Related
I thought we could create a thread dedicated to the upcoming new android version regarding the Xperia mini/mini pro and Ray.
Maybe here we could gather information about release dates, user interface thoughts and ideas, features etc.
Sounds like a good idea?
Peace
Sent from my ST15i using xda premium
I somehow think that Sony might pull a "We believe our stock 2.3 rom is the best ever. We see no reason to update" like they did with their older phones, and save it for their 2012 range.
Yeah possible, but then again they have stated that all the 2011 models will get ICS, and hopefully they have learned from the disaster with the X10.
But after spending some time searching the forums I'm starting to think that your scenario is pretty possible, sadly...
Sent from my ST15i using xda premium
Yes, I think the same My second phone is x10 mini pro and SE end support his on Android 2.1. Reason? Thats the best for this hardware. Now I have alternative rom an android 2.3.7 and it work faster like stock rom 2.1 Thanks for devalopers from xda.
hopefully
if they dont release it for 2011 xperias , hopefully the epic cool devs here will, as a custom rom
i'm an x8 user and they had me stuck on 2.1 and if they ever do this again to me ( i plan to get the xperia mini pro ), idk then next time i'm buying a phone i will consider that SE is invisible and have no existence in planet earth anymore lol , regardless of what so ever "super cool" looking handsets they might have available at the time......
if you like Android 4.0 theme, you can use
ICS Launcher
https://market.android.com/details?id=mobi.SyndicateApps.ICSv2
it's free app
I guess they put out a statement on it, pretty vague. But Engadget interprets as SE confirming ICS
http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/20/sony-ericsson-bringing-ice-cream-sandwich-to-xperia-handsets/
barrist said:
I guess they put out a statement on it, pretty vague. But Engadget interprets as SE confirming ICS
http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/20/sony-ericsson-bringing-ice-cream-sandwich-to-xperia-handsets/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm quite confident that it will come, eventually. Don't hold your breath on when exactly that will be, though I'm sure CM will beat them to it.
SE firmwares are somewhat backward compared to firmwares provided by samsung or htc in their devices. (eg. No smart dialing in my mini pro). And the timescape UI lacks many features (I don't need five home screens, but can't change it). I hope they will improve such minor details in forthcoming updates.
Hey guys,
New to the board, new to the Ray. I used to frequent the Arc, Play, Nexus S, and Desire S boards under a different user name but I've not posted in a while so I've since forgotten my User info, so thought I'd make a new one.
Anyways...
I got my Ray, bought it out unlocked, and unlocked the boot loader. I was really excited to get my Cyanogen on and enjoy this beautiful device. Only...Cyanogen Rom for the Ray is HORRIBLE. The Camcorder is broken, the live wallpapers option is non-existant, and the control widget is completely useless for brightness control. Seriously, WTF is wrong with that ROM its is absolute garbage.
I can understand the Ice Cream Sandwich ROM being bug ridden, its early time, but at the very least I expected Cyanogen 7 to be fully functional. Geez.
Those are the only 2 ROMS I've tried so far, the rest look boring. MIUI I am not interested in, and outside anything that slightly alters the Stock firmware there is NOTHING AVAILABLE?
Where are the ROMS? Where is the support? Where are the quality developers?
All we have are half backed ideas, ROMS that don't work properly, and nothing else.
Maybe we should start up a fund and maybe donate a few Rays to some good developers that can actually provide because at this point, there is no point in using anything other then Stock Firmware.
The Ray is a capable device, similar to the Arc, there should be more support. I miss the great support that the Nexus S and the Desire S recieved. Especially the Desire S, the Developer from that board are truly amazing. Proxuser and Super kid were really really good developers, and we need developers like them who dedicate the time needed for quality ROMS. Our support is a joke compared to what they have, and I think we need to either put up some money or some incentive, like maybe donating a few Rays, to get the ball rolling.
I agree with you, it's pretty disappointing.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure the differences between Ray and Arc are minimal, so it's quite surprising that Arc gets tons of support and Ray gets basically nothing. Even more that inferior devices such as the Minis are more supported. Maybe the device is not selling well and not many people have it? I don't know.
Obviously I'm just a tinkerer and not a developer, so I don't know how hard it could be to port Arc stuff to Ray, but yeah, this devices needs more support. How to get it? I have no idea.
I think the stock rom is pretty good, I don't find any major problem with it, it look pretty good and it's decently fast (with Supercharger it's much better), so for now I don't really feel the need to install an unofficial one.
Also, many Arc mods to the interface work on Ray too, so check out those forums too and see if there is something you like. I installed the Xperia styled torch widget and the modded battery icon (with percentage) from the Arc board and they worked fine.
MarkMRL said:
I agree with you, it's pretty disappointing.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure the differences between Ray and Arc are minimal, so it's quite surprising that Arc gets tons of support and Ray gets basically nothing. Even more that inferior devices such as the Minis are more supported. Maybe the device is not selling well and not many people have it? I don't know.
Obviously I'm just a tinkerer and not a developer, so I don't know how hard it could be to port Arc stuff to Ray, but yeah, this devices needs more support. How to get it? I have no idea.
I think the stock rom is pretty good, I don't find any major problem with it, it look pretty good and it's decently fast (with Supercharger it's much better), so for now I don't really feel the need to install an unofficial one.
Also, many Arc mods to the interface work on Ray too, so check out those forums too and see if there is something you like. I installed the Xperia styled torch widget and the modded battery icon (with percentage) from the Arc board and they worked fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Re-reading my initial post I may have sounded a bit harsh. Its just very very disappointing coming from a device that had a TON of support to one that has virtually none.
I will take your advice and check out some of the Arc's mods.
I've owned a ton of Android devices (Xperia x10, Captivate, 2 Xperia Arcs, Nexus S, another Xperia Arc, HTC Desire Z, HTC Desire S, and finally the Xperia Ray) and this is by far the worst support I've ever seen.
Adreno said:
Re-reading my initial post I may have sounded a bit harsh. Its just very very disappointing coming from a device that had a TON of support to one that has virtually none.
I will take your advice and check out some of the Arc's mods.
I've owned a ton of Android devices (Xperia x10, Captivate, 2 Xperia Arcs, Nexus S, another Xperia Arc, HTC Desire Z, HTC Desire S, and finally the Xperia Ray) and this is by far the worst support I've ever seen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you!...even my previous worst phone...Se X8...got tons of support ...i am really disappointed seeing Ray being put aside...
Sent from my ST18i using Tapatalk
What are you guys on anyway? The X8, since it was mentioned, was released 1 year ago. With 1.6 on it... there have been, what 4 different versions? And Gingerbread is sub par on it.
Regarding Adreno's note on HTC Devices.... As you are aware HTC makes phones for many companies, including T-mobile and Google. So most of these devices have almost the same internals. Hence development on those devices is really easy (you just copy paste files from one rom to another and bam you got your kang).
So on to the Ray... It was released 4 months ago. It has a different screen than most phones (480x854) so porting any generic rom onto it requires some smali editing skills. And... There is NO AOSP release for Xperia devices... at least so far. What makes other devices so "different" than the Xperia's is that some of them have been build on AOSP.
For example the DesireZ - Tmobile G2. One has Sense, the other is built on AOSP. So you have 2 completely different builds for the same device.
And some food for thought... Sony Ericsson needs about 6 months, an enormous team of developers and a ****load of money to build their own Firmware based on Already released Code. What makes you think you will see something "new" from some amateurs in less than 6 months time?
Yes i have built my "own" Rom based on the Stock Rom for the Xperia Active. I dont even consider my self an amateur. I am a total noob.
So, to finish this rant, since development for these devices is young, yet the android system as it is, is quite mature, I would recommend you to assist the people who have already developed a Rom for the Ray, in order to make something good from it. Creating a Thread in the development section, complaining about the development being "dissapointing"... then i rest my case.
/rant off
dumraden said:
So, to finish this rant, since development for these devices is young, yet the android system as it is, is quite mature, I would recommend you to assist the people who have already developed a Rom for the Ray, in order to make something good from it. Creating a Thread in the development section, complaining about the development being "dissapointing"... then i rest my case.
/rant off
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I personally don't want "assisting" of the developers that have been working on the Ray thus far, as I said my original post I don't believe that they are up to the job.
I want to entice more talented developers. What can we do to bring experienced developers that know what they are doing to the Ray?
At this point, rooting and unlocking the bootloader is pretty pointless. You are screwing yourself out of over the air updates, and there is nothing that can fill the void from the development community thus far. What. is. the. point.
This is where you are wrong.
What do you actually want from a Rom? Speed? Stability? Battery Life?
I have managed to do all these with no real coding at all. The Xperia Active with DooMLoRD's Kernel and various tweaks that i found on XDA, when on max OC ranks between the Sensation and the SGS2. Both are Dual core with a far better GPU than the Adreno 205. Oh and the OC is completely bulletproof.
For the time being, the best developers for these devices is Sony herself. It is stable, and battery efficient. You on the other hand can make it more "personalized" and fitting to your needs... Gaming-browsing... whatever...
dumraden said:
This is where you are wrong.
What do you actually want from a Rom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even if I had just Cyanogen working properly I'd be happy.
On the Desire S board Superkid had Ice Cream Sandwich ported (AOSP) to the desire S within 2 weeks, only being able to work on it on the weekends. Thats like 6 days.
On top of that, he had everything working flawlessly other than the camera by week 3.
Thats the kind of development I am talking about. Imagine how hard that was.
We don't have anything like that over here.
No it wasnt that hard. I say again. You need to be able to edit THE WHOLE DAMN BASE, if you want it in a different resolution than the one it was intended.
Yes some guys are simply amazing at what they do, but as i said earlier, most HTC devices use the same chipsets, boards, cpu's, modems etc. Sony uses a board (codenamed mogami i think) specific to the mini's. It uses a different one for the Ray, Play etc.
You will almost never have something like that. Be happy that the Cyanogenmod Team is actually working on these devices.
Hell, the mini's dont even have a MIUI build. Its either CM7 or Stock. But honestly i couldnt care less. I got bored of flashing a new rom every 2 weeks, just to see nothing different. The only difference was Sense 2.1 Sense 3.0 Sense 3.5. The rest ROMS use the same old AOSP build with an ADW launcher or a LPP on top... Big deal.
Now if someone gets sense on these devices... i'd be impressed
Complaint/rant threads about developers are not allowed at XDA. If you want something done, make it happen!
I've just been re-reading the official Sony comparison of their Gingerbread and ICS offering. This time I've had the chance to read more properly all the things they said. For the first time I actually have sympathy for Sony. The manufacturers bring out phones (e.g. SE) with the Xperias 2011 all running Gingerbread from the very start, then the next Google upgrade wipes out the phones. I owned the 2010 X10 Mini and our phone got wiped out the same way. It seems to me that we consumers do not benefit. Anyone who comes to this forum is already a bit of tech. nut, we are a very small population of the whole market, of course we want to try what's new and hot. But in this blog, Sony is explicitly saying that ICS is much, much more demanding on system resources and that we will definitely see a fall in performance, they clearly reference longer boot up time, apps force closing and stalling as well as poor video performance for different reasons that they explain in the blog.
http://developer.sonymobile.com/wp/...nical-differences-between-gingerbread-and-ics
Now I want to wait before I upgrade and check out the news. A few new icons and wallpapers is NOT good enough reason for me to upgrade. Better battery is a good reason to wait, which in that blog, Sony says you will get with Gingerbread over ICS. Do we really benefit here? Do we have to buy a new phone every year now, because Google is bumping up the demands of Android, like Microsoft did with Windows Vista? Windows 7 has less requirements than Vista, only slightly, and 8 has the same requirements as 7 so at least we could use the same laptop/pc for a few years. With Google, the way they are doing this is screwing us over I think.
For you, stay with Gingerbread, move to ICS, not sure or want to wait?
Ray users say they havent experienced any major bugs... Battery is definitely poor for now.....
Sent from my WT19i using XDA
I think on the minis and active devices we have the advance of having a smaller resolution area while having almost the same hardware as the other xperia 2011
Sent from my SK17i using XDA
They are really both very good points: we can look to the current Sony beta roms for more clues and it is true, our smaller screen being powered by the same CPU is an advantage. Perhaps we Mini users will have the least trouble amongst the 2011 Xperias?
Gingerbread would still be the most dominant OS, due to its stability on most phones,
having a new OS or phone is not always the best option.
I really thank the devs here in XDA, they are keeping old phones alive,
giving us a chance to have a taste of the new flavor and further improving stock OS on current phones.
I just recently read about the Xperia S Rom ported to Xperia X10 here, how cool is that...?
I'll choose the custom ICS rom.. sony and other manufacturer has done nothing but giving us all those bloatware while calling it "feature" rather than craps. + I see upgrade as change in UI, but sony's ICS UI has not change much compared to GB
Sent from my Xperia Mini Pro using xda premium
you can always remove the bloatwares , though of course with custom roms we can do a lot of things which are still restricted even with a rooted stock rom
urra901109 said:
I'll choose the custom ICS rom.. sony and other manufacturer has done nothing but giving us all those bloatware while calling it "feature" rather than craps. + I see upgrade as change in UI, but sony's ICS UI has not change much compared to GB
Sent from my Xperia Mini Pro using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want a different UI, just use a different home.apk? Just saying...
But yea i'm with the OP on these thoughts, have had the same thoughts for quite some time now. The thing is, we can make ICS faster on our devices just as we did with GB, but... How stable will the non-stock ICS roms be? Honestly I would rather see MIUI roms derived from GB as a base than ICS. A lot more stable with less bugs. Even the MIUI roms aren't AOSP based (as are official MIUI releases), they are FXP based roms. So, all in all we are between Stock and FXP releases.
I am not bashing on people working on developing MIUI and various ICS based roms, but like the OP, i'd rather have stability over "new features", such as full HW acceleration, which can be triggered using a variable in GB too (mind you that uses more juice).
I am going to seriously think about moving Spartan Rom from stock GB rom as a source, to stock ICS as a source.
Even if the battery consumption, which in my list of priorities for a fully functional rom is the highest in the list, is sub-par, I wont be switching over to ICS personally.
@drumraden if you see about other devices there are lots of stable roms are available (mostly aosp based, even I am using a stable custom rom for my Xoom)
We just need to give time to the devs to come up with stable ice roms.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA
You don't get my point.
The only reason to build an MIUI from ICS sources, is for the **** of saying its ICS therefore updated.
Yeah as for battery drain, I'm afraid Sony says on that site above that battery will be less durable with official ICS. What a shame. The discussion here though is really making me thing about all of this.
Yeah I am seriously thinking of going back to gb as soon as there is a good miui rom I am right now on ics because there is only one really stable miui release for the lww and it is ics but i really prefer better battery life.
On the other hand I prefer ics over hb a thousand times on my tab but it has like 7 times the battery of my phone so I have no issue with that.
I'll prefer ICS when main apps start to requires ICS.
While the requirements surround the GB I'll stick with it.
But it's nice to know that if it occurs my phone will be ready.
That's why I bought my mini-pro.
Personally, I will first give it a try. Then we will see, if it deserves to stay on my LWW or not...
yup ... sure will giv official a try ... but the best rom on gb wud be miui .... is that project still going on or has been dumped ?
i think lasan is still currently working on the GB MIUI port...
melander said:
i think lasan is still currently working on the GB MIUI port...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like the sound of that....perfect functionality and stunning visuals, yes.
Yup it feels tooo good..... Had it on ace.... Beautiful and fast......
Sent from my WT19i using XDA
I'm running Kamarush's ICS version for sk17i: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1434001
and that works like a charm. all features that I need on a daily basis, it's really stable, and it's super fast, so if SE say it's more demanding, than that's just not true. All the roms here are so much faster than stock, because here people care about the roms. it feels like the big companies just put something together but never care to optimize it. android's biggest advantage is the custom stuff.
I do feel sorry for anybody running stock software though
batman368 said:
I'm running Kamarush's ICS version for sk17i: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1434001
and that works like a charm. all features that I need on a daily basis, it's really stable, and it's super fast, so if SE say it's more demanding, than that's just not true. All the roms here are so much faster than stock, because here people care about the roms. it feels like the big companies just put something together but never care to optimize it. android's biggest advantage is the custom stuff.
I do feel sorry for anybody running stock software though
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One simple question... How much battery %/hour does the rom you have installed consume in standby mode with all radios except mobile turned off.
Sent from my ST17i using XDA
Hi,
As subject says.
I am having right now white xperia mini pro But i am planning to buy Xperia U. Should I buy???
would u suggest to buy? if not may u would lik to tell my why
I will be really thankful if u help me, i m really confused
The only real differences are the Software and the design.
My mom got an Xperia U and it's really awesome, the only downsides are the camera (bad in darkness) and no MicroSD card slot.
The Xperia U has a very beautiful design and a camera shutter button. The One V is thin and simple but the chin is very ugly and so unneccesary.
On the software you'll have to tell yourself, I personally like the Sony UI and Sony has some great apps, but also a lot of bloatware, I've only had Xperia Phones so I haven't had a TouchWiz or Sense phone, but from what I've seen I think that Sense is really ugly EXCEPT for Sense 4 (I think the One V has Sense 4) which is actually really beautiful and ICS optimized, also the Xperia U won't get ICS for a few months but if that doesn't concern you then I recommend the Xperia U.
Here are video reviews of the UIs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqU055WWofY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D31VMIJuMBs
I won't recommend xperia U.Personally I don't have it.My friend recently bought it and he regrets it.The main draw backs are no support of Devs(atleast for now).No ICS out of the box.Although sony promised an update we don't know when(correct me if I'm wrong)
So a better choice would be (according to me) Galaxy Nexus.It has got the best dev support.You get "instant" updates.And stock experience is what I like.So add a few bucks get Gnex.Only down side is bit a lag in 3d games but better than Xperia U.And other alternative is keep your xperia mini and get the Nexus 7 tablet if u aren't committed to a phone .
Hope I helped You.Think twice before buying
Sent from my LG-P500 using xda premium
Manju_kc said:
I won't recommend xperia U.Personally I don't have it.My friend recently bought it and he regrets it.The main draw backs are no support of Devs(atleast for now).No ICS out of the box.Although sony promised an update we don't know when(correct me if I'm wrong)
So a better choice would be (according to me) Galaxy Nexus.It has got the best dev support.You get "instant" updates.And stock experience is what I like.So add a few bucks get Gnex.Only down side is bit a lag in 3d games but better than Xperia U.And other alternative is keep your xperia mini and get the Nexus 7 tablet if u aren't committed to a phone .
Hope I helped You.Think twice before buying
Sent from my LG-P500 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was gonna recommend Galaxy Nexus too but it's a little more expensive.
You're right, Xperia U has a small community, but it's still pretty new and Sony Mobile isn't that big in the US, mostly sold in Sweden and Japan. Also Gingerbread SUCKS but if you're patient you can wait for ICS, and this guy just got ICS for his Xperia Mini so he's used to GB.
Manju_kc said:
I won't recommend xperia U.Personally I don't have it.My friend recently bought it and he regrets it.The main draw backs are no support of Devs(atleast for now).No ICS out of the box.Although sony promised an update we don't know when(correct me if I'm wrong)
So a better choice would be (according to me) Galaxy Nexus.It has got the best dev support.You get "instant" updates.And stock experience is what I like.So add a few bucks get Gnex.Only down side is bit a lag in 3d games but better than Xperia U.And other alternative is keep your xperia mini and get the Nexus 7 tablet if u aren't committed to a phone .
Hope I helped You.Think twice before buying
Sent from my LG-P500 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think Gnex is not in India i guess, correct if i am wrong.
The phones just launched and the dev support will be there slowly i think.
Out of the Box Ics is not a importnt thing when u can get it by updating later or sooner
I already got dell streak with 5inch screen and ipad. so i guess i wont go for gnex7 tab
Oscar-Mark said:
The only real differences are the Software and the design.
My mom got an Xperia U and it's really awesome, the only downsides are the camera (bad in darkness) and no MicroSD card slot.
The Xperia U has a very beautiful design and a camera shutter button. The One V is thin and simple but the chin is very ugly and so unneccesary.
On the software you'll have to tell yourself, I personally like the Sony UI and Sony has some great apps, but also a lot of bloatware, I've only had Xperia Phones so I haven't had a TouchWiz or Sense phone, but from what I've seen I think that Sense is really ugly EXCEPT for Sense 4 (I think the One V has Sense 4) which is actually really beautiful and ICS optimized, also the Xperia U won't get ICS for a few months but if that doesn't concern you then I recommend the Xperia U.
Here are video reviews of the UIs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqU055WWofY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D31VMIJuMBs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also personlly dnt like htc UI, i remember i bought htc explorer b4 my xperia mini pro and i replaced it in 1 day.:silly:
Sony UI is always evergreen user friendly
btw, **** for ics update. man when jelly beans will be in action , sony will give ics. wow, confusing
I recommend xperia Go! i have one and i love it
nghia_kid2000 said:
I recommend xperia Go! i have one and i love it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But the screen of GO is more smaller than U ???
and whats internal storage size and sd there??
@Moderaters.........Please close this thread, as the problem/confusion is solved. Got me Xperia u
pm the forum mod with your thread link posting here wouldnt help
Well you could always hope for a direct Jelly Bean upgrade, but Sony are so lazy with skinning Jelly Bean so I wouldn't think so.
But Jelly beans on Xperia U .......eehhhhh
wen Ics update decreases the RAM then i think JB will kill it. i mean JB will be requireing alot space.
btw, any1 know eta for ics on U
Hello everyone I'm ChongWiz, since I got my first android device in early 2011 (Xperia X8) I used XPERIA smartphones because I loved the UI and the design of Sony. Now, I'm planning to upgrade from Xperia Sola to an HTC One X+, and I'm planning to use an AOSP based rom on it because I really like pure Android looks since ICS was out. There are two things that I'm afraid of with this phone:
1) Gaming performance on Gameloft, and other really high graphics games
2) Battery drain/overheat on AOSP based roms.
Please confirm/bust my fears because I really don't want to get disappointed with my phone like I did with my Sola!
I would use the phone for gaming/watching movies browsing the web, emailing, phoning, and chatting.
Thanks in advance, ChongWiz
From my own experience i would say dont worry about point 1,best phone i ever owned, point 2 i dont know never tried aosp roms
Sent from my HTC One X+ using xda premium
Thread has been closed as comparison phone / rom threads are not allowed.