Sony XZ Owners discussion

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#1656225 22-Oct-2016 16:48

Geektastic:

scottjpalmer:
Geektastic:

More alarmingly, it has a Spark splash screen on boot up.....

Another reason to parallel import. Or just flash it.

Would that not void the warranty?

Aside from that it's a really nice phone. Just trawling through the setup and so on at the moment.

Nope as it will be sony firmware

http://forum.xda-developers.com/crossdevice-dev/sony/pc-xperifirm-xperia-firmware-downloader-t2834142

Download that tool and you are looking for the AU firmware that is not branded to a telco (think its Australia Customized)

If i remember correctly the flashing of sony phones to a new firmware is really easy and there are tools to do it :)

Also once you are on the non branded AU firmware you will get updates from sony which are not held up by local telco's etc

tripp

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#1656227 22-Oct-2016 16:53

I also went and had a look today at the phone in sony store. It's a bloody nice design and interface does seem fast.

I could not find the answer phone in the firmware this time however, normally it was under the phone app.

(fyi, the answer phone was that if someone called you could reject or send it to "answer phone" and the phone would record the message from the caller).

Sony are the only company that did this and means you did not have to use the telco's voice mail service.

old3eyes

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#1656267 22-Oct-2016 18:10

scottjpalmer:
Geektastic:
More alarmingly, it has a Spark splash screen on boot up.....

Another reason to parallel import. Or just flash it.

And how long do you see the splash screen? Not a good enough reason to flash it and possibly kill it.

Regards,

Old3eyes

scottjpalmer

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#1656308 22-Oct-2016 19:00

old3eyes:
scottjpalmer:
Geektastic:
More alarmingly, it has a Spark splash screen on boot up.....

Another reason to parallel import. Or just flash it.

And how long do you see the splash screen? Not a good enough reason to flash it and possibly kill it.

It's more the delayed updates etc I would be wanting to avoid.

Geektastic

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#1656322 22-Oct-2016 19:06

old3eyes:
scottjpalmer:
Geektastic:
More alarmingly, it has a Spark splash screen on boot up.....

Another reason to parallel import. Or just flash it.

And how long do you see the splash screen? Not a good enough reason to flash it and possibly kill it.

Why should a phone purchased from a retailer have a Spark logo at all?

old3eyes

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#1656323 22-Oct-2016 19:06

scottjpalmer:
old3eyes:
scottjpalmer:
Geektastic:

More alarmingly, it has a Spark splash screen on boot up.....

Another reason to parallel import. Or just flash it.

And how long do you see the splash screen? Not a good enough reason to flash it and possibly kill it.

It's more the delayed updates etc I would be wanting to avoid.

That makes more sense..

Regards,

Old3eyes

dafman

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#1656328 22-Oct-2016 19:17

Yikes, been travelling and only just caught up on thread. At the weekend sale price XZ kills the Pixel for value for money - the latter, by the way, based on the reviews now it has released, is good, but not great value for money when compared with other flagships.

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gasgob

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#1656332 22-Oct-2016 19:38

"Why should a phone purchased from a retailer have a Spark logo at all?"

On Spark's website it states "exclusive to Spark" within the product description for the XZ.

Sony penny pinching by not packaging separately for Spark and retail?

Geektastic

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#1656337 22-Oct-2016 19:50

gasgob:
"Why should a phone purchased from a retailer have a Spark logo at all?"

On Spark's website it states "exclusive to Spark" within the product description for the XZ.

Sony penny pinching by not packaging separately for Spark and retail?

I wonder if the ones from the Sony store have a Spark screen....

gasgob

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#1656339 22-Oct-2016 20:02

Yes, mine does on start up and on the packaging.

tripp

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#1656355 22-Oct-2016 20:31

that is because spark has the phone in NZ. Sony has only done 1 firmware for NZ which is sparks.

If you were in AU you might be able to get a non telco branded one from a sony store.

Not the case in NZ however as we are a small country with limited sales.

ScuL

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#1656386 22-Oct-2016 22:34

Reading this makes me happy I got it from the UK!

Haere taka mua, taka muri; kaua e wha.

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#1656388 22-Oct-2016 22:43

ScuL:

Reading this makes me happy I got it from the UK!

Would it be a PITA if it went wrong, though?

ScuL

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#1656390 22-Oct-2016 22:47

Amazon have got a global return policy so it shouldn't be a problem, factory repairs are still directed towards local repair centres. The local one for NZ is in Newmarket which is 15 minutes away, I've had my Z1 repaired there before and received excellent service. Just despise telco branded phones, so quite pleased with a non-branded one :)

Haere taka mua, taka muri; kaua e wha.

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#1656393 22-Oct-2016 23:03

OK well here's a brief summary. Bear in mind this is the first Android phone I have ever used, so apologies if I use the wrong terms or otherwise sound like a noob.

Build quality is very good; easily as well screwed together as any iPhone I have had. Feels solid and reassuring. Screen is excellent; preferred to my iPhone 6+ for sure, if a little smaller. Sound quality from the speakers is really good considering as well.

Software is fairly straightforward. The line of icons across the top is a bit crowded and I have no idea what a number of them actually mean - and they do nothing useful like inform you if you touch them etc. Took a while (and a $5 app) to get the Mac OSX contacts on there easily but that is now done. Apple Music is functioning fine, although the layout is annoyingly different, just to confuse! Headphone sound (via a 3.5mm jack..!) is really good too, much better than any iPhone I ever owned. It probably fails a audiophile test as I am sure that Sony have some signal processing going on, but for sheer musicality and listenability etc it's top stuff.

The camera is good although I would say that the images are over processed. I got a shot of my dog jumping an electric fence that was far better than any iPhone shot I would have got in terms of focus etc. If you zoom in tight the processing is a bit ugly but you can't see that unless you do. I believe that there are camera apps on the Play store that allow you to shoot DNG files and those might be quite good, processed in Lightroom. At phone screen size, you can't see any of this, I hasten to add. Indeed, given it was shot on a phone (and let me say that again - it was shot ON A PHONE!) it looks pretty reasonable on my 27" monitor expanded to fill the screen. I reckon I can do better once I figure out some of the settings and so on. I'm fairly realistic - I do not expect my $850 phone to produce images that equal my $10,000 Nikon...!

Charging was fairly swift although given it's all within the first day, I won't be placing too much store in the behaviour. It took less than 90 minutes to go from 28% to 92%, something that would probably take my iPhone 3 hours. I do not know if the charger supplied is a proper Quickcharge device though: it has no logo on it so may not be. There is a seperate one listed in the Sony website so maybe they took a leaf out of Apple's book and want you to pay another $50 for that!

Overall, it's a great device. The Spark logo is annoying and they ought to allow you to delete that somehow without risking your warranty. The size is good: the iPhone 6+ and 7+ are big things to hoof about, they don't do pockets terribly well and so on - this does, yet is only a little smaller in screen terms.

I'll probably be back on here soon with some dumb noob Android questions...!

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