sounds like this
+ Speed: I changed the default (ugly) launcher to APEX, this give's the phone a better feel
+ Camera: Although my previous phone was already 2 year old hence i cannot compare it to recent in-phone-camera's it looks great
+ Desgin: It is sharp but not too sharp edged, it's light and thin. the phone is big in size but because its slim dimensions you will not notice it in your jeans (unless you wear skinny jeans i guess, but who does that )
- Temperature when under load, i feel the device is getting pretty warm, your hands start being sweatty.
- Stock UI
Display
Simply Amazing. Bright & Crisp.
However, the screen responsiveness to your touch isn't very good. I find myself having to tap many things twice or three times to get it registered.​Battery
Terrible. It seems to be draining even while sleeping.
My usual morning routine, I unplugged the phone from the charger. It's charged to 100% over night. I do a few light tasks like replying to text messages, flipping through Flipboard, see one 30 sec YouTube video, brightness setting at 50%.
After 20 minutes of usage, my battery gotten down from 100% to 78%.​Speaker
Nice and loud. Best, I have ever heard. But, when you lay it on its back, the speaker will be completely muffled.​Camera
Sucks. 13MP only in spirit. Colors are over saturated. And, the balance isn't there. Lots of graininess in images, even in ample light. Also, don't use the LED flash. Your pictures will be almost all blown white. Absolutely no setting like macro, scene mode, white balance, panaroma, etc.. Just point and shoot and hope for the best...and often times, it isn't.
My 8MP Nexus and 5MP iPad Mini can take picture and video much better.​Stock Launcher
The widgets are fugly. Period.​Build Quality
Strong like my unibody Macbook Pro. However, the power and volume rockers shifts around. The micro USB port is weak. I feel like I'm gonna break that port anytime soon.​Software
Random reboots at least twice or three times a day. No idea why. I feel like I'm using Windows 95 all over again. Oh, and Gmail doesn't open up. Yeah, seriously, Gmail DOES NOT work on this phone. I have to use the other mail app instead. Latest firmware & Gmail update.
Software is actually 4.1, not 4.2. Coming from Nexus 4, that was a let down. I miss the swype style keyboard on 4.2.​ROM
Currently, as of late March, no ROMs​Side Note
USB wall charger & headphones look EXACTLY like the ones for iPhones. Apple will be calling them soon, if not already.​
Conclusion
Beauty & the Beast.......okay, maybe just the Beauty and not much else.​
Interesting perspective, thanks for sharing. Hopefully a lot of these things can be fixed with future updates. What's the deal with the Gmail not working and is this something that OPPO is aware of?
I really am happy with the phone. Looks great and stands out in the crowd. Screen is fabulous. It's a new kid on the block, so there are a few things that are not quite there yet. But it seems Oppo are really working hard to make a proper go at this. So far weekly updates and regular fixes. I attached a simple benchmark to give you an idea of the spec. I'm sure there are better performers out there, but it seems to hold it's own!
It seems that my take is a lot different than other peoples on the board, or maybe I got really lucky and got the perfect unit, My Droid DNA is in my drawer and my Oppo Find 5 is sitting on my coffee table right now. All I have to say is wow I am really quite surprised with the device, and I have a Droid DNA now, and my previous device was HTC One X International Version. So I have saw some very nice displays lately, and the Oppo Find 5 is right up there with the best of them, it handles its own. The only fault was that I got my Oppo Find 5 with 1 stuck pixel, you don't even notice it only if you look for it when it’s on the black part while its booting up, once the screen comes on you can’t even see it.
+ Display is really NICE! 1 pixel stuck, on par with Droid DNA SLCD3 and just as bright so you don't have to turn it up that far and waste battery.
+ Build Quality I can’t say enough about this, this thing feels like I could Drop it off the roof and it would last.
+ The All black front display looks so good just as nice or better than the One X, and it has that nice curve in the glass that makes it nice to use.
+ I haven't tried the stock ear buds, but with my Sony ear buds, this thing sounds great, no distortion at all, with bass high, all amps sound good.
+ The stock speaker is also a pleasant surprise, it sounds really good at high volume levels also, when set right, no distortion and it gets loud
+ I stuck with the default launcher to give it a try and it is pretty smooth, has a really nice settings layout. I may switch, it reminds me of MIUI
+ The camera is just as good as my HTC DNA, I don't remember which review said it was about like about like an 8MP LG, It shots fine pictures.
+ The white matte finish does not leave any fingerprints and the screen must have that stuff to keep fingerprints off it also, it barley gets fingerprints
+ I have ran plenty of benchmarks and my unit did not get hot at all as someone said, maybe I wasn't holding it where it was getting hot at on their device?
+ The complete design is what really shines on this phone on the outside, it looks so sleek, and I have already caught people glancing and looking at it, and I have only owned it for one day, if that says anything at all?
+ or - Don't know enough about battery life yet but so far mine seems to be holding up better today, now that it is on its second charge, With a full HD Display you have got to know how to manage your battery, turn things off that you are not using at the time, it worked on my One X and that thing was a nightmare. On my One X I also disabled all my apps that I didn't ever use. At least until we get Roms that will take out all the bloat junk. Today my battery is doing really well almost 2 hours screen time and 76% left.
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-- I would have to say that the launcher would have been better stock, but I like trying new things out. I really hope Paranoid Android comes to this phone that will be my rom of choice. I already know CM and MIUI are coming soon.
-- The Ugly widgets, Oppo have so many better widgets on their other phones (Oppo Finder, Oppo Way, Oppo 3?) all those widgets look better IMO. I wish I could replace them somehow by switching APKs; maybe someone knows how and could let me know?
-- Contrast I like the over saturated look we have a developer that is working on a kernel or app to set your display just how you like it, at least I think so anyway?- hopefully we can get this fixed soon I know it’s being worked on by paperweistage and his kernel hopefully he gets it figures out, but if you want to help he is looking for some help in his kernel thread, He is looking for JDI Display white-sheets. So help out if you can
And support our developer, that’s how we eventually get more custom Kernel Roms and Apps. Donate to them a couple dollars for a cold one or a coffee.
-- or + It is a little bit on the heavy side but look how it’s made! Some could call this a negative but I left it neutral because it is well balanced and with a full metal frame inside around it, I don't really mind it weighing 20 extra grams, at least hopefully my phone won’t shatter into a thousand pieces if it falls on the ground.
Add more later after I use it awhile longer.
Stock Find 5 Score
[/IMG]
BELOW MY DROID DNA with a custom kernel, once we get a custom kernel for the Find 5, I think it will do better than the DNA I couldn't get the scores I'm getting with the Find 5 with my DNA when it was stock maybe 18900 or 19500.
[/IMG]
[/IMG]
drvsbsm, awesome review! I was checking the OPPO forums earlier and was really getting mixed thoughts on the phone. I know this phone is new and things are just getting started and I think that is some of what's driving me to it. I remember when the Nokia N9 came out with it's Hartmann/Meego OS, I fell in love with that thing and it was pretty much a dead platform when released. It looks like OPPO is keeping up with bug fixes and putting out updates so that's a good sign. Most of all though, I think the thing is SEXY, a beautiful device.
I'm guessing the vendor on Amazon is the place to get it from, the one located in HK?
Thanks again guys!
Very , very good rewiew !
knite75 said:
Display
Simply Amazing​Battery
Terrible. It seems to be draining even while sleeping​Speaker
Nice and loud.​Camera
Sucks. My 8MP Nexus and 5MP iPad Mini can take picture and video much better. Absolutely no setting like scene mode, white balance, panaroma, etc in stock camera app​Stock Launcher
The widgets are fugly. Period.​Build Quality
Strong like my unibody Macbook Pro. However, the power and volume rockers shifts around. The micro USB port is weak. I feel like I'm gonna break that port anytime soon.​Software
Random reboots at least twice or three times a day. No idea why. I feel like I'm using Windows 95 all over again. Oh, and Gmail doesn't open up. Yeah, seriously, Gmail DOES NOT work on this phone. I have to use the other mail app instead.​ROM
Currently, as of late March, no ROMs​Side Note
USB wall charger & headphones look EXACTLY like the ones for iPhones. Apple will be calling them soon, if not already.​
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1...... The good think is that the almost everything can be repaired (soft related )
Video camera isn't that very good.
Video is okay if the subject stands still. However, when subject runs or any fast moments, then video gets blurry or ghosting.
For example, here's a video of my daughter at her Taekwondo practice. Notice how she gets blurry when she starts running?
http://youtu.be/ln_2YvN6f78
knite75 said:
Video camera isn't that very good.
Video is okay if the subject stands still. However, when subject runs or any fast moments, then video gets blurry or ghosting.
For example, here's a video of my daughter at her Taekwondo practice. Notice how she gets blurry when she starts running?
http://youtu.be/ln_2YvN6f78
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hopefully this will be addressed as OPPO is releasing an update within a few days for camera related issues.
I have a question about the screen durability. I read somewhere, maybe GSMArena, that the screen rippled very easily and was a bit flexible. That sounds very concerning. I've also heard a few things about poor touchscreen response. This may also be hardware only problem that can't be fixed with any updates.
A lot of these smaller phone makers can just buy off the shelf parts (figuratively) and bulid their own phone. They don't need to develop their own hardware components, just how everything fits together and the overall design. The camera is an Exmor RS from Sony, and the screen is probably a 1080p panel from Sharp. Of course the processor is Qualcomm.
The biggest problem these small relatively no name companies face is the software. It's the brains that makes the smartphone smart, and having a small and inexperienced team, especially while trying to make your own skin, can lead to many shortcomings, from bugs to performance issues to compatibility to poor hardware utilization and battery life. A lot of this stuff even the big boys have trouble with and they have far bigger teams with far more experience. Oppo should go the route that BLU is taking in the future. BLU has a really horrible skin, allegedly, and unstable and buggy phones, but they are supposedly putting stock Android on their new Life series line of phones.
From what I've gathered, the screen is made by JDI?
katamari201 said:
I have a question about the screen durability. I read somewhere, maybe GSMArena, that the screen rippled very easily and was a bit flexible. That sounds very concerning. I've also heard a few things about poor touchscreen response. This may also be hardware only problem that can't be fixed with any updates.
A lot of these smaller phone makers can just buy off the shelf parts (figuratively) and bulid their own phone. They don't need to develop their own hardware components, just how everything fits together and the overall design. The camera is an Exmor RS from Sony, and the screen is probably a 1080p panel from Sharp. Of course the processor is Qualcomm.
The biggest problem these small relatively no name companies face is the software. It's the brains that makes the smartphone smart, and having a small and inexperienced team, especially while trying to make your own skin, can lead to many shortcomings, from bugs to performance issues to compatibility to poor hardware utilization and battery life. A lot of this stuff even the big boys have trouble with and they have far bigger teams with far more experience. Oppo should go the route that BLU is taking in the future. BLU has a really horrible skin, allegedly, and unstable and buggy phones, but they are supposedly putting stock Android on their new Life series line of phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The screen is from JDI. seems pretty sturdy to me. They seem to be keeping on top of things. But they have a very good reputation in the high end Av community. It's also not their 1st phone. Just their first soiree in the international market.
I have had my Find 5 for more than a week now sans screen protector. Unfortunately, there are lots of micro scratches already. And, I'm very conscious about where I put and use my phone.
Same practice, my Nexus 4 fair much better even after six months of usage.
All in all, have screen protector or don't have too long of finger nails.
katamari201 said:
I have a question about the screen durability. I read somewhere, maybe GSMArena, that the screen rippled very easily and was a bit flexible. That sounds very concerning. I've also heard a few things about poor touchscreen response. This may also be hardware only problem that can't be fixed with any updates.
A lot of these smaller phone makers can just buy off the shelf parts (figuratively) and bulid their own phone. They don't need to develop their own hardware components, just how everything fits together and the overall design. The camera is an Exmor RS from Sony, and the screen is probably a 1080p panel from Sharp. Of course the processor is Qualcomm.
The biggest problem these small relatively no name companies face is the software. It's the brains that makes the smartphone smart, and having a small and inexperienced team, especially while trying to make your own skin, can lead to many shortcomings, from bugs to performance issues to compatibility to poor hardware utilization and battery life. A lot of this stuff even the big boys have trouble with and they have far bigger teams with far more experience. Oppo should go the route that BLU is taking in the future. BLU has a really horrible skin, allegedly, and unstable and buggy phones, but they are supposedly putting stock Android on their new Life series line of phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
New firmware 328,it has camera fixes...
No marked improvement or fixes to camera with latest firmware.
Just new feature: panorama.
Oppo should focus on fixing all the basic camera problems, rather than, adding gimmick useless feature.
knite75 said:
No marked improvement or fixes to camera with latest firmware.
Just new feature: panorama.
Oppo should focus on fixing all the basic camera problems, rather than, adding gimmick useless feature.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow knite please get back to your iphone.
They tweaked a bit around with the iso settings. But not something really spectaculair.
At least they did something. Most companies will be like :"DEAL WITH IT!"
Haas8 said:
Wow knite please get back to your iphone.
They tweaked a bit around with the iso settings. But not something really spectaculair.
At least they did something. Most companies will be like :"DEAL WITH IT!"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most company would release software when it's ready and in decent condition for general public consumption... Not beta....or alpha in this case.
Check the camera... Aside from poor image quality.... Do see any basic features like:
Macro
White Balance
Scene Mode
As a matter of fact, on Oppo forums, lots of threads and discussion on how poor the pictures and video are turning out... Oppo just ignore them...basically, saying "DEAL WITH IT!"
Instead, they spent their finite limited development resources in adding useless Panorama feature. When is the last time you took a panorama picture, aside from just wanting to see how it works?
I took a panorama earlier at dinner actually. I did the update out of the box and didn't know it added that so that's cool lol.
Sent from my X909 using xda premium

I have to say this is the best phone I've ever owned.

Obviously relative to the time I loved my 3210 and 3310 but you cannot say they're better phones than what we have today. I thought I wasn't going to buy this because of the screen protector thing, however I needed a new phone because I sold my Windows Phone as that OS is just plain bad. I ended up going for this phone in the end because I hate big phones and it finally felt like Android got its iPhone... a normal sized flagship. I've avoided the mini versions in the past as they're always the poor peoples phone, for some reason OEMs see smaller phones as this? However this phone really makes no compromises.
I love the size, love the speed, love the fact Sony don't do a Touchwiz, the construction is so solid and nice, the camera is great, the screen is great etc. It is such an amazing phone to fit in this size, which next to my iPhone 5c it is barely any bigger. What has amazed me though is I'm getting 4 days on a single charge, I'm not a heavy user, I used to get 2 days on my HTC One, but my Windows Phone only lasted a day and this one is thrashing them all. I'm currently on 70% at 1 day 19 hours, those battery saver things built in really work.
I have to wonder if wanting higher and higher resolution screens is worthwhile, I don't miss the 1080p screen of my HTC One, I didn't miss it with my Windows Phone which was 720p, I don't miss it with this one either. I use my iPhone (which I own because IOS has the best games) and that is even lower res and I just don't care it looks good enough. I don't miss not having 460ppi or whatever the HTC One was, I cannot see a pixel on the screen of this phone or my iPhone, I don't look at my phone with a magnifying glass.
My only gripe is I wish they used the bottom bit for capacitative touch buttons.
Really great phone I'd recommend it to any one, maybe people can pick faults with it, I dunno I can pick faults with every phone I've ever used, at some point you just have to accept there is no perfect phone. The HTC One went on about the front stereo speakers, only they weren't great quality, weren't loud after the updates that toned them down because they would crackle at high volumes, the camera sucked, it was impossible to repair. The 1020, the camera was over rated, it would take 4 seconds between shots, have lots of noise, the battery would barely last a day, Windows Phone sucked. I could go on and on but I think so far the Z1 Compact is the best all rounder I've owned and definitely the best normal sized phoned that you can actually fit in your pocket comfortably.
I have to agree, love this phone so far. Before buying the phone, I was a little apprehensive due to various complaints on this forum about touchscreen, slow to wake, etc. But after 9 days without a reboot, I have yet to experience any bugs. Performance is lightning fast, Sony 4.3 ROM is very stable, and the size is almost perfect (would prefer even smaller, but I don't expect anything smaller with similar performance anytime soon).
Venekor said:
My only gripe is I wish they used the bottom bit for capacitative touch buttons..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^^^^ THIS! There is plenty of room on the bottom bezel for the buttons, and that would get more usable screen area back. But that's a minor complaint for an otherwise superb phone.
I've not got bugs on 4.3, I just don't get why people want to be on the latest version all the time, I've been on Kitkat with my HTC One and never noticed a difference...
I like the apps that keep the on screen buttons but make them opaque and get rid of the black bar, it means you don't really notice them and you feel like you're getting the whole screen. I still don't get why there is a big unused Bezel there, maybe that didn't have the space and it is a tight fit in there?
The other thing I don't get is you can easily remove the back cover and it is a bit like a Galaxy phone in there, the internals are covered by plastic, you can get the battery out quite easily and it is easy to repair. They should have just made it into a battery cover instead of giving them impression the battery cannot be replaced.
Still it is nice that you can open it up so easily.
I agree...best phone I ve ever used
Sure is best!. I have 4.4.2 rom now and it rox
Send from my Z1C using tapatalk
First of all sorry on my english
Bezel on the end of phone is probably place where you holding hands when you play games or watching movies
a title?
sorry for my poor English
I like its size and the appearance and no shrinkage to Z1.
Im worry that few people choose this phone here(they often appreciate big ones)and it appears few roms. My last phone was Moto me525 defy, it could use dozens of roms.
Finally I would complain that the forum here is not so friendly as in my country.
11 numbers! are needed, I was used none or 6 numbers when you submit frequently.
Love the dimensions and specs of this phone as well.
But I am still not a fan of Android coming from Nokia's Meego Harmattan.
If the Sailfish OS port ever comes (bug free), this would be my perfect phone.
I completely agree. I came from a Find 5, which is nice in its own right, and this phone is just ridiculously good. I left it stock for about 5 minutes before rooting and unlocking, and have not looked back. I have had no issues thus far with KK (the slightly modded version from munjeni), and the performance / battery and build quality is superb. I haven't messed with BT or camera much yet, but getting a few little things like the softkeys out of the way is about all I needed to make this my perfect phone.
:good:
Venekor said:
I've not got bugs on 4.3, I just don't get why people want to be on the latest version all the time, I've been on Kitkat with my HTC One and never noticed a difference...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google does not leave an update/work for nothing uh... If you do not see the differences, is that your usage is too basic to see (e.g., UI improvements...).
Btw, I always used Xperia smartphones and this is the best phone I've ever owned too!
couldn't agree anymore with you! this is my favorite phone too, and i just love it! all other "mini" smartphones either need a large batteri or have little internal memory or something else. this phone is a beast and have it all!
I agree 100% that this is the best phone I have to date. For a compact phone, the specs alone was a winner and has proven to be in it's performance. It's by no means a mini when it comes to resources. Superb processing and battery power and proprietary Sony battery usage software which I don't even have to use, lol.
I appreciate that Sony doesn't have to be out there marketing wise like Samsung and elegantly meet and surpass their performance. Water proof, dust proof, no biggie full LTE support no limitations except maybe finger print reader (like they even use it). I have owned Samsung s2 to s4, even their minis. Ironically I loved the s2
I am soo happy I have jumped ship and look forward to continued Sony development.
sllik said:
Love the dimensions and specs of this phone as well.
But I am still not a fan of Android coming from Nokia's Meego Harmattan.
If the Sailfish OS port ever comes (bug free), this would be my perfect phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes sailfish os on the z1c would it make perfect.

Z2 Worst smart phone?

Out of all the smart phones I have owned since 2009, my experience with the Z2 has probably been the worst. On paper, the phone looks good. Nice big screen, good battery life, nice camera and water and dust proof to boot. In my mind, it beat all of the competitors at the time. The big problem I have found is the terrible software.
Sony seems to be clueless. Each new build introduced new bugs and didn't squash the old ones. Since Lollipop I have had issues with the screen not locking properly. The phone was constantly unlocking itself in my pocket and pocket dialling my contacts. I had to disable tap to unlock and this stopped that but still the phone wont always lock properly. I will have read a text say, close the application and lock the phone. The screen goes dark but a press of the button and it's unlocked again. No swipe of the screen. When you lock it, it should be locked. Typing out texts, sometimes it will freeze for a moment, then catch up with what I typed. I'm not fast at typing or anything. In fact I'm pretty rubbish lol.
The camera isn't great by any means. My old S3 was just as good and took better low light images. I don't think I will ever get a Sony again. It's a shame as my k700i was a great old phone.
Is it just me or does anyone else have issues with the Z2's dodgy software?
I am satisfied except camera performance.
@5nakedoc , i think it's just you...
I never had the phone unlock by itself, never had a pocket call and never disabled tap to unlock either...
Go to settings --> security --> automatically lock --> choose immediately and it should solve the problem of phone not locking right away when you press power button.
Lags? if you have lags the problem is on your side for sure, i have 55gb of stuff on my phone and i run my cpu at 1.5ghz max most of the time, no lags here.
I never used sony keyboard maybe it has bugs, i use swype in all my android phones, zero lag typing on my z2.
About camera...yeah auto mode sucks, manual mode is better, but camera fv-5 is what does the trick for me. Just try other camera apps...
I would hate to know what you think about the rest of the phone as you said the camera is one of your favourite features :/
5nakedoc said:
Build quality
Waterproofing
Noise Cancelling
Large friendly screen
Free Speaker!!!
Magnetic charging dock
Quality Sony case
Two stage camera button
Camera
AR app
Background Blur app
The banana dispenser
OK I lied about the last one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk
I don't think an awful lot of it. The software bugs are annoying. That post was just after I got it and before the worst of the bugs began to plague me. Plus the expensive case I bought from Sony direct, failed on two corners and is completely useless now. (Not dropped ever) I think I mentioned that the problems really only started when they updated to Lollipop.
I was unable to locate the setting mentioned above, perhaps you are not running the most recent software but it wasn't where you described or anywhere else that I looked within settings.
Lags may be down to the sheer number of texts I have from that contact. I suspect they number in the thousands. I might try a factory reset when I have an evening spare and see if this helps. I do feel a little sentimental about those texts though but they are backed up to google.
Nope i have not seen any single problm except battery
to me the performance is still a issues even in lollipop update , dont know whether it was android fault or not , i need to restart each 2 days since i can see framedrop which is pretty annoying . Kinda agree , the update also lower the loudness of the speaker , camerawise their superior auto is pretty bad hmm. and my screen sometimes become crazy i dont know before this i dont have this problem i have own z2 since june 2014 , and the problems appear like 2-3 months ago until now.
5nakedoc said:
The phone was constantly unlocking itself in my pocket and pocket dialling my contacts. I had to disable tap to unlock and this stopped that but still the phone wont always lock properly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How about you turn the phone screen away from your body when you place it in your pocket?
Android version
muhammadnajmi96 said:
to me the performance is still a issues even in lollipop update , dont know whether it was android fault or not , i need to restart each 2 days since i can see framedrop which is pretty annoying . Kinda agree , the update also lower the loudness of the speaker , camerawise their superior auto is pretty bad hmm. and my screen sometimes become crazy i dont know before this i dont have this problem i have own z2 since june 2014 , and the problems appear like 2-3 months ago until now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Najmi,I'm currently running version 5.1.1,i dont have encountered any issues with this version,I'd like to ask at what android version did you start to have these problems?Thank you
Maybe you should try asking for solutions to each of your problems. I don't like Lollipop either. Its been crap on all but nexus phones. Have you the S5? It became a bugs galore with Lollipop. Every non-nexus smartphone had the awake problem and extended power consumption.
I would advise you to go back to KK. Its bug-free.
About the camera, I tried indoor image comparison between both phones in auto-mode (I just got both phones and didnt get the time to properly compare the cameras) and the Z2 was clearly better indoors without lighting. Macros and close shots were also better on Z2. Later on I learnt about the Night Scene Mode in Manual mode. No phone could match Z2 at the time. There was a lot of noise but the pictures had more details than what was visible through the naked eyes. Nowadays phones with manual mode can shoot the same type of photos. But comparing the phones that came with Z2 it was the best.
Oh and I used to get 8 hours SoT in KK in 2 days without any root or such thing.
5nakedoc, I regret being in complete disagreement with you. For me, the Z2 has been one of my most appreciated phones. I bought it with Android 4.1.2 and have been updated since then until 4.4.4. I have not kept updating it more because I have a very useful app to my health insurance does not work with Lollipop.
Certainly, I recognize that the lock-release of Lollipop do not like as much as Kit Kat, but with a Xposed framework and modules in kit kat, I have a super performance, without any problem to lock-unlock, even removing the button emergency call and also the one of the camera.
The Stamina mode gives me an excellent performance during the day, coming to the end of the day with an average of 50-70% of battery, using whatsapp usually.
Also the wifi mode based on location works well, etc.
The camera fully satisfy me, and with an optical zoom could be the summum
What else can I want from a phone?
Perhaps you must keep in Kit kat and forget Lollipop experiences. I think there's most stable with old android versions.
5nakedoc said:
The camera isn't great by any means. My old S3 was just as good and took better low light images.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You dont know to use camera for sure.Look at my pictures from Z2 on my flickr account and you will see how camera is really good.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/
The Sony Xperia™ Z2 is one awesome device. If it has cons, it would be the speakers, I guess. But that's all. I've been using it since June 2014 and NEVER got those same problems with you.
Get your phone checked instead of coming here and blabbing about how bad it is.
androidforlyfe said:
Hi Najmi,I'm currently running version 5.1.1,i dont have encountered any issues with this version,I'd like to ask at what android version did you start to have these problems?Thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since Lollipop of course. Latest one also. Fresh install including formatting both internal and external storage. You should compared kitkat and lollipop. That's why I revert back to Kitkat which give me better battery life and louder speaker.
Totally disagree
5nakedoc said:
Out of all the smart phones I have owned since 2009, my experience with the Z2 has probably been the worst. On paper, the phone looks good. Nice big screen, good battery life, nice camera and water and dust proof to boot. In my mind, it beat all of the competitors at the time. The big problem I have found is the terrible software.
Sony seems to be clueless. Each new build introduced new bugs and didn't squash the old ones. Since Lollipop I have had issues with the screen not locking properly. The phone was constantly unlocking itself in my pocket and pocket dialling my contacts. I had to disable tap to unlock and this stopped that but still the phone wont always lock properly. I will have read a text say, close the application and lock the phone. The screen goes dark but a press of the button and it's unlocked again. No swipe of the screen. When you lock it, it should be locked. Typing out texts, sometimes it will freeze for a moment, then catch up with what I typed. I'm not fast at typing or anything. In fact I'm pretty rubbish lol.
The camera isn't great by any means. My old S3 was just as good and took better low light images. I don't think I will ever get a Sony again. It's a shame as my k700i was a great old phone.
Is it just me or does anyone else have issues with the Z2's dodgy software?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The ONLY thing you have proven with your attitude is that old saying ...
"You can't please ALL the people ALL the time."
Aside from being a techie with over 35 years of computer and phone skills, I've been through dozens of smartphones from the original iPhone to my current Sony Z2. I've RARELY kept any of them for more than 6 months. I've jailbroken or rooted every single one of them (except a Sharp which nobody has been able to root).
IMHO, the Sony Z2 is THE BEST smartphone I've ever carried. I'm NOT saying it's perfect. None of them are perfect. However, having carried and compared Apple, HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sharp smartphones, I believe that the Sony Z2 has the BEST screen image quality, color accuracy and camera (excluding the Z5). The photos I've captured with my Z2 are so good, I no longer haul around my expensive Hasselblad equipment when I travel. I've blown up my Sony pics and turned them into life-size pieces of artwork. No other smartphone lets you turn it sideways and keep it charged in a magnetic $4 cradle. Very few smartphones since the original Nexus have the ability to program the notification light with different colors. It even feels like a quality device, not a plastic toy.
Sony has been one of the very few manufacturers that embraces developers like the ones on XDA,
instead of trying to stop us from rooting and customizing our phones.
I'm sorry that you don't have the abilities or desire to resolve your Z2 software dislikes.
I'm currently running Mx ROM V7.70 which has Android 5.1.1 plus lots of Z5 apps
and am not having ANY problems with it. Only complaint are 2 apps he adds which I uninstalled.
I'm so happy with my Z2, I'm even passing up the new Z5 (for now anyway) and may keep my Z2 for a second year.
Glenn
P.S. I also have a Sony Smartwatch 3 and am loving how Google keeps improving Android Wear.
Nexus 7 / Sony Z2 / Teclast X98 Air 3G / iPhone 2S
Yea the z2 is by far my favourite smart phone ever. It may have some minor issues here and there, but all in all, it really is a solid device. I've had it for a year and a half now, and I still don't see any devices that I could justify upgrading to (with the exception of the z3, z4, z5). Every other manufacturer would have some sort of drawback in some way. My z2 does everything I need plus more.
Bull Sh*t. Z2 is one of the best phones. If you compare it with Z3 I think design wise Z3 maybe good but other than that I think Z2 is an amazing device.
Display, Battery Life, Software, everything is perfect. Yes Lollipop actually made the phone to die fast. It's all because of the "Mobile Radio Active bug"
If you talk about Camera it all comes to personal experience. I agree it doesn't do well on Superior Auto mode but it does a great job if you tweak the manual mode and you need to know the stuff you're dealing with.
Then again I think Sony kinda ruined HDR mode but I am okay with it.
I can't use single phone for a good year, I upgrade fast, dude this phone I am using for 2 freaking years now. I am more than happy and I'm actually not pleased with any of the phones which was released this year(maybe because of SD810). @Authi it was released with 4.4.2 not 4.1.2
This phone is awesome are you kidding. My only issue is people are always asking what kind of fancy phone that is. Noone in the US even has any idea that Sony even makes phones even though they like the look of it. This is exactly why Sony is losing money because of no marketing presence.
mrsatan said:
This phone is awesome are you kidding. My only issue is people are always asking what kind of fancy phone that is. Noone in the US even has any idea that Sony even makes phones even though they like the look of it. This is exactly why Sony is losing money because of no marketing presence.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly. Anyone with an interest in phones that has seen my z2, loves it. Even people I know who don't have an interest, when they see all the pros of it, they still comment asking what kind of phone it is. I've said it from day one. Sony makes an incredible device, it's just that nobody knows about them (in North America at least).
5nakedoc said:
Out of all the smart phones I have owned since 2009, my experience with the Z2 has probably been the worst. On paper, the phone looks good. Nice big screen, good battery life, nice camera and water and dust proof to boot. In my mind, it beat all of the competitors at the time. The big problem I have found is the terrible software.
Sony seems to be clueless. Each new build introduced new bugs and didn't squash the old ones. Since Lollipop I have had issues with the screen not locking properly. The phone was constantly unlocking itself in my pocket and pocket dialling my contacts. I had to disable tap to unlock and this stopped that but still the phone wont always lock properly. I will have read a text say, close the application and lock the phone. The screen goes dark but a press of the button and it's unlocked again. No swipe of the screen. When you lock it, it should be locked. Typing out texts, sometimes it will freeze for a moment, then catch up with what I typed. I'm not fast at typing or anything. In fact I'm pretty rubbish lol.
The camera isn't great by any means. My old S3 was just as good and took better low light images. I don't think I will ever get a Sony again. It's a shame as my k700i was a great old phone.
Is it just me or does anyone else have issues with the Z2's dodgy software?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have owned a Galaxy S3 before my XPERIA Z2 (and before the Galaxy S3 I owned the x10i). The Samsung phone (not a fanboy of Sony here) was my worst phone EVER. It was faster than my XPERIA x10i, yeah, but I can't relate to anything you say. My XPERIA has NEVER unlocked out of nothing, even with tap to unlock (I know this feature can cause automatic unlocks in your pockets for example). My camera is much and much better than the Galaxy S3. Battery life is also much better. My S3 couldn't hold out a full day, my XPERIA can reach up to 2 days. Freezing? Well it never freezed here only by a faulty third party app.
And you're saying the phone is full of new bugs each update? Which bugs? I haven't seen any major bugs, only on that crappy slow Galaxy, which was freezing all the time because of the heavy Touchwiz software that was running. Okay, I'm exaggerating with all the time, but you know how frustrating it is since your XPERIA has been freezing too. But I haven't experienced one of the problems you describe, my girlfriend owns the XPERIA Z2 too, and she hasn't experienced it too.
I think the source of the problems is you and not the phone and the software that is pre-installed on the phone. Don't take this as a personal attack, because it isn't one.
Cheers.

A Month with the Mix

Currently using it with Nova launcher and stock everything else.
The good:
- The awesome monitor to body ratio is still as amazing as it was the first time I see it, especially when game such as Alto's Adventure allows full screen immersion mode.
- Extremely high build quality, not only does the ceramic feel awesome and polished (feels like glass but smoother), the weight that it adds makes the whole phone feel extremely premium.
- Speaker is surprisingly good, and internal amp drives my full sized Audeze EL8 without any issue.
- Quick charge is as useful as expected
- Extremely quick finger print reading
- Some surprisingly good features, for example the notification bar when dragged down includes weather immediately. Also a great feature to have the battery show as a bar on top rather than an icon.
- Very useful alarm clock apps, sure it's not Sleep. But it has the option to only do alarm in all work days. Meaning it automatic turn off for red day public holiday.
The bad:
- Going into full immersion mode can be troublesome for keyboard. You have to hold your phone lower to get used to the keyboard location.
- Not able to change the default search bar in the notification bar, seriously this would have been so awesome if the default is google.
- Listening call still feels weird at times.
- Google play occasionally crash.
Camera:
Below is the album that I have uploaded from daily shots and from a trip. Without edit and with native app.
http://imgur.com/a/R7cIo
One word: Unreliable.
Good:
Very fast focus and exposure adjustment.
Good selection of modes and with internal filter if you are into this sort of things
Fun to use for selfie, there's a scoring system and guessing age/gender which often leads to laughter (but it is surprisingly accurate)
imo very good HDR mode, with only slightly overexposing the high light.
Bad:
occasionally it set pretty poor exposure values (too high shutter and lead to high ISO etc)
Poor sharpness. Could be the over aggressive noise cancelling.
Some lag after pressing shutter
Poor flair control
Colour is a hit or miss, occasionally very bad colour control (you can see it from the airplane flight shot, the sky is no where that blue)
Final words:
How long has it been that you see a phone with something special? Every phone is only slightly better spec, or different size, there's nothing groundbreaking. Smartphone market almost feel boring in the past 2 to 3 years.
Then come this phone, brave enough not only to include a bezeless monitor, but also put in a high end spec with a ceramic build.
if you are looking for something special, right now in the world, there is only this one phone with all these features, at a price tag that is not outrageous.
lyI agree with most of what you're saying. Major exception, for me, is the fingerprint reader: Works fine for an hour or so, then simple stops reading after that. Diagnosis (* # * # 64663 # * # *) reports it's fine. Have restored system, flashed developer ROM (didn't like it) then returned to China stable, with same results. I have not unlocked the BL, and with nougat on the horizon, it appears, for the first time in many years, I won't have a rooted phone boo-hoo).
I updated to China stable 8.0.12.0 just last night. Supposedly camera improvements (among others), so we'll see on that front.
Love the phone, the size is impressive (big/small) and the overall concept.
I'm loving the phone so far. Although it does have one big 'issue' which is the screen flashing red as I lock the phone, but it only seems to happen when the screen has white pixels.
Examples: http://imgur.com/a/jclHi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3C8j1o4-SE
Anybody else able to replicate this problem?
Apart from that problem though, everything is fantastic. Phone is incredibly fast (I have the 4GB model), it held GTA San Andreas, Torque Burnout, CarX Drift AND GTA Vice City all in memory! Seriously impressive stuff. Phone is very snappy, and very large, but it is very easy to get used to, I held and iPhone 4 the other day and I swear it could have fit into my Mix twice!
Camera is okay with the default app, I have since downloaded Snap Camera which makes the pictures much better and has lots more options. However, I'm not really very 'into' taking pictures with my phone, so my advice is probably lost anyway.
Had it close to five weeks now.
I forgot to point this out when I got it, but the finish on this thing is nothing short of predominant! (Nods to Michael Scott fans). But seriously, just wow.
I have been pretty fortunate with all my prior devices. The one fault I can think of, is that my Z1 has a singel bright pixel. Admittedly, my old TyTn did die after being exposed to the harshness of laying on my desk for a month when I brought a burner to the far east. A slap in the face when service said it had water damage (yaahh, from the high humidity we always experience up north ) which they supposedly had pictures of (they didn't). Wanted me to pay for shipping and service fees to return my dud. Needless to say, I swallowed the guys behind the counter whole, and walked outta there not paying a cent, paperweight in hand.
Sure, there have been some tiny misalignments on some devices. Where screen has not been 100% flush with the front, or other parts minutely sticking out. Albeit, these flaws have been too insignificant to warrant a return. Meaning, you would almost need a magnifying glass to spot them.
I say this to convey that I meticulously go over my devices to check for flaws.
The MiX is the first I can honestly say is totally FLAWLESS! Can't stop caressing this jewel. Toss away your stress balls and just hold onto your MiX.
On the software side, 2 minutes of removing crap = happy camper. Speed and stutter free experience only matched by my m8 on custom kernel and lightweight MM rom. Not had a lot of FC's and continuous toasts of stuff failing and whatnot. A+ again.
The camera is not beating current flagships. I don't snap pics at every waking moment, so I find the stock app to perform very satisfactory in all lighting conditions when in manual. I have yet to see a phone cam work optimal in auto anyway. Iso almost always end up too high, on tripods as well. In video recording, I don't have a ton of material yet to compare this and that in different resolutions, but yeah I have seen better. OIS would have been nice I guess. Will be more exciting to get some footage out and about in a few months, when I have scenery that includes more contrasting colours than just black white and grey.
Battery life is awesome. But I think others with a better device history should comment on that besides me.
Only thing I have to counter all this lovin' with, is the ultrasound proximity sensor. This may only be on mine, but often when the screen turns off, after maybe five or ten seconds it has a tendency to come back on. I have to move it away at least 10-15cm away from my head and wait a second or two before putting it against my ear again. After that it stays off. Odd! That can be a bit frustrating actually. Whether it be the sensor or the software making fudge, I don't know (happened on more than one ROM).
Last I'm gonna say for now is that:
Even though my Sharp gave me even more of "no edge on top" feeling, this slabalicious wonder makes me want to bite down on it just to get another tactile (toothtile?) sensation.
Merry X-mas y'all!
i have the exact opposite opinion as the original poster.
the only things i don't like is how heavy it is. no idea how this is a plus or that its heavy makes one think it is better built. you drop this phone on its corner and the screen is going to crack.
i'm also not a fan of the square bar design, if i pick up my nexus 6 which is the same size basically it feels so so much better in my hand.
that being said, i wouldn't trade this phone for ANYTHING else on the market. these are only very samll minor complaings, as well as i very much want an AOSP rom instead of MIUI. i bought this phone for the huge 6.4 inch screen and the screen is unreal. the battery life and speed are also like no phone i've ever had. this thing flies.
I've had the Mix for just about a month now, purchased from an eBay reseller based here in the US. The Mix came factory sealed with CN Stable 8.0.10.0 installed.
I took a few days on the CN ROM to decide that I didn't want that, and then followed @underlines' excellent guide to install TWRP, root with Su and install the EU ROM. I had applied to bootloader unlock when I ordered the phone.
I love this device. I don't think I've been this excited about a smartphone ever, and I have owned lots of them. My only gripe is the camera, which is fine but not as good as the iPhone 7+ or the Google Pixel or the SG 7 Edge. Though Snap Camera app in manual mode provides very good results and better than the stock camera app.
Otherwise my thoughts are as the other posters in this thread, amazing screen, excellent build quality, battery lasts a very long time and did I mention the screen? I think most importantly this feels like the future. Is it perfect? No. Does it include every LTE band? Apparently not. Is it the perfect size for most hands to hold? No. But everyone who sees it asks "what phone is this?". And that includes Samsung, Apple, HTC and Motorola users.
I would recommend installing TWRP and rooting, MIUI is optimized for the Chinese market and many of those optimizations don't make sense in other markets or negatively impact usability.
Cheers
J
Sent from my MIX using XDA Labs

Overall love

Yes, yes, it's possible to love a phone. Heck, you sleep next to it, don't you? Rate this thread to indicate your love for the Moto Z2 Force, all things considered. A higher rating indicates that the Moto Z2 Force is an incredible phone that you enjoy tremendously. You love it.
Then, drop a comment if you have anything to add!
The best Android phone I've owned to date.
I love the phone enough to buy it multiple times, searching for the combination of carrier compatibility, unlockable bootloader and color.
I also love the phone enough to overlook its main shortcomings (no headphone jack, not truly waterproof, small battery) I love the hardware enough to use an unrooted phone. *gasp* literally every Android device I've ever owned has been rooted within a week, my first was a Nexus one.
This is a bit of a monumental device for me. It's my first ”phablet." My last daily driver was a Sony Z3 compact and a Z1 compact before that. I dropped my Sony trying to put it in my pocket while juggling keys, a backpack and my water bottle. The back glass shattered and the front has a hairline fracture.
Initially I was going to get the Z5 compact but I decided maybe I'd try something a little bigger, so I ordered an Xperia XZ from Amazon. It was a nice phone, but I hated the purplish color of the "black" model and I found myself constantly worrying about it after my last drop, so back it went in about a week.
The thing is, I hate using cases. What's the point in buying a phone you like the look and feel of just to cover it up? Enter the Z2 force. When I first saw promos talking about the shatter proof screen I was intrigued. I was never miffed by the easily scratched screen because an $8 screen protector is all you need to solve that problem.
Between the piece of mind of an unbreakable screen, stupid fast experience, solid aluminum body and gorgeous OLED display this phone is a keeper.
It's one of those phones that got shoved under the rug the second everyone saw the battery specs on paper, myself included. My previous long term daily driver was a Nexus 6 for the most part and that was the last high end, highly customizable Android phone I've used before briefly dailying a Nextbit Robin and then switching to Essential PH-1 for a few months. Both of those have great custom ROM support, but the battery life on both and signal strength on the PH-1 with T-Mobile were barely tolerable, so the only other sub $500 flagship/high end device with an up to date hardware feel was the Z2F from T-Mobile ($375 new), and glad I took the plunge despite the smallish battery capacity. From my experience, Motorola (at least as of their 2013 and newer models) have had a great track record for keeping close to stock Android experience, superb cellular signal, and great battery life and efficiency (despite often using smaller batteries, ie Moto X2, Moto G2, Moto E2). Somehow their devices always had awesome standby to screen on time efficiency. Essential didn't do this for me as much as I wanted to like it (although those on Verizon had a completely different perspective of that device).
This device gets some seriously great battery life (I've managed 8+ hrs sot with 20+ hrs total discharge from 100% charge capacity), excellent signal strength (probably why the battery doesn't suffer too much), solid screen (for those that do lots of accidental drops), front facing flash (with forward facing torch option in Moto camera flash settings), useful Moto gestures to enable main torch and camera with simple chop and twist gestures even when screen is off, solid and super thin build (Jerryrigeverything on YouTube approved it in his infamous bend test, it passed!), and because it's so thin, a simple tpu case gives this phone a perfect grip and thickness. There's a lot to like about this phone, it certainly checks all the right boxes. Most of all, it's the Android device with a Nexus/pixel-like experience; unlockable bootloader, easy to root, custom ROM availability (although from what I gather it currently works best in it's Motorola stock factory firmware form, custom ROMs are currently suffering from weaker cellular signal, failing safetynet due to the current state of selinux being set to permissive, and no sound in default video recording, also on some ROMs WiFi calling and Moto mods have issues), and to be quite frank, this device is very livable with stock firmware, just add root via Magisk and customize from there. Nexus 6 was by far my favorite device, but it is starting to feel a bit dated at this point, it had (and continues to have) some of the best third party dev support, and everything almost always works as good or better than what Google offered in it's stock Android form, that device was truly ahead of it's time and just like this device, was criticized and thrown under the bus numerous times, but low and behold a year or so after it's release, it was one of the best, if not the best device to mod. Of course with this device it's a bit finicky to mod or convert to another carrier firmware (if at all possible), but when it comes to working in it's native firmware for the carrier they were configured to run on, it truly doesn't miss a beat. You get a lot for the asking price, and until another developer device like Nexus 6 comes along, this will serve as a perfect successor for the time being. Yeah I'd love to have the dual front facing stereo speakers, and I'd love to have tons of custom features found in Resurrection Remix ROMs, but not at the cost of battery, cell signal, and failing safetynet check. Many of the custom ROM features can be manually added on stock firmware with root access enabled. Custom firmware just makes it easier to do so and also implements its own features, but often takes away features that are only available on stock firmware, for this reason, Nexus 6 was superior on every front in its time, everything was open source and easy to carry over to a custom firmware. Essential phone is like that, but unfortunately it doesn't play well with all carriers, despite being compatible with every carrier like the Nexus 6.
Some other cool and useful features include:
-Ability to remove navigation bar and allow fingerprint sensor gestures to navigate in the essence of Android P (swipe left for back, right for recents, short tap for home)
-fingerprint scanner also doubles up as a power button (normal tap for turning on to bypass screen lock, and normal press for screen off)
-voice assistant via long press on fingerprint scanner
-Moto voice for useful info on the fly, even with screen off
-Moto display, which unlike ambient display, doesn't waste much battery and is very precise when hovering your hand over and lifting vs keeping face down or in pocket (to keep screen from accidentally lighting up))
-dual rear facing camera with a dedicated rear facing black and white (monochrome) camera as one of the lenses
-twist gestures can double up as front/rear camera swapping
-lift to silence ringtone
-flip device onto screen to mute calls
-built in phone video calling
-power button to end call
-double chop for flashlight
-double twist for camera
-front facing torch through stock selfie camera
-night display (adjusts screen tint based on time if day)
-announce calls while driving
-and last but not least, water repellant nano coating, which is something I can't thank Motorola enough, my Nexus 6, Moto G2, Moto X2, Moto E2 all have this coating and I can confirm it works because the G2 owned by my grandma and my friend's Nexus 6 both fell into a tub and sink full of water, both devices worked without issue after removing them from water. Sure they're not water proof per say, but water proofing requires seals/gaskets and adhesives, both of which are compromised over time due to excessive heat from the internal hardware components and when screens or back glass (where applicable) break. So in essence a repellant nano coating may not be as water resistant as gaskets and adhesives, it does it's job most of the time when accidents happen and can surely withstand rain and shower splashes (just don't go plugging headphones or power cables before drying the ports and device as that may cause a short) and best of all, it doesn't get compromised because your screen broke or because of excessive heat and wear and tear.
The only cons I see are the few carrier and Motorola bloat apps most of which can be disabled (or frozen if rooted).
I enjoyed this device so much that I got one for a friend who had issues with her Nexus 6 charging port. Truly an underrated device that will hopefully get more attention from third party devs sooner than later. Personally, I will go as far as to say that this device should be looked at as a benchmark to beat. I've yet to see a device as well optimized, efficient, and as easy to manage right out of the box for such an awesome price.
Syndrome666 said:
snip
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All the developers for the Nash have been working on getting things fixed. You know good things are coming when LOS might be official soon™
Uzephi said:
All the developers for the Nash have been working on getting things fixed. You know good things are coming when LOS might be official soon™
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I definitely do, this phone's technically a successor to what used to be the Moto X series before the Z line took its place, and those had awesome third party dev support. I'm sure I'll get flashing on the Z2F once I get some free time to mod this thing. Any clue if RR is in the works for this phone?
Syndrome666 said:
I definitely do, this phone's technically a successor to what used to be the Moto X series before the Z line took its place, and those had awesome third party dev support. I'm sure I'll get flashing on the Z2F once I get some free time to mod this thing. Any clue if RR is in the works for this phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No clue about RR but @npjohnson pretty much stated how everything is for LOS, unless something "goes sideways" Lineage will be official VERY shortly. @erfanoabdi also stated fingerprint nav now works with selinux enforcing so very few bugs left now. Pretty sure just a few gerrit reviews and everything before LOS ships official. (Red tape and all)
Uzephi said:
No clue about RR but @npjohnson pretty much stated how everything is for LOS, unless something "goes sideways" Lineage will be official VERY shortly. @erfanoabdi also stated fingerprint nav now works with selinux enforcing so very few bugs left now. Pretty sure just a few gerrit reviews and everything before LOS ships official. (Red tape and all)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice, sounds tempting. I'll have to give it a shot
I like my Z2F a lot! So much I bought a second one, a Sprint version. I enjoyed flashing ROM’s and stuff since the Motorola Droid days before 4G. I’ve had Safe strapped RAZR’s and then the RAZR M with the bootloader unlocked, that was fun till I bought a Moto Z Droid. Fast phone but being on Verizon, no root and no playing with ROMs.
I think the Z2F is a great phone, lots of ram so the bloat apps don’t matter much but I miss flashing ROMs. So I purchased a Sprint Z2F and as soon as the UPS guys delvers it, I’m going to activate it on Sprint, Unlock the boot loader, root it and tryout some ROM’s. And after a month or so I want to unlock it and add it to my Verizon account. Should be fun.
Still Loving the performance of this device 5 months later. I think my next device will be the z3 force.
A nicely packed set of features, still a mixed bag
Just got this device couple weeks ago, because: seemed a nicely packed set of features, I needed a new one after 3 years, and it was on sale locally for ~240€, about a third of the 2017 MSRP of 799€. So am happy with seeing and getting that bargain!
However, with the previous device being a Moto X Pure, which had just gotten tediously slower and slower over the last year or so, I find the differences in specs add to it not feeling like the real thing. Like that nightly purchase impulse this posting is severly subjective. I'll mark the so-sos with o and plusses and minusses (where it compares favourably or less than to my previous Moto experiences) in the list below.
o Moto X Pure has stereo speakers, the Z2 Force has 1 mono speaker. Watching the occasional video it certainly feels ok, but definitely "lopsided", thinner, inferior to front-facing stereo speakers. Yes, why, Captain Obvious told me, how did you know?
+ For telephone calls both call quality and, in quiet environments, the speakerphone functionality is just about right. People understand me well and I can hear everyone clearly.
+ Bluetooth connections work well and are quicker to establish. It seems as if the bluetooth range has also increased slightly.
o As of yet, the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack hasn't actually bothered me. Since I'm on the traditionalist side I would have liked one, and sorta expect a hi-def moto mod for this some day.
- The main camera is meh when used with the vanilla Moto app. Really sorry to say that, but I am disappointed. 12MP does not mean much on paper, but the artificial sharpening puts me off. Probably I compare too much with the X Pure's 21MP and subjectively much better image quality, but in low light and less-than-ideal light conditions and when seeing strong contrasts I am unhappy with the Moto camera app. Maybe I have just gotten used to the X's quirks, but still. Disclaimer: need to take more pictures; I might set up a public album for this.
+ Using OpenCamera though I am getting different and better results. So overally I tend to use this now. Suggestions? Should I try FV-5 or Ektacam?
+ Using the Vignette camera app (as I did on all previously used devices) I can get proper results, even though I suspect it does not use the 2nd camera.
+ The snapdragon 835 is superfast, and the Z2 force with these recent price drops in Europe possibly one of the cheapest devices having it
+ the 6GB memory means I can multitask as hell and there indeed is very little reloading an app
+ I got used to having a fingerprint sensor quickly, position on front is fine
+ GPS works much better than on the old Moto, even indoors I typically get a fix both a) faster and b) at all
+ Display, having that crisp 2560x1440p resolution. Colours in saturated mode are strong, bright and I'm impressed.
+ Display colour settings can be set to "standard", which means colours come across as subdued, thinner, and erm less artificial. I use this mode.
+ Touch interactions have that very immediate feel to it, like zero lag and precise positioning. Like!
o the plastic shatterproof feature, well, it comes with a plastic layer on the screen that seems to have a blueish, almost milky tint to it, and that makes it look like plastic very much. Visually speaking it looks plastic when viewed from the side.
+ Connectivity in 4G was good.
o Using two LTE sim cards at the same time though it seems as if only the first one inserted makes use of 4G, the second one can't. Disclaimer: did only test this first evening and unsystematically.
+ Wifi is fast, holds both connections properly on 2.4 and 5 even when in offices or places with more than 40 available networks.
o Using it on commute though it seems as if, even when arrived on destination, it takes those very long extra seconds to connect to a known network. Need to fiddle with a scan interval setting I guess.
+ Built-in battery capacity is smaller, but as of now it lasts me almost two full days, and won't ever go below 20% really. The X Pure's battery is far from dead, but using it heavily means recharging it three times a day.
Overall love after these couple of weeks: an "acceptable meh" Yes, everything works, but I really needed something new and had hoped for something to give me that sensational thrill, but now feel unsatisfied. Had I bought it last year that would have been a serious disappointment.
With all this I think I am in sort of in line with many reviewers who see the oh so revolutionary mods concept as meaning well and ending up mediocre. While I intend to get that Incipio battery mod some day, that might well be the only mod I'll be getting.
mookiexl said:
Still Loving the performance of this device 5 months later. I think my next device will be the z3 force.
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Click to collapse
the z2 is the last force edition they will make.
jasperbastianrain said:
the z2 is the last force edition they will make.
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Click to collapse
I saw that and it made me cringe. I guess moto figured they couldn't put the price in the range of the Samsung and other more popular manufactures and compete. I still hope they release a device with the SD845 or one with OIS.
Love this phone at all. Just the backside has scratches from the first day on. Never complained, but was there out of the box. More important for me is that the screen has no scratches, even after months. No monday device, absolutly perfect, love this plastic screen. Very sad to know that we don't get any newer model of this force stuff. Battery is very good, too. That's very good at all. But additional screen protector isn't needed, at least at my model the screen isn't scratching. Maybe I have to do it with harder stuff? Don't know how the people get scratches in the screen
I'm absolutely in love with this phone. Obviously everything comes down to value, and for the original $700 or whatever asking price, there were better options. For $260 though (with the projector mod included), it's a downright steal. The phone is blazing fast and the only complaints are no headphone jack and a relatively weak camera. The very un-2017 screen ratio is also a negative, but considering the price you can find the phone for these days it's nothing to me.
ROM support is straight up bad unfortunately (huge thanks to the devs that do support it), but the phone works very well stock. I've always ran my phones with ROMs, but I don't really feel like I even need one.
Yeah I have this phone as well. I don't have any real issues beside poor signal but that's from where I live. Even with the booster T-Mobile sent me from Cel-Fi it can pickup 3 bars and 6 on the booster box I get 4G LTE and 5 bars. I can hear all my friends now. GF she has the same cell as well her's has issues like with most women when it come to cells. Data Mode drops can't do anything except remove the sim but not only that the screen is peeling off. So T-mobile is doing a warranty exchange with a brand new one. Not factory nonsense excuse for a cell. Brand new. Mine is like new!
01/2019 Real user review Great phone, super fast, great size, look outdated due to its form factor (big chin, no notch) Great battery life, super fast charging. Overall great phone, a little slow on updates
Update 01/17/2020. I've had my black, unlocked Sprint version since my last post in 2017. I've been using it flawlessly on Mint mobile for a couple years. It is positively Boba Fetted out with scratches all over the aluminum body. I am on my 3rd IQ shield screen protector. My wife has the white Verizon z2 force and we have almost all the mods.
A few months ago I noticed my battery life take a nose dive. Even after a complete wipe and clean install I struggle to make it through a day with moderate use. I've never had a phone long enough to experience battery degradation.
I went to Best Buy to check out the current crop of new phones. I handled the z3 and z4 and while nice they just seemed kinda..."meh" I didn't notice any speed difference or screen clarity between either of those phones and my 3 year old z2 and I'd be giving up shattershield. I thought about trying something new and was seriously tempted by the S10+ but a case would be a must. It is crazy
My daughter has a pixel 3 so I checked out the 4 and was a little underwhelmed. I ended up leaving with the phone I came with. I got home and started shopping online. I stumbled upon a nib unlocked gray T-Mobile Z2 for $150. Considering the Samsung cost almost 5x as much and would need to be babied I pulled the trigger on the Motorola.
So in summary I love this phone enough to buy it again despite it being old as dirt in the tech world. I plan on riding the gray one until the wheels fall off or until some new hotness comes out that I see and just have to have.
Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk
Owner of one of the first Z2 Force XT1789-06 dual sim with Nougat, since of reduced battery life and screen a bit "impressed" I decided to buy a new phone.
I decided for a "brand new" Xt1789-06 dual sim that I set up with Pie. Need I to add something?
enetec said:
Owner of one of the first Z2 Force XT1789-06 dual sim with Nougat, since of reduced battery life and screen a bit "impressed" I decided to buy a new phone.
I decided for a "brand new" Xt1789-06 dual sim that I set up with Pie. Need I to add something?
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Click to collapse
Yeah, there is no better phone on the market with unbreakable screen. I would buy it again, too. Costs 399€ (very much, but high end for many years) at the moment. More than 2018 here in europe.
Set Up should be Lineage OS 16 and then it's perfect.

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