Z3v is the child neither Version nor Sony wanted - Xperia Z3v General

There is no reason that the d6708 should be in the Z3 area of XDA, other than to be a marker of mislabeling. From what I've gathered, the Z3v has a chipset similar to the Z2, but with the camera and power of a Z3, which in theory sounds pretty nice since the added camera button really makes this phone great for photographers. When I purchased the phone, I loved it... Over time, however, I noticed that the overheating really took a toll on the experience. Then things stopped working. I've read where people completely lost function of their camera... I lost GPS. The locked bootloader means that the phone is stuck in the past. The community has been able to root the phone and even go so far as to load a custom recovery, but it stops there. There are no new ROMs... No updates after 5.1...this phone is already pretty much dead in the water because neither Sony, Verizon, nor any developer will take ownership to give life back to this phone with so much potential. XDA needs to move this phone to its own device thread... Hopefully someone will make the separation and put some development into this device.

randomjoh said:
There is no reason that the d6708 should be in the Z3 area of XDA, other than to be a marker of mislabeling. From what I've gathered, the Z3v has a chipset similar to the Z2, but with the camera and power of a Z3, which in theory sounds pretty nice since the added camera button really makes this phone great for photographers. When I purchased the phone, I loved it... Over time, however, I noticed that the overheating really took a toll on the experience. Then things stopped working. I've read where people completely lost function of their camera... I lost GPS. The locked bootloader means that the phone is stuck in the past. The community has been able to root the phone and even go so far as to load a custom recovery, but it stops there. There are no new ROMs... No updates after 5.1...this phone is already pretty much dead in the water because neither Sony, Verizon, nor any developer will take ownership to give life back to this phone with so much potential. XDA needs to move this phone to its own device thread... Hopefully someone will make the separation and put some development into this device.
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I understand your frustration, but I disagree with your intentions of where the community should move to. When this phone hit the news about coming to Verizon, and once it did, it only remained as a few threads within the Z3 General forum. Owners of this phone and browsing customers of this phone would be entirely misguided by the threads of the actual Z3 when it happened. It was thanks to the people back then to help move the Z3v into its own subforum so a community could be formed in working directly with other people who has the Z3v. If you move it all back, it would be all for wasted efforts and the Z3v will just completely be buried without anyone to know its existence. The subforums should remain as is so it would help anyone else grab a still great phone.
Also, your gathered summary about the Z3v should be flipped. The phone has the chipset of the Z3, but everything else physically is a customized Z2 variant. The camera button is still nonetheless ultra useful as I do miss it on my Galaxy S7 Edge. The other issues I've had with my S7 Edge that I've never seen on the Z3v are lag issues, before and after root. I just rooted my S7 Edge and there are lots of bugs and kinks that had to be worked out, bu the Z3v never encountered such problems when it achieved root. Also, be glad you have custom recovery on the Z3v since custom recovery is not yet achieved for the Z3v. Just my 2 cents.

I have to say that I often come and check and see if there is any news about the z3v getting an update but it is starting to look more and more grimm. Which is sad because this is an amazing phone and verizon should of stuck with it. To bad for them I did fall in love with the sony phone line and since they don't really offer a sony phone anymore and att has moved into the area I have thought about changing over and buying a sony phone unlocked and hooking it up that way. Plus being a DirecTV customer I can get unlimited data for them. Now that is starting to look rather nice I must say. Thanks all.

Sony makes good phones, in fact in a recently released phone stats states the Sony line was the one that had the least restarts from crashing of any other phone.
If we didn't have the data package we have we would go to a GSM carrier and buy a newer Sony to use, great phones.

Sony has great build quality into their products, in my experience. My bro's S7 Edge had its LCD damaged (in a bulk case too) even though the phone looks perfectly fine without any cracks or water damage. I've dropped my Z3v dozens of time with the totally plain and simple case from Verizon, but no hardware damages done to it ever since.
My only contrast with both companies is that Samsung has excellent customer support by fixing his S7 Edge with no charge and completed the phone in a single day, being shipped back on its way anytime now. Sony requires all these paperwork and documents that doesn't even allow me to send my accessories to have them repaired, and I heard it takes weeks for them to do a repair too. Can't win them all, I guess.

Related

Is this phone really THAT bad?

I've been waiting for the Lumia 920 to be back in stock at the H3G shop here in my town. Now it's back but I've been feeling some bad vibes around the forums lately. I hear about users having reboots, lockups, dead phones, dust underneath the ffc, bad battery life, buggy browser, lag, light leaks, creaks, herpes and whatnot, so this got me wondering...is this stuff mostly bs or there's actually something wrong with this phone? Has anyone regretted his purchase badly so far? Did the Portico actually help or it's just too little and too late? Please let me know, because reading all of this stuff really puzzled my will. Keep in mind that at this point Android is no longer an option for me, so the only other phone I could go for right now instead of this one would be the iPhone5. I wouldn't mind waiting for something else to come out, but honestly this 800 feels a bit EOL right now and I'd really like to drop it, my battery is also starting to suck a bit so...
Looking forward to hear from you guys, I'm really starting to feel that itch, I've been using this phone for almost a year now, this is kind of a record to me lol.
You are unshure ... why should you by excatly this phone?
You mentioned all the negative threads but you could finde more positive threads about this phone.
It's just your focus. Go into a shop and test the phone.
If you buy and it serves the first week in a good way you can keep it otherwise return it.
I'm happy with my Lumia 920
I have my Lumia 920 (AT&T) for two months and I really love it!
I got the Portico update I the very first day and during the first week of use my phone hung up once. I was worried just like you because I read in the forums many users complaining about the stability issues they had, but honestly that's the only issue I've had with this device! No light leaks, reboots, dust, lag, etc..
There is strange rattling sound when the phone vibrates, but it's nothing to worry about and I got used to it anyway.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsw3cwkNRng)
Hope this helps
@Anis108: Actually I always liked the phone, I love the design, the sturdyness, the screen, the camera, wireless charging, Nokia goodies, and overall I'm just in love with the platform. However I'm also concerned about the reliability of the phone in the software department and I'm also concerned about how the thing can hold up through an extended period of time, since I'm planning on keeping it for a good while. Holding a phone in my hand for a few minutes can't really tell me much about these things, and even a week may not be enough to me, since I tend to be quite picky. Getting a new device is always a big leap of faith for me, especially on contract.
@Boshko: thanks, this is the kind of feedback I'm after...I just wanna hear the good, the bad and the ugly about this phone, because obviously reading topics made by people having issues will make the phone look bad, whereas those about how great the 920 is will gather mostly hardcore fans. I just wanna hear some random opinions to make up my mind here
AW: Is this phone really THAT bad?
Portico fixed my random reboots...
Sent from my Windows Phone 8S by HTC using XDA Windows Phone 8 App
I've had mine since it was released. Love it. Great design, functions beautifully. Haven't had any of the issues posted. I must be living right.
Have mine since it was released last October. No major problems. I've rebooted twice because I think something was sucking my battery too fast. Uninstalled couple of stock apps (stock portfolio, finance apps) and things are back to normal. Love the camera even though I don't use it everyday. Battery life is awesome for me - I routinely get close to two full days (about 40 hrs or more).
All in all, I'm a happy customer.
As far as forum problems, you have to remember that you're more likely to hear what's wrong with the device rather than the positive. Those who have problems come and post their issues so that they can be resolved with other people's help. If you are happy with device and have no problems, you're less likely to post your positive experience.
I'd say don't go by the forums - try the phone yourself and see if you like it or not.
My $0.02.
Using the phone for month and a half I can say it was a good purchase:
Depending on the use that you have intended for it, it may be what you are looking for.
If you are a person who likes to hack things, and wants to see how can you make the phone more customizable via tweaks and those stuffs, then this may not be the ideal for you as this thing is very encrypted and secure(for now).
If you are a corporate guy office and exchange will suit you because are optimized for the platform and consume very little battery.
If you are a globetrotter (travels a lot) then the GPS Navigation apps will suit you.
For the battery life there are two points:
on the first 2 weeks the battery will calibrate itself and you may see that after that time battery life is considerably better.
All the apps that runs on the background only runs for 2 weeks if not opened by you, WP8 has this by default, to enable background running again or to reset the counter just open the app (Microsoft did this for battery life)
I don't have dust on my ffc, camera is very good, phone is solid and at first feels kind of heavy but one gets used to it.
the WP8 is still an ongoing project, so many things are missing on the software side, but are on their way.
Overall I like this phone because I bought it and fulfilled my expectations: Sunlight readability, screen usable with gloves and true offline GPS Navigation, those are what I need for doing my job and the phone is very good at it.
The downsides: Some apps make the phone really hot (not optimized GPS Apps, like "Navigation 3D"), the battery consumption increases way more than other smartphones in low coverage areas and drains the phone quickly (30% more o less), still many software features missing.
So far after portico I have had 3 reboots(1 freeze but occurs on specific hardware calls, like turning "bluetooth on" on very rare conditions).
I plan to stick with this phone for a while, after 3 years with android I felt that the platform was not bringing nothing new, new physical design yes but the OS was always the same and nothing new since android 2.3.
Montastic said:
Have mine since it was released last October. No major problems. I've rebooted twice because I think something was sucking my battery too fast. Uninstalled couple of stock apps (stock portfolio, finance apps) and things are back to normal. Love the camera even though I don't use it everyday. Battery life is awesome for me - I routinely get close to two full days (about 40 hrs or more).
All in all, I'm a happy customer.
As far as forum problems, you have to remember that you're more likely to hear what's wrong with the device rather than the positive. Those who have problems come and post their issues so that they can be resolved with other people's help. If you are happy with device and have no problems, you're less likely to post your positive experience.
I'd say don't go by the forums - try the phone yourself and see if you like it or not.
My $0.02.
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Couldn't say it better..
I've had mine now for about 3 months. Came from (Smart phones) HTC OneX, HTC Evo 3d, Samsung Galaxy S, Moto POS, HTC G1. The 920 is without a doubt, for me, the best phone I've had yet. Everyone's analysis is subjective. Mine is no exception obviously. I will say only this. I have no qualms what-so-ever about recommending this phone to others. Both the hardware performance and the OS for me have been exceptional. Maybe I'm lucky or the exception.
Unfortunately, I'm one of the victims here. To start off, I LOVE this phone - I really do. It has everything I could want, and when it does work it is amazing (wireless charging, NFC, beautiful screen). However I personally am on my 3rd phone. The first 2 had problems locking-up forcing me to do the "power + volume-down" reset. The second phone also got a large piece of dust under the front camera. Fortunately, the 3rd one seems to be working. My wife is on her 2nd phone - same locking-up problem however hers only seemed to lock-up when being wirelessly charged. Now, a friend of mine who just got one is having the same wireless charging lock-up problem.
So I have to ask - what the hell is going on with this phone? By now, Nokia should have all of the "kinks" worked-out, Portico has been delivered and we're still seeing this crap? Oh - and I forgot to mention the "rattle" when vibrate is turned on. Grrr.....
I'm now using an HTC 8x for a while as I moved to China and haven't gotten my 920T yet, and guess what? The 8x works like a champ. Just wish I had wireless charging and more flash storage and I wouldn't go back to the 920T....
Is it just me or does it sound like that people that have flashed from a non stock ROM are the ones that are talking about the most issues? Is debranding and unlocking really worth all the issues this seems to be creating?
I have had mine stock for 3 months now and have not had one single issue that anyone in this entire 920 section has complained about. There is one very tiny light leak if I look down at the screen from the speaker end at an angle that I would never normally look from so it is irrelevant to me.
It just seems that the one common thing that most of these issues have is they are all on flashed phones.
I don't see the point of unlocking and debranding if the phone works for you as it is. We all know from past models that even unlocked there is very little you can do to one of these to customize it.
I have always been taught that if it is not broken, then don't fix it. If it works and does what it needs to as stock then why not leave it stock? Seems a lot more dependable that way to me.
I had rebooting Issues with me german Lumia 920 until I flashed it to the Austrian Portico ROM (I live in Austria). I didn't want to wait for the Update. But I have not had any issues since so flashing seems not to be the culprit. Many of the other issues did not occur on my phone at all.
I'm very happy with it since Portico . Before Portico I had some reservations but that was mainly due to the anxiety that it might reboot again (happened every few days).
Let me just tell you now, I am a perfectionist in the worst kind of way. I have issues with this phone but for some reason, they don't bother me. I'm willing to put up with them, I LOVE this phone so much. I have the light leaks but they're not apparent unless you put your eye very very close to the screen, in the dark and inspect the inside edges of the phone. If I press on the SIM card tray, the chassis of the phone creaks a bit but it's also the thinnest part of the phone so it makes sense. My phone locks up in standby every now and again so I have to reboot it but volume down + power but it only started happening AFTER the portico update. Also, ALL the Lumia 920's rattle when they vibrate because of the OIS in the camera. It's normal. I turned off vibration anyway, cause I don't like it.
I can tell you, the camera is NEXT-TO-NONE, stills and video. The call quality is excellent. The display is awesome and the durability is excellent and I love the cleanliness of the OS. NFC works on this phone the way it SHOULD work. Intuitively. I'm really good with phone as I used to work for a carrier but I couldn't for the life of me get NFC to work on my galaxy nexus, or my S3. They will be updating the phone this holiday season and it can only get better from here! :good:
I have no problems at all from mine. Fantastic device.
well the core functions work flawlessly as compared to other smartphones.
catches gps signal easily for me, camera starts in instance, typing is comfortable and more accurate than android and entire UI is fluid as opposed to android and iphone5 for me.
only problems are the light leak, battery life (but almost all phones have battery life issues unless u use blackberry on 2g signal).
and the dust settles between screen and chassis very easily.
I love mine, the camera is great so is the screen.
Don't have any of the problems that others have had, the only issue for me was once I updated the nokia apps to the here versions, my battery life died a death. a quick uninstall fixed that. but now I only have the map app, will try the others one at a time to find the culprit.
"We were unable to determine the media usage rights for this content" error Lumia 920
americasteam said:
I have no problems at all from mine. Fantastic device.
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We were unable to determine the media usage rights for this content" error Lumia 920
Hello there , I need some help , I am new on the Lumia 920 ,I have downloaded through XBOX and paid music songs but now suddenly and after one month I cant listen
to these songs and get instead : "We were unable to determine the media usage rights for this content" error Lumia 920" Its DRM related I think...Does anyone have a fix ? thanks for the help and sorry if its the wrong thread...
Thanks for your insights guys. Actually I kinda made up my mind, I'm getting the 920 either tomorrow or early next week, still can't decide between white and black tho, any suggestions? Are there any differences in terms of durability?
No problems here.
Go into a hospital and you'll see people with problems, you shouldn't assume humans are rubbish.
Go onto a forum and you'll see people post with problems, you shouldn't assume everyone will have problems.

Moving on ...

I've been using my incredible 4g LTE ever since it came out and still love the form factor. It is starting to become a little slow and the camera could certainly be improved. Better battery life would be nice too.
I will probably keep using this phone until it completely breaks down on me or it just becomes too slow, but I'm wondering what phones former inc 4g lte users have moved on to. The main issue I have is that most phones are much larger. I like the 4" size, it fits comfortable in a shirt pock or my pants/jeans pocket. I know a 5" phone wouldnt fit very well and the whole point of a phone is that its portable.
I share your pain! I have had this phone since it released and it has hold up through every test of durability I could put it through. Today is the day that I move on to another my phone myself. Enricong, glad we could enjoy this awesome device even though it didn't have the biggest dev following it was still a great phone. I will continue to run this phone until the wheels fall of it.
Don't let this device fall. We just need to reach out to developers that have left this phone in the dust. This is the only good phone that I have owned that I have been able to have an unlocked bootloader. Let's revive this phone with new ROMs and more. Don't leave this phone in the dust.
enricong said:
I've been using my incredible 4g LTE ever since it came out and still love the form factor. It is starting to become a little slow and the camera could certainly be improved. Better battery life would be nice too.
I will probably keep using this phone until it completely breaks down on me or it just becomes too slow, but I'm wondering what phones former inc 4g lte users have moved on to. The main issue I have is that most phones are much larger. I like the 4" size, it fits comfortable in a shirt pock or my pants/jeans pocket. I know a 5" phone wouldnt fit very well and the whole point of a phone is that its portable.
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droid mini--- its qa grate phone mostly google looking ( not much skin, what's there is useful) con no root for newer firmware, no removable battery, no sd slot
htc remix. it's the smallest newest phone ( my wife has one it's a bit bigger, but has an sd slot con bigger ( but not too bad ) no idea about the dev community
both of these phones are upgrades over the fireball
yea there's only 2 small phones even available.
i made hte jump a month ago to the s5. i'm getting used to the size - although still not 100% happy with dealing with a larger phone.
however, i do like the phone. but the s5 is older - so dev has already stopped on it. i can't even root it (phone came with a newer version that is unrootable). sorry, but devs just seem to play with the new stuff, which i can't blame them. there's just not enough people left on the older devices to make it worthwhile. the inc4g never had a strong dev base to begin with.
the s5 is a nice phone if you guys are ready to move on... although no root available for new software i really miss adblock and some customizing... but wifi tether works which is most important to me. s5 still has a sd card slot and removable battery. i may look for a rooted or older software version one on swappa that i can root.
j13smiley said:
yea there's only 2 small phones even available.
i made hte jump a month ago to the s5. i'm getting used to the size - although still not 100% happy with dealing with a larger phone.
however, i do like the phone. but the s5 is older - so dev has already stopped on it. i can't even root it (phone came with a newer version that is unrootable). sorry, but devs just seem to play with the new stuff, which i can't blame them. there's just not enough people left on the older devices to make it worthwhile. the inc4g never had a strong dev base to begin with.
the s5 is a nice phone if you guys are ready to move on... although no root available for new software i really miss adblock and some customizing... but wifi tether works which is most important to me. s5 still has a sd card slot and removable battery. i may look for a rooted or older software version one on swappa that i can root.
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Not rootable? I do not want to imagine life without a rooted phone. I "need" WiFi Tether and the non-rooted options have historically never worked fully for me. That and TiB has been a lifesaver more than once... (Yes, I know we lived without a rooted Dinc4G for a long time until Unlimited was able to crack it open, and I *could* use a USB tether option if need be).
Sadly, I am now at the point with my Dinc4G (running ViperLTE) that I need to either upgrade to a newer phone or install a newer ROM because several apps simply won't update anymore on ICS (including the new expense system app for my work won't install on ICS, )
yep - verizon closed the root exploit with the last update. my phone arrived with the update already installed... should of ordered it a week earlier no dev is going to work on root for that phone now...
luckily foxfi does allow wifi tether without root and works on the s5! that was a must have for me so i'm at least ok with that. there's a bunch that i'd still love to have root for... but at least i'm functioning.

I'm done with the Z3v and never looking back.

I finally gave up on this phone and couldn't feel better about it. Got it under a 2-year contract via Amazon less than a year ago, and now trading it back into Amazon and buying a Nexus 6 (which is discounted by $400 right now). In the end, I'll be out about $100. But it's worth it in my view to get an actually stable, functional, and supported device.
I won't have to worry about constant overheating, unstable (but dang good looking) picture taking, and terrible battery life issues (4 hours chews through 60% of my charge) any more.
I should have gotten rid of it months ago, when Sony took 59 days to do an in-warranty repair (for constant over heating and poor battery life). Even then, they only sent me a new phone (not a refurb, but a new unit, which surprised me) after I threatened to take them to local court to get my phone back. The new one is starting to have the same issues as the old, and I don't want to go another 2 months of paying for a cell plan while waiting for Sony to make empty promises about 'eventually' repairing my phone.
Speaking of empty promises, I am so looking forward to having a phone that actually receives some semblance of support from the manufacturer. I might lose on this, but I'd make a bet that Lollipop is never coming via OTA update to the Z3v, and I'm sick of waiting. I hope I'm wrong, but I won't have to worry about it in the end. I'll miss the waterproofing, and the 20MP+ camera, but I'll exchange that for a functional, supported, multi-carrier, device.
See you all on the forums, and good luck!
I feel u. I've been waiting on OTA update and they never released it. Same reason y I'm rooted on ? 509. Build. They prob never release it for z3v but I'm just waiting on any new info on roms. ??
Sent from my D6708
jpain3 said:
I finally gave up on this phone and couldn't feel better about it. Got it under a 2-year contract via Amazon less than a year ago, and now trading it back into Amazon and buying a Nexus 6 (which is discounted by $400 right now). In the end, I'll be out about $100. But it's worth it in my view to get an actually stable, functional, and supported device.
I won't have to worry about constant overheating, unstable (but dang good looking) picture taking, and terrible battery life issues (4 hours chews through 60% of my charge) any more.
I should have gotten rid of it months ago, when Sony took 59 days to do an in-warranty repair (for constant over heating and poor battery life). Even then, they only sent me a new phone (not a refurb, but a new unit, which surprised me) after I threatened to take them to local court to get my phone back. The new one is starting to have the same issues as the old, and I don't want to go another 2 months of paying for a cell plan while waiting for Sony to make empty promises about 'eventually' repairing my phone.
Speaking of empty promises, I am so looking forward to having a phone that actually receives some semblance of support from the manufacturer. I might lose on this, but I'd make a bet that Lollipop is never coming via OTA update to the Z3v, and I'm sick of waiting. I hope I'm wrong, but I won't have to worry about it in the end. I'll miss the waterproofing, and the 20MP+ camera, but I'll exchange that for a functional, supported, multi-carrier, device.
See you all on the forums, and good luck!
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enjoy your new phone.. Im sorry about sony if they had my phone for 59 days man thats so bad..I have had my camera say it was hot once when I was running a custom macro mode for like 5 mins that's it. this phone does not have overheating problems I'm sorry you got a crappy one. My Phone has Been on for 10 hours today with maybe 90 mins on screen time I have 90% battery left so..
Wow, what a bad experience you had. It's amazing the drastic differences in experience users can have with the same device. I'm sorry your experience was so terrible. I got my Z3v at launch in October of 2014. While I am beyond frustration (hatred really) for Verizon and the way they screwed us over and lied about this phone to us, it is really the best device I've ever owned. Unbelievable battery life, OS stability, camera etc. Never had a single issue. I really wish everyone who had this phone had the same good luck as I have had. I keep looking at getting a new or different phone, but really this phone does 95% of what I need it to do 100% of the time. It's reliable. It's hard to imagine I could do better in this regard. My brother and nephew have the same phone and they have the same experience as I do. Wish you did too.
I would probably feel just as you do under the same circumstances, so far my Z3v has been a good phone...that is my second one has been. The first one had a on/off button failure after about 6 months and I got a replacement.
I read once that the phone manufacturers are under enough pressure to produce the phones while at the same time getting ready for the next generation of phones that quality control is almost a thing of the past. It's similar to a story told to me by my ex-wife's sister. She worked in Quality Control at Gateway Computers during their peak times. They got so busy that the QC workers only had time enough to boot a system but not take it through any quality checks before shipping. They called themselves the "Boot and Scoot Department".
I had the Z3v and cracked it somehow, so I replaced it with the Nexus 6p. 3 updates already on the 6p in 2 months and only 1 minor update on the Z3v in 1 year - smh.
Most of the blame goes to Big Head Red. I blame Sony a little bit for allowing Big Head Red to control their phones. Apple, Sammie, LG and Moto won't allow Big Head Red that much control.
If something happened to my Z3v, I'd immediately get the Nexus 6P. I will never buy a phone from Verizon again.
Have to agree these phones are buggy, little things that make you want to get rid of them i.e. USB door rubber seal wearing out, camera getting hot, no updates, bootloader locked, volume button and on/off button flaws.
But that said, if the Z5 would work on VZW I would dump this one and grab a Z5.

Experienced Z3V owner roll call...

I get it; time moves forward and people adopt new devices. But some of us hang on as long as we can, or "inherit" old great devices for a variety of reasons.
Is there nobody left here to help z3V owners? Just say as much if that's the case. Hell, even be humane about it and shut down the section. Zero hope is a reality that forces people to move on, while wondering just plagues them with indecision that becomes a frustrating waste of time.
The reality of this forum and what it offers me as a consumer is that I simply don't purchase a phone if there's no support here. That's how grand and extensive the XDA community is.
If there's simply no more support for the z3V on XDA, then future problems with them render them obsolete. There's simply nowhere else on Earth to go for such information.
"Knowledge is power."
"With great power comes great responsibility."
AddictedToGlass said:
I get it; time moves forward and people adopt new devices. But some of us hang on as long as we can, or "inherit" old great devices for a variety of reasons.
Is there nobody left here to help z3V owners? Just say as much if that's the case. Hell, even be humane about it and shut down the section. Zero hope is a reality that forces people to move on, while wondering just plagues them with indecision that becomes a frustrating waste of time.
The reality of this forum and what it offers me as a consumer is that I simply don't purchase a phone if there's no support here. That's how grand and extensive the XDA community is.
If there's simply no more support for the z3V on XDA, then future problems with them render them obsolete. There's simply nowhere else on Earth to go for such information.
"Knowledge is power."
"With great power comes great responsibility."
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When my Z3v screen went shot... I tried an LG G6? Whatever the current one is. Took it back a week later and bought an unopened Z3v off of Ebay. Nothing has what this phone has from Verizon. Stereo front facing sound. Camera button. IP68 water resistance. Expansion memory slot. If another phone ever had all that... I'd upgrade. Until then I will happily keep my Z3v.
kentompkins said:
When my Z3v screen went shot... I tried an LG G6? Whatever the current one is. Took it back a week later and bought an unopened Z3v off of Ebay. Nothing has what this phone has from Verizon. Stereo front facing sound. Camera button. IP68 water resistance. Expansion memory slot. If another phone ever had all that... I'd upgrade. Until then I will happily keep my Z3v.
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I think the Moto X Pure checks most of those boxes. I still like the Z3V, but since the usb charge port "flap" is failing again, I'm thinking of switching back to my old Moto X 2014. There are not a lot of compelling upgrades out there, I tend to agree. Front facing stereo is a big plus for me, and most of the nice new phones have speakers near the usb charge port...not great.
Still using this and my pixel as o e of my daily devices
I use the z3v exclusively since i got it in 2014. It has enough features for me. Camera is good, the music player is great , i have 128gig card with 32gig internal , So enough storage for anything i ever do. I have rooted it, modified system to dark instead of white, so it doesnt hurt my eyes. Added viper ,dolby, and a few other mods and its been a great phone for me . If it breaks , i will replace it with another z3v off the net .
I still have the Z3v and occasionally use it for light duty work, but a couple months ago I moved on finally to the Note 8. It was literally falling apart with the battery expanding...I had to constantly Force the back glass panel back inside the frame. But I had the phone for 3 full years and never once had to do a factory reset... it never once even lagged.
The Z3v was the best phone that nobody knew about. If i could get another Sony on Verizon I would. But that's just not the case.
Sony z3v Haven
First of all, this phone is stable. The only problems I've ever had with this phone is when I was attempting to Root or upgrade to 5.1.1. I've used this phone rooted & exclusively since 2015 and have yet to find a replacement phone. I am on my 3rd z3v. I have a tendency to drop my phones and I don't like to use cases.
Most the time I have run this phone on T-Mobile from California to Florida & International networks in Mexico, Turkey, & Eastern Europe --it works perfect and once I activated it on the Verizon network and I fell in love :victory: with it all over again; it's like the phone became AliVE again! It's blazing fast on Verizon however Verizon is too expensive and their lack of affordable international options pushed me back to T-Mobile.
REASONS I LOVE THIS PHONE
High Quality Craftsmanship(aluminum&glass)
Dedicated Camera Button
IPX8 Water Resistant
Front Facing Stereo Speakers
QI Wireless Charging (which I almost always use as to avoid opening the flap & for convenience)
SD memory card slot
Beautiful full HD screen (which I never appreciated until forced to use an Apple 6s for my work)
Quality HD Music Player
Superior Auto 20+ MP Camera pictures & 4K Video (the Timeshift Video-High Frame Rate-is stunning!)
ONLY REASONS I AM LOOKING FOR A REPLACEMENT
VoLTE (I want access to T-Mobile's voice over LTE because it only works with Verizon)
Access to more of T-Mobile's 4G network. (Newer faster radios bands for T-Mobile and other companies)
Dual SIM phone.
If I cannot find another phone with these options I will be buying my 4th z3v. The Verizon representative tried to push their latest Motorola on me but I hated the feel. It felt cheap.
AddictedToGlass said:
I get it; time moves forward and people adopt new devices. But some of us hang on as long as we can, or "inherit" old great devices for a variety of reasons.
Is there nobody left here to help z3V owners? Just say as much if that's the case. Hell, even be humane about it and shut down the section. Zero hope is a reality that forces people to move on, while wondering just plagues them with indecision that becomes a frustrating waste of time.
The reality of this forum and what it offers me as a consumer is that I simply don't purchase a phone if there's no support here. That's how grand and extensive the XDA community is.
If there's simply no more support for the z3V on XDA, then future problems with them render them obsolete. There's simply nowhere else on Earth to go for such information.
"Knowledge is power."
"With great power comes great responsibility."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've seen support on other sites. It caused me to hard brick my phone. haha
The real issue is that there are posts for the Z3 as well as Custom Roms for it. Sometimes they apply to the Z3V, but nobody comes flat out and says it. I for one am not willing to brick another phone just to perform a test. Of course, I don't think that is possible because the replacement phone I received has a locked bootloader... my old one definitely unlocked. I'm pretty sure it wasn't supposed to though.

Z4v off of Ebay?

I see Z4vs being sold on Ebay from China. No reason to think not legit. High rated sellers. I always wondered where all those unsold phones went.
Well, on my 2nd Z3v now and wondering... Any reason to think I couldn't buy a Z4v, slap my SIM in it and be a happy camper?
Let us know if you ever buy it
---------- Post added at 02:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:15 PM ----------
Btw are you ok with no updates and etc?
I will answer my own question. I am currently holding my fully functional z4v. It's the real thing. I put my SIM in and it works fine. All functionality. No issues. It came in a z3 + box and I was about to be really pissed off but lo and behold. It's a z4v. Verizon logo on the back. Works on the network just fine. I will give this a couple of days and report back.
Obviously no ROM updates from VZW. So I am not going to go nuts with it. Not even gonna try to root it.
I will connect it to the Sony Xperia restore app to see if it even knows what it is.
So, yes. Z4vs are out there. Apparently they're all in China. I never believed they just destroyed them all.
kentompkins said:
I will answer my own question. I am currently holding my fully functional z4v. It's the real thing. I put my SIM in and it works fine. All functionality. No issues. It came in a z3 + box and I was about to be really pissed off but lo and behold. It's a z4v. Verizon logo on the back. Works on the network just fine. I will give this a couple of days and report back.
Obviously no ROM updates from VZW. So I am not going to go nuts with it. Not even gonna try to root it.
I will connect it to the Sony Xperia restore app to see if it even knows what it is.
So, yes. Z4vs are out there. Apparently they're all in China. I never believed they just destroyed them all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow! That is awesome! I'm kind of surprised Verizon allows that device to activate.
I'm still running my Z3v but after three years it's starting to fall apart literally. It would be fun to "upgrade" to the Z4v if I could get my hands on one.
Sent from my D6708 using Tapatalk
I have a Z4V as well. Sony Dev site gives me a valid bootloader unlock code, however verizon has a bootloader unlock allowed=NO in place. I have spoken with verizon tech folks (Not low level people, but high level staff) they don't care about the phone at all. I bet if I knew what to ask for, I could get them to change unlock allowed from NO to YES...I believe that that can be done from the keypad.
I have managed to get root for 15 seconds at a time with (gasp) Kingroot, however RIC kicks in and reboots the phone and I back to square one.
Also, in it's stock for, I am unable to mount a MicroSD card, though SIM cards are fine.
I'd love to get the stock firmware and the ability to root. If I could get into the phone I could pull the stock partitions myself.
In order to use other ROMS, we would need the driver for the CDMA radio and the UHD Display. Easy enough to swap those out.
Anyone have any ideas??
BTW: I have working Fastboot and ADB. Flashtool does not recognize the phone nor do any of the "standard" root exploits work.
Rick
BlackIce
Any updates on getting z4v activated on Verizon network? Curious myself.
My Z4v is online with verizon, that was no problem at all. The issues I am having relate to (of course) locked bootloader and the lack of a STOCK ROM ftf file to experiment with. Since dm-verity and ric are still in place, root isn't possible (that I know of).
Great device, would love to experiment with it!
Rick
tbtregenza said:
Any updates on getting z4v activated on Verizon network? Curious myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I recently got one as well (not from China, but some kind of a test device). Works on Verizon just fine, though right after activation it had been showing an icon saying, "Activation in progress, don't turn off the device" for >1 hour until I restarted it. The only issue I have now (besides being stuck with an old firmware) is with the mic - people on the other side of the call complain they can barely make out what I'm saying. No such complaints with a headset, so I just use that for now. Not sure if it's something that could be fixed with software - I'm in the same position as blackice000 on that front.
dskrvk,
I am waiting on a guy from Vietnam that believes he has the STOCK ROM for the Z4V (ftf format) If I had that, I believe we can adapt many of the newer ROMS and improvements while keeping the device specific pieces intact. Hell, I would keep 5.0.2 if i had root. Really like Titanium backup!
If you have any leads...let me know. I know this device is a rarity, but it's almost exactly what i wanted to replace my aging Razr M (albeit a bit larger than i would have liked.)
Rick,
BlackIce
dskrvk said:
I recently got one as well (not from China, but some kind of a test device). Works on Verizon just fine, though right after activation it had been showing an icon saying, "Activation in progress, don't turn off the device" for >1 hour until I restarted it. The only issue I have now (besides being stuck with an old firmware) is with the mic - people on the other side of the call complain they can barely make out what I'm saying. No such complaints with a headset, so I just use that for now. Not sure if it's something that could be fixed with software - I'm in the same position as blackice000 on that front.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

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