Sony Xperia Z3 Compact - Your Thoughts . . .
Discussion
probedb said:
What are Sony like at keeping up-to-date with Android updates? Since switching to a Nexus 4 it's never been a problem but I'm craving something 4G and faster 
I would upgrade on O2 but O2 are appalling at putting out updates to their branded s
te.
I don't know but it does come with 4.4.4 KitKat installed I would upgrade on O2 but O2 are appalling at putting out updates to their branded ste.Jon321 said:
Order now placed with Clove. Hopefully should be here in a few days.
Well it should have been in my hands on Tuesday. But it's not, due to the total fking incompetence of the delivery company Clove have used to get it to my house. Maybe Monday now. Next time I'll just take an entire week off work to allow them to actually deliver it. Stupidly I never thought that would be necessary. Anyhow, glad those of you who have a Z3C are enjoying them.
Just upgraded my phone from the Xperia Z to the Z3 and love it. Don't know what they have done to the battery but it is fantastic. Also the audio seems to have improved from the Z even when streaming via BT from Play Music, it just seems so much better. Still got to have a good play with timeshift and the camera.
bodhi said:
Sony have been pretty good with updates IME, especially with the Z Series. They don't appear as quickly as they do on the Nexus devices obviously, but they easily keep up with Samsung and HTC. My Z started off with Android 4.2, currently sitting on 4.4.4.
Hmm, doesn't look good.... http://www.dailytech.com/Sony+Abandons+Android+Upg...probedb said:
Hmm, doesn't look good.... http://www.dailytech.com/Sony+Abandons+Android+Upg...
Sadly this is the case with anything but high end devices 
.Just for clarification, this article is about "lesser" Xperia devices, not about the "Z" series the topic is about. The Original "Z", at about 20 months old, is on the latest version of Android.
Sadly, I can't think of any non-high end (sub £300) smartphone that receives/received updates over a year after launch. Maybe some windows phone?
The Moto G shows promise, it's akin to a year old now, proven very popular, has nearly vanilla Android. We'll see in a couple of months! Hope it gets "L", we've got a large number of them in the extended family.
Given that it's a high end phone, I should hope the Z3/Z3C should keep receiving updates for at least a couple of years, otherwise I'll be severely disappointed. As much bad press as they get, Apple seem to be the best at not abandoning their old handsets. My iPhone 4S, now a 3 year old bit of kit just recently got iOS8.
Back to the Z3C though, I've had mine a few days now. I'm quite liking it, but I'm not 100% sure about it yet. I like the fact it's waterproof, but dislike the flaps. I wish it had a rubberised back instead of glass. This is nothing new and my previous 2 phones also had glass backs, but the Z3C seems to be particularly 'slidey'. A couple of times I've put it on what I thought to be a flat surface, and it starts moving. The screen is bright and the colours are very vibrant, but the viewing angles aren't as good as my 4S or my Nexus 4. Battery life is very good so far.
One minor annoyance I've had so far is that I have a Sony Bluetooth head unit in my car which isn't compatible with the 'App Remote' application, yet every time I connect via bluetooth, it tells me to install the required software. I have to exit out of all this before I can get to Spotify to play some songs. I can't see a way to get rid of this I've tried actually installing the software, but then instead of telling me to install it every time, it just brings up the software, telling me to connect it to my head unit, which I obviously can't.
The camera is excellent and I love the proper camera shutter. It feels like an actual compact camera. There's also lots of gimmicky camera modes which are quite fun, like 120FPS and a virtual reality mode where you can insert dinosaurs etc. Sample image below.
http://imgur.com/ZclLFz5
EDIT: I've disabled the Smart Connect software which keeps hassling me about my head unit, hopefully that'll do the trick.
Back to the Z3C though, I've had mine a few days now. I'm quite liking it, but I'm not 100% sure about it yet. I like the fact it's waterproof, but dislike the flaps. I wish it had a rubberised back instead of glass. This is nothing new and my previous 2 phones also had glass backs, but the Z3C seems to be particularly 'slidey'. A couple of times I've put it on what I thought to be a flat surface, and it starts moving. The screen is bright and the colours are very vibrant, but the viewing angles aren't as good as my 4S or my Nexus 4. Battery life is very good so far.
One minor annoyance I've had so far is that I have a Sony Bluetooth head unit in my car which isn't compatible with the 'App Remote' application, yet every time I connect via bluetooth, it tells me to install the required software. I have to exit out of all this before I can get to Spotify to play some songs. I can't see a way to get rid of this
I've tried actually installing the software, but then instead of telling me to install it every time, it just brings up the software, telling me to connect it to my head unit, which I obviously can't. The camera is excellent and I love the proper camera shutter. It feels like an actual compact camera. There's also lots of gimmicky camera modes which are quite fun, like 120FPS and a virtual reality mode where you can insert dinosaurs etc. Sample image below.
http://imgur.com/ZclLFz5
EDIT: I've disabled the Smart Connect software which keeps hassling me about my head unit, hopefully that'll do the trick.
Edited by George7 on Monday 6th October 10:54
George7 said:
Given that it's a high end phone, I should hope the Z3/Z3C should keep receiving updates for at least a couple of years, otherwise I'll be severely disappointed. As much bad press as they get, Apple seem to be the best at not abandoning their old handsets. My iPhone 4S, now a 3 year old bit of kit just recently got iOS8.
Agreed, but a couple of weeks ago they were still selling it as new, at about the same price of a Nexus 5. So in that aspect, it's still a very new phone with a +£350 price tag.George7 said:
Back to the Z3C though, I've had mine a few days now. I'm quite liking it, but I'm not 100% sure about it yet. I like the fact it's waterproof, but dislike the flaps.
Hmm, can't have your cake and eat it I guess. Are the flaps easy to take off? So sacrificing waterproofness in favour of practicality? (I know someone who did it with his S5, although on the S5 it's a permanent solution)George7 said:
I wish it had a rubberised back instead of glass. This is nothing new and my previous 2 phones also had glass backs, but the Z3C seems to be particularly 'slidey'. A couple of times I've put it on what I thought to be a flat surface, and it starts moving.
Having had a 4S and worked with the N4, I couldn't agree more. Glass back on a phone is a poor design choice for a number of reasons imho.George7 said:
The screen is bright and the colours are very vibrant, but the viewing angles aren't as good as my 4S or my Nexus 4. Battery life is very good so far.
Hmm, sad to see this issue still persists. I knew it was present in the "Z", but I thought they solved it in the "Z1"?ZesPak said:
George7 said:
Given that it's a high end phone, I should hope the Z3/Z3C should keep receiving updates for at least a couple of years, otherwise I'll be severely disappointed. As much bad press as they get, Apple seem to be the best at not abandoning their old handsets. My iPhone 4S, now a 3 year old bit of kit just recently got iOS8.
Agreed, but a couple of weeks ago they were still selling it as new, at about the same price of a Nexus 5. So in that aspect, it's still a very new phone with a +£350 price tag.George7 said:
Back to the Z3C though, I've had mine a few days now. I'm quite liking it, but I'm not 100% sure about it yet. I like the fact it's waterproof, but dislike the flaps.
Hmm, can't have your cake and eat it I guess. Are the flaps easy to take off? So sacrificing waterproofness in favour of practicality? (I know someone who did it with his S5, although on the S5 it's a permanent solution)George7 said:
The screen is bright and the colours are very vibrant, but the viewing angles aren't as good as my 4S or my Nexus 4. Battery life is very good so far.
Hmm, sad to see this issue still persists. I knew it was present in the "Z", but I thought they solved it in the "Z1"?I wouldn't want to remove the flaps, as it'd ruin the lines of the phone, but theoretically it would be possible. It looks like you can just pull the plastic 'ball' out of its hole. Might be difficult to get it back in though. Also, to say something nice about the flaps, they do fit well and go back in with a pleasing 'soft' action.
I've ordered a magnetic cable off eBay for the princely sum of £2.99, so hopefully once that's arrived, I should very rarely need to open the flaps
The viewing angles aren't horrible by any means, but I definitely noticed it when first switching it on (I was rotating it about a bit). Especially alongside my 4S.
Tycho said:
If it's a work phone then I'd just use a screen protector as the copper coloured Z3 looks too nice to put in a case.
And my next question was going to be have I made a mistake going for Copper, and you've answered that one perfectly All my previous Xperias have been blick, so fancied a change this time. Roll on tomorrow
Just ordered a Z3 from Three 
I've been on Three PAYG for the last few months since my VF contract finished; Three and EE are the only 3g providers on the west coast of Scotland, so it was a no brainer.
1gb data, 600mins, unltd texts for £28pm and £49 upfront. Cheapest I could find the handset online was £515 and my total contract is £721, so £8.58pm for the airtime.
Looking forward to it getting here; it's a slick piece of kit going by the brief play I had in store. Going to take a while to get used to onscreen buttons as all my previous Android handsets have had capacitive buttons.
I've been on Three PAYG for the last few months since my VF contract finished; Three and EE are the only 3g providers on the west coast of Scotland, so it was a no brainer.
1gb data, 600mins, unltd texts for £28pm and £49 upfront. Cheapest I could find the handset online was £515 and my total contract is £721, so £8.58pm for the airtime.
Looking forward to it getting here; it's a slick piece of kit going by the brief play I had in store. Going to take a while to get used to onscreen buttons as all my previous Android handsets have had capacitive buttons.
Well My Z3c arrived earlier today, I've had nothing but trouble dealing with EE I thought now the phone was here my problems would all be over and I could enjoy the phone Errrrrr NO!!! after careful inspection I noticed on the left had side of the screen about a quarter the way up from the bottom of the screen one of the pixels was broken, so I'm not happy what so ever, the device looks and feels good but I've had the whole experience blighted by bad customer service and now a faulty phone to see what’s good about my new handset.
milner993 said:
Well My Z3c arrived earlier today, I've had nothing but trouble dealing with EE I thought now the phone was here my problems would all be over and I could enjoy the phone Errrrrr NO!!! after careful inspection I noticed on the left had side of the screen about a quarter the way up from the bottom of the screen one of the pixels was broken, so I'm not happy what so ever, the device looks and feels good but I've had the whole experience blighted by bad customer service and now a faulty phone to see what’s good about my new handset.
I'm pretty sure 1 faulty pixel is within acceptable tolerances for LCD technology, therefore not faulty.Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff