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Hi all!
First of all I wish to thanks in advance for any of you who may stop by, and provide some tips, experience
regarding the next matter, advice request:
My context is that I am completely noob regarding choosing android phone.
I want to get my first one, but a low budget, and I thought about Sony Xperia Tipo, cause it uses Android ICS,
and its hardware specs are some better than comparing to others of similar budget as LG Optimus L3, Samsung Galaxy Mini
( phonearena.com/phones/compare/LG-Optimus-L3,Samsung-GALAXY-mini,Sony-Xperia-tipo/phones/6941,5147,7151 )
I already discarded going for Vodafone Smart II, cause after reading its thread in XDA (around 30 pages), despite it was posible
to be rooted at first, in 1 month the new versions have been capped by cel companies (the recovery, the fastboot etc), at least for Spain, Portugal versions, therefore the customization is getting quite impossible, or very random depending the version, the cel company, ...
I think the main problem it is that this Xperia Tipo has been released quite very recently,
and after been searching through forum about info for rooting the Xperia Tipo, I can't find any info about it :S.
So my 2 questions are:
- it is expected that Xperia Tipo will be rooted in a near future ( and therefore customizable with
ROMs ...) ?
- Taking in count any answer to this question, would you suggest to go for it,
or by other hand go for Samsung Galaxy Mini (despite it has worse HW, Android GingerBread,
BUT it has quite plenty support for rooting and flashing with custom ROMs) ?
Again thanks in advance for any advice, and excuse the long post! )
Cheers!
ive used this phone after recomending it for someone else. Its a great cheap ICS phone dont expect it to be really fast or to play excellant games but it is really good for the price under £100!!!. would i recomend it to someone else after using it YES!!!! just remember to clear the apps your not using from the RAM by pressing the Home key and holding it and swiping it to close it so it doesnt get laggy.
as for root im not a dev but im safley sure it will be rooted in the future as its got a SD card slot so its easier to install CWM recovery etc.
BUT it is new out and dont expect it to happen any time soon i have the Xperia U and thats been out ages now and i still dont have root it just takes time for the devs to get the phones and then to start work on them.
hope it helped
djpigz said:
ive used this phone after recomending it for someone else. Its a great cheap ICS phone dont expect it to be really fast or to play excellant games but it is really good for the price under £100!!!. would i recomend it to someone else after using it YES!!!! just remember to clear the apps your not using from the RAM by pressing the Home key and holding it and swiping it to close it so it doesnt get laggy.
as for root im not a dev but im safley sure it will be rooted in the future as its got a SD card slot so its easier to install CWM recovery etc.
BUT it is new out and dont expect it to happen any time soon i have the Xperia U and thats been out ages now and i still dont have root it just takes time for the devs to get the phones and then to start work on them.
hope it helped
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip!
Being cheap phone is ok, in fact that is what I seek for, a low budget phone as a start point, looking for customization.
Well, I could get that Xperia Tipo for £48, while the Samsung Galaxy Mini would cost £32. HW (CPU, inbuilt mem, display res) difference and phone release date diff, explain the price difference, hehe.
I was tempted to get Vodafone Smart II (for £48, I think), but atfer reading this whole thread forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1722811 , I found that it is a lottery, if I could get it rooted or not :S
My main doubt is if going for Samsung Galaxy Mini cause its great support in matters of rooting and customization, or expect that Xperia Tipo will get some nice support here in XDA, in the future ...
A third choice could be LG Optimus L3 which has worse display res, same price as Xperia Tipo, and it has some support here at forum for rooting and ROMs.
Regarding your Xperia U, I think there is quite nice support in this site, forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1728 , so you mention you still having probs to root it ?
I have just returned my Tipo today due to very poor reception. If you just want a phone to make calls and send texts then it should be more than adequate but if you are going to use it for browsing or games I would find something with a stronger processor as it can be very laggy after using it a while - even in menus. However the touchscreen is responsive and the display should be OK for making calls and texting but I found it very washed out when viewing pics etc. On my particular handset I could hear electrical interference through the headphones but this could be related to my reception fault I guess. If you can I advise you try it out before making a decision - if ur in the UK o2 shops usually have all there the phones on display switched on. If music is important to you the sound quality is very budget. Also the camera has no flash or autofocus. Tbh if it wasn't for the Sony xperia branding on the front I would have though this was a cheap chinese no-name handset as Sony really have cut costs on this one.
I can't comment on the Samsung but I have read bad things about the lg. Have you considered the Motosmart from Motorola. It has a similar spec to the tipo but at least the camera has a flash and its root able (running gingerbread)
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
I bought this phone a week ago. It's very nice for the price!. It isn't laggy, It has plenty of ram. Obviously it isn't so fast as would be needed for a device to play games,and doesn't have a big screen (or an hires one) if you have to surf the web a lot, but handles with no problems at all divx streaming from my pc, using mx-player. It's clearly better than vodafone smart_II and my device hasn't reception problems at all. The battery (this is a good point in my opinion) it's 1500mah just better than the usual 1200mah used in low-end devices
The camera can make decent photos but hasn't flash or aufocus at all & no front camera just like all the cheap phones.
BTW i think it's one of the best ICS devices avaiable here in Italy for about 150€.
I tried samsung galaxy mini too and this experia is a lot better in my opninion.
I have been using the mobile for more than a month... It's perfect .. Go for it... It is the best in the range... I do use it a lot and it has held up against everything... Custom ROM will be available veeeeeeeeeeeery soon... It is already rooted...
Sent from my ST21i using xda app-developers app
[help] firmware flash
my boot loader is unlocked and my device is stuck at boot with single vibration .
i need to install firmware but its get aborted everytime with an error
ERROR - ERR_SEVERITY="MAJOR";ERR_CODE="0019";ERR_DYNAMIC=" SIN header verification failed";
please help
I have no experience with flashing on sony devices but I have on just about everything else. Any particular version (google play or stock) that I should pick over the other for flashing roms and potentially (hopefully) marshmallow? Any stock version numbers I should make sure I am not on to avoid being unable to get past rooting security, etc? Thanks in advance!
I would recommend you to get the Non-Gpe version over the gpe version because there are more developers supporting ROM development for the Non-Gpe version. And also there are GPE ROMs for Non-Gpe version. So there is no specific need to get the GPE version.
Sent from my Xperia Z Ultra C6802
Also, be sure to get one with an unlockable bootloader, or else you're screwed, so you should pretty much stay away from carrier version of it. Gaining root on an unlocked bootloader isn't an issue. Just flash or hootboot a kernel with recovery (since Sony devices do not have an integrated recovery), and flash SuperSU. That's it.
Other than that, nothing particular you should look out for. The GPe version might get 6.0 soon (we have no idea if it'll actually get upgraded to 6.0), and we'll be able to easily port it over to our regular Ultra. There are also AOSP 6.0 builds out there, but they are not daily driver material yet.
Ive flashed,rooted and romed a ton to. I just recently got the z ultra. To me its hands down the best device ive owned. Ive had htc,note,note2,3,and 4,lg g3 and 4,tablets of the same above....z ultra is just as snappy. That being said,the cons are,its kinda fragile,dont stick it in your back pocket then jump in a car/truck. Well,not fragile,huge..sweet display.
As far as flashing its definitely different. No stock recovery. Not to worry though,nut made a installer for pc that will flash duel recoveries philz touch/twrp. And installs SU. Like the ever helpful kloas said dont buy a carrier locked device. Att,verizon,T-mobile. International version,bought from Amazon or the like. Sony allows bootloader unlocking. Devs also made a nifty lil tool for that. It wont come unlocked but its either allowed or not. This can be found within the dialer. You wont be disappointed with the phone. Even if u did get a locked bootloader one,its still able to gain root and flash roms. Im sticking with the z ultra till the price drops on the nexus 6. Good luck
harley1rocker said:
Ive flashed,rooted and romed a ton to. I just recently got the z ultra. To me its hands down the best device ive owned. Ive had htc,note,note2,3,and 4,lg g3 and 4,tablets of the same above....z ultra is just as snappy. That being said,the cons are,its kinda fragile,dont stick it in your back pocket then jump in a car/truck. Well,not fragile,huge..sweet display.
As far as flashing its definitely different. No stock recovery. Not to worry though,nut made a installer for pc that will flash duel recoveries philz touch/twrp. And installs SU. Like the ever helpful kloas said dont buy a carrier locked device. Att,verizon,T-mobile. International version,bought from Amazon or the like. Sony allows bootloader unlocking. Devs also made a nifty lil tool for that. It wont come unlocked but its either allowed or not. This can be found within the dialer. You wont be disappointed with the phone. Even if u did get a locked bootloader one,its still able to gain root and flash roms. Im sticking with the z ultra till the price drops on the nexus 6. Good luck
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Just ordered mine. C6833 off amazon. Pretty excited for it to show up. I had the nexus 6 and was never really satisfied with its performance. Then I got a lumia 1520 for kicks, loved the size, and wanted something equally big or bigger in android. I really like the stock dpi of the non-gpe version. About time a manufacturer realizes were not buying bigger phones to have the same screen real estate, just bigger. I want more space, more icons, more content.
loudog3114 said:
Just ordered mine. C6833 off amazon. Pretty excited for it to show up. I had the nexus 6 and was never really satisfied with its performance. Then I got a lumia 1520 for kicks, loved the size, and wanted something equally big or bigger in android. I really like the stock dpi of the non-gpe version. About time a manufacturer realizes were not buying bigger phones to have the same screen real estate, just bigger. I want more space, more icons, more content.
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Click to collapse
ZU deff has that. The nexus 6 was the phone i wanted. Ended up with this giant. And love it. When you first get the phone there tools that do all the work for you. Like,backing up TA. Gaining root and at the same time installs 2 recoveries. Theres a tool for unlocking the bootloader as well as flashing. Root, recovery and unlocked BL. All u need!!!!\m/
Out of the box the Nexus 6 looks like its made for your grandfather to use. 4 Icons wide on the desktop, and everything super big. Changing the DPI on it is a must. I ran mine at 460, which bumped the google launcher up to 6 icons, wide.
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/
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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 [...]
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What made you return your Pixel C?
I love my Z3CT, Z3C and Ultra, which have had great support from the devs [...]
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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.
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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...
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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.
Out of all of the devices out there that support LineageOS, the Z5 Compact looks the most appealing to me, because of the good audio quality, nice design/build, and reasonable size.
But is it foolish to purchase a Z5C with the intention of using it to run a custom ROMs?
Are people here using custom ROMs purely as a stopgap until they can get a newer phone that supports Oreo? I don't need or want the latest, greatest hardware, but ever since buying my first smartphone (a Nexus) I've become accustomed to using the latest software. Is the Z5 Compact a dead end in that regard? Or is it likely that I'll be using Android P and Q on this device in the next couple of years?
"But Strobelite, if you're worried about being able to use the latest version of Android, why don't you just get something by Motorola? Those have a healthy, active developer community. Or, you could just be a normal person, and buy a new phone."
If it runs GApps, I won't use it
Audio quality is important to me
The Motorola phones are ugly, in my opinion
Hi, since a few weeks I'm running on LineageOS 14.1 with my z5 Compact and I don't miss the stock rom at all. I didn't test all features yet (e.g. MHL), but I'm very satisfied until now. It's stable (didn't encounter any random reboot), fast and battery life is ok for me (I use Amplify and Greenify with xposed).
I only can recommend this and if you want to run without GApps, this is the way to go. I'm using Yalp store and it's even faster updating my apps than the original Play store.
Phone has FM Radio, SD card slot, fast and accurate GPS and enough power (LOS doesn't seem to run as hot as the stock rom (you can choose between performance profiles), so it's another plus for me).
Just try it and see if it works for you.
The only thing that annoyed me is the camera, the quality is just bad and sometimes it doesn't focus (or too late)
If you dont miss the camera then yes.
Strobelite said:
But is it foolish to purchase a Z5C with the intention of using it to run a custom ROMs?
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Click to collapse
I can understand your problem but of course it is imo.
Z5 line has never been widely supported by developers and the Compact is the one with less roms now. You can imagine what kind of future it would have.
Luckily in the past we had great guys who made stock rom root/mods/DRM restoration but the AOSP scene is completely different. As always you lose some features with non-stock roms, usually Camera quality (because you lose closed source vendor optimizations/software) and minor ones.
There will be probably 1 or 2 roms for future android versions (thanks to projects like SLim rom, PAC, Resurrection,...) but there are already few mantainers, especially for the Z5c, and some aosp roms are also unofficially maintained by one person...
Sony lost people (and developers) appeal after the Z3 line and this gets reflected in custom rom support for the newer Xperia lines. If you really want the latest OS on your phone for the next 4 years you should go for something else imo.
Z5c is still great device, refined materials and with good battery but don't expect a forum support like Samsungs, Huaweis,... Unfortunately the old days where flagship phones were < 4,5" are gone.
Maybe you already know it but GSMarena has a great phone-finder search engine which can help you refine your search for compact products.
I currently have the xperia X but I am super bored of it and my screen is also cracked, so I'm buying the xz1 soon since it really is the best phone for the price.
I am kind of bored of the stock sony UI and it is kind of a let down to know that even in android 9, my new phone will still have more or less the same UI. (I want to get more of that exciting new phone feel)
Are the sounds updated to the ones from the xz2 line or even those are the same?
Anyhow I don't want to root the phone or mess with it too much this time (otherwise I would just get one of the custom ROMs here) so my question is, is there a reliable way to get
a nicer UI without installing any annoying 3rd party launchers ? I saw an apk for the xperia 10 android that works without root, but it doesn't seem very stable.
Is there a way to get the xz2 - xz3 look?
Also sorry if this is a dumb question i don't own the phone yet and from what I have seen it looks pretty much the same as my X in stock.