Hello, i am getting this phone tomorrow and i would like info from existing users.
1) person i am buying the phone from said it has second latest firmware and that it has a bug where cores dont idle properly and therefor battery runs out faster. Anyone has this problem and how to solve it ?
2) i would like to avoid as much hassle with unofficial software, but will use it if it will really help the phone. What official or unofficial updates do you recomend ? What proved best for this phone ?
3) what is the easiest way to root this phone ? On my S4 mini phone i used 1 click root (kingoroot). I need this for phone call recording app.
To help you with your answer i will write how i plan to use the phone and what i want it to do.
1) i will mostly use it for calls, messages and camera.
2) I will rarely use it to browse internet, youtube, check facebook and gmail.
3) apps i will use are: sms backup and phonecall recorder
4) i will occasionaly use google maps or something similar
5) i will NOT play games on it, watch movies on it or run any cpu/mem intense operation on it.
6) i will use camera on it very often, for images and videos. I would like it to open fast and take images and videos as good as possible. I would like advices on what to install and how to tweak to accomplish this since reviews say camera is not very good on this phone.
Bonus question: Would anyone here dare to say how this phones camera will compare to camera on Samsung S4 mini and S5 mini ? Will camera on Z5 compact be worse, same or better than those 2 phones ?
Was user of this phone for around 2 years. Just upgraded from Z5C to Mi Mix 2.
Mine's battery got swell, but luckily back cover glass not broken, so I carefully removed cover and put needle on battery to take out pressure from battery. Put back cover, and it seems to be good so far. Keeping it as backup phone.
For idle / cpu sleep, disable movie maker app, its discussed in old threads as well.
Camera is just okay, and biggest let down on camera is, it takes photo after a second when you click the camera button.
On my new Mix 2, camera is super fast. It takes photo as soon as button is tapped.
2nd drawback is heating issue. It gets hot really quickly when using any app that uses more cpu, like recording a movie. You can cool it down by killing the app.
Sent from my Mi MIX 2 using Tapatalk
I've used the Z5C as my primary device for almost 3 years now and own two in case I need a backup. I can't address all of your concerns but I can definitely provide some input based on my experience.
Hello, i am getting this phone tomorrow and i would like info from existing users.
1) person i am buying the phone from said it has second latest firmware and that it has a bug where cores dont idle properly and therefor battery runs out faster. Anyone has this problem and how to solve it ?
The latest stock firmware from Sony is Android Nougat 7.1.1 (if that's what you mean by second latest firmware). I did experience a severe battery drain issue in my first Z5C and had to replace it, may or may not be related to the bug you describe. My current two devices do not have this issue.
2) i would like to avoid as much hassle with unofficial software, but will use it if it will really help the phone. What official or unofficial updates do you recomend ? What proved best for this phone ?
Berni's alternative Lineage Build is the best rom and comes with the latest security patch from Google. Highly recommended over stock.
3) what is the easiest way to root this phone ? On my S4 mini phone i used 1 click root (kingoroot). I need this for phone call recording app.
Follow the guide on how to root. It's not as easy as using Kingoroot but it's the best available method to date. Note that if you choose to root this phone, you have to unlock the bootloader, which also results in a loss of the DRM keys, which are tied to the camera's ability to process photos. This isn't a huge issue anymore since the camera on unofficial roms is more or less the same quality is stock now.
As for the camera, it's pretty subpar by today's standards. It takes decent photos in daylight but the sensor is terrible for low light photos. There is no tweaking that I know of that can fix this. In fact most of Sony's phones suffer from this problem - I believe they only truly improved the camera with the Xperia XZ2 Compact which came out last year. The Z5C does support the 4K video though, which is nice. I use Footej Camera pro on my Z5C and have not come across a better app for taking photos.
While I much prefer the design of the Z5C over the Z3C, the Z3C supports working unofficial builds of both Oreo and Android P - the hardware is also more or less the same as the Z5C. So if the firmware version is important to you the Z3C is a good option too.
chall3ng3r said:
Was user of this phone for around 2 years. Just upgraded from Z5C to Mi Mix 2.
Mine's battery got swell, but luckily back cover glass not broken, so I carefully removed cover and put needle on battery to take out pressure from battery. Put back cover, and it seems to be good so far. Keeping it as backup phone.
Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i saved my battery used only the original slow charger ,
mostly ive charge from 20 to 90%
and disconnected the phone from the charger when done chargering ,
not using the phone while is charge's
the result my phone is over years
if i put *#*#service#*#* in the dialer its saids my battery is 2400 instead of 2700 (only 300ma damge over 2 yrs!) stiil good to use
Don't use custom roms if you are going to use the camera very often.
The image quality on custom roms is much worse than the stock one. (Expecially with videos, you loose the extra smooth stabilization)
I raccomend you to use stock rom + root (magisk) + green kernel
I still use my Z5c as a daily driver. I keep a phone as a daily as long as possible but I plan to switch when something I like comes to market. 2018 sucks when it comes to new smartphones, IMO. I enjoy having front facing speakers and NO NOTCH.
- Stock ROM specific to my country (E5803_Customized PH_1298-5099_32.4.A.1.54_R1E). If you are in the US, I think flashing a stock ROM other than the US specific one enables the fingerprint scanner. I have tried Berni's Lineage 14.1 build and I would highly recommend it for an AOSP-based ROM. Unfortunately I loose camera features like digital stabilization in video and 60 fps recording so I went back to stock. With all the bloatware disabled, Sony's stock ROM is not bad.
- I was able to backup my TA partition when the Dirty Cow exploit was a thing. I was able to flash it back when I finally had TWRP, keeping the DRM stuff needed for the best camera performance.
- Magisk-v18 for root. But unlocking the bootloader and adding a recovery is a whole different story.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/z5-compact/general/guide-how-to-root-z5c-painful-using-t3549388
- Z5 FSC (Fast Smarter Cooler)
https://forum.xda-developers.com/xp...d-fsc-1-0-dont-sacrifice-performance-t3670586
- Xposed mod so I can use RootCloak and hide my rooted status from banking apps.
Thank you all for replies, i didnt get my phone this friday, i am getting it on monday, i am anxious I am getting the latest technology of 2015 Yep, right now im on midrange 2013 phone, moving to highend 2015
I am not playing with anything that could harm my camera, its the most important thing to me. Basicly all i care about is rooting the phone. That rooting guide looks long and painful and im a software enginer
I guess i will have to do a little reading because right now i dont even know the difference between ROM and kernel. Maybe you could point me to some good reading ?
Just to be safe. When i get my phone. If i do every single official upgrade that the phone offers me (android version, sony stuff, etc.). Will i still be able to use the Magisk-v18 for rooting? The reason i am asking is that if possible, i would like to first upgrade everything and test my phone call recording app and see how it works. If it works, i would save myself a whole load of time doing that painful rooting thing. But, i am afraid that upgrading the phone will make it harder to root (dirty cow and such). So can i safely upgrade everything ?
xperiafan8 said:
Just to be safe. When i get my phone. If i do every single official upgrade that the phone offers me (android version, sony stuff, etc.). Will i still be able to use the Magisk-v18 for rooting? The reason i am asking is that if possible, i would like to first upgrade everything and test my phone call recording app and see how it works. If it works, i would save myself a whole load of time doing that painful rooting thing. But, i am afraid that upgrading the phone will make it harder to root (dirty cow and such). So can i safely upgrade everything ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Updating the phone won't make it harder to root, and it's already extremely easy
you just need to:
1. Unlock the bootloader (Easy process, you just need to follow a few instructions from https://developer.sony.com/develop/open-devices/get-started/unlock-bootloader/)
2. Install a custom recovery (Just a few adb commands)
3. Flash Magisk via the recovery you just installed
TheVan28 said:
Updating the phone won't make it harder to root, and it's already extremely easy
you just need to:
1. Unlock the bootloader (Easy process, you just need to follow a few instructions from https://developer.sony.com/develop/open-devices/get-started/unlock-bootloader/)
2. Install a custom recovery (Just a few adb commands)
3. Flash Magisk via the recovery you just installed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The part that bothers me is the backup of the keys for camera. I dont even know what this keys are nor why are they needed but i am afraid i will lose them, as ppl tend to lose keys.
xperiafan8 said:
The part that bothers me is the backup of the keys for camera. I dont even know what this keys are nor why are they needed but i am afraid i will lose them, as ppl tend to lose keys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the trickiest part. I followed the guides carefully, backed up my keys and later when I tried to restore they keys my phone soft bricked and I was never able to restore them again. Not a huge loss for me because I want to stay on a custom rom with root.
Also is quite easy to downgrade for phone to old firmware if you decided to update it. The Sony flash tool is great. But there is a learning curve to all of this so I suggest you read up and learn it well if you really want to use this device.
Well this is a disapointment. Camera is worse than on S5 mini which is 1 year older, a lot cheaper and "only" 8MP. And battery seems to run down mighty fast even when i am not touching the phone. I decided to use s5 mini until i figure out of there is any worthy upgrade.
Could someone please record video with Z5 compact in silent room and check if there is any background noise ? Because on my phone, there is a lot of background noise when i record video and audio quality is really bad. I tried all 3 compatible android roms so far.
xperiafan8 said:
Could someone please record video with Z5 compact in silent room and check if there is any background noise ? Because on my phone, there is a lot of background noise when i record video and audio quality is really bad. I tried all 3 compatible android roms so far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, Yes i have some noise when recording.I only use official stock rom 7.1.1, I also put the phone in a box and closed it to do the recording.
I did not really noticed it before because i usually only take pictures and when i shoot to record something, it is outside to record music or something, so no real silence.
I can hear the background noise (recorded from a silent) when pushing volume level over 50% and i don't think it is that bad.
1) I think, the microphone is on some kind of auto adjustmode and boost its sensibility to pick low noise.
2)Some noise do come from the Z5 circuitry, if you put your ear on the Z5 phone back,you can hear some noise...So i am sure this noise is picked as well.
3) I also recorded the video with the sony NC-750 earbuds (binaural audio) and i got also some noise noise as well.
---------- Post added at 11:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:41 AM ----------
Can i ask you which alternate rom are you using?
I don't think Sony's still work :
Radio FM RDS, Noise cancelling with Sony's earbuds, binaural recording, Steady Shot Tm, 23MPX camera...
(Those last two i coud live without if there is a good alternative solution as camera app), not sure about battery life either.
xperiafan8 said:
Could someone please record video with Z5 compact in silent room and check if there is any background noise ? Because on my phone, there is a lot of background noise when i record video and audio quality is really bad. I tried all 3 compatible android roms so far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Running latest Lineage 14.1 build from Berni without DRM keys. I use the Footej camera app. When recording there is some noise but it's quiet so I've never noticed it before. Audio quality overall is good.
My best camera experience has been using Footej but also CameraMx with HDR enabled. Also if you rooted with Magisk, download and install the Camera2 API Enabler module.
Related
I want to try to install WM 7 on my hd2. but first, i got some questions:
1) is the camer and camcorder smooth and very sharp?
2) hows the call quality?
3) is the batt life better than on the hd2?
4) any other issues? does everything work?
1. smooth yes, sharp no but it's a phone not a camera.
2. it's good, like on android and 6.5.
3. at the moment not, i got less than 1 day when i tested it some time. think battery is the worst when comparing to android or 6.5.
4. activation key required and multitouch problems due to drivers like on every os on the hd2.
again, this is all answered in threads about the roms itself. read them and you'll get your answers.
aye as ^^ said
Drivers are the biggest issue for WP7 on the HD2, yes its very similar to the HD7 but its not the same, the camera, battery controller and touch screen are the big three. The question is can you live with it, and for me its yes you can.
The camera doesnt focus unless you hit video recording first, as for quality its the same unless you have the flash on, using the flash will give it a green tint.
there is a great wee camera app on here that takes care of the focus issue but its not as intigrated as the built in camera program, it also doesnt fix the flash issue and it never will because its a driver problem
it doesnt shoot wide screen photos, again, a driver issue or is it an API issue?....hmm, i think its API actually
The touch screen requires a bit of time to master, its fine for normal use, multi touch only works with 2 fingers touching at the same time, again, a driver issue.
the battery controller means WP7 doesnt reallly have a clue what its doing, most reports of hi drain are because it wasnt charged fully in the first place, sometimes it takes a couple of restarts and charges to get it full, or buy an external charger and a spare battery there are several guides to help get the most out of it, but i can get 2 days with moderate usage, 1 day with heavy usage, including data,3G, 2 push emails and BT on all the time.
dazza9075 said:
aye as ^^ said
Drivers are the biggest issue for WP7 on the HD2, yes its very similar to the HD7 but its not the same, the camera, battery controller and touch screen are the big three. The question is can you live with it, and for me its yes you can.
The camera doesnt focus unless you hit video recording first, as for quality its the same unless you have the flash on, using the flash will give it a green tint.
there is a great wee camera app on here that takes care of the focus issue but its not as intigrated as the built in camera program, it also doesnt fix the flash issue and it never will because its a driver problem
it doesnt shoot wide screen photos, again, a driver issue or is it an API issue?....hmm, i think its API actually
The touch screen requires a bit of time to master, its fine for normal use, multi touch only works with 2 fingers touching at the same time, again, a driver issue.
the battery controller means WP7 doesnt reallly have a clue what its doing, most reports of hi drain are because it wasnt charged fully in the first place, sometimes it takes a couple of restarts and charges to get it full, or buy an external charger and a spare battery there are several guides to help get the most out of it, but i can get 2 days with moderate usage, 1 day with heavy usage, including data,3G, 2 push emails and BT on all the time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i installed wp7 on my hd2. it looks very good. everything works. but the batt is my issue. i think theres a patch for the camera that makes pics look smoother.
if i continue with these probs, i'll just sell the phone on ebay and buy a used hd7 with wp7.
rauschkugl said:
1. smooth yes, sharp no but it's a phone not a camera.
2. it's good, like on android and 6.5.
3. at the moment not, i got less than 1 day when i tested it some time. think battery is the worst when comparing to android or 6.5.
4. activation key required and multitouch problems due to drivers like on every os on the hd2.
again, this is all answered in threads about the roms itself. read them and you'll get your answers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
after installing wp7 on my hd2, i got to disagree with you about call quality. 1st off, the call quality is terrible on hd2 with 6.5 and android. so, dont compare 6.5's call quality to that of wp7. the call quality is perfect on wp7.
1) is the camer and camcorder smooth and very sharp?
- AF not work (have to switch to video for AF and then switch back)
- photo quality is not good enough for me (in WM6.5 & Android is better)
- video capability is quite good (720p)
2) hows the call quality?
- no issue that I've found, so far so good
3) is the batt life better than on the hd2?
- battery drain is high, seem it relate to driver problem, can't be fixed until someone release new driver
4) any other issues? does everything work?
- except driver issue, anything else is WP issue (such as no seperate volume control, no Asian input without unlock&sideload native keyboard, etc,...)
I got my Geeksphone Peak a few days ago, and have already ran into some problems, that I believe some others may experience at some point in the future as well, when the device gets out to the public. I have therefore decided to make this thread to report issues and solutions, along with answering peoples questions about the phone.
First off, be aware of that the phone uses a standard size sim card, so if you plan to use it with a SIM card, you will have to get one of those old big SIM cards.
Second, you will without doubt want to debug your apps on the phone. The easiest way to do this, is by using the Firefox OS simulator v3, that allows you to push apps to the phone. To do this you will have to enable remote debugging on the phone, which was recently changed from enabled to disabled by default. Enable remote debugging by going to Settings -> Device information -> More information -> Developer. If you are using Linux, you will now have to add a value to the file /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules: 'SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="05c6", MODE="0666", GROUP="plugdev"'. The idVendor ID is found using lsusb.
I do not know how to use remote debugging on Windows or Mac, and would be glad if someone would be able to contribute with this information. I will update this post when I discover more flaws and fixes
Hi, I wanted to know how the overall build quality is. I am thinking of ordering one myself.
chozyn said:
Hi, I wanted to know how the overall build quality is. I am thinking of ordering one myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I received mine yesterday. To me, the build quality is mediocre. The back is quite hard to remove to insert the battery and SIM card. When the back is removed, I saw "Engineered in Spain", "Made in P.R.C". The screen is average. Perhaps I'm pixel peeping, but I can feel the grid of pixels when viewing images on it. It's a developer phone, but I did expect a better build.
Certainly order one if you are a developer.
I got my Peak two days ago.
Materials and assembly is more or less what I expected. Clearly not a Sony but it is not so bad, in my view.
So far I have only connected via wifi, do not use the SIM yet. Once connected the first thing to do is upgrade. The process of downloading a 100MB and install the update was fast enough.
However, after using it for a couple of days I've noticed a lot of problems with connectivity. The worst is that sometimes fails to reconnect to wifi after unlock.
It is always very quick to complain lack of connection: is unable to access the sites for Mobile Twitter or Facebook, for example, as does access to regular Google. It's as if only Google respond fast enough to keep active navigation.
Well, this is a beta edition and it will sure get better, but today is all that I can bring on the Peak.
Regards!
Thanks songuke, Rackam el Roig. I appreciate the follow up!
t-mobile connectivity?
Either of you know how well this works on t-mobile? I see that t-mobile supports the 1900 band in my area, but I'm still not sure about how well tmo will work in general (as I do leave this city on occasion). I'd love to know. Also, it's a pity that it doesn't do HSPA+ so I'd like to know about the speed as well if possible. Thanks and you guys are lucky to have the phones. I've been watching the site like a hawk since day 1 and haven't managed to grab one.
Push to Device on Windows/Mac
I know on Windows, push to device is not supported in the simulator as of now, I am not 100% sure if it supported on Mac, but it is supported on Linux.
the simulator was just updated to version 3 and should have push to device for every OS now.
Impressed
I think that the hardware is pretty nice. It's super lightweight, almost too much so. The software is definitely beta quality - the email app doesn't automatically refresh, wifi turns off when the display turns off (to save power), no adjustable settings for still or video recording, etc.
I'm really enjoying it. No crashes or reboots in the day I've had it.
glystar said:
I think that the hardware is pretty nice. It's super lightweight, almost too much so. The software is definitely beta quality - the email app doesn't automatically refresh, wifi turns off when the display turns off (to save power), no adjustable settings for still or video recording, etc.
I'm really enjoying it. No crashes or reboots in the day I've had it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And even when we need to reboot, it's fast enough on that.
I've been thinking of buying one, but it's always sold out.
Do you think it's usable as a lightweight daily driver? I was thinking of getting one for my parents, I could experiment a bit, and they just use phone calls / contacts / sms.
Hello, I have order the Geekshone Peak and it got the day also delivered. Unfortunately, I discovered that the Rear camera does not work. The Front Camera is working without problems.
Although it can be switched in the menu from the front camera to the rear camera, but the lens is then this is not activated.
Is this normal fault at the moment? If the Rear Camera not currently supported by the OS?
Thanks for answers und sorry for my bad english.
Best regards
not that mozilla is not a project to support, but i was wondering if there are some alternative os for this device ? gnu/linux or aosp based ?
Regards
rad30n said:
I've been thinking of buying one, but it's always sold out.
Do you think it's usable as a lightweight daily driver? I was thinking of getting one for my parents, I could experiment a bit, and they just use phone calls / contacts / sms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I only own a Keon, but: These devices are for developers and geeks that don't get mad when something breaks, not your parents. Wait for a consumer device.
I have a Keon too, where I can find basic documentation to start hacking/upgrading my devices?
I am not a developer, only curious (maybe a bit geek too)... and I LOVE the Firefox OS paradigm!
android for peak ?
I was trying to find an android version that would run on it, but seems like the MSM8225 chip is not something you can get binaries for.
Any idea if its possible to compile an AOSP version that will run ?
:good::fingers-crossed:UPS just arrived with my new Geeksphone Peak :victory::victory::victory::victory:
_stefans_ said:
I was trying to find an android version that would run on it, but seems like the MSM8225 chip is not something you can get binaries for.
Any idea if its possible to compile an AOSP version that will run ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It looks like the Peak is using the same chipset with HTC Desire X, which seems to have an alpha version of CM9:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2265338
Can anyone enlighten me how to proceed from here?
That would be great to see CM9 or CM10 running on Peak as an alternative to the current Firefox OS build.
songuke said:
I received mine yesterday. To me, the build quality is mediocre. The back is quite hard to remove to insert the battery and SIM card. When the back is removed, I saw "Engineered in Spain", "Made in P.R.C". The screen is average. Perhaps I'm pixel peeping, but I can feel the grid of pixels when viewing images on it. It's a developer phone, but I did expect a better build.
Certainly order one if you are a developer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you started working on an app yet? David Walsh (Mozilla) has written a really handy guide to runing any existing website into a Firefox Web App in just five minutes.
FYI, here are instructions on setting up the GeeksPhone for push to device on Windows/Linux/OSX: github.com/comoyo/Firefox-OS-training/blob/master/setup.md#pushing-to-geeksphone
I've searched around and I could not find a way to fix my problem.
Its quite simple to explain I guess... whenever I move my phone around to take a photo, it gets very laggy. The image preview that I see at the screen gets very laggy and out of time (it takes a few seconds to show up on the phone after something moved).
I have tried all the modes and the weird thing is that I haven't experienced lag on the Shot and More mode. However that's not convenient (at least for me) since it's gonna take forever to take the picture since it takes a few of them. On the auto mode and the beauty thing mode the picture preview on the screen provided by the camera is still very very laggy.
Photo stabilization IS off and HDR mode is off as well. Picture quality is set to HD (16 mp)
Soooo any ideas? Thanks in advance.
Your description is a bit vague. To the limits of the information you provide, it sounds like normal behaviour. You imply that it works fine before you move it. And as one would expect when you change the scene, the camera has to recalculate focus, exposure and everything else which takes a finite amount of time. Moreover you are using the camera at it's maximum resolution where such adjustments would take the maximum amount of time.
And plausibly the effect is minimized when you use a multiple shot mode where you would expect the camera to be optimized for sequential adjustments.
Unfortunately you didn't give us any details of whether it changes when you select lower resolutions, type of scenes shot, lighting, type of focus used or any other details. Looking for a pattern or even having a more detailed description would help eliminate some possibilities an d more accurately characterize the issue.
Based on the limited information provided, it sounds normal. Just the limit of the camera design.
.
fffft said:
Your description is a bit vague. To the limits of the information you provide, it sounds like normal behaviour. You imply that it works fine before you move it. And as one would expect when you change the scene, the camera has to recalculate focus, exposure and everything else which takes a finite amount of time. Moreover you are using the camera at it's maximum resolution where such adjustments would take the maximum amount of time.
And plausibly the effect is minimized when you use a multiple shot mode where you would expect the camera to be optimized for sequential adjustments.
Unfortunately you didn't give us any details of whether it changes when you select lower resolutions, type of scenes shot, lighting, type of focus used or any other details. Looking for a pattern or even having a more detailed description would help eliminate some possibilities an d more accurately characterize the issue.
Based on the limited information provided, it sounds normal. Just the limit of the camera design.
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, to me, it doesn't sound normal at all!
I'm not sure if I'm misunderstanding him or you are, but what I got from his message is that it's not a focus lag, but the the actual image that appears on the screen that lags behind what the camera is currently being aimed at.
He says that if something moves, it will take a few seconds before you see that it has moved on the screen.
In addition, the fact that in Shot & More mode, it doesn't happen seems to confirm that something's wrong.
xPedroo said:
I've searched around and I could not find a way to fix my problem.
Its quite simple to explain I guess... whenever I move my phone around to take a photo, it gets very laggy. The image preview that I see at the screen gets very laggy and out of time (it takes a few seconds to show up on the phone after something moved).
I have tried all the modes and the weird thing is that I haven't experienced lag on the Shot and More mode. However that's not convenient (at least for me) since it's gonna take forever to take the picture since it takes a few of them. On the auto mode and the beauty thing mode the picture preview on the screen provided by the camera is still very very laggy.
Photo stabilization IS off and HDR mode is off as well. Picture quality is set to HD (16 mp)
Soooo any ideas? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To good thing (hopefully) is that it seems that it's a software problem, and not hardware, because otherwise you probably would have the same issue in Shot & More mode.
I don't know if you have a custom rom, or if you're still stock, but you might want to try to reflash your rom over the current one first, and if that doesn't work, you may have to do a full wipe.
If you're using a custom rom, you might want to try a different rom altogether (+ full wipe) to see if it makes a difference.
If you decide to go down that road, please read the corresponding thread(custom, stock, ... for your model) to avoid bricking your phone..
Mithrandir007 said:
To good thing (hopefully) is that it seems that it's a software problem, and not hardware, because otherwise you probably would have the same issue in Shot & More mode.
I don't know if you have a custom rom, or if you're still stock, but you might want to try to reflash your rom over the current one first, and if that doesn't work, you may have to do a full wipe.
If you're using a custom rom, you might want to try a different rom altogether (+ full wipe) to see if it makes a difference.
If you decide to go down that road, please read the corresponding thread(custom, stock, ... for your model) to avoid bricking your phone..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you got it right. Thanks.
Uhm, I'm using the default rom (the one that came with my phone when I bought it)
By the way I could not log in back to my old account so I created this second one lol, sorry about it.
Anyway do you need any more info?
How do I reflash my rom? Sorry I don't know these terms too well :c
xPedrooo said:
Yes, you got it right. Thanks.
Uhm, I'm using the default rom (the one that came with my phone when I bought it)
By the way I could not log in back to my old account so I created this second one lol, sorry about it.
Anyway do you need any more info?
How do I reflash my rom? Sorry I don't know these terms too well :c
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could go to the Android Development section and read all about it, but if you've never done it and are not comfortable with it, it might be better to just do a factory reset of your device (make sure to backup everything you want to keep first), or check if there's an update (Software update in the settings).
Why Yoga tablet 2 screen looks so blurred and sharpened at the same time
Have you been wondering why your screen on the 10" Yoga tablet 2 with KitKat doesn't look really crisp even with some obvious sharpening applied? Here is why!
Lenovo screwed up twice!
1. Blur filter is applied. (KitKat ONLY) The BIOS/bootloader defines wrong display resolution. The Intel graphics driver (i915) gets confused and switches on panel fitting which includes a blur filter (fuzzy filter). Normally this is used if the display resolution is different from the frame buffer resolution to scale the image. Here the device just scales 1:1 and applies the filter. Luckily the driver is open source and it turns out there is a way to overwrite this feature No longer true for Lollipop. Thanks Lenovo
2. Sharpen filter is applied. (KitKat and Lollipop) The panel is not programmed correctly. When disabling the CABC feature (/sys/lcd_panel/cabc_onoff) the sharpening effect is gone. But CABC should have nothing to do with sharpen. Unfortunately the specs of the display (AUO B101UAN01.E) are not public so I cannot verify if the correct MIPI DSI commands are sent to the panel.
So our display is softened then sharpened again! What a waste!
Both workarounds are only temporary. After each screen off/screen on sequence the old values are restored by the system. So we need an app which sets the values after the screen is switched on. Or a new kernel. Or Lenovo cares to fix it in a future release
Fix (Root partially required)
I wrote an app which can disable CABC / sharpness filter (requires ROOT) and can disable the blur filter (KitKat, no root required) . Of course I am not held responsible if you brick or burn your tablet. I tested this on my 1050F with rooted firmware S000143_150105.
1. Copy app to device and install
2. Start app and select your setting
3. The settings may apply only after switching screen off and on again.
Source on Github:
http://github.com/Matshias/yoga2sharpness
Bugs / issues
- may not work directly after reboot, only after screen on/off
- fullscreen video may switch on CABC/sharpness filter again
Any suggestions? I'd be really happy if you could test and report
Cheers!
Matt
Update Jan 21
make more reliable and add complete source
Update Jan 26
Reliable implementation as app which automates this process.
Update Jan 30
new version 1.1 (please uninstall old version!):
- add option to start at boot and enable/disable applying the settings at screen on for manual operation
- add little delay after screen on for more reliable operation
- app should be harder to kill by the system
Update Feb 2
new version 1.1.1:
- Fix occasional reboot issue when using the setting on display on. Turns out Android sends screen on broadcasts sometimes even if the display is off. This causes a crash if the filter settings are applied.
Update Feb 11
new version 1.1.2 (please uninstall old version):
- hopefully ultimately fix reboot issues by using different method to start on boot
Update Apr 30
tested with new firmware S000198_150422. Same as before. Lenovo has not fixed the issue, but the app works like before
Update June 3
New version 1.1.3:
- fix full screen video playback re-enabling CABC/sharpness filter. As for CABC itself root is required.
Update June 17
Update for Lollipop version 1.2.0:
- blur filter disable no longer needed
- sharpness filter is still present. If root becomes available for Lollipop this should work there too
Update June 19
Fix for rooted Lollipop - version 1.2.1:
- the mechanism for sharpness filter disable from 1.2.0 didn't work, probably due to SE Linux restrictions
Matshias, you are a legend!
I bought a Yoga 2 10" a couple of weeks ago and the odd blurred and sharpened effect ruins what is otherwise a great little tablet. I'd always suspected it was some kind of odd scaling issue, but I haven't had time or sufficient Android knowledge (or root access on my device) to properly investigate it, beyond making up some test images with alternate 1 pixel wide black/white lines - which were rendering as grey on the Yoga 2.
I had a support ticket raised with Lenovo about the issue, so I've referred them to this post and one on the Lenovo Community forums.
Thanks for your hard work, hopefully Lenovo will implement the fix in a software update soon!
Cheers,
Richard
Thank you!
matshias: Thank you.
The blur filter disable makes a HUGE difference. I really appreciate you taking the time to post your results, hopefully Lenovo will take note and implement a permanent fix.
workes
Hi!
I have just started using your app with the latest firmware on a 1050L.
0) Unrooted device
1) installed your app and applied the non-root part of the fix - worked after screen on/off
2) rooted device with temporary cwm solution from this parent thread (- which worked as well)
3) applied the root-required part of the fix from your app - works as well
Thank you for this!
Great great great! Like the others here I was looking for a solution to this Problem since I bought the tablet.
I am really satisfied with your APP, now everything is way sharper.
BUT: When I test the screens resolution with a screen test APP, only the horizontal ( long sides) resolution seems to be right now. The vertical resolution (short sides) is still just grey, when testing single pixel lines.
Do you have the same Problem, what could cause this?
fanatictentacle said:
Great great great! Like the others here I was looking for a solution to this Problem since I bought the tablet.
I am really satisfied with your APP, now everything is way sharper.
BUT: When I test the screens resolution with a screen test APP, only the horizontal ( long sides) resolution seems to be right now. The vertical resolution (short sides) is still just grey, when testing single pixel lines.
Do you have the same Problem, what could cause this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see the same if the sharpness filter/CABC is still switched on. If you have root then try disabling the sharpness filter as well and then the screen test look fine. Obviously the sharpness filter in the panel is not uniform in all directions and seems to prefer horizontal resolution (in landscape mode).
Thanks again for the advice!
I just had to enable root, really cant look at that horrid screen anymore! But now it really looks as sharp as an 240ppi Display should look like!
problem
After installing the app I have problems.
In 10 minutes my tablet rebooted 3 times . Android not asked to reboot.
It was crash of sistem. My system is rooted.
After uninstalling I had no problems.
Regurds
Yosef said:
After installing the app I have problems.
In 10 minutes my tablet rebooted 3 times . Android not asked to reboot.
It was crash of sistem. My system is rooted.
After uninstalling I had no problems.
Regurds
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you use the start on boot feature? This might cause it. I uploaded new version 1.1.2 which should fix that problem. Let me know if it works for you.
this is a fantastic fix, one that Lenovo should have implemented themselves
actually when i just got the tablet over christmas, it was running older firmware in which the blur filter was actually not enabled. yes i now realize the text was "over sharp" but it was clear, and what i expected for the price (i.e. not double the price for a galaxy tab S) but i was fine with the sharpness, it looked good, and the tablet otherwise suits my needs perfectly, and gotta love that built in stand. i didn't even know what people meant about the image quality, considering the mid-range target audience of the tablet.
anyway, i recently got the OTA firmware update to the current S000143_150105 and that's when it messed everything up. it enabled the blur filter, and it looked HORRIBLE. i tried to accept it because at 1 ft from the tablet, the text actually looked all right, perhaps even a slight improvement because it was slightly softer. but the blur filter is applied to EVERYTHING, so all the images and everything on the screen was blurred....it was like looking at an HD monitor with a state of the art GeForce video card but using the standard windows video drivers...everything stretched and totally blurry.
this is a great fix, i don't have my tablet rooted and don't want to take the potential battery hit to disable the sharpening filter (since i think it looks good just with the blur filter disabled). it might be in my head though, but i feel like the system is a little more sluggish...maybe due to the update, maybe because of this (great) app...i wish lenovo would fix this, seems easy enough. sours me to an otherwise great tablet for the price.
speaking of battery, i noticed in the last day after installing the fix that my tablet powered off sometime during the day, and when i restarted, the battery had drained about 30%. and it continued to drain faster than before. i previously got well over 10 hours of usage time playing movies and web browsing, in addition to up to several days of standby....today i had to charge it within 24 hours and only got about 7 hours use time and 13 hours standby...any chance it's related to the fix, or has anyone experienced it after the firmware update?
@digitalatlas: Thanks for testing the app.
Regarding your observations, I don't think sluggishness can be attributed to the app. After all it doesn't do much. Only when the screen is switched on or you manually start the app it changes the kernel setting. So it really shouldn't have any impact on performance.
The battery life should also not be affected by the app itself. It does not have any background tasks other than the kernel setting mentioned above and it shouldn't wake up the device as well. Although I saw occasionally that my app gets informed that the screen was switched on even though the screen was not switched on. That caused some reboot issues. But that was fixed with version 1.1.1 and 1.1.2 and I didn't see a reboot since I use 1.1.2. Also there are reports of hangs/reboots by other users unrelated to my app. Anyways it might be the case that changing the kernel setting has some other effect on the hardware, kernel and battery life. According to Intel documentation the filter is not meant to be switched on or off while the display is active. However, it is the only time it is possible to change it in our system. So to be sure we have to test and disable/uninstall the app and see if the battery life improves.
Hopefully Lenovo fixes this with an upcoming update!
Thanks!
Just got this tablet in the mail today and was disappointed by its display. So grateful for your fix, its like night and day with the blur gone. Guess I have a good reason to root now to get rid of the sharpness too. Mind me asking what method you used to root for this firmware?
Falv said:
Just got this tablet in the mail today and was disappointed by its display. So grateful for your fix, its like night and day with the blur gone. Guess I have a good reason to root now to get rid of the sharpness too. Mind me asking what method you used to root for this firmware?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used the temporary CWM method [GUIDE] CWM & Root Lenovo Yoga 2 (8/10/13)
It is easy enough and works fine, but keep in mind that there might be issues with OTAs.
I'll keep track of the battery over the next little while, hopefully it was just an aberration that first charge. I'm getting better results with this second charge since the update and your fix.
Could you or someone post a picture shoeing the effect of turning the sharpening filter off? Might help some of us decide it rooting is in fact worthwhile. Thanks!
digitalatlas said:
I'll keep track of the battery over the next little while, hopefully it was just an aberration that first charge. I'm getting better results with this second charge since the update and your fix.
Could you or someone post a picture shoeing the effect of turning the sharpening filter off? Might help some of us decide it rooting is in fact worthwhile. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried taking pictures but it doesn't really show the effect. Instead I made two screenshots and recreated the filter with GIMP. It should be very close to what the panel does.
Does anybody have any info from Lenovo? I think that this is preposterous! How can someone do that and have it go through testing? Unless there were no tests at all.
Buying Lenovo was a mistake.
v1.2 tested on my new 1050F. Awesome. I was disapointed by the screen but now it's perfect. Thank you so much to have done this patch!
+1
AMAZING PICTURE QUALITY!!.
Without blur picture is good, but witchout blur and sharpness image quality is FU…NG AWSOME!!
THANKS!!!!!
saupiquet said:
v1.2 tested on my new 1050F. Awesome. I was disapointed by the screen but now it's perfect. Thank you so much to have done this patch!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Great app, thank you
Are you all running this with rooted devices? Mine is not yet rooted but notice a big difference with this app. How much better is it if I was to root the device? Thank you so much for this fix. I recieved my tablet today and was very disappointed with the display.
Hi
Just wondering how those running Stock Firmware 32.2.A.0.305 have found the phone to be working?
Any issues or improvements with:
- battery life
- overheating
- phone/wifi signal
- fingerprint sensor
- camera photo quality
- Bluetooth music jitter
Or anything else?
Thanks
R
I'm running Heptyle's kernel, .305 Custom DE and debloated with script.
I haven't reached conclusions yet but so far I think my battery life is better than .253
During app installation (clean installation) I got the feeling it ran less hot.
No further differences until now regarding to your other items.
I'm only going to run STOCK I'm not going to root the phone.
Nothing special here.
Volume for notifications got fixed. And security level is aug 2016 (shame on Sony)
The option to enable the google now pane in the Xperia Launcher (beta?) is back. Note that I did join that Google+ group for getting beta updates of the Launcher.
Camera format settings were reset for me after the upgrade. The version of the app is now 1.0.C.2.7 but I didn't check before the upgrade what it was.
So far it's been smooth, but nothing notably new.
Feels just about the same in all regards
I'm running 32.2.A.0.224 and heard bad things about .253 so have not updated.
I upgraded to the latest one (.305) from EE (UK) on Thursday, and accidently bricked the device (took over an hour to upgrade and so I forgot it was upgrading - d'oh) so have ended up with a clean install.
- battery life : At this time of the day I used to be at 52% (.253), currently 80% (has been off charge for 5 hours so far), was pretty poor for the first two days while Google Play music was hammering the WiFi connection downloading music (why can't it see what's already on the SD Card - argh!), but still an improvement of .253 which was appalling.
It used to be that Google Play Services and Android System were the top users by a country mile - today it's Screen (27%) and Beyond Pod (9%)
- overheating : Certainly running cooler
- phone/wifi signal : No issues before or since
- fingerprint sensor : No issues before or since
- camera photo quality : No issues before or since
- Bluetooth music jitter : As solid as it has been since the last upgrade, i.e. Bluetooth is problem free, Wired occasionally jitters approx 20 minutes after losing Wifi.
Or anything else?
WiFi Calling still temperamental (i.e. needing a reboot), less of an issue for me now I have VoLTE and new masts cover work and home better.
Thanks very much for that excellent and detailed response
I hope this will fix things. On .253 I'm having issues with the finger print scanner, saying hardware is unavailable after long periods of not using the phone. Also, the camera crashes when trying to take a video. gifs and videos on apps such as facebook or youtube doesn't play too. Restart fixes things but it's annoying that I have to do it at the start of the day, every single day. Would love to hear from somebody with same issues who upgraded from .253
I updated to this and done a factory reset (I always do this after installing new update). My device for more than 10 hours now has problem with volume.
If I play any music (on full volume) for more than 1 seconds the volume level is reduced dramatically. My phone has never been in contact with water or anything. As of now I have turned the phone off/on and still no difference. I have used Google Play, Spotify and the same problem occurs.
On the other hand it doesn't heat up. Battery life seems a tad better if I recall so far. Other than that no difference apart from a message I got about battery charging.
Seems to be the hearing protection. New build.prop in .305 is without persist.audio.hp entry. Just re-add it to build.prop (persist.audio.hp=false), reboot and should be working again (you need to be rooted).
MiracleMiah said:
I updated to this and done a factory reset (I always do this after installing new update). My device for more than 10 hours now has problem with volume.
If I play any music (on full volume) for more than 1 seconds the volume level is reduced dramatically. My phone has never been in contact with water or anything. As of now I have turned the phone off/on and still no difference. I have used Google Play, Spotify and the same problem occurs.
On the other hand it doesn't heat up. Battery life seems a tad better if I recall so far. Other than that no difference apart from a message I got about battery charging.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Di you have Root?
Ever have problems before?
Yes, I'm rooted (just check tobias waldvogels rootkernel thread), but you need to have unlocked bootloader first (don't forget to make TA backup!).
i found that the phone gets warm (more than previous firmware) when browsing the web using chrome.
i noticed that the sony email client doesnt check/update as quickly enough compared to previous firmware.
i did notice couple of things have been fixed, but my overall suspicion of this firmware is that it introduces more issues than it fixed.
also some kind of security has been introduced to stop you from hiding apps such as the quick apps bar.
im also curious why sony introduced that "battery optimization"? has it to do with maybe the batteries starting to bubble hence causing the back cover to crack? so by reducing the charge amount it sort of stops that from happening?
im also running stock firmware.
I would appreciate you come back w/ a review after a month of usage. If you have been using Android for a significant amount of time, then you know that it's always good in the beginning. I don't think much stock should be put in a review done after a day besides ease of installation and (maybe) initial impressions, imho
ive gone back to .253 firmware. this previous version seems to work much better on my australian z5 compact.
no heating issues. battery is better. email app works better etc. etc.
yes it does have the annoying low volume and a issue with the sms app (when trying to add certain photos). but overall to me it works better than .305 version.
harry_turtle said:
I'm running Heptyle's kernel, .305 Custom DE and debloated with script.
I haven't reached conclusions yet but so far I think my battery life is better than .253
During app installation (clean installation) I got the feeling it ran less hot.
No further differences until now regarding to your other items.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which Script you are using to debloat?
Baron1971 said:
Which Script you are using to debloat?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A few weeks ago, I tried this. From @FcukBloat
But for me it didn't work. When I flashed, I got a message that the zip was corrupt (which I can't believe, and it's not the first time this happened). And I also had a problem with Online Nandroid, so in the end I had to redo it.
This time, I just did manually what the script should automate. Next time I'll figure out how to build it myself, if I'm smart enough.
So after a week of 305 vs 253 - I've managed to get through to the end of the day without needing to charge one or twice throughout the day every single day, the phone is running much cooler (i.e. most of the time there is no heat detectable), and is also less laggy, especially when launching the camera. Battery life is getting better by the day too - now at 60% (after being off charger for 12.5 hours) with Google Play Music, twitter, and an hour of MapMyWalk (so GPS usage) - on 253 I'd have been below 20% at this point of the day.
rossyl said:
I'm only going to run STOCK I'm not going to root the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im also going pure stock unrooted locked bootloader ,at least till warranty void anyway\ OR the phone become really slow for some reason, and root will help
example: this phone got only 2GB RAM which very bad multitasking , and heavy apps like CSR2 left my phone with only 200MB .
so i guess il need more Swapfile\Z-ram @1s
---------- Post added at 07:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:42 AM ----------
BTW
305 still didn't released in my state anyone got idea how to check when it will come out? it is possible?