Hi there. I might be upgrading my Google N1 and buying myself a Samsung Galaxy s2. However I dont really see the point in it. Besides the Obvious Hardware differences, 5MP Camera - 8mp Camera, 1GHz Processor - 1.2GHz Processor etc etc I dont see the point in buying it. Im enjoy gaming, so I guess being able to play for graphics heavy games would be something the N1 couldnt do.
Im not into rooting/flashing or anything like that so all that doesnt bother me.
I guess im basically looking for some selling points, sell me the device
Btw, im not trolling, sorry if it comes out that way.
Thanks for the help
I got my SGS2 because I renewed my contract, it's a nice phone, I even think Touchwiz is better than stock Android(though it's no match for Sense) but I wouldnt have bought it since I only bought my Desire less than one year ago.
The phone is fast, very fast and links are easier to hit but I miss my optical trackpad (I think the difference between the Desire and N1 is the optical trackpad vs trackball). I think my SLCD screen on the desire was better than the samoled+ but coming from amoled it will be a big upgrade in screen quality. Another fgood thing is that it's really light yet feels very sturdy
ok what makes it soo special
well its like an iphone
when ur using a normal android phone even with a custom rom ie cm7 u notice these small lags when scrolling
ie scrolling lag when browsing the internet and the menu etc
its super fast (1080p flash with no lag while scrolling )
responsive
amazing screen
VERY thin
super lite
physical home button
VERY sturdy ( u cant bend it + doesn't make any creaking sounds)
all of this in one phone
AKA the perfect android phone
for me those small lags irritate the hell out of me
and the SG2 is the only android phone that doesn't have these to my knowledge
there is no lag on this phone-ever.
godutch said:
I think my SLCD screen on the desire was better than the samoled+
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DoPower said:
godutch said:
I think my SLCD screen on the desire was better than the samoled+ /QUOTE]
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Yes the colors look much more natural and on my desire I almost can't see the pixels on the SGS2 I can see the subpixels
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godutch said:
DoPower said:
Yes the colors look much more natural and on my desire I almost can't see the pixels on the SGS2 I can see the subpixels
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WOW! You don't have eyes, You have microscopes
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qwerty warrior said:
when ur using a normal android phone even with a custom rom ie cm7 u notice these small lags when scrolling
ie scrolling lag when browsing the internet and the menu etc
for me those small lags irritate the hell out of me
and the SG2 is the only android phone that doesn't have these to my knowledge
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Strange because my S2 lags just like any other phone.
Home screen scrolling stutter and random "reloading" of apps.
Worst browser checker boxing I have ever seen.
2-3 second lock screen lag.
4 hour battery life when browsing over wifi.
Sorry but it certainly does not seem to be the best phone out there, not that much better than my HTC Desire tbh.
You can completely balls up and brick the phone and still recover 99.9% of the time .
jje
Nomz2k3 said:
Strange because my S2 lags just like any other phone.
Home screen scrolling stutter and random "reloading" of apps.
Worst browser checker boxing I have ever seen.
2-3 second lock screen lag.
4 hour battery life when browsing over wifi.
Sorry but it certainly does not seem to be the best phone out there, not that much better than my HTC Desire tbh.
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I use go launcher I have seen no lags whatsoever (except when trying to answers calls on the lock screen on some older firmwares), I do see the checker boxing in the stock browser but none whatsoever in xscope or opera. And I have yet to see laptops last for 4 hours browsing on wifi.
DoPower said:
Yes the colors look much more natural and on my desire I almost can't see the pixels on the SGS2 I can see the subpixels
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you don't like the colors, the issue is not the display, but the images on the screen. If you don't like the default, you can simply set the "Background effect" in the "Display" settings to "Movie" to sort of match an LCD screen.
By the looks of it, the Movie mode matches the sRGB color space (which is what JPEG images are made for), while the "Standard" mode matches the aRGB color space. A standard phone LCD screen (like that from, say, iPhone 4) doesn't even match the full sRGB color space, which makes images look washed out.
So if you want to see the display in all its splendor, you have to shoot some RAW photos, convert them to aRGB and see them on the phone's display. I can tell you that on mine they look mind boggling. Colors are similar to those from my hardware-calibrated professional display, but the black level (which changes the perception of colors) and the sharpness (due to the very small pixels) are to die for.
As for subpixels, I can't even see individual pixels...
Here is my experience with it (bottom line - I love it):
(Keep in mind that I'm coming from a 3 years old HTC Polaris.)
Remarks:
* Size: no problems; the size of the display is awesome
* Screen: absolutely gorgeous with no problems whatsoever; I have looked at a photo (taken with a DSLR and converted from RAW to the aRGB color space), side by side with an iPhone 4 - the iPhone's display is simply non-existent in terms of black level, gamut and sharpness (despite it's higher resolution)
* WiFi: fine; the network that I use gives me 650 KB/s for downloads
* TouchWiz: fine (I deleted all the predefined panels and made my own panels)
* Notifications: no led like HTC, but the NoLed application is great
* Battery: using it like the old HTC (meaning just having the 3G connection on and looking at the time a few times a day), I get 11% consumption per day (with the HTC I had about 12...14%); using it heavily, I can drain the entire battery in one day, so it depends on what you're doing with it, and you will really want to play with it (note that the drain may not be linear, so it may take less than 9 days to drain the entire battery on light use)
* GPS (without network connection and old aGPS data): 3-4 minutes to acquire the first lock (if I have half the sky in view - I'm at a window), then 20 seconds if I close and restart the GPS test application; indoors, no chance of getting a lock unless you're in a wood house or something (its performance is acceptable); the accuracy is around 30 meters (might be better with the full sky visible and more than 4 locked satellites)
* The sound through normal headphones is awesome (virtually on par with that from my notebook, with the same headphones; the maximum volume is fine for someone who isn't trying to get deaf)
* Phone call clarity is great
* Phone signal is really difficult to decrease; it stubbornly clings on 4 bars (I have to put my fingers around the bottom AND be somewhere deep inside a concrete building in order to get only 3 bars)
* The internal memory has a write speed of about 9.5 MB/s (for large files); a class 10 micro SDHC card that I bought has about 8.5 MB/s; for small files (about 150 KB each), the speed is about 140 KB/s for both memories
What I dislike (the software issues are not necessarily faults of SGS2):
* Difficult to grab from a table; the sides of the case are slippery, and the low thickness doesn't help either
* Takes about 1.5 seconds to come out from standby (from the moment I press the power button); this is annoying when I just what to check the time
* Heats up significantly around the back camera (when playing an HD movie, it actually becomes hot in that area)
* Only 16 GB of internal memory (I think 64 GB is more on my taste)
* Can't copy files bigger than 4GB on either the internal memory or on the SDHC card
* Doesn't have an included firewall (and installing one requires rooting)
* The alarm application doesn't increase the sound volume in time (like from 0% to full in, say, 20 seconds)
* The ringer volume doesn't increase the sound volume in time
* The included movie player doesn't play FLVs and DTS sound (MoboPlayer knows DTS but doesn't decode the MKVs in hardware, so they have a bad framerate, while VPlayer doesn't use 24 bit graphics even in high quality native mode - it shows either banding or a grid pattern)
6ITdtvFQqY said:
By the looks of it, the Movie mode matches the sRGB color space (which is what JPEG images are made for), while the "Standard" mode matches the aRGB color space. A standard phone LCD screen (like that from, say, iPhone 4) doesn't even match the full sRGB color space, which makes images look washed out.
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You misquoted DoPower didn't say that, I did. I have already set the display to movie and still the colors are not correct
As for subpixels, I can't even see individual pixels...
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I have 30/22.5 vision (ie retina) and -1.25/+1.00(<-yup weird :s) aberrations, my left eye (also my dominant one) sees the subpixels (I once had my vision tested and they ran out of cards to test, I could read them all )
godutch said:
I use go launcher I have seen no lags whatsoever (except when trying to answers calls on the lock screen on some older firmwares), I do see the checker boxing in the stock browser but none whatsoever in xscope or opera. And I have yet to see laptops last for 4 hours browsing on wifi.
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Well im just on stock UK orange firmware and performance is not what I expected from the hype, like I said in my post its pretty bad.
As for wifi browsing, my 18 month old compaq mini 311c netbook manages 5+ hours easy and my AWm11x even longer.
I am however getting confused a little, some people state the browser does get checker boarding and others state it should not and i should return my unit.
youtube.com/watch?v=yYIiRf88-g0 is a video I made of the browser problem.
Related
Has anyone else seen the iphone 4 commercial saying the screen is the highest resolution screen ever on a phone?
I thought the vibrant had a better screen? It definitely looks better than the iphone four though.
The iPhone 4 does have the highest resolution ever. Samsung claims that the SAMOLED screens have better viewing angles and all that ****. Its really just what u think overall I guess.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
The pixels and the screen size on the iphone 4 have a better looking screen while the vibrant has a bigger screen but lesser pixels so yeah the iphone 4 screen is better but iOS sucks =]
the iPhone 4 has a 3.5 inch LCD screen has a resolution of 960 x 640
the vibrant has a 4 inch S-AMOLED screen that has a resolution of 800 x 480
the S-AMOLED screen displays colors clearer and truer and is easier to see in the sun, the iPhone 4 has an insane pixel density that makes things look cleaner
its a matter of preference really once you let an iPhone 4 owner watch Avatar on your vibrant they will be extremely jealous
That's pretty surprising.
The kid with the iphone 4 finally got pissed at me and quoted the commercial lmao.
But I still think the vibrant looks cleaner plus bigger screen=better.
We compared angry birds visuals on lowest brightness. I won
xSunny said:
The pixels and the screen size on the iphone 4 have a better looking screen while the vibrant has a bigger screen but lesser pixels so yeah the iphone 4 screen is better but iOS sucks =]
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"Better looking screen"?! Are you for real?
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?deskto...e.com/watch?v=xiO3s8NdQ34&v=xiO3s8NdQ34&gl=US
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
ive compared the I4 and Vibrant tirelessly after seeing my friends I4. I was blown away and confused by how good the I4 OS looks, its pretty shocking because there is nothing else like it, at least in the domestic mobile device arena. I was actually pissed off that my vibrant looked so much fuzzier, i almost stopped using it and just pulled out my old nexus I was so bummed.
But after I looked into it further it became clear that the I4's visual advantage is limited to the OS, which is definitely important but it doesnt include media, so the Vibrant's samoled does have an advantage in that department. Also, I think the I4 is much easier to see in daylight, the Vibrant is somewhat better than than the Nexus, which is virtually invisible under the sun, but the Vibrant is still no treat to use outside.
The I4 is far and away better looking as far as the operating system which basically includes all lines; apps and their icons, text, the browser, you cant see pixels, its not even close. Also, the old and new Iphones alike scroll without blurring like Android does (I believe its because of GPU acceleration which, if Im not mistaken, Android will add with Gingerbread?), it keeps its resolution while scrolling which makes a big difference visually, particularly in the browser. With Android phones, once you are pressing the screen to scroll in the browser, you can see a huge difference between pressing and not pressing, as soon as you let up the screen goes back to its optimal quality. But the Vibrant absolutely looks better with all media.
I4 has more pixels on a smaller screen with crazy pixel density, so that part really cant be personal preference, unless you prefer fuzzier lines/text. But it is relative, if the I4 didnt exist I would be wild for the Vibrants screen in media and the OS alike. But the I4 obviously has a better look in the OS alone, but not media.
tonomon said:
That's pretty surprising.
The kid with the iphone 4 finally got pissed at me and quoted the commercial lmao.
But I still think the vibrant looks cleaner plus bigger screen=better.
We compared angry birds visuals on lowest brightness. I won
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Comparing Angry Birds is a bad comparison - the iPhone version is not optimized for the iPhone4 display, I don't think. It's a lower resolution than the Android version.
Retina display has higher pixel density, and you have to try real hard to distinguish between the pixels, however if you put two screens together and just look at them without digging your nose into your phone you can hardly see that SAMOLED is a bit washed out compared to the Retina, but once you fire up a high quality video SAMOLED will take it any day due to its brightness and dynamic contrast. I do think colors on Sammy are over saturated like with almost all of their LCD/LED panels.
tehmanmuffin said:
the iPhone 4 has a 3.5 inch LCD screen has a resolution of 960 x 640
the vibrant has a 4 inch S-AMOLED screen that has a resolution of 800 x 480
the S-AMOLED screen displays colors clearer and truer and is easier to see in the sun, the iPhone 4 has an insane pixel density that makes things look cleaner
its a matter of preference really once you let an iPhone 4 owner watch Avatar on your vibrant they will be extremely jealous
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
very true, my iphone 4 friends are jealous of my screen
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
yeah the iphone 4 have a better screen when we are talking about pixels but when it comes to watching video files, there's no way any other phone will beat our super duper amoled screen.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
DMaverick50 said:
ive compared the I4 and Vibrant tirelessly after seeing my friends I4. I was blown away and confused by how good the I4 OS looks, its pretty shocking because there is nothing else like it, at least in the domestic mobile device arena. I was actually pissed off that my vibrant looked so much fuzzier, i almost stopped using it and just pulled out my old nexus I was so bummed.
But after I looked into it further it became clear that the I4's visual advantage is limited to the OS, which is definitely important but it doesnt include media, so the Vibrant's samoled does have an advantage in that department. Also, I think the I4 is much easier to see in daylight, the Vibrant is somewhat better than than the Nexus, which is virtually invisible under the sun, but the Vibrant is still no treat to use outside.
The I4 is far and away better looking as far as the operating system which basically includes all lines; apps and their icons, text, the browser, you cant see pixels, its not even close. Also, the old and new Iphones alike scroll without blurring like Android does (I believe its because of GPU acceleration which, if Im not mistaken, Android will add with Gingerbread?), it keeps its resolution while scrolling which makes a big difference visually, particularly in the browser. With Android phones, once you are pressing the screen to scroll in the browser, you can see a huge difference between pressing and not pressing, as soon as you let up the screen goes back to its optimal quality. But the Vibrant absolutely looks better with all media.
I4 has more pixels on a smaller screen with crazy pixel density, so that part really cant be personal preference, unless you prefer fuzzier lines/text. But it is relative, if the I4 didnt exist I would be wild for the Vibrants screen in media and the OS alike. But the I4 obviously has a better look in the OS alone, but not media.
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What are you talking about, I've used my phone in direct sunlight in the middle of the day and the screen is easily readable with MINIMUM brightness, unless your screen is dirty and is being extra reflective because of it, this screen works amazing in the sun, on full its clear even with glare
Also, my vibrant's browser does not blur, I just tested it for a goods few mins and no bluring at all
And lastly on discussion, the i4's screen resolution + the smaller size of the screen kinda makes you think its sharper but its a smaller screen...does a higher resolution help it at all? Do you see any distinguishable difference from a lower res screen?
The only advantage i4 has is how dim and how bright the display can get because its an lcd however super amoled wins overall
Sent from my SXY-T959
Doesn't super-Amoled give a blueish tint on whites? on my i4 the browser sucks, it gives pattern checker board things when scrolling super fast, and on android i never got this.
IMHO overall the S-amoled is better, the colors are more vivid but it's funny how the maker of both displays is Samsung
Hexmaster93 said:
IMHO overall the S-amoled is better, the colors are more vivid but it's funny how the maker of both displays is Samsung
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Lol then samsung wins
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
kanwal236 said:
What are you talking about, I've used my phone in direct sunlight in the middle of the day and the screen is easily readable with MINIMUM brightness, unless your screen is dirty and is being extra reflective because of it, this screen works amazing in the sun, on full its clear even with glare
Also, my vibrant's browser does not blur, I just tested it for a goods few mins and no bluring at all
And lastly on discussion, the i4's screen resolution + the smaller size of the screen kinda makes you think its sharper but its a smaller screen...does a higher resolution help it at all? Do you see any distinguishable difference from a lower res screen?
The only advantage i4 has is how dim and how bright the display can get because its an lcd however super amoled wins overall
Sent from my SXY-T959
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had the blurry browser srolling on all my Google phones. Its more noticeable if you've used an iPhone for a while then used a Google phone for a while. Just go to this forum, and look at the arrows pointing right and the icons especially the envelopes to the left of the thread titles. Now slowly scroll, you'll notice the envelopes almost blinking, and the lines become jagged off and on. So when you scroll normally theres a subtle choppiness. But really its only annoying because iPhones don't do it they are smooth, I thinking its the gpu acceleration which we should have shortly. Android hadn't said why they have put off gpu acc so long. Or maqybe they have but I don't know about it. As far as sunlight it could he better but coming from a nexus I would say the vibrant is indeed a treat
I hope this isn't too off topic. I've over clocked and lag fixed my vibrant, I'm trying to show up this guy at my job that has iphone4 how do you run a benchmark test on iphone so we can compare? I'm at 1700 benchmark right now
Joshochoa187 said:
I hope this isn't too off topic. I've over clocked and lag fixed my vibrant, I'm trying to show up this guy at my job that has iphone4 how do you run a benchmark test on iphone so we can compare? I'm at 1700 benchmark right now
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Click to collapse
There's linpack for iPhone, but it isn't made by the same company, so I am not sure how *valid* the comparison would be. There isn't really any universal benchmarking tools that exists on both platforms. So you are SOL at the moment.
Dunno why this turned into a iphone vs galaxy s post but here is a link for an unbiased view on both of these phones screens (scroll to bottom);
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i9000_galaxy_s_vs_apple_iphone_4-review-500p3.php
Most people won't be able to tell the difference in my opinion. Now if you are blowing up pics and text you will probably will see the difference. The super amoled blew me away the first time I saw avatar on it, Iphone can't do that.
Hello,
I'm currently a proud owner of HTC Tattoo (running android 2.3.7) and I'm looking to buy a new phone. There are few phones that I had in mind, but mini pro is currently my favorite. I love the fact that it has a real qwerty keyboard, 1Ghz processor, and the small screen (I like a phone that fits in my pocket).
But, I have few questions:
Do the newer versions have the noise issue ?
Is the touch screen responsive ?
Is battery life good, and is battery overheating ?
Is reception good ?
Is the phone generally fast ? (I'm tired of Tattoo's occasional lags)
So what do you think, should I buy it ?
Kind regards,
Andrew
Some have reported that they still have the electrostatic noise even after updating to 2.3.4 although Sony Ericsson have stated that it's fixed. Of course, as an owner of a Sony Ericsson Xperia mini Pro sk17a, after finally updating, I still get the electrostatic noise.
I've seen much improvement with the touchscreen after updating to 2.3.4. As in its pretty responsive.
In terms of battery life, it's decent, I can get several hours of movie watching on it (like 10 hours) and it still hasn't reached 15%. Charging is really fast, you can probably charge the phone dead to full in an hour. The battery won't overheat unless you're playing games on the beach. I haven't seen the phone go above 42C.
Reception depends on location, carrier, etc, factors like that. I'm getting full bars right now so I guess it's good.
The phone is generally fast, but you will see a difference comparing to your old phone or to a high end phone like the SGS2. I haven't seen much occasional lag. And those were very occasional.
Do you like the 3-inch screen? The thick form factor?
Whether you should buy it or not, it's your choice. It's a pretty good mid- ranged phone.
Feel free to ask more questions.
AndrewB. said:
Do the newer versions have the noise issue ?
Is the touch screen responsive ?
Is battery life good, and is battery overheating ?
Is reception good ?
Is the phone generally fast ? (I'm tired of Tattoo's occasional lags)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"Newer" phones have had a hardware fix - according to Sony Ericsson. The jury is out on that one though as there's no confirmation of the build number's that have the fix and there's no real agreement on whether it has "gone" or merely been reduced to a lower level. In fact, there appears to be at least two different noise problems - a rythmic pulsing and a higher-pitched clicking noise - so it's often difficult to know which people are talking about when their posts aren't detailed.
Touch screen - excellent. I've had no problems with it - even with a screen protector attached.
Battery life - difficult question. If used as a phone, it will last for ages. If you use wi-fi and other heavy draws, it will obviously reduce battery life. Even then, it's very difficult to make a fair comparison with any other phone - you'd have to have a genuine like-for-like comparison - even the signal strength and line speed from the network source will impact on how much work the phone has to do. As a purely subjective opinion - it's acceptable. I often leave wi-fi on all day and play games, watch videos and generally "play" with the phone for a full day - I just recharge it at night - and it's never run flat. Regarding heat - I've never noticed it even getting more than vaguely warm.
Reception - an odd one. It does seem well able to pick-up on the weakish signal where I live but it has a strange habit of losing the connection even when there is a string signal. It doesn't do that all the time and it appears to me to be a software rather than a hardware problem as it seems to happen after using certain apps or performing certain functions. Having said that, I've yet to lose a call.
Is it fast - hell yes. A 1GB single-core processor is hardly going to break any records but the phone "feels" great - I've yet to find anything that suffered any obvious issues as a result of the CPU speed. Considering the price - which has recently halved in the UK - it is miles faster and more responsive than anything else I could find. Video playback is smooth and seeking within vids is instantaneous, webpages are rendered very quickly - including graphics and - of course - the phone supports Flash properly so that includes animated graphics. The games I've played have been smooth and I've not noticed any feeling that the phone is holding me or the game back. There is an occasional, very slight, stammer if playing a game which has banner-adverts popping up but I've seen that happen on phones with faster CPUs - and switching off network connections (or rooting and installing an ad blocker) stops that anyway.
Overall - you can't buy £500's worth of performance for £130 - but I reckon this phone delivers twice what it cost. If you need top-of-the-range performance, you have to pay top dollar - but if you are looking at a phone in this price range, I don't think there are currently any serious alternatives.
One thing - the small screen is something you have to take into account - and that is entirely down to what you expect to use the phone for. Bear in mind that although the screen is small in size, the resolution is actually pretty good compared with most phones at this price. It's not ideal if you want to do a lot of reading or browsing - text is lovely and clear but no screen this size can compete with a larger screen where you can see more than a paragraph at a time. For general browsing though - checking the news and reading through forums etc - it's perfectly good.
It's worth mentioning too that the keyboard is great. The keys look tiny but there's plenty of space between them so accurate typing is pretty easy.
There's one big downer for me with this phone and even though it's something you didn't ask about (and may not matter to you), it deserves a mention. The camera - still and video - is awful. The still camera produces lifeless, soft pictures that look like they came from a sub-1M camera from ten years ago. The supposedly "HD" video camera is just about acceptable in the brightest of natural light - otherwise it is soft, grainy and about as "good" as the average 1.3M webcam - only the pixel size of the output film is high - as if it filmed at 1M and then stretched the film in software. This is one of the most common criticisms of this phone and it is hoped that SE can fix these problems as they appear to be down to the software over compressing the photos and vids to reduce file-sizes. A "quality" setting for the camera (often found on higher resolution cameras) would be the obvious solution - and should be easy to add.
And then there's the BIG upper for a lot of people - SE are already working on getting Android 4 - Ice Cream Sandwich - rolled out for this phone. It is hoped that we'll start seeing that within a few weeks. If nothing else, that will protect the resale value of the phone - you should be able to get a good price if you sell the phone in a year's time because it will still be fairly up-to-date - the same doesn't apply to many other phones in this price-range.
Hope that helps
Thank you for helping me decide.
I bought the phone and I love it.
AndrewB. said:
Thank you for helping me decide.
I bought the phone and I love it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
congrats man! =D
Hi all. This is like a mini review about Neo V MT11i. Before I bought it I could not find much info. I know, it is almost the same as Neo, but still there are some issues, so maybe this review will help someone to decide, especially if you are planning an upgrade after a Nokia N7x/N8x series phone.
I wanted to buy Neo MT15i when it came out because it seemed to have a good price/functionality ratio but I hesitated a bit, the price still seemed a bit too high for me.
So when Neo V came to our country (Latvia), I waited till Christmas and then bought it with a 2 year contract. Before buying I explored other options but Neo V seemed to be the best value for the money and also I really wanted to get Android 4 soon, and I found out that SonyEricsson is really good at this lately (after their failure with X10)
I also knew that Neo V may have an unexpected restart problems but my operator has been pretty good with warranties, so I trust that all will be OK, unless I do something crazy with my phone.
At first some background about me and my habits. Previously I have had SE k750i, I guess, it is a legendary phone in some way. After that I got Nokia N79, also was (and still is) pretty good.
I have a vision defect since birth, so I really appreciate when phone software manufacturers put some means to increase font size. But I also am a programmer, so I can do some tweaking if needed. On my N79 I used a software called FontRouter, it helped a bit.
I know that currently Android has no ways to increase font size globally, but ICS promise to provide that, so one more reason for me to eagerly wait for ICS.
My phone usage scenarios (most used go first):
- listen to FM radio/music player a lot while walking or going home by bus;
- reading e-books (used mobipocket on N79);
- phone calls and SMS (yeah, only 3rd position);
- shooting photos, if there is something interesting happening around;
- watching movies (I had to recompress them to watch with DivX player on N79);
- taking pictures of text (when too lazy to write something down);
- using phone camera as a "zoom device": if I am at some timetable and cannot read it, I just take a picture of it and then zoom in my phone so I can read it;
- shooting videos when in a party with friends or family; we enjoy to watch those movies later; really convenient if there is no real video camera at hand;
- occasionally surfing Internet (only Wi-Fi; mobile Internet is pretty expensive in Latvia).
So, those are main points which I'll use to evaluate if Neo V was a good choice comparing to my N79.
I live 30km from a city, so the FM coverage is not great here. It was nice to see that Neo V was receiving the signal much better than N79, less noise and more signal stability while I was jogging.
But the handsfree system of Neo is not as good as N79. N79 has play/stop buttons and a volume rocker built in the headphone wire, Neo has just one button to control radio and player.
Reading and watching movies is much better on a bigger screen. The only thing that was irritating - auto brightness. It may be unnoticeable when watching movies or picture, but is annoying when reading a text on a white background. Oh, SE, fix it soon, please.
The screen size is good for me, the phone is not much bigger than N79, so I had no problems to get used to it.
I had no chance to test it in a direct sunlight yet. N79 was pretty good at this, it has some mirroring layer, so the image just loses colors but remains readable.
Phone calls - no problems yet. Seems not as loud as N79 though. But N79 has two stereo speakers, so it would not be honest to compare it to any phone out there.
SMS - not as good as I expected. Pretty small white text on a bubble with a pretty bright background, while there is lots of free space above. Hard to read. Hope ICS or SE will fix it.
Wi-Fi works fine (with ASUS WL500GP router in g mode). I had no opportunity to compare if the reception range is the same as with N79 but I will test it soon.
Build quality - N79 feels better, it has some metal parts. I wish Neo V at least had some spare back covers, preferably, rubberized. But I am a gentle phone user, N79 looks just like new after 2 years active use. So I hope my new Neo V will be with me at least for the next 2 years.
Battery life - ok for Android, almost 2 days with little use.
Now the most questionable part. I have read many complaints about not-so-good-as-expected quality of Xperia cameras, so I was prepared, especially because I chose the 5Mp version. Also my N79 has 5Mp, so I could compare.
Here are my subjective impressions about Neo V compared to N79.
I did not tweak any settings much, just left pretty much as is to see how both devices compare when used "out of the box".
I tested indoors, because this is usually where more camera problems can be discovered.
Video recording - no doubts, Neo V is a winner.
Photos:
- more noise
- less details, a bit too much blurring
- sometimes there are weird artifacts like shifted pixels and some patches of blurring (see attached pictures)
There are still some positive moments about Neo V camera compared to N79:
- more consistent colors between shots (N79 had more problems to keep the same white balance or something like that)
- more contrast
- less artifacts around sharp edges (maybe because it has blurred the edges too much? )
Now some questions.
My operator does not use any branding on the phones, just locks the phone to his GSM network. After the contract ends, I can request an unlock procedure. At least so it has been till now.
I hope, the fact that I have a network-locked phone does not mean that I will need to wait for ICS much longer? And also is this phone in any major way different from an unlocked one? After my contract ends and I unlock it, will it be like the same as a normal Neo V phone, which was never locked to any network at all?
And look at two pictures from Neo V. The first one:
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk308/progmars/DSC_0009.jpg
Zoom closely to N79 box at the right bottom where it says 4GB. Notice there is a block right in the middle of the 4GB text with some pixel shifting to the left.
Now look at the other picture with some text:
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk308/progmars/DSC_0012.jpg
It is a pretty weak shot, I made a much better with the next attempt using a "Text document" mode. But this shot demonstrates some weird blocky blurring. It seems like the jpeg compressor is processing not the entire picture but only parts of it, so there are some detailed areas with visible letters and some blurred areas.
Are these both problems just a result of a bad compression or there is something more serious going on?
Anyway, for now the phone seems good. I hope ICS update will bring something new to it and fix some issues (especially camera issues and font size adjustments).
midix said:
Now some questions.
My operator does not use any branding on the phones, just locks the phone to his GSM network. After the contract ends, I can request an unlock procedure. At least so it has been till now.
I hope, the fact that I have a network-locked phone does not mean that I will need to wait for ICS much longer? And also is this phone in any major way different from an unlocked one? After my contract ends and I unlock it, will it be like the same as a normal Neo V phone, which was never locked to any network at all?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you will most-likely have to wait a bit longer to get the upgrade.
As for the unlocking it has to be done via a special method which costs 15 bucks (SETool2) but after that (and flashing stock ROM if your operator provides special ROM) your phone will be like an unbranded one.
midix said:
And look at two pictures from Neo V. The first one:
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk308/progmars/DSC_0009.jpg
Zoom closely to N79 box at the right bottom where it says 4GB. Notice there is a block right in the middle of the 4GB text with some pixel shifting to the left.
Now look at the other picture with some text:
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk308/progmars/DSC_0012.jpg
It is a pretty weak shot, I made a much better with the next attempt using a "Text document" mode. But this shot demonstrates some weird blocky blurring. It seems like the jpeg compressor is processing not the entire picture but only parts of it, so there are some detailed areas with visible letters and some blurred areas.
Are these both problems just a result of a bad compression or there is something more serious going on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See this.
I know that currently Android has no ways to increase font size globally, but ICS promise to provide that, so one more reason for me to eagerly wait for ICS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you can edit the dpi setting in the build.prop file which is located at ROOT/system/build.prop.txt or download an app for it like this. Lower values make the font larger. But changing the settings will likely misalign some texts. Here's a demonstration of the effect:
The only thing that was irritating - auto brightness. It may be unnoticeable when watching movies or picture, but is annoying when reading a text on a white background.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this app. Another advantage is that your screen can be set much brighter than on stock settings.
Both apps I mentioned are ROOT only.
Thanks for those links.
I found in some other threads that now it is possible to root Neo V without unlocking the bootloader, so I guess, I can root and try those two apps without a risk of losing warranty.
I'm just writing this to share my experience of the Galaxy alpha, I'll keep updating this as I think of more stuff to write. I'll also post pics when I can
But first I got to say this is an amazing phone, especially at the price I got it for, $270 new for the 850A,
I'm most impressed with the battery life, I average about 3 hours and 30 minutes of screen on time, and that's over 12 hours, right now it's at 11 hours with 1 hour and 30 minutes of SOT, with 53% left, If I push it I can get 4 hours SOT
Also I'm also surprised with the display, I came from a G3 with a 2K display, and before that an HTC One, you do notice the pixels about 6 inches from your face, and you shouldn't have it that close anyway, at about foot away it looks as sharp as my mom's G2
I'm not terribly impressed with the camera
Its takes very good photos outside, better then the G2, but in low light it's probably the worst I've ever seen
But one positive is the camera lens, it's very scratch proof, my mom and I got our phones at the same time, and used them the same, hers is full of scratches (my G3 was the same) and mine has not one speck
That's what I'm going to write so far, let me know if you have questions, I'll keep updating this thread with pics and more stuff I find to write about,
I also came from the G2 and I think the upgrade to Alpha is really good.
The best thing about the Alpha is its responsiveness (especially in lollipop) is the closest to an iPhone i've seen from an android device. It also kills the g2 in gaming---try running GTA San Andreas on G2, its hardly playable.
FOr the screen, I love the AMOLED Contrast but the resolution is horrendous due to the pentile display halving the already little 720p resolution. I really hope they atleast made it 1080p.
I also think the size is perfect. Onc eyou go back to smaller form factor you realize that the large size is overrated and you dont really need that much large device.
Low resolution was great choice from samsung if you dont use binoculars when you're using it you can't discover anything. Also it affects great buttery life so if you want sharper display (my opinion is that is unnecessary ) take g4 or something with this absolutely unnecessary thing .. also the performance is better cause the cpu dont have to count so many useless pixels like with fhd or 2k ...
Odesláno z mého SM-G850FQ pomocí Tapatalk
jirik152 said:
Low resolution was great choice from samsung if you dont use binoculars when you're using it you can't discover anything. Also it affects great buttery life so if you want sharper display (my opinion is that is unnecessary ) take g4 or something with this absolutely unnecessary thing .. also the performance is better cause the cpu dont have to count so many useless pixels like with fhd or 2k ...
Odesláno z mého SM-G850FQ pomocí Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. I still prefer the amoled of the alpha overall since it really has great visibility, viewing angles and colors. The best thing is the responsiveness of the alpha due to the 720p.
Sent from my SM-G850L using XDA Free mobile app
mykeldg said:
I also came from the G2 and I think the upgrade to Alpha is really good.
The best thing about the Alpha is its responsiveness (especially in lollipop) is the closest to an iPhone i've seen from an android device. It also kills the g2 in gaming---try running GTA San Andreas on G2, its hardly playable.
FOr the screen, I love the AMOLED Contrast but the resolution is horrendous due to the pentile display halving the already little 720p resolution. I really hope they atleast made it 1080p.
I also think the size is perfect. Onc eyou go back to smaller form factor you realize that the large size is overrated and you dont really need that much large device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I hold the G2 and the alpha about a foot from my face you can't tell the difference, but I'd rather have a 720p display then 1080p just for the battery life, I think anything over a 5 inch display should have 1080 though
Thanks OP for the Review.
Agree that Camera is a little off compared to S5 it is probably same sensor as S5 BUT Samsung intentionally dumbed it down to 12 Megapixels to not compete with S5.
For low light indoors- move exposure to plus two (+2) AND use picture stabilization BUT picture stabilize takes a lo-o-o-ong exposure so rest the phone on something while you hold it and voice actuate to avoid motion- still not great like S6 but much better.
I read a lot of reviews and opinions here about the Z5C that are from people that were or still are using a Sony device. The Z5C is usually compared in terms of the Z3C or even the Z1C. Those comparisons are good if you own those devices, but I have no prior contact with Sony. My current device is a Moto G (1st Gen).
So I'd like to know what people who had no prior contact, or at least not in the past years, with Sony say about the phone. How does it feel and how much "crap" is on a Sony phone compared to a Nexus or Motorola phone? How good/bad are the Sony-Apps ? What "oddities" do Sony phones have?
Thanks for your opinions.
I came from a Moto G (2nd Gen) to the Z5C which is my first Sony phone. So a similar path to what you are considering. It comes with way more "crap" on in than the Motorola did. Where my Moto G (2nd Gen) might have had 5 Motorola utilities, the Z5C has maybe 30. Many of them are app/tools that seemingly connect you into the Sony Sphere. PlayStation stuff, Dinosaur images pop up in the camera you can stamp on your photos and super cheesy Japanese schoolgirl emoticons for your text input.
If you like the clean native Google apps such as Gmail, Calendar, Photos messaging and so on you will find yourself having to disable the Sony versions.
One oddity my Z3C has is that is is fussy about which micro USB cable will charge it. So if like me you have a collection of micro USB cables and chargers from previous phone they may not all work. I guess this may be due to tighter tolerances required water proofing the charge port. Not a biggy but worth knowing.
I find the Xperia Keyboard gesture input (aka Swype input) to be a PITA. Miss rate is too high and deleting errors is tedious. Shame becuase it works very well on other phones.
Small size is great. Can easily slip it in a front trouser pocket.
BUT I have yet to feel "vibrate on for calls" when it is my pocket. When someone does call when Z5C in pocket when I am doing somehting noisey like mowing a lawn, I dont feel the vinration alert, it seemingly wakes the phone and thereafter movement leads to random screen presses. So when I eventually retrieve it form my pocket an hour later the screen is still on and it is in some weird screen such as the camera or emerg dialer. Perhpas I am missing something here though. Oh and definitely don't buy it for the camera if you are expecting a point and shoot with a high % of great shots.
That's my thoughts.
Coming from a nexus 5, I love this phone! Never charge it from the mains only from my car every day(1 hour commute each way) and it keeps going strong! Pretty quick and feels good.
Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk
Coming from Samsung S3
This Z5 is very bad...unstable sw, no optimization, really slow...bleah! I think i will never buy again a sony device. Oh...customer care is bad too.
Camera is slow and poor quality, GPS is very inaccurate, BT disconnet and reconnect every 15 secs (i think the problem is trhow but i can't disable it...)
So...i'm not a satisfied user..
Thank you all for your replies.
logger said:
I came from a Moto G (2nd Gen) to the Z5C which is my first Sony phone. So a similar path to what you are considering. It comes with way more "crap" on in than the Motorola did. Where my Moto G (2nd Gen) might have had 5 Motorola utilities, the Z5C has maybe 30. Many of them are app/tools that seemingly connect you into the Sony Sphere. PlayStation stuff, Dinosaur images pop up in the camera you can stamp on your photos and super cheesy Japanese schoolgirl emoticons for your text input.
If you like the clean native Google apps such as Gmail, Calendar, Photos messaging and so on you will find yourself having to disable the Sony versions.
One oddity my Z3C has is that is is fussy about which micro USB cable will charge it. So if like me you have a collection of micro USB cables and chargers from previous phone they may not all work. I guess this may be due to tighter tolerances required water proofing the charge port. Not a biggy but worth knowing.
I find the Xperia Keyboard gesture input (aka Swype input) to be a PITA. Miss rate is too high and deleting errors is tedious. Shame becuase it works very well on other phones.
Small size is great. Can easily slip it in a front trouser pocket.
BUT I have yet to feel "vibrate on for calls" when it is my pocket. When someone does call when Z5C in pocket when I am doing somehting noisey like mowing a lawn, I dont feel the vinration alert, it seemingly wakes the phone and thereafter movement leads to random screen presses. So when I eventually retrieve it form my pocket an hour later the screen is still on and it is in some weird screen such as the camera or emerg dialer. Perhpas I am missing something here though. Oh and definitely don't buy it for the camera if you are expecting a point and shoot with a high % of great shots.
That's my thoughts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually never use the original cables since I have set up a "charging station". Which cables does the Z5C not accept? Is there a pattern?
And I'm not buying this for the camera, I have a DSLR for that
Tuonorosso said:
Coming from Samsung S3
This Z5 is very bad...unstable sw, no optimization, really slow...bleah! I think i will never buy again a sony device. Oh...customer care is bad too.
Camera is slow and poor quality, GPS is very inaccurate, BT disconnet and reconnect every 15 secs (i think the problem is trhow but i can't disable it...)
So...i'm not a satisfied user..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have the newest firmware ? AFAIK a few things should have been fixed with the latest update. What experience do you have with the customer care ?
ricostuart said:
Coming from a nexus 5, I love this phone! Never charge it from the mains only from my car every day(1 hour commute each way) and it keeps going strong! Pretty quick and feels good.
Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How was the Z5C in terms of "snappiness" compared to the Nexus ?
nazgoul said:
Do you have the newest firmware ? AFAIK a few things should have been fixed with the latest update. What experience do you have with the customer care ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, last fw: 32.0.A.6.152
Customer care have reset the phone 4 times. Each trial did not resolve the problem. In the end they told me to bring it to service but they had no idea of the repair time and they not given me any temporary phone.
My phone has only one month and i need it for work...i can't stay weeks without it. For a 600$ phone i think this is unacceptable.
At this time i have the same initial problems...
I hope in Marshmallow ...
Coming from Moto G first Gen (falcon)
Coming from Moto G 1st Gen. This is my first Sony Phone.
I am loving the Z5C.
Few things to note that that will give you an idea between the two phones
1. The flash on the moto g is noticeably brighter and warmer. Idc about cameras, but I find I use the flashlight a lot
2. The chip on the Z5C does feel much faster. Not sure how to describe it other than the UI on the Z5C being more "fluid"
3. The chip on the Z5C does get noticeably warm (but not hot) on the back under certain loads. E.g. running long sessions of RDP or installing lots of apps in quick succession or recording 4K video. Under normal use like browsing the web or watching youtube it does not get warm.
4. The camera is way better than the Moto G
5. The hardware feels really solid. It feels dense. I like it
6. The battery life is significantly better. At my usage, the Moto G will die at about 8pm or 9pm (taking off the charge at 7am). I have yet to kill the Z5C in a single day in my normal use
(my normal use usually has a few hours of music, and at least 4 hours of screen time)
7. The stereo speakers are much nicer, but the stereo effect is small, and they aren't not as loud as the moto g's single speaker
8. The max brightness of the Z5C's screen is about the same as the one on the Moto G. The min brightness is on the Z5C is lower though.
9 The physical dimensions of the Z5C is smaller in width and height. The Z5C does feel thicker because of its more boxy shape though
In terms of bloatware, there is quite a bit. I have a lot of apps disabled from settings or hidden (I use Apex)
There are some features that sony added that are nice though.
1. Built in screen recording
2. "Small Apps" - a bit like floating widgets
3. Nice audio optimizations that make my music experience nicer
4. Being able to customize the quick settings in the notification center
5. Battery percentage in the status bar (this is important to me )
6. The screen colours can be calibrated to your liking
Other things to consider
- The fingerprint sensor is pretty bad, but that could be just my fingers.
- The phone is really slippery compared to the Moto G. A case is highly recommended.
- Stamina mode - I havent tested if this has a positive effect on battery life, but i'm letting the placebo effect take place
- The microsd slot is nice for future proofing, although given that I had a 8GB moto g, and the Z5C comes with 32GB, Im not going to need a microsd in the near future.
- Water proofing
- Of the 32GB, about 10GB is taken up by the android system, and thus we cannot use for our own stuff
- I found the volume button placement on the Z5C wierd until I got used to it in less than a week. Unless you actively need access to it all the time, its not annoying
- I find that everything on screen is too large for my liking, so I have my DPI set to 280, the same as what I had on my Moto G
In response to some of the things said above:
- Bluetooth works fine for me. It has never lost connection to my Microsoft Band when I needed them to be connected
- I've used my Z5C with 3 different usb cables, none of them have a problem.
- Camera does launch slow if Photo Analyser Service is not disabled. The camera launches quite fast now (but admittedly not as fast as say an iPhone 6s)
- The GPS locks quicker than the Moto G, and has yet to be inaccurate for me.
I am really looking forward to Marshmallow
I hope that answers your questions. Sorry for long response lol
I have both nexus 6p and z5 compact. Previously had nexus 6.
I went for the z5c as it had wifi calling, and is a pretty small but powerful phone.
Notables, z5c is under-clocked, could be because heat dissipation on small device yielded unsatisfactory result, could be another one of those battery optimisation things.
It also seems to be on a conservative or power save profile, making it slow to start, but if you launch a game it gets into gear.
It was stuttering even with the OTAs of which i had received two, just a few days ago, even with factory resets it did not go away.
I used the sony PC companion to do a full firmware flash, not an incremental OTA and it became pretty smooth and slick to use again with all 0.5 speed animations and about 20 apps installed. I also disabled all of the original media apps and extra Sony stuff and use my own, poweramp and mxplayer is all i really need.
Pretty good experience to use now. Too bad about it using some sort of powersave profile even with stamina disabled. Good thing i have an nexus 6p to play with too.
you5urf said:
I used the sony PC companion to do a full firmware flash, not an incremental OTA and it became pretty smooth and slick to use again with all 0.5 speed animations and about 20 apps installed. I also disabled all of the original media apps and extra Sony stuff and use my own, poweramp and mxplayer is all i really need.
Pretty good experience to use now. Too bad about it using some sort of powersave profile even with stamina disabled. Good thing i have an nexus 6p to play with too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you know how to disable throw?
Coming from the N5:
Disadvantages:
- Much less free RAM (N5X also has this issue, I think it's related to Android 64 bits).
- Much lower photo quality
Advantages:
- 200% or much more battery life.
- overall quality
- vídeo quality
Sent from my E5823
I am coming from the HTC One M7 which can be considered an old phone now I guess.
Good:
-Battery life finally gets me over the day and sometimes into the second.
-Better camera, but by far not great.
-Better display brightness
Bad:
-Sonys Android design looks like a toy. It lacks the beautiful HTC Sense look and features.
-Even with the latest firmware and fresh format its doesnt feel any fast than the old HTC One. Sense had a nicer flow overall.
-In general, switching between apps is not faster, once in the app, the processor surely shows its power. Antutu gave me 31k on HTC One and 62k on Z5C, so technically twice as fast.
-Having the phone in the front pockets of your jeans just looks stupid with the hard edges. The HTC one with its beautiful round design was basically invisible in your pocket.
The HTC One was far from perfect and had its issues, but my heart is still with that phone and I dont beleive I am gonna buy another Sony phone. I wanted a small powerful phone, but its not easy to like this phone I am afraid.
eivissa said:
I am coming from the HTC One M7 which can be considered an old phone now I guess.
Good:
-Battery life finally gets me over the day and sometimes into the second.
-Better camera, but by far not great.
-Better display brightness
Bad:
-Sonys Android design looks like a toy. It lacks the beautiful HTC Sense look and features.
-Even with the latest firmware and fresh format its doesnt feel any fast than the old HTC One. Sense had a nicer flow overall.
-In general, switching between apps is not faster, once in the app, the processor surely shows its power. Antutu gave me 31k on HTC One and 62k on Z5C, so technically twice as fast.
-Having the phone in the front pockets of your jeans just looks stupid with the hard edges. The HTC one with its beautiful round design was basically invisible in your pocket.
The HTC One was far from perfect and had its issues, but my heart is still with that phone and I dont beleive I am gonna buy another Sony phone. I wanted a small powerful phone, but its not easy to like this phone I am afraid.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm also coming from a HTC ONE M7 and I'm feeling exactly as you. I have had the phone for 5 days now and I'm seriously considering to sell it and keep using my M7 since I'm seeing the same things than you see.
I have great expectations for this phone but now that I have it, I'm a little bit disappointed...I don't know if it's cause I'm so use to my old phone or cause my old phone is sooo good that I don't see anything new or improved on the z5c...maybe expect for the waterproofing things.
I'll give it another week to see If I can fall in love with it...maybe when the custom roms start showing up I'll start to see the advantages of changing.
I've been used some HTC and got a Z1c and S6. Guys plz give sometime to this phone, my S6 also took a couple of months to improve before got satisfy result. I believe Android 6.0 will give a new life to this phone.
I've only experienced Apple's devices so I came over from an iPhone 3G, iPhone 4S and then an iPhone 6S. I absolutely LOVE this sucker. And I must have gotten very lucky because I haven't seen any of the issues that others have.
Pros:
1. Fascinated by the Android OS. There's just so much you can do with it! So much more freeing than Apple's IOS. They both have a few positive and negative quirks, but I'm not really missing IOS that much. I did miss the Safari left/right swipe browser initially, but found out about the Rbrowser app with built in ad-block and the swipe feature, and couldn't be happier.
2. The device is quick. Compared to my iPhone devices haven't experienced nearly as much lag even under load.
3. I love the camera and video. Takes far better pictures and video than any camera I've ever used before, and with the latest update, the menu selection is so easy to use. I think the side button to open the camera app is a genius. I also never experienced the blur issue that a lot of others complained about.
4. The size and look of the device totally compliments me. I find modern phones like the Galaxy S6 and the iPhone 6S way too big and clunky. This device is exactly the right size. Slightly larger than my old 4S, but still comfortable to hold, and type one handed with. I also absolutely love the sharp right angles on the phone. I dig the thickness of the Compact, and I love the bright punky yellow of the case color I selected.
5. The fingerprint scanner is so fun to use. I had one on the 6S that worked maybe slightly better, but that's only because there was more surface area to press, but still having a fingerprint reader makes me feel like a spy a bit.
6. I haven't had any issues with the heat of the phone. It gets warm, but after a month of use, I've never experienced it getting warmer than the 4S or the 6S even while playing graphic intensive games, using the GPS, or recording video. It never gets warm while browsing websites, or doing day to day smartphone things.
7. The device did have a little bit of bloatware, but then, so did Apple's devices. Removing/disabling the bloat was easy to do.
8. So far no unexpected surprises. The alarm works. the phone rings and vibrates as it ought. The apps all open fine. I get all my expected alerts and then some. Messaging works fine. The screen is bright and easy to read and watch. I love the little FM radio app (though I don't use it too much). Haven't had any issues with the GPS. Everything does what it's supposed to do.
Negatives:
1. Coming from devices with only one bottom speaker, I thought that having two front facing stereo speakers would make this device monster loud....it isn't. In fact, it's slightly quieter than the 6S (though louder than the 4S). That said, I do love the stereo effect, and I think having so many audio controls is awesome. I just wish the device was a bit louder. Hopefully when the device becomes rootable I can find a fix for that.
2. The boot up time on this device is pretty slow. From powered off, the 6S starts up in a matter of a couple seconds. It takes like half a minute or longer for the Z5 to start up. Course, this isn't much of an issue most of the time since the device doesn't usually need to be powered off or restarted.
3. The iPhone 6S 3D touch is pretty amazing, and I can see them doing some cool things with it over time. There was nothing about it that was super amazing while I had it. No apps to really take too much of an advantage of it yet, but I can see that it'll be awesome to have some time down the road.
4. The voicemail was a bit odd to set up. I'm used to Apple's easy voicemail integration that just works out of the box. For this device I had to download and setup a "visual voicemail" system that I'm not used to, and that I found a bit annoying.
My first Android phone was a Sony xperia mini. Was worse than Motorola Milestone (gsm droid) that replaced it. I since moved onto Samsung original Galaxy S and then Galaxy Nexus. Then the original Moto X dev edition which is the same size as this Z5C. I love the form factor. Ever since the Nexus 6 which I have one of those, Moto is obsessed with phone size. The Nexus 6 was named Shamu for a reason. I am hoping the just under 5" phones are not s dying breed because this device is the perfect size for me. I also like the subtle tweaks Sony does with their ROM compared to vanilla stock. Its also a fast device and I like the build quality compared to the Samsung devices I have owned. Those are my thoughts anyway.