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First Xperia Z Review: Sony Xperia Z Review - Phone Reviews and Video | Stuff magazine

Kudos, Sony.

 

The question is, which US carriers is the Z going to be on? They should be like Sammy and put it on all of them... none of this VZW exclusive stupidity.

 

Sony isn't making CDMA devices anymore. It isn't worth it for them to implement those radios when the amount of sales from GSM would dwarf CDMA.

 

From what I've been reading, the Z or ZL may not be available on any U.S. carriers. If that's the case, they may be sold through Sony's website as unlocked phones like the Xperia S.

 

Hilariously, I think Tsunade's post also applies to yours! :lol:

Here it'll be "you mean a Droid?" due to verizon's marketing, and their Droid brand of Android handsets. It's so bad that seeing or hearing ads touting "oh and we also have an app for iphone, blackberry and droid!" is a common occurrance.

*sigh*

The S3 is becoming more of a "household name" but "Droid" still outweighs it when people are mentioned Android in conversation here me thinks.

Makes sense....they tried xperia play with cdma and got burned on Verizon. Blame verizon's naval gazing (oh look droid 2!!) marketing for that one. I don't even think the verizon model got updated off of gingerbread....disappointing for a "stock" 2.3 device.

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk 2

 

So if Sony is out of CDMA... that means the Z can only be an AT&T or TMobile phone?

Gonna be hard to beat Sammy on only half the big 4 carriers in the US.

And I don't understand the Nexus 4 demand... is it only because it's cheap unsubsidized? No LTE makes it a non-starter for me.

 

Can't blame Sony for ditching Verizon, and I wouldn't be surprised if they step away from AT&T eventually. The last two subsidized Sony phones on AT&T were never widely advertised or pushed by retail stores, which is a shame because the Xperia TL is a direct competitor to the Galaxy S III and One X.

The Nexus 4 took off because of the price, in addition to its hardware specifications and the software. In terms of software, you can't do better bone stock Android when it comes to speed, and compared to what's available in the $300-$350 non-subsidized phone offering, nothing comes close to the Nexus 4 given the processor and screen, both of which are normally seen in phones costing twice as much. It does get criticized for not supporting LTE in the U.S., but given the history of how well the Galaxy Nexus fared with Verizon and Sprint, it ultimately ended up being the best choice for Google to sell it as an unlocked phone to offer a pure Android experience without contamination of carrier software and their draconian policies.

One such U.S. carrier that really grind my gears is Verizon. I can't understand why Samsung and Motorola allows the carrier to have so much control over the software and branding that it practically ruins what made their phones desirable in the first place. I currently have an unlocked Canadian RAZR HD and had a Droid RAZR MAXX HD a few months back. Near identical hardware, but Rogers and Fido left their RAZR HDs alone while Verizon defiles their iteration; I can tell you it's a startling contrast of how much better the Canadian/International version is comparing stock firmare to firmware.

 

This isn't really an Android specific question, but what is VZWs longterm strategy as CDMA continues to age and become obsolete? Will the LTE network eventually carry 100% of voice and data? I'm not quite clear on how it all works.

 

VoLTE will eventually become mainstream as carriers continue to re-tool their existing towers and re-farm their existing bands for LTE. IIRC, Verizon plans to be fully converted by 2016. T-Mobile's LTE will be up beginning of next month and will progressively grow over time, while AT&T just purchased a good chunk of 700 MHz spectrum from Verizon for the Southeast U.S. LTE is cheaper to deploy versus UMTS so they benefit in the long term from the bottom line perspective as well.

 

You'd be surprised. My friend's mom asked him the other day whether she should get an iPhone or Galaxy, and I don't think it's a fringe example. In the same way that many non-techies call all tablets "iPads" (as does my mom, even though she's using a Nexus 7), the choice for consumers is now iPhone or Galaxy.

And see the article Fishon posted earlier:

Beautiful device, and the overlay UI is classic Sony minimalism while still staying functional. Main thing I like about the skin is that it appears to be consistent across the modified apps (unlike TouchWiz in its current incarnation). I still think I like the more compact ZL better... but the waterproofing and covered ports are quite nice.

 

You're one of those... :/

No LTE is definitely not a deal breaker. And people that say it is a deal breaker need to re-examine what they expect from a $350 unsubsidized phone. Plus, HSPA+ is by no means slow anymore. I can stream HD YouTube clips (data plan permitting), Netflix, Google Music, and really anything else I want. And actually I find I prefer HSPA+ in a lot of cases since data plans are still capped at ridiculously small amounts of data.

^This. AT&T's goal was to have VoLTE deployed by 2016, but they're hitting problems. Basically they're refarming EDGE. Nobody needs EDGE anymore. Nobody should even be running on EDGE.

 

I've never had a issue with HSPA+ just T-Mobile's signal. I find LTE kinda pointless, because sure it's fast, not doubting that, but how much is "faster" over fast will you notice a difference? It's like upgrading from an Enzo to a Veyron, most people can't process the difference. And I'm sorry, if you stream 1080p video all the time on your phone, you need a tablet or a laptop.

My friend's iPhone 4 mostly runs Edge on T-Mobile, though 3G coverage is expanding, it is still unacceptably slow.

 

It's a sign of the times when even T-Mobile is getting rid of EDGE though. lol. That 1900MHz will soon be converted into 1900MHz HSPA+.

 

T-Mobile is an exception to why you may not find LTE to be a big upgrade, especially if you have their newer phone that can run on DC-HSPA 42Mbps. In most cases, it's as fast or even faster than LTE especially in congested areas.

 

I can understand not seeing LTE as a big deal, but proclaiming HSPA+ to be BETTER kind of smacks of sour grapes.

 

It can be, but ultimately LTE has the potential for much higher throughput. I can usually get 8-12 Mbps with AT&T LTE in my area but T-Mobile people around here can beat that fairly easily. DC-HSPA is a whole different beast than your regular HSPA+. Apparently the Nexus 4 can run it, so it works out exceptionally well for T-Mobile users.

https://twitter.com/tnkgrl/status/264838976639213568

 

None of them did.
Sony pulled ICS for the Play.

 

Why would they do that (my friend will be peeved at hearing they pulled it). Was there some hardware incompatibility?

 

Not enough room to fit ICS and the Playstation stuff onto the internal memory and still leave space to install apps, I think.
I believe there are beta ROMs kicking around.

Basically, it was a lack of foresight combined with some half-arsedness.

 

Damn. Too bad. I know ICS is available on the Play via Cyanogenmod. I will have to see if he'll be open to that.

 

@HAL:

Well... I guess I should have said no CDMA/LTE as one of my carriers is Sprint. HSPA+ may be fast, but LTE is noticeably faster (I have a phone on AT&T too).

This is where I think Google is doing it wrong... they need to have their Nexus phones on ALL US carriers like Samsung's Galaxy 3s. If the Nexus 4 is an indication of where they are going... that doesn't bode well for the X Phone.

 

CDMA is a dead-end technology used on a tiny minority of networks.
It would be a waste of time and money for Google to pander to Verizon or Sprint.

LTE is another matter however.
It's bad enough to choose not to support it but to have the necessary hardware in the Nexus4 and simply not use it is ridiculous IMO.

 

Agreed. I wouldn't say CDMA was only used on a tiny minority of networks though. You might offend Verizon and Sprint.

But boy are you right on the LTE issue. Google absolutely must support it. All the major carriers are building out there LTE networks so it's not like LTE won't be the prevalent "4G" standard used in the US (have no idea what is used in Europe). But Google should consider this. If they decide NOT to follow the mainstream 4G standard in the US, then they will end up in the same position Sprint was with that Wimax joke: very far behind their competitors (technology wise) with a 4G standard that no one is using. Not a good place to be.

 

*shrugs*

LTE is the technology that is being adopted almost everywhere.
It's not that Google will never support LTE, eventually it will be impossible for them to ignore it. But that point has passed, it's not in the future.

 

Nobody in EU uses CDMA, they pioneered GSM, so in their POV CDMA carriers are the ones who are backwards. And CDMA does stuff that is just annoying, like requesting locked bootloaders and locking down bands (which is illegal in Europe).

 

So until VZW and Sprint, who have over half of subscribers of the top 4 US carriers, switch from CDMA, Google won't make a Nexus phone for them?

Good plan... and Google wonders why the Samsung Galaxy brand is so popular.

 

Don't forget to add that Google is still trying to ignore that lingering LTE fad.

 

LTE support requires a different radio, and like it was stated earlier with the Galaxy Nexus, they didn't want it tied down with bloatware. CDMA carriers do exactly that, so until they change their policy, they won't sell it to VZW and Sprint. Nexus phones will sell, doesn't matter what carrier it is on. People buy Nexus phones because they want a clean Android experience, and this iteration, very good value.

 

Wasn't there a blurt that the Nexus 4 is able to connect to a certain AT&T LTE band cause the Snapdragon processor in them has LTE support built in for a specific AWS LTE frequency?

 

Yes, but the FCC did not certify the device for LTE band use and the antennae built into the current chassis isn't setup properly for it, so the signal is pretty degraded when it was compared to its Optimus G cousin.

 

Yeah, but that bashes Google's argument that it was too expensive to put an LTE radio in the Nexus 4.

 

I don't recall Google stating a LTE radio is too expensive to put in the Nexus 4, but if they did, that would not make any sense because Qualcomm's MDM9215 is part of the SoC specifications to the APQ8064, which means anything with a Snapdragon S4 Pro has that modem built-in to it. I suspect this has to do more with FCC related regulation cost and politics, but a RF engineer will have to verify that.

 

You're right. I misread the article. That doesn't mean Google gave some good reasons for excluding LTE (except for the different carrier frequencies incompatibility). Slow lane: why Google's new Nexus 4 doesn't have LTE | The Verge

 

So basically, because they want to keep cost low, they don't want to customize different models for LTE.

I understand that, but why not sell the customized LTE ones as subsidized only to recoup costs? The article mentions carrier customizations as a hurdle yet the iPhone is fairly consistent between carriers.

It's okay... no SD card is also a reason to skip the Nexus line (yeah... I said it).

 

Google and LG are no Apple. Apple has clout that no other device maker can touch, hence their (still amazing IMO) ability to get iOS devices onto the US networks without carrier added software and updates pushed without carrier interference.

It's not just about lowering costs. One big reason why Nexus 4 isn't on LTE is because of the testing and software update delays that the carriers would put such a device through. The Verizon Galaxy Nexus is still behind on updates.

 

Perhaps, but HSPA+ drains battery slower, I'm used to how fast I can use up a data plan with HSPA, plus it's literally everywhere now.

FCC certification, RF studies for all the LTE bands, and then carrier certification would run the price WAYYYYY on up there.

 

Oppo Find 5 review: Oppo-lent screen - GSMArena.com
Oppo Find 5 Review

The Find 5 ended up being a pretty good phone overall, but it should have left the gates back in December well before all these other ~5" phones were announced. Three months later after its announcement, it's still not out and with the Xperia Z/ZL's release looming just around the corner, this phone's going to be end up forgotten.

Good device, poor timeline execution.

 

I need you guys expertise on this one! Many of you know I have been using my galaxy S3 as a laptop replacement. However, one thing that bothers me alot is how the android browser(s) zoom into the entire webpage with no way to change the scaling. In other words, the I can not under zoom to show more of the web page, everything alway fills the screen. This doesn't change even when DPI is set really low, I think it has something to do with how webview is set up.

I noticed that Engadget.com automatically scales their webpage correctly, so it's not zoomed in all the way (visit engadget.com on your phone with desktop User Agent and you will see what I mean).

My question is, it looks like they are using some kind of viewport option to scale their webpage, is there anyway to extend the script to all webpages with javascript or greasemonkey like feature?

 

If you are using Chrome, enable the option 'Force Enable Zoom' under Accessibility. Other browsers may have similar settings.

 

Thanks! but can I zoom out?if I remember correctly, force enable zoom was intended for website that disable user zoom options. It only allows you to zoom in but not out of the overview (if that makes sense). You know how in firefox you can hold down Control plus using the scroll wheel to rescale the webpage to make it smaller, that's the effect I am going for.

 

That setting should force the page to start out at furthest page view possible. Unfortunately I can't help you further as I am currently tied with this BLU handset.

...Every once in a while you come across something so unrelentingly bad you just have to experience it all the way. PortableDigest is about to get a very colorful, pessimistic handset review this evening.

 

That's fine, thanks for the help!

 

I'm back to the RAZR, and that setting in Chrome forced the web page view to show the entire page on initial load. You may want to try that, and see if other alternative browsers offer the same features if Chrome isn't your thing.

The review on the Quattro if anyone's interested: Review: BLU Quattro 4.5 HD |

I don't know which factor impacted me more, actually spending $350 on that thing or finding something worse than the One X+.

 

Ouch, it seems like, physically, it's ok yet generic. If the software was better optimized...i suspect you'd have a different story to tell. :/

 

[ROM][AOSP][LINARO] CarbonRom JB 4.2.1 [n7100] » Feb 6 - xda-developers

CarbonROM released today, a CM10.1-based ROM with the Linaro improvements. I flashed it, and it works flawlessly, without a hitch. Must flash!

 

Correct, this is a perfect example of a manufacturer that bases its selling points on looks and specification numbers alone. The software truly felt like an afterthought, and I've used enough mainstream Tegra 3 devices to know that it should not perform this bad. I'm not exaggerating at all when I mentioned it lags everywhere. I had to run a 3D benchmark to make sure the Tegra 3 GPU drivers weren't missing; it really gives you an impression that you're running on some middle school kid's first attempt at ROM cooking.

The camera software really intrigues me, because in all previous touchscreen devices I've used, I have never seen one attempt to refocus and do last split-second ISO level adjustment before actually taking the picture when selecting a point of focus in the viewfinder and tapping the shutter button. You literally need to take two or three pictures of a scene to have a chance at getting a passable image.

 

^It makes me wonder if the CPU power profiles aren't screwed up in the kernel, because it sounds like it's over-scheduling the companion core. But then you said it has horrible battery life and that sounds like it's having an issue picking which frequency step to keep the other cores at causing some serious battery drain for no apparent reason.

Power profiles just sound screwed in general.

 

That's a good point. The device performed okay in full load situations like gaming or benchmarks, but outside of it seems to really do poorly. This is BLU's first Tegra 3 device as well, so chances of them not being able to get the processor load away from the application core appropriately seems likely possible. Is there a tool that provides a screen overlay for the Tegra 3's core loads? The power management profiles built into the ROM doesn't seem to do affect anything.

 

So I am looking for an unlocked Sprint Android smartphone under 100 for a friend. Is the Nexus S/Galaxy S my best bet?

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