Sony Xperia Z2 Stock Android ROM - Xperia Z2 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi XDA. This is my first time on this forum, and I have one or two questions to ask before I purchase this phone.
First off, I absolutely hate the UI Sony puts on the Z2, so I want to root it and possibly get a stock Android version on the phone. Is that possible? I haven't bought the phone yet, and I have only rooted one phone in the past which has ended up with me bricking it and leading me through a 3 hour adventure to fix it.
I know this question doesn't belong in this thread, but I don't want to make another separate thread, and possibly have it removed, but if there isn't a stock Android version for the Z2, do you think the Samsung Galaxy S5 Active is a decent phone? I like this version of TouchWiz, and I love the aesthetics of the Titanium Gray S5 A.

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So you hate sony almost stock looking ui, but you like stock android look, and on top of that you like touchwiz? Sorry, but this just doesnt make any sense Imo go for samsung then, it is a decent phone just like any other flagship device.

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feis said:
So you hate sony almost stock looking ui, but you like stock android look, and on top of that you like touchwiz? Sorry, but this just doesnt make any sense Imo go for samsung then, it is a decent phone just like any other flagship device.
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Sorry. I should've made it more detailed. I don't really like the icons. Maybe if I went out to a store to try it, I might have different opinions about it, but based off of reviews, I don't really like the stock Sony Icons. The UI is decent though. I kinda like the notification toggles.
I guess I'm just used to using TouchWiz. Sure, if Google made a GPE Z2, I'd buy it, but they don't have it.

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Well icons are very easily replaceable, but to me it looks like you answered your question yourself. If you want touchwiz, go for samsung, you wont find it here And i read some rumors about s5 gpe edition, so you will have a wider choice of roms you want. Development on z2 is slower than s5.

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WunderWuffle said:
Sorry. I should've made it more detailed. I don't really like the icons. Maybe if I went out to a store to try it, I might have different opinions about it, but based off of reviews, I don't really like the stock Sony Icons. The UI is decent though. I kinda like the notification toggles.
I guess I'm just used to using TouchWiz. Sure, if Google made a GPE Z2, I'd buy it, but they don't have it.
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If icons are the only issue, that's an incredibly trivial thing to change. Just install a launcher (like Apex or Nova), and download an icon pack of your choice to apply it. Here's a screenshot of my homescreen, can you even tell it's supposed to be a Z2?
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
UI can be changed to suit your needs, even without a new ROM. Things like icons, launchers, and widgets can all be modified out of the box, and if you really need more changes, just root and install the Xposed framework to get some handy modules. All of the above is done on a locked bootloader, too.

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ricebun said:
If icons are the only issue, that's an incredibly trivial thing to change. Just install a launcher (like Apex or Nova), and download an icon pack of your choice to apply it. Here's a screenshot of my homescreen, can you even tell it's supposed to be a Z2?
[snip]
UI can be changed to suit your needs, even without a new ROM. Things like icons, launchers, and widgets can all be modified out of the box, and if you really need more changes, just root and install the Xposed framework to get some handy modules. All of the above is done on a locked bootloader, too.
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Click to collapse
That looks amazing. No, I can't even tell that it's a Z2. That is one of the nicer home screens that I have seen. What launcher and settings are you using? Are you using any themes?

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The launcher is Nova, I'm using the free version. The things I did off the top of my head:
disabled the dock
applied the "tiny white icons" theme pack
enabled status bar toggling (hide/show status bar on command)
set the desktop grid to 5 x 10
Outside of that, the clock/battery widget was made using ZooperWidget Pro. It's just a Battery Progress Bar, an oversized Clock text, and a small piece of text that displays the date (very close to a default ZW configuration). Navigation bar buttons, however, I will admit that it requires root, and you have to install Xposed to get it. The Xposed module that changes status bar buttons that I'm using is called "Xperia/AOSP NavBar Buttons".
That's really all there is to it. Get Nova Launcher, a nice icon pack, a good background, and just go from there. If you want to modify things like nav bar and status bar, you'll have to root.