Sony Xperia Z3 Compact - Your Thoughts . . .
Discussion
JustinF said:
Moved to one of these from a moto-g 3g, nice phone and excellent camera but jesus does it interfere noisily and at quite some distance with my PC speakers.
Have you by any chance moved from EE/3 to Voda/O2? The frequency they use is a right pig for interfering with everything - my Z on EE was absolutely fine, but my Z3 on Voda can be a nightmare. bodhi said:
JustinF said:
Moved to one of these from a moto-g 3g, nice phone and excellent camera but jesus does it interfere noisily and at quite some distance with my PC speakers.
Have you by any chance moved from EE/3 to Voda/O2? The frequency they use is a right pig for interfering with everything - my Z on EE was absolutely fine, but my Z3 on Voda can be a nightmare. Decent PC speakers at home and no issue.
I've also posted this on another forum, not sure if anyone here has experienced this issue?
I've done a bit of searching on this but couldn't find any examples quite as extreme as mine. It seems to have happened to my phone at some point within the past couple of months, only noticed recently when I transferred some photos to my laptop. What basically happens is similar to the 'tilt shift' effect on Instagram. Only part of the photo is in focus. It's usually the middle which is in focus, but if I tap to focus elsewhere, it will shift the focus to there and the blurriness shifts (see photo number 4, where I tapped to specifically focus on the building on the right). I also tried the multiple autofocus option, but it unfortunately makes no real difference.
At first I thought I'd accidentally turned on some sort of hipster photo mode, but having scoured the options, I can see nothing of the kind which is making me think it's likely to be a hardware issue. The camera lens itself looks fine from the outside, no obvious cracks or damage.
Pictures below, just wondered if anyone had experienced this issue or had any ideas of any settings I may have missed, or anything else which could be causing this? I want to make sure I've tried everything I can before I send it back to Sony for repair.
Photos below, first photo was taken in manual mode, 2 and 3 were taken in superior auto. The 4th was specifically tapping the Focus onto the building on the right.
I've done a bit of searching on this but couldn't find any examples quite as extreme as mine. It seems to have happened to my phone at some point within the past couple of months, only noticed recently when I transferred some photos to my laptop. What basically happens is similar to the 'tilt shift' effect on Instagram. Only part of the photo is in focus. It's usually the middle which is in focus, but if I tap to focus elsewhere, it will shift the focus to there and the blurriness shifts (see photo number 4, where I tapped to specifically focus on the building on the right). I also tried the multiple autofocus option, but it unfortunately makes no real difference.
At first I thought I'd accidentally turned on some sort of hipster photo mode, but having scoured the options, I can see nothing of the kind which is making me think it's likely to be a hardware issue. The camera lens itself looks fine from the outside, no obvious cracks or damage.
Pictures below, just wondered if anyone had experienced this issue or had any ideas of any settings I may have missed, or anything else which could be causing this? I want to make sure I've tried everything I can before I send it back to Sony for repair.
Photos below, first photo was taken in manual mode, 2 and 3 were taken in superior auto. The 4th was specifically tapping the Focus onto the building on the right.
ks. Cracked the screen already. 
Plugged my phone into the laptop today and in Sony PC Companion to do a backup. It has a yellow exclamation mark over my internal storage, though there is 21% free. Is it just a capacity warning or something else? Helpfully (or not) it doesn't actually explain why it has the yellow mark on it!
Any ideas?
Any ideas?
I'm up for contract renewal, but torn between the Z5 Compact and Z3 Compact.
Its only a fiver a month more for the Z5C (due to wonders of staff discounts), anyone had both devices and care to comment?
Reviews are definitely inconsistent for the Z5C, alternating between it being the greatest thing ever, to being absolutely dire - camera being inconsistent, operation being sluggish.
Its only a fiver a month more for the Z5C (due to wonders of staff discounts), anyone had both devices and care to comment?
Reviews are definitely inconsistent for the Z5C, alternating between it being the greatest thing ever, to being absolutely dire - camera being inconsistent, operation being sluggish.
If it helps, I've recently got a Z5C to replace a Lumia 925.
Every so often loading Google now isn't instant, and I can't find a way of getting it to load Spotify and automatically start playing when you plug headphones in, (It'll only play the built in music player) via Sony connect.
The camera isn't as good as the Lumia's in sub optimal light (no OIS I suspect), but I'll live with that.
Other than that I find it pretty flawless. The fingerprint reader is amazing, the screen is lovely and clear. The size is pretty much spot on for me, (I found the 925 to big, which mean the latest WM10 phones were a no-go).
The battery life is very impressive. generally it's off charge at 6am, and by 11pm it still got 20-30% left, that's with lots of Spotify streaming and the odd text/phone call/internet browse etc.
Call quality is exceptional compared to the Lumia. (the 925 had horrible interference on anything but excellent 3G signal strength).
I've not been brave enough to test the waterproofing yet....
Every so often loading Google now isn't instant, and I can't find a way of getting it to load Spotify and automatically start playing when you plug headphones in, (It'll only play the built in music player) via Sony connect.
The camera isn't as good as the Lumia's in sub optimal light (no OIS I suspect), but I'll live with that.
Other than that I find it pretty flawless. The fingerprint reader is amazing, the screen is lovely and clear. The size is pretty much spot on for me, (I found the 925 to big, which mean the latest WM10 phones were a no-go).
The battery life is very impressive. generally it's off charge at 6am, and by 11pm it still got 20-30% left, that's with lots of Spotify streaming and the odd text/phone call/internet browse etc.
Call quality is exceptional compared to the Lumia. (the 925 had horrible interference on anything but excellent 3G signal strength).
I've not been brave enough to test the waterproofing yet....
Richyvrlimited said:
If it helps, I've recently got a Z5C to replace a Lumia 925.
Every so often loading Google now isn't instant, and I can't find a way of getting it to load Spotify and automatically start playing when you plug headphones in, (It'll only play the built in music player) via Sony connect.
The camera isn't as good as the Lumia's in sub optimal light (no OIS I suspect), but I'll live with that.
Other than that I find it pretty flawless. The fingerprint reader is amazing, the screen is lovely and clear. The size is pretty much spot on for me, (I found the 925 to big, which mean the latest WM10 phones were a no-go).
The battery life is very impressive. generally it's off charge at 6am, and by 11pm it still got 20-30% left, that's with lots of Spotify streaming and the odd text/phone call/internet browse etc.
Call quality is exceptional compared to the Lumia. (the 925 had horrible interference on anything but excellent 3G signal strength).
I've not been brave enough to test the waterproofing yet....
I've been using a Voda Smart Ultra 6 and whilst its pretty good, it is just too big for me - so same issue as you with the new WM10 devices. I keep on going back to use the 808 or L1020 when I want to take stills or record video .... which will probably still be the case when I get the Z5 Compact.Every so often loading Google now isn't instant, and I can't find a way of getting it to load Spotify and automatically start playing when you plug headphones in, (It'll only play the built in music player) via Sony connect.
The camera isn't as good as the Lumia's in sub optimal light (no OIS I suspect), but I'll live with that.
Other than that I find it pretty flawless. The fingerprint reader is amazing, the screen is lovely and clear. The size is pretty much spot on for me, (I found the 925 to big, which mean the latest WM10 phones were a no-go).
The battery life is very impressive. generally it's off charge at 6am, and by 11pm it still got 20-30% left, that's with lots of Spotify streaming and the odd text/phone call/internet browse etc.
Call quality is exceptional compared to the Lumia. (the 925 had horrible interference on anything but excellent 3G signal strength).
I've not been brave enough to test the waterproofing yet....
Thats me sold then, Z5C it is on friday!
Richyvrlimited said:
If it helps, I've recently got a Z5C to replace a Lumia 925.
Every so often loading Google now isn't instant, and I can't find a way of getting it to load Spotify and automatically start playing when you plug headphones in, (It'll only play the built in music player) via Sony connect.
The camera isn't as good as the Lumia's in sub optimal light (no OIS I suspect), but I'll live with that.
Other than that I find it pretty flawless. The fingerprint reader is amazing, the screen is lovely and clear. The size is pretty much spot on for me, (I found the 925 to big, which mean the latest WM10 phones were a no-go).
The battery life is very impressive. generally it's off charge at 6am, and by 11pm it still got 20-30% left, that's with lots of Spotify streaming and the odd text/phone call/internet browse etc.
Call quality is exceptional compared to the Lumia. (the 925 had horrible interference on anything but excellent 3G signal strength).
I've not been brave enough to test the waterproofing yet....
Went for the Z5C, it is definitely a, er, mixed device.Every so often loading Google now isn't instant, and I can't find a way of getting it to load Spotify and automatically start playing when you plug headphones in, (It'll only play the built in music player) via Sony connect.
The camera isn't as good as the Lumia's in sub optimal light (no OIS I suspect), but I'll live with that.
Other than that I find it pretty flawless. The fingerprint reader is amazing, the screen is lovely and clear. The size is pretty much spot on for me, (I found the 925 to big, which mean the latest WM10 phones were a no-go).
The battery life is very impressive. generally it's off charge at 6am, and by 11pm it still got 20-30% left, that's with lots of Spotify streaming and the odd text/phone call/internet browse etc.
Call quality is exceptional compared to the Lumia. (the 925 had horrible interference on anything but excellent 3G signal strength).
I've not been brave enough to test the waterproofing yet....
The camera is massively compromised by Sonys image processing - which putting it politely is pretty lousy. How the heck DXOMark gave it such a high rating I'll never understand. View photos at 100% and there just isn't any detail worth bothering with, all you get is noise. Having said that, I managed to get some reasonable shots at an event over the weekend (fundraising in town with a couple of mates, we were all rowing for Alzheimers and supporting a mate who is rowing the atlantic in december).
Battery life is okay, wouldn't say that its impressive.
But size is absolutely perfect for me too - perfectly pocketable device.
Call quality is definitely better than the Voda SU6 (which is now being used primarily as a small tablet).
Richyvrlimited said:
If it helps, I've recently got a Z5C to replace a Lumia 925.
Every so often loading Google now isn't instant, and I can't find a way of getting it to load Spotify and automatically start playing when you plug headphones in, (It'll only play the built in music player) via Sony connect.
The camera isn't as good as the Lumia's in sub optimal light (no OIS I suspect), but I'll live with that.
Other than that I find it pretty flawless. The fingerprint reader is amazing, the screen is lovely and clear. The size is pretty much spot on for me, (I found the 925 to big, which mean the latest WM10 phones were a no-go).
The battery life is very impressive. generally it's off charge at 6am, and by 11pm it still got 20-30% left, that's with lots of Spotify streaming and the odd text/phone call/internet browse etc.
Call quality is exceptional compared to the Lumia. (the 925 had horrible interference on anything but excellent 3G signal strength).
I've not been brave enough to test the waterproofing yet....
If you find out which profile Sony Connect is using when the headphones are plugged in then you can go into the app and edit the event. I think it is the 2nd step which allows you to change the app used. I have Play Music set to start automatically.Every so often loading Google now isn't instant, and I can't find a way of getting it to load Spotify and automatically start playing when you plug headphones in, (It'll only play the built in music player) via Sony connect.
The camera isn't as good as the Lumia's in sub optimal light (no OIS I suspect), but I'll live with that.
Other than that I find it pretty flawless. The fingerprint reader is amazing, the screen is lovely and clear. The size is pretty much spot on for me, (I found the 925 to big, which mean the latest WM10 phones were a no-go).
The battery life is very impressive. generally it's off charge at 6am, and by 11pm it still got 20-30% left, that's with lots of Spotify streaming and the odd text/phone call/internet browse etc.
Call quality is exceptional compared to the Lumia. (the 925 had horrible interference on anything but excellent 3G signal strength).
I've not been brave enough to test the waterproofing yet....
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