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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!
Good day all
I used to have a Captivate (Galaxy SI) then the Note I. Once I purchase a device, I instantly flash a CM rom. It's been a year of suffer with the not-fully-supported Note. Frequent reboots, Bluetooth and UI glitches, heat and charging problems. It's easier to live with theses issues instead of living with TouchWiz.
Long story short, I'm planning to purchase a new device. What do you think the best high-end device (other than f#$%ing Samsung) in terms of CM support.
I know, I know that the Nexuses are best bets ! But I wanna explorer other options (screen size, SD, resolution, camera, etc) :victory:
I've seen people give appraisals on Oppo Find 5.
You precious advices and suggestions brothers.
AhmadAlmousa said:
Good day all
I used to have a Captivate (Galaxy SI) then the Note I. Once I purchase a device, I instantly flash a CM rom. It's been a year of suffer with the not-fully-supported Note. Frequent reboots, Bluetooth and UI glitches, heat and charging problems. It's easier to live with theses issues instead of living with TouchWiz.
Long story short, I'm planning to purchase a new device. What do you think the best high-end device (other than f#$%ing Samsung) in terms of CM support.
I know, I know that the Nexuses are best bets ! But I wanna explorer other options (screen size, SD, resolution, camera, etc) :victory:
I've seen people give appraisals on Oppo Find 5.
You precious advices and suggestions brothers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well you can buy a nexus, some devices in sony are open sourced..or better you can buy a google play edition phone :good:
Where do you think CM would perform better... on Google Edition phones or the Open Source Sony ones.
AhmadAlmousa said:
Where do you think CM would perform better... on Google Edition phones or the Open Source Sony ones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that depends on the phones spec..:good:
AhmadAlmousa said:
Where do you think CM would perform better... on Google Edition phones or the Open Source Sony ones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CM is developed as free and open source software based on the official releases of Android by Google, with added original and third-party code.
in conclusion phones like Nexus will always have a CM support.
Also visit HERE to see a list of supported devices.
Gens, I fully understand your inputs. For instance, my Note, which has been receiving its share of the nightlies and RCs. So far, I'm still getting heat problems, lags, bluetooth connectivity issues, battery drains.
I'm not looking for supported device. I'm trying to find almost(fully) supported high-end device. So far, I found that my best bet could be
1-Oppo Find 5
2-Xperia Z
3-Qualacomm-based Galaxy devices ?
What do you think the best of them could be ?
AhmadAlmousa said:
Gens, I fully understand your inputs. For instance, my Note, which has been receiving its share of the nightlies and RCs. So far, I'm still getting heat problems, lags, bluetooth connectivity issues, battery drains.
I'm not looking for supported device. I'm trying to find almost(fully) supported high-end device. So far, I found that my best bet could be
1-Oppo Find 5
2-Xperia Z
3-Qualacomm-based Galaxy devices ?
What do you think the best of them could be ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oppo FFInd 5 is the one.:good:
How come there isn't even basic ROMs for Z2 yet? No PA, No VanirAOSP and all.
I am thinking to buy this device but the dev support got me worried.
From my experience on here dev support usually takes a while on sony devices. If custom roms is your thing you should have a look at htc's phones or wait and see what progress is made with the z2.
Sent from my D6503 using XDA Free mobile app
Official CM development has already begun, (on par with the Z) which is much sooner than happened with the Z1.
Z1 had issues with unlocking the bootloader which was only resolved a few months after launch. Z2 does not have this problem.
Once CM completes the bring up other roms will follow.
pratyush997 said:
How come there isn't even basic ROMs for Z2 yet? No PA, No VanirAOSP and all.
I am thinking to buy this device but the dev support got me worried.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I must admit, I'd like to see a completely pure AOSP ROM myself. (With one possible exception: the camera. I wouldn't want to lose any hardware features in terms of capture resolution, capture rate, full / half press shutter button, focus speed, or image quality. Couldn't care less about 4K video, but I don't know if there's a third-party app that can provide all of the above.)
I find my Xperia Z2 incredibly bloated, and while I've disabled as much as I can, there's a lot that can't be disabled without root. (And I am uncertain whether I can safely root this and change much without losing my warranty or the ability to install subsequent OTA updates without risking bricking the phone.)
nobby00900 said:
From my experience on here dev support usually takes a while on sony devices. If custom roms is your thing you should have a look at htc's phones or wait and see what progress is made with the z2.
Sent from my D6503 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
M8 has way more dev support than Z2
pratyush997 said:
M8 has way more dev support than Z2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well it's a more popular phone. Not sure about somewhere else, but in Adelaide (Australia), htc is everywhere, but you can barely bump into someone with a Sony phone.
I for one would love a purer android experience, but I don't want to lose the active noise cancelling and answering machine. The thing irritates me the most on Z2 is that 'what's new' button when you long press home. Google now is not in the middle as it should.
Sure ROMs will have support when the phone is widely available, the trees are quite stable now and ready for daily driver.
TheMrcool212 said:
Sure ROMs will have support when the phone is widely available, the trees are quite stable now and ready for daily driver.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I'll just get Z1 because it's almost similar to Z2 and has more support.
In case anyone is intrested: I currently work on a pure AOSP device tree for 4.4.4. i also planned to have some fun with L-preview but I don't know if I am able to do this.
You'll hear from me.
Greetings
Myself5
Sent from my Xperia Z2 using Tapatalk
knoxploration said:
I must admit, I'd like to see a completely pure AOSP ROM myself. (With one possible exception: the camera. I wouldn't want to lose any hardware features in terms of capture resolution, capture rate, full / half press shutter button, focus speed, or image quality. Couldn't care less about 4K video, but I don't know if there's a third-party app that can provide all of the above.)
I find my Xperia Z2 incredibly bloated, and while I've disabled as much as I can, there's a lot that can't be disabled without root. (And I am uncertain whether I can safely root this and change much without losing my warranty or the ability to install subsequent OTA updates without risking bricking the phone.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the holy grail of android. AOSP with some pumped up feature rich camera. It doesn't exist, on any device!
I ran CM11 today just to try it out. I really like the ROM but the camera is just garbage compared to Sony's software. Plus you can't start the camera from the shutter button (a huge benefit for me personally). The smoothness and customization is great, but the camera never will be.
farfromovin said:
That's the holy grail of android. AOSP with some pumped up feature rich camera. It doesn't exist, on any device!
I ran CM11 today just to try it out. I really like the ROM but the camera is just garbage compared to Sony's software. Plus you can't start the camera from the shutter button (a huge benefit for me personally). The smoothness and customization is great, but the camera never will be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The camera is on par with Sony's ROM when it comes to photo quality, it doesn't support 4k but apart from that it
s pretty okay?
farfromovin said:
That's the holy grail of android. AOSP with some pumped up feature rich camera. It doesn't exist, on any device!
I ran CM11 today just to try it out. I really like the ROM but the camera is just garbage compared to Sony's software. Plus you can't start the camera from the shutter button (a huge benefit for me personally). The smoothness and customization is great, but the camera never will be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Press the button on the 2nd step (the one which is more inside) for like 2 seconds. Starts fine here on Carbon (which uses CM Camera).
Sent from my Xperia Z2 using Tapatalk
pratyush997 said:
I think I'll just get Z1 because it's almost similar to Z2 and has more support.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Screen is much better on Z2.
Plus, aosp been avail on z1 much longer and to get camera to work properly you have to install a camera fix app.
Z2 has only had fully working aosp for a few weeks. You will find new developers and ROMs appearing each month so don't worry.
And on my previous phones, I rarely run pure CM but on Z2 I'm totally happy with it. Fast, smooth and with an Android L theme it looks great too.
Sent from my Xperia Z2 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
furrypotato said:
Screen is much better on Z2.
Plus, aosp been avail on z1 much longer and to get camera to work properly you have to install a camera fix app.
Z2 has only had fully working aosp for a few weeks. You will find new developers and ROMs appearing each month so don't worry.
And on my previous phones, I rarely run pure CM but on Z2 I'm totally happy with it. Fast, smooth and with an Android L theme it looks great too.
Sent from my Xperia Z2 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also have an OnePlus One invite but even that device doesn't have decent dev support
Dragooon123 said:
The camera is on par with Sony's ROM when it comes to photo quality, it doesn't support 4k but apart from that it
s pretty okay?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For just a point and shoot it may be on part with OEM. One of Sony's best features might be the 120fps 720p mode. Much better than iphone5s or OPPO find7. No such option with AOSP derived third party roms.
pratyush997 said:
How come there isn't even basic ROMs for Z2 yet? No PA, No VanirAOSP and all.
I am thinking to buy this device but the dev support got me worried.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It has Cyanogenmod and AOKP. Those are arguably the 2 most basic.
Uclydde said:
It has Cyanogenmod and AOKP. Those are arguably the 2 most basic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check M8's forums and compare it to Z2
farfromovin said:
That's the holy grail of android. AOSP with some pumped up feature rich camera. It doesn't exist, on any device!
I ran CM11 today just to try it out. I really like the ROM but the camera is just garbage compared to Sony's software. Plus you can't start the camera from the shutter button (a huge benefit for me personally). The smoothness and customization is great, but the camera never will be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you install the oneplusone camera app, it will start when the phone is unlocked with the camera button. and you get a little bit of customisation.
From the looks of things though android L will bring use closer to the gold of having support for advanced camera features, rather than oems having to build there own.
Dragooon123 said:
The camera is on par with Sony's ROM when it comes to photo quality, it doesn't support 4k but apart from that it
s pretty okay?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I switched to Carbon for a few days and found that the general photo quality in the stock camera was pretty close, but I still missed the Sony app enough that I loaded my RomAur backup.
Honestly I could have dealt with the camera, but I had a lot of issues with AndroidWear and my Gear Live not working correctly on it... Not sure how support is on other Z2 supporting AOSP-ish ROMs at the moment but it wasn't particularly reliable there.
I definitely did like the overall experience though minus the minor issues.
farfromovin said:
That's the holy grail of android. AOSP with some pumped up feature rich camera. It doesn't exist, on any device!
I ran CM11 today just to try it out. I really like the ROM but the camera is just garbage compared to Sony's software. Plus you can't start the camera from the shutter button (a huge benefit for me personally). The smoothness and customization is great, but the camera never will be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not asking for a pumped-up, feature-rich camera, just one that can do what the hardware is capable of. Full resolution, full burst rate, and a working shutter button. I'd prefer not to have all Sony's extra bunk like ar modes etc, to be honest.
The Z4 Tablet is possibly my dream tablet, it has a great screen, microSD slot, good battery life and it seems dev-friendly.
I've got no Sony experience and I see surprisingly little custom ROM development. How 'dev-friendly' is this tablet? Does Sony provide source codes, drivers? Are they easy in unlocking bootloaders and flashing stuff like radios? Does it seem likely custom post-Marshmallow ROMs will be cooked in 1,5-2 years from now on?
do some research!
e.g. here "Anybody work on root?" much off topic posts unfortunately
there are two section with the title "Development" here ...
look at the phones: Z3+ and Z5 (nearly the same sources)
and all you need with almost useful documentation in SONY's Developer world:
http://developer.sonymobile.com/
DHGE said:
e.g. here "Anybody work on root?" much off topic posts unfortunately
there are two section with the title "Development" here ...
look at the phones: Z3+ and Z5 (nearly the same sources)
and all you need with almost useful documentation in SONY's Developer world:
http://developer.sonymobile.com/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I admit my question was a bit lazy, but it'd be pretty easy for people like you with lots of experience/knowledge on this Sony platform to give me a general idea.
I ordered a Z4T, but while reading this subforom while waiting for the shipment, things start to itch me a bit.
I'll anwer my own questions the way I see it now: Sony is pretty developer-friendly by providing source code and build instructions, but it's pretty buggy and there are very few developers doing stuff for the Z4T. I guess it's because of the bad availability of the device and the relatively small user base. The people @ FXP build ROMs, but I haven't heard much about how useful these builds are. If anything, I heard people downgrading from the 5.1.1 build. Rooting is only possible by unlocking the bootloader and flashing @AndroPlus' custom kernel. His current TWRP build has a bug that makes it impossible to restore a device backup.
Sony provides the option for unlocking the bootloader, but you'll completely lose your warranty. Furthermore, the TA partition will be irreverably changed and you'll lose functionality.
Marhsmallow has been announced, so there's that.
SONY's devices are good compromise for me
@jelbo
Good summary!
My opinion:
The SONY devices are good hardware. I like them because they are water resistant since I lost a phone after cycling in heavy rain.
I have a Tablet xperia Z with CyanogenMod on it. Android 5.1
The start with that 3rd party ROM was slow and it was quite buggy. Also battery life was worse than with stock ROM.
I have a SAMSUNG Galxy S5 phone. They have Knox-protection on their devices. Quite evil compared to SONY. Because it was released with Kitkat I could root it via exploit and keep Knox untriggered. I could get CyanogenMod, even Marshmallow Alphas for the phone. But the drivers are not that good and the battery life with stock is very good (up to four days for me).
So I will keep that phone on stock and I used Titanium Backup to get rid of SAMSUNG's bloatware.
SAMSUNG do not provide documentation and many of their SOCs are proprietary - no chance to do any development for these devices.
Long post short: SONY is very open and relatively easy to hack on their devices.
Better (now) in price and features than the Nexus devices IMO. I would never buy a device without any chance to do development on it.
I think the bug in TWRP will get fixed soon (has bitten me once).
Thanks for your kind reply
DHGE said:
@jelbo
Good summary!
My opinion:
The SONY devices are good hardware. I like them because they are water resistant since I lost a phone after cycling in heavy rain.
I have a Tablet xperia Z with CyanogenMod on it. Android 5.1
The start with that 3rd party ROM was slow and it was quite buggy. Also battery life was worse than with stock ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds familiar. In my experience with the last few phones I've had, AOSP-based ROMs were always a tad slower and less battery-friendly than stock or stock based ROMs. For example, the stock 'Google Play Edition' ROMs ran like a dream on my HTC One m7, but others were always less smooth / battery friendly.
So, for the Z4T I'm not partularly worried about the lack of 3rd party ROMs. I'll be fine with stock rooted. But for the longer term, because of the unpopularity, I think it's unlikely to see much going on in a year from now on and that kind of makes me doubt my purchase.
I have a SAMSUNG Galxy S5 phone. They have Knox-protection on their devices. Quite evil compared to SONY.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but not more evil than Sony I think. Samsung's bootloader unlock 'trips' Knox and it'll disable features like secure storage and services that depend on it. It's also irreversible. It's an awful lot like Sony's irreversible TA partition 'tripping'.
Because it was released with Kitkat I could root it via exploit and keep Knox untriggered. I could get CyanogenMod, even Marshmallow Alphas for the phone. But the drivers are not that good and the battery life with stock is very good (up to four days for me).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I could root my Galaxy S6 using an exploit, without tripping Knox. I'm running 5.1.1 with an engineering bootloader, while still having my Knox untriggered. It's a luxury I'm not gonna have on the Z4T, unless an exploit will be found.
SAMSUNG do not provide documentation and many of their SOCs are proprietary - no chance to do any development for these devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it's one of the reasons I want to avoid a Samsung as my new tablet. Exynos is a black box, so custom, stock-based ROMs will be the best you can get. BUT, I'm doubting now. Custom, stock-based ROMs are fine with me - as you mention, battery life is great. And on top of that, Samsung is so popular that lots of development is being done. I think chances are bigger to see the Marshmallow successor being ported for older Samsung devices than we'll see on this Sony Z4 Tablet in the future. But that's an assumption, I don't have Sony experience, but I see things re pretty dead here, even though the device was released quite a long time ago.
Long post short: SONY is very open and relatively easy to hack on their devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not really seeing that yet, but again, I've only looked at the Z4T now.
Better (now) in price and features than the Nexus devices IMO. I would never buy a device without any chance to do development on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The microSD is an essential part for me. If the Pixel C would have had a microSD-slot I'd have chosen that. Development and future updates are a huge selling point for Nexus devices.
I think the bug in TWRP will get fixed soon (has bitten me once).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let's hope so.
Hopefully the Z4T will get some more love soon, as I have just sent my Pixel C back and taken a punt at a open box Amazon warehouse deal last night with 40% off the LTE
I love my Z3CT, Z3C and Ultra, which have had great support from the devs, so am expecting the Z4 to be the best hardware of the lot, but would also love a root method while keeping the bootloader locked for now.
Heres to hoping perhaps MM will lead to some kernel exploits.
scoobydu said:
[...] as I have just sent my Pixel C back [...]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What made you return your Pixel C?
I love my Z3CT, Z3C and Ultra, which have had great support from the devs [...]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did it take a while to get to that point? Do you think the Z4T will have the same support?
jelbo said:
What made you return your Pixel C?
Did it take a while to get to that point? Do you think the Z4T will have the same support?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dont get me started on the Pixel C from Google UK pricing error on day 1 and their refusal for a week to refund or swapout 32g for 64g devices, due to their error; then I had a hardware fault with the screen not responding after 24hrs of use. I found their support just awful More issues were being reported in the xda forum and I decided I wasn't going to spend £550 to beta test for google. Nice solid device but heavier that the Z4 and sliding the keybard across the keyboard to remove it, just made me nervous of scratching something everytime I did it.
To be honest the Z4 forums are very quiet, but so were the pixel c's; as a few people were commenting.
I had to root my Z3 Tab by loading the Z3 phone firmware and rooting that, as that had a kernel vunerability and the kernel on the Z3 tab didn't.
Once the Z3 phone firmware was loaded and rooted, I could backup my TA partition and reload the Z3 tab firmware, rooted.
Its generally the phones that get root and the tabs have to utilise what they can, unless of course a dev has the tab.
The tab forums got much busier once the device had a less risky root method.
Sad to see that Nut hasn't got a recovery done, but I am assuming that due to root only being available by unlocking and losing TA, so limited testers, but haven't had time to read the history yet.
I have to say though that the Z4 is fantastic in comparison to the Pixel C and I am very glad I have reverted to the device that I know especially at £360 for the LTE version + keyboard on Amazon open box. First time using and the device is pristine. To be fair the Z4 is many iterations of getting it right and the Pixel is googles first try. Once its at Pixel C v4 it will probably be very good!
Heres to hoping MM is officially released soon, so the chances of rooting may get better.
from Nut
This is the reason why I didn't release XZDR for the Z3+/Z4/TabZ4 yet, too much difference with the Shinano and older device trees.
Edit:
That should be solved with 2.9 though...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems the 64 bits is a material change, so things need to progress in 2.9 from my early readings.
scoobydu said:
Dont get me started on the Pixel C from Google UK pricing error on day 1 and their refusal for a week to refund or swapout 32g for 64g devices, due to their error; then I had a hardware fault with the screen not responding after 24hrs of use. I found their support just awful More issues were being reported in the xda forum and I decided I wasn't going to spend £550 to beta test for google. Nice solid device but heavier that the Z4 and sliding the keybard across the keyboard to remove it, just made me nervous of scratching something everytime I did it.
To be honest the Z4 forums are very quiet, but so were the pixel c's; as a few people were commenting.
I had to root my Z3 Tab by loading the Z3 phone firmware and rooting that, as that had a kernel vunerability and the kernel on the Z3 tab didn't.
Once the Z3 phone firmware was loaded and rooted, I could backup my TA partition and reload the Z3 tab firmware, rooted.
Its generally the phones that get root and the tabs have to utilise what they can, unless of course a dev has the tab.
The tab forums got much busier once the device had a less risky root method.
Sad to see that Nut hasn't got a recovery done, but I am assuming that due to root only being available by unlocking and losing TA, so limited testers, but haven't had time to read the history yet.
I have to say though that the Z4 is fantastic in comparison to the Pixel C and I am very glad I have reverted to the device that I know especially at £360 for the LTE version + keyboard on Amazon open box. First time using and the device is pristine. To be fair the Z4 is many iterations of getting it right and the Pixel is googles first try. Once its at Pixel C v4 it will probably be very good!
Heres to hoping MM is officially released soon, so the chances of rooting may get better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply, good info. I'm glad to hear some reassuring comments on the Z4T. Looks like you had a great deal as well. In the Netherlands they're hard to get. I payed €635 for the WiFi model... I'm still doubting a little bit to go for a discounted Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 for €380 though. I read it'll even get Marshmallow in April. Price difference is pretty big and there's lots of stuff for it already.
I'll have a look in some Xperia phone subforums on XDA.
jelbo said:
Thanks for your reply, good info. I'm glad to hear some reassuring comments on the Z4T. Looks like you had a great deal as well. In the Netherlands they're hard to get. I payed €635 for the WiFi model... I'm still doubting a little bit to go for a discounted Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 for €380 though. I read it'll even get Marshmallow in April. Price difference is pretty big and there's lots of stuff for it already.
I'll have a look in some Xperia phone subforums on XDA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes there are no deals on the Z4 Tab in the UK and all the new prices are the same retail price.
Thats why I decided to take a chance on the Amazon one, as I could return it if it was damaged or anything; and normal 12 months warranty with Amazon.
For me I haven't had a Samsung since my Tab 7.7 and wouldn't personally have another, but each to their own. The devs were always complaining at Samsung not releasing all the source code to their SoC's, wheereas Sony seemed to be more dev friendly.
The Z3 Tab is fantastic if you didn't mind the 8inch, but I am hoping once the Z3+ root is forthcoming and general 64bit root/recovery is done, then we will have some progress; he says, not being able to help the devs on whats seems a lot of work.
jelbo said:
I've got no Sony experience and I see surprisingly little custom ROM development. How 'dev-friendly' is this tablet? Does Sony provide source codes, drivers? Are they easy in unlocking bootloaders and flashing stuff like radios? Does it seem likely custom post-Marshmallow ROMs will be cooked in 1,5-2 years from now on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a shame that such a good device is so low supported by free developers even though it seems it's more open by the Sony in comparison with Samsung.
I noticed that some people think in the thread that not so much users have this device. I have an old phone so called HTC desire HD which was released in the faraway 2010, it is excellent supported as it even has the contemporary android 6.0. I don't believe that there are more HTC decide HD users rather than xperia tablet z4 users. Moreover, I see as my comrade-users of our device crying ? everyday on a Russian 4pda.ru site, that we wait but there's no a good root method, there is no a good description or a video showing us how does the only custom ROM work. What works and what is broken. And just not seeing good news over the course of several months. Of course, I am very disappointed in dramatic fashion, but I hope The change will come.
Thank you for attention!)
cut the drama
- you should not compare a phone to a tablet (numberwise)
- look into the fora for phones Z3+/Z4 and Z5
they have nearly identical SoCs, differences a sometimes build options
- there is a HUGE xperia cross devices forum here with tons of additional info
- the Z4 Tablet became available in June 2015
- the first sources from SONY showed up in .... June 2015
- I rooted the device in July - having done no Android programming or rooting before
- I ordered the device after researching (see below) and before there was root available because my findings showed that there would be sources and documentation from SONY so that if all else fails I would get later a custom rom or could even roll my own
- a video for "seeing" developing/hacking? Dream on...
- there is lots of documentation (even video) available, maybe no video on how to do a web search or an xda search
- searching (and reading and trying things out) worked for me - coming from SAMSUNG phones with no prior development experience on Android ... TRY IT
DHGE said:
- you should not compare a phone to a tablet (numberwise)
- look into the fora for phones Z3+/Z4 and Z5
they have nearly identical SoCs, differences a sometimes build options
- there is a HUGE xperia cross devices forum here with tons of additional info
- the Z4 Tablet became available in June 2015
- the first sources from SONY showed up in .... June 2015
- I rooted the device in July - having done no Android programming or rooting before
- I ordered the device after researching (see below) and before there was root available because my findings showed that there would be sources and documentation from SONY so that if all else fails I would get later a custom rom or could even roll my own
- a video for "seeing" developing/hacking? Dream on...
- there is lots of documentation (even video) available, maybe no video on how to do a web search or an xda search
- searching (and reading and trying things out) worked for me - coming from SAMSUNG phones with no prior development experience on Android ... TRY IT
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good summary.
Small point, but the rooting element is by unlocking the bootloader, which not all will want to do. It is though an option that exists and we are thankful for those that have done so in order to progress the dev support.
I'm really interested in getting this phone, I have skipped the Note 8 until I see what this phone brings, and from what I saw at the presentation I looks like an AWESOME phone, but when I look at past Huawei flagships (mate 9, P9, etc) almost non-existing major updates, custom roms support and mods I start thinking if paying a premium price for a phone like this its really worth for a person like me who likes to play around with rooting, modding and installing custom roms in my devices or should I play safe and get a Samsung or Pixel device.
No. Do not buy Huawei if modding is important.
Non existent with previous mate 9 and barely with mate 8.
Across the board, it's not getting easier
intruda119 said:
No. Do not buy Huawei if modding is important.
Non existent with previous mate 9 and barely with mate 8.
Across the board, it's not getting easier
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I appreciate your answer, there are great devices but not for us.
yael20 said:
I'm really interested in getting this phone, I have skipped the Note 8 until I see what this phone brings, and from what I saw at the presentation I looks like an AWESOME phone, but when I look at past Huawei flagships (mate 9, P9, etc) almost non-existing major updates, custom roms support and mods I start thinking if paying a premium price for a phone like this its really worth for a person like me who likes to play around with rooting, modding and installing custom roms in my devices or should I play safe and get a Samsung or Pixel device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be honest you are better off not getting any flagship if you like modding. The pixel is a pain to dev for to the point that many devs are not getting the new pixel or even supporting it. Samsung well we all know that dev support for that is a joke.
zelendel said:
To be honest you are better off not getting any flagship if you like modding. The pixel is a pain to dev for to the point that many devs are not getting the new pixel or even supporting it. Samsung well we all know that dev support for that is a joke.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your answer, so that being the case, which phone(s) would you recommend me?
yael20 said:
Thanks for your answer, so that being the case, which phone(s) would you recommend me?
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Click to collapse
If modding is your thing then I would look at something like one plus. Things to avoid are devices with dual partition setup. The pixel showed how much devs dont want to deal with that.
Things to look out for are things like kernel source being up to date which I hate to say knocks 90% of the China based OEM out of it. Maybe the Euro version of samsung devices might be OK but even they get little to no real devs support. I would look around the site. See what devices have real support. No I am not talking about tons of los based roms. That is not development. I mean real development with system mods and hardware tweaks.
zelendel said:
If modding is your thing then I would look at something like one plus.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately OnePlus sucks at many things that are important for many of us so I guess we don't have a choice.
zadox said:
Unfortunately OnePlus sucks at many things that are important for many of us so I guess we don't have a choice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Things like what? The one bonus is that with one plus it can be fixed for the most part as to where even the kernel code on huawei devices is useless.
zelendel said:
Things like what? The one bonus is that with one plus it can be fixed for the most part as to where even the kernel code on huawei devices is useless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can we start with the MicroSD ?
zadox said:
Can we start with the MicroSD ?
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Click to collapse
This I agree with but many of the OEM are opting out of sdcards ever since google removed all the code fore native sdcard support from android years ago. But to be hones 64gb is more then enough for a mobile device. Mix that with some common sense (backing up stuff. No I dont mean cloud backup lol)
zadox said:
Unfortunately OnePlus sucks at many things that are important for many of us so I guess we don't have a choice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the one plus is a good device with great specs, but I don't like it's design... May be due it's Iphoneish look lol
zelendel said:
To be honest you are better off not getting any flagship if you like modding. The pixel is a pain to dev for to the point that many devs are not getting the new pixel or even supporting it. Samsung well we all know that dev support for that is a joke.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why not? You can get systemless root (Exynos) or TWRP installed classic root (Snapdragon) for Note8.
Sure Knox and/or SafetyNet gets tripped, but that's the price to pay for rooting.
But you can root current flagship phones and there's plenty of modding community for Note8.
vasra said:
Why not? You can get systemless root (Exynos) or TWRP installed classic root (Snapdragon) for Note8.
Sure Knox and/or SafetyNet gets tripped, but that's the price to pay for rooting.
But you can root current flagship phones and there's plenty of modding community for Note8.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Samsung based roms are not development. Samsung devices have sucked for development for years. This is why main stream developers don't get that device.
Ok, thanks for the info. I haven't followed the scene. Just installed a good LO fork on my Note3 and it is working wonders (sans NFC and GPS/camera performance is generic).
zelendel said:
To be honest you are better off not getting any flagship if you like modding. The pixel is a pain to dev for to the point that many devs are not getting the new pixel or even supporting it. Samsung well we all know that dev support for that is a joke.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That being said , what are 3 phones that you can say "this is a good phone, and I can do all lot of things with it("? is the nexus 6p one of them? thanks for your help.
yael20 said:
That being said , what are 3 phones that you can say "this is a good phone, and I can do all lot of things with it("? is the nexus 6p one of them? thanks for your help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. The 6p (minus the battery issues) is good for rom development. It will get support from 3rd parties for at least another 2 years.
I would say the one plus 3 or 3t
The nexus 6p
Any one of the Sony devices as they have a good development setup.
yael20 said:
I'm really interested in getting this phone, I have skipped the Note 8 until I see what this phone brings, and from what I saw at the presentation I looks like an AWESOME phone, but when I look at past Huawei flagships (mate 9, P9, etc) almost non-existing major updates, custom roms support and mods I start thinking if paying a premium price for a phone like this its really worth for a person like me who likes to play around with rooting, modding and installing custom roms in my devices or should I play safe and get a Samsung or Pixel device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@auras76 (confirmed via private message that he will be supporting Mate 10 and continue his awesome rom that he has for Mate 9 ->[ROM] RomAur-v2.2-[16/10]-[UB][7.0_Fw.b197]-FAST-STABLE :good:
yael20 said:
I think the one plus is a good device with great specs, but I don't like it's design... May be due it's Iphoneish look lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Problem with OP (I switched from OP5 to IP7+ just recently because I kept hearing rumors that OP5T/OP6 might come out and I was afraid the value might drop to a point where re-sale value is no longer profitable..IP7+ is awesome in many ways, but my initial goal was getting LG V30 but now it seems Mate 10 is much wiser choice because of its awesome screen to body ratio + 16:9 aspect ratio which currently IMO is way better than 18:9/18:9.5 considering full app support, including youtube and so on) is that it does not have its own identity - its basically an iphone clone design wise and with it you look like a wannabe iphone user . Its awesome in performance but that identity thing sucks + they recent actions where they discontinue a model even before 6 month span is just plain ridiculous (OP3 to OP3T and then OP3T to OP5 all done within 1 year)..
zelendel said:
Yes. The 6p (minus the battery issues) is good for rom development. It will get support from 3rd parties for at least another 2 years.
I would say the one plus 3 or 3t
The nexus 6p
Any one of the Sony devices as they have a good development setup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sony is bad in development because their stupid DRM system.
El Solido said:
Sony is bad in development because their stupid DRM system.
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Click to collapse
Tell that to the fact that they offer how to build aosp for their devices, have worked with developers on it as well as pretty much made the theme engine that susbstratum works off of.
Will there be loses. Sure but that is the difference between aosp and using code made for the device. You don't always get all the features of the device with aosp. But that is not the point of using aosp. It's to learn.
zelendel said:
Tell that to the fact that they offer how to build aosp for their devices, have worked with developers on it as well as pretty much made the theme engine that susbstratum works off of.
Will there be loses. Sure but that is the difference between aosp and using code made for the device. You don't always get all the features of the device with aosp. But that is not the point of using aosp. It's to learn.
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Click to collapse
Yes, but with sony aosp you get 13% quality of camera comparing it to stock, so they are stupid.