Sony C5 Ultra - Two weeks review - Sony Xperia C5 Ultra

Hello there,
Let's talk about the C5 Ultra with Innolux display, model E5506, Software version 29.0.A.1.55.
It sucks to know it's stuck to Android L 5.0 but it's good to know it will go directly to Android M 6.0, I can see how Sony care about the image of the C5 as it uses it in many advertisements, and also if you go in the official page about software upgrades you'll see that the White C5 is the one that show a marshmallow on screen.
One note about size, it's big. If your hand is not big enough, don't even think about it. It has a one hand mode but I don't use it, my hand is big enough - however, I bought a Nillkin case and I feel it's grip improved, the plastic/glass back make it slippy... really slippery.
After two weeks I learnt how to hate and love this device that promise to be a super mid-range one but that many times act like a flagship. I used as comparison my Xperia Z3C as comparison to draft a list of pro and cons and if I have to say the first thing that come up in my mind about the two is that the display show more saturated colors on the Z3C but of course it has a triluminos display. Other than that I am surprised how the C5 "at times" perform ways much better than the Z3C.
Google now, for example: the voice recognition is faster and smoother in the C5 rather than in the Z3C - Damn you Sony for leaving us with 5.0, Google now conflicts with Camera so I have to disable the voice recognition in all screens otherwise I won't record videos with audio.
Smooth menu navigation, apps open fast and in some cases faster than the Z3C. The C5 has a full HD display and the Z3C no, so you expect that the performance on the C5 should be a bit more laggy, well it's not. It's really smooth but seems that the Memory Leak occur in 5.0 and after few hours of normal usage the device lags, slow down and eventually I'll have to reboot the device to regain full performance.
The MTK True Octa-core inside the C5 doesn't warm like the Z3C Qualcomm QuadCore - The Z3C heat and when it does it, it does it really badly compared to the C5 that it heat too but not like the Z3C and camera won't crash although the camera welcome you at times with the message warning that if the device heat too much it may close the camera app... never happened to the C5, happened a lot to the Z3C.
Photos - Weird how the Z3C take great photos but the C5 take greater ones! It's not a matter of MPX, but a matter of sharpness: C5 take great sharp photos, Z3C take great smooth photos - Confused here but both wins.
Battery life - Tie: They do last an entire day in mixed usage scenarios - no games, I don't play games on phones but due my job there are moments when I really need to use the phone a lot especially if not at the office or in front of a computer. Both devices are connected to my Pebble Time and SWR10 SmartBand and there is little to no battery drain but if both connected to my car stereo I can see a significative battery drain, especially if listening music with Spotify thru the car stereo.
Battery Charger: They both sucks, but the stock one of the C5 sucks even more (0.8A ewww). Anyway in both cases I don't use the stock charger but an Anker Turbo Power adapter, 8A - Both charge in less of two hours... so, just beware: do not use the stock charger: I call them a black cheapy-little jokes.
Interface: Tie: Sony idea of interface it's not that bad, it's not 100% vanilla but almost, there are color icons, different colors here and there some specific functionalities added and it's 100% bearable/lovable.
NFC: Works better in the C5, in the Z3C (probably for the glass-back) is slower.. however I installed a Nillkin frosted back cover and now they are at the same level. Anyway they both works but without cover the C5 win.
Connectivity - WIFI: Eh... the Z3C claims to be dual-band - True, the C5 claims to be single band - True and the winner is C5. The wifi is faster on the C5, I don't know where is the issue with the Z3C but Miracast stutter a lot, it's slow to download, slow to connect, slow slow slow. The C5 is great to cast, fast to connect, fast to download, faster faster faster.
Connectivity - H+/LTE - Tie: Found same download speed in both device, fast and reliable - it may be related to my Carrier, not sure.
Connectivity - Signal Reception: Almost a Tie, one only issue is that the C5 tend to connect more to LTE and when it does the signal strength is slightly lower compared to when connected to H+ anyway I haven't lost signal at all and signal quality is good in both devices.
Connectivity - Bluetooth: Almost a Tie, but Z3C has stronger Bluetooth signal than the C5. Random disconnection of my smartwear if I am one room away, not happening with the Z3C. - Anyway, both are reliable.. just the C5's is less powerful.
Call Quality: Ladies and gentleman, the winner is the C5. While the Z3C has a great call quality, I can say that the C5 with with same call settings (Equalizer: normal, Speaker Voice Enh, and Noise suppression) sounds ways much better - I suspect that the size of the speaker is different hence the quality gain.
Speaker Quality: Tie and not - Damn Sony! Z3C: Stereo - C5: Stereo but Mono - Meaning that the front firing speakers are good in both devices but probably with this software version in the C5 we get just Mono Music reproduction with using just the bottom speaker!! Why???
So basically, after two weeks I think that the C5 is a super-mid range device that thinks to be a flagship device, and probably it is one. Sony never said it's a mid-range, they said the M5 was and left the C5 as an incognita. 2GB of ram are enough but not with android 5.0 in fact I think that the only issue of this phone is the installed Android Version, in fact if you excuse me I'll close this review with a "I need to reboot the device as it started to lag again" - I hope that Sony will rush the Marshmallow release and probably the C5 will become a great device and probably I'll say it's a real flagship device.

YoGem said:
Hello there,
Let's talk about the C5 Ultra with Innolux display, model E5506, Software version 29.0.A.1.55.
It sucks to know it's stuck to Android L 5.0 but it's good to know it will go directly to Android M 6.0, I can see how Sony care about the image of the C5 as it uses it in many advertisements, and also if you go in the official page about software upgrades you'll see that the White C5 is the one that show a marshmallow on screen.
One note about size, it's big. If your hand is not big enough, don't even think about it. It has a one hand mode but I don't use it, my hand is big enough - however, I bought a Nillkin case and I feel it's grip improved, the plastic/glass back make it slippy... really slippery.
After two weeks I learnt how to hate and love this device that promise to be a super mid-range one but that many times act like a flagship. I used as comparison my Xperia Z3C as comparison to draft a list of pro and cons and if I have to say the first thing that come up in my mind about the two is that the display show more saturated colors on the Z3C but of course it has a triluminos display. Other than that I am surprised how the C5 "at times" perform ways much better than the Z3C.
Google now, for example: the voice recognition is faster and smoother in the C5 rather than in the Z3C - Damn you Sony for leaving us with 5.0, Google now conflicts with Camera so I have to disable the voice recognition in all screens otherwise I won't record videos with audio.
Smooth menu navigation, apps open fast and in some cases faster than the Z3C. The C5 has a full HD display and the Z3C no, so you expect that the performance on the C5 should be a bit more laggy, well it's not. It's really smooth but seems that the Memory Leak occur in 5.0 and after few hours of normal usage the device lags, slow down and eventually I'll have to reboot the device to regain full performance.
The MTK True Octa-core inside the C5 doesn't warm like the Z3C Qualcomm QuadCore - The Z3C heat and when it does it, it does it really badly compared to the C5 that it heat too but not like the Z3C and camera won't crash although the camera welcome you at times with the message warning that if the device heat too much it may close the camera app... never happened to the C5, happened a lot to the Z3C.
Photos - Weird how the Z3C take great photos but the C5 take greater ones! It's not a matter of MPX, but a matter of sharpness: C5 take great sharp photos, Z3C take great smooth photos - Confused here but both wins.
Battery life - Tie: They do last an entire day in mixed usage scenarios - no games, I don't play games on phones but due my job there are moments when I really need to use the phone a lot especially if not at the office or in front of a computer. Both devices are connected to my Pebble Time and SWR10 SmartBand and there is little to no battery drain but if both connected to my car stereo I can see a significative battery drain, especially if listening music with Spotify thru the car stereo.
Battery Charger: They both sucks, but the stock one of the C5 sucks even more (0.8A ewww). Anyway in both cases I don't use the stock charger but an Anker Turbo Power adapter, 8A - Both charge in less of two hours... so, just beware: do not use the stock charger: I call them a black cheapy-little jokes.
Interface: Tie: Sony idea of interface it's not that bad, it's not 100% vanilla but almost, there are color icons, different colors here and there some specific functionalities added and it's 100% bearable/lovable.
NFC: Works better in the C5, in the Z3C (probably for the glass-back) is slower.. however I installed a Nillkin frosted back cover and now they are at the same level. Anyway they both works but without cover the C5 win.
Connectivity - WIFI: Eh... the Z3C claims to be dual-band - True, the C5 claims to be single band - True and the winner is C5. The wifi is faster on the C5, I don't know where is the issue with the Z3C but Miracast stutter a lot, it's slow to download, slow to connect, slow slow slow. The C5 is great to cast, fast to connect, fast to download, faster faster faster.
Connectivity - H+/LTE - Tie: Found same download speed in both device, fast and reliable - it may be related to my Carrier, not sure.
Connectivity - Signal Reception: Almost a Tie, one only issue is that the C5 tend to connect more to LTE and when it does the signal strength is slightly lower compared to when connected to H+ anyway I haven't lost signal at all and signal quality is good in both devices.
Connectivity - Bluetooth: Almost a Tie, but Z3C has stronger Bluetooth signal than the C5. Random disconnection of my smartwear if I am one room away, not happening with the Z3C. - Anyway, both are reliable.. just the C5's is less powerful.
Call Quality: Ladies and gentleman, the winner is the C5. While the Z3C has a great call quality, I can say that the C5 with with same call settings (Equalizer: normal, Speaker Voice Enh, and Noise suppression) sounds ways much better - I suspect that the size of the speaker is different hence the quality gain.
Speaker Quality: Tie and not - Damn Sony! Z3C: Stereo - C5: Stereo but Mono - Meaning that the front firing speakers are good in both devices but probably with this software version in the C5 we get just Mono Music reproduction with using just the bottom speaker!! Why???
So basically, after two weeks I think that the C5 is a super-mid range device that thinks to be a flagship device, and probably it is one. Sony never said it's a mid-range, they said the M5 was and left the C5 as an incognita. 2GB of ram are enough but not with android 5.0 in fact I think that the only issue of this phone is the installed Android Version, in fact if you excuse me I'll close this review with a "I need to reboot the device as it started to lag again" - I hope that Sony will rush the Marshmallow release and probably the C5 will become a great device and probably I'll say it's a real flagship device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice review, thanks

Nice review, I have the same feeling about the C5 Ultra, it's big, and ever since the 1.55 update, it's stable, I hope Sony keeps that level of stability with Android M, I probably wouldn't rush to update.
I like the camera, it is often slow to launch, but produces good results in most cases with Superior Auto, when I want slightly faster shutter speed and lower ISO I use Manual Mode + Sports/Party Scene (create Manual Mode shortcut on launcher). For videos I like the result when using Horizon app.
Of course if someone is being negative they can always mention the many Cons of this device, but as an owner I find the Pros outweigh the Cons.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Since Sunday 3 January 2016 I am in US and connected to t-Mobile, thanks to agreements between Movistar MX and t-Mobile I get fast LTE speed and I left WIFI mainly off. With my surprise the device is slightly faster and battery life improved.
As I said at the beginning of the review I think many of the issues are Lollipop 5.0 related, we should get M in the next weeks and hopefully many issues will be fixed. However this time I tried to hate the device and simply, I cannot... it's a really great device.
I personally Highly Recommend it.

Best mid class phone ever made
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The C5 Ultra is awesome, and I have good hopes that the 5.1 update just released will help fix some of the niggling bugs from 5.0 (especially the known memory leak).
Unfortunately, just last week mine decided to randomly turn itself off, and never turn on again. Tried all the key press combos, won't turn on. Eventually got it to take a firmware repair via Companion, which completed successfully, but the thing still won't turn in. Threw in the towel, sent it in for repair under warranty. Hopefully I'll get it back... soon...

i just got my C5 Ultra today and i am also highly impressed - it runs android 5.1 - but one thing i noticed is that my ethernet adapter won't work with the C5 - so now i am thinking of rolling back to stock rom - if possible - did anyone try an ethernet adapter with the C5 on Android 5 succesfully? it used to work on z, z2, z3 (until some later lollipop version) , z ultra ... so newwer versions of android seem to have make sony xperia devices loose the ethernet-work-out-of-box capability

Related

Should I get a Z2 or the Z Ultra?

I'm well aware of the specs and I have been wanting to get a Z ultra for quite some time but I have waited until now.
Hands down, I like the bigger screen on the Z Ultra and the price of it makes it even more enticing. Where as the Z2 has faster/newer internals(CPU, etc.), better camera, and a flash(I'm so annoyed by the ZU not having a flash! I used the led flash as a flashlight all the time), but at a more expensive price.
What's your guys' take on it? Waiting is kind of out of the question(I heard about the Z3X which sounds like my next phone after this one... I don't like paying premiums for new releases)... I prefer something stable and working decently out of the box(I know, this is xda).
Key points:
Z Ultra:
+Price is lower
+Bigger screen
-slower
-worse camera, no flash
Z2:
+Faster/updated internals
+better camera
-costs more
Also, I heard there was a decent note taking app from Sony for the Z Ultra, where you could use a stylus and take notes(sort of like the Samsung Galaxy Note series), is that app available for the Z2 as well(anyone happen to know?)?
Thanks in advance, I appreciate any input. What's your take on it? I think I could go either way, I hear about lag on both units(I'm sure rooting can help, but I might keep it simple for now and use it out of the box for rooting/modding).
I happens to have a Z2 here (it is not mine but I got the responsibility to configure it) and all I can say is that it is a great device BUT wouldn't dream about replacing my Ultra. My Ultra is very smooth (CandyKat at the moment with GreatDevs V1 and OC to 2.46 GHz) and the only benefit I can see with the Z2 is more or less the camera when I make the comparison.
I am not talking down the Z2 when I say this but the Ultra offer a great package with a screen that make it a tablet replacement. The Z2 on the other hand is a great device for a person that has a Z today (which I also have) and I would recommend it warmly... if there wasn't an Ultra in the house (or rather two).
Since I read a lot and browse the Internet and so forth, the big screen of the Ultra wins me over - hands down.
camera camera camera. if you want to take even one photo then z2. i own a ultra as a backup to my note 4. the camera on the ultra is really just sad. but everything else is great.
pushcush1983 said:
camera camera camera. if you want to take even one photo then z2. i own a ultra as a backup to my note 4. the camera on the ultra is really just sad. but everything else is great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The camera is poor in poor light but otherwise is not that bad other than over sharpining of the jpg
a buddy of mine has the z2...
i bought a z ultra like 2 weeks ago since its even cheaper than the original z
he saw it today and now he wants to replace his z2 with an z ultra
he doesn't use the camera and also he doesnt game much
camera would be my only concern though
also the led flash, if you just wanna have a flashlight, you can the big screen, its decent enough for finding your stuff in the dark
cant talk about hickups since i dont run stock (and never will / or did)
both phones seem blazing fast to me, i really dont think the performance of the z2 is much better
my last phones were a htc magic and galaxy s-plus, just so u know
also i have to say, since i got the ultra, i don't want to use any smaller phone anymore.. they seem so small and bad to use
Thanks to everyone who responded!
Helps a lot. It seems like the more I hear from Z Ultra users, the more I hear about how they love the device despite it's shortcomings(ie: camera and no flash).
I agree, once you behold such a big screen it's hard to go back!
How is battery life? And just to throw it out there, what are some of the custom roms you guys recommend that may improve the battery life/performance?
I was slightly concerned that the slower cpu/gpu might affect performance, and I was going to try to avoid custom roms for the sake of simplicity, but haha, it seems to be unavoidable with most devices I get.
You can slash "Slower" right away. If you care about games, the Z ultra is better desipite having an Older SoC, simply because of its Size.
Besides, even in stock rom, I experience no lags, even with the stock launcher, im in 4.4.4.
Get the Z2 If you want relatively smaller phone, 5 coll isnt really "Small" but compared to the Z ultra, it is.
The camera in the Z2 is also better and has flash LEd.
You should ask yourself, do you want a one handed phone thats fairly recent and a good camera or a 2 handed one, which is amaizing for multi media and reading.
Considering the price of the ZU, you get a premium phone for an amaizing price, just dont treat this phone as a normal phone, it might not fit in the pockets.
I love my ZU.
I snooze I lose, I should've gotten a Z Ultra from the Sony store US site while I still had the chance for it's great price, now it's gone and taken off the site. Now, I'm only looking at the Z2, and behold, my waiting has resulted in the Z2 being back ordered. I could really use a phone by mid January. So I'm still open, but the ZU is probably a closed door for me unless I can find it brand new for a great price and with a warranty. I'm also looking at the LG G pro 2(but it's really pricey for the F530-US At&t compatible LTE) or even a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (the price has really fallen on that phone lately).
A lot of people are having this problem right now as ZU gotten much cheaper. First of all you should decide what's most important for you in your smartphone and how you're going to use it. Both are really great but designed for different kind of people. To help you choose, I'll give you some pros and cons of both devices.
Xperia Z Ultra (I own standard edition but this will mostly apply to GPE as well)
Pros:
- huge screen, which makes browsing the web and watching the movies very comfortable,
- excellent performance in applications and games, backed up by nicely optimized system and solid stock kernel,
- because of it's size ZU doesn't throttle, which is not common in most of the high end 5 inch +/- smartphones packed with Snapdragon 800+, including Xperia Z2, (actually ZU does throttle but just a little, which is not event felt in games)
- operating temperatures are acceptable during stress, which makes sure that battery and hardware will last a little longer (especially non replaceable battery),
- very solid stand by and calling battery life,
- excellent microphone which makes calls really great,
- it's very cheap, considering how premium it's.
Cons:
- lack of flash, this is a problem if you want to make a photos in bad lighting conditions or you need a lighter,
- still photos quality is decent, improved auto mode is kind of useless and makes photos with huge amount of noise. You can
make some of the nice photos during day out of the ZU using manual settings though, photos made in poor lighting conditions are out of question,
- it's too big to use single handed (unless you have huge hands) and you might have some problems putting it in your pocket, might be too heavy for some people,
- front camera is pretty bad,
- battery life is at best only decent, if you're using a lot of screen, you'll need to charge everyday,
- speakers could be louder.
Xperia Z2:
Pros:
- Excellent cameras, still photos and recordings have amazing quality, both selfie and back camera,
- Can record very detailed 4K videos,
- It's much more handy and can be used single handed without problems, it's also much lighter than ZU and easilly pocketable,
- Pretty great battery life, especially with screen on, in some cases almost 2 times better than ZU,
- Speaker is much louder and call quality is also very good,
- It has 3 GB of ram,
- Propably it will be updated to 5.0 faster than ZU.
Cons:
- it has updated specs but in real usage it's weaker than Z Ultra, especially in games because of bigger throttling,
- it's not that smooth, compared to Z Ultra, on 4.4.2 in Z2 i experienced a bit of lagging, opposite to silky smooth ZU on 4.4.4,
- has much smaller screen, which is not as comfortable as ZU screen to use,
- can get very hot during games,
- overheating problems during 4k recording.
Both are finely crafted devices, you can't go wrong with both of them. But keep in mind, that if you need a handy smartphone that can be used single handed then ZU it's not a good choice for you.

What are Non-Sony users saying about the Z5C ?

I read a lot of reviews and opinions here about the Z5C that are from people that were or still are using a Sony device. The Z5C is usually compared in terms of the Z3C or even the Z1C. Those comparisons are good if you own those devices, but I have no prior contact with Sony. My current device is a Moto G (1st Gen).
So I'd like to know what people who had no prior contact, or at least not in the past years, with Sony say about the phone. How does it feel and how much "crap" is on a Sony phone compared to a Nexus or Motorola phone? How good/bad are the Sony-Apps ? What "oddities" do Sony phones have?
Thanks for your opinions.
I came from a Moto G (2nd Gen) to the Z5C which is my first Sony phone. So a similar path to what you are considering. It comes with way more "crap" on in than the Motorola did. Where my Moto G (2nd Gen) might have had 5 Motorola utilities, the Z5C has maybe 30. Many of them are app/tools that seemingly connect you into the Sony Sphere. PlayStation stuff, Dinosaur images pop up in the camera you can stamp on your photos and super cheesy Japanese schoolgirl emoticons for your text input.
If you like the clean native Google apps such as Gmail, Calendar, Photos messaging and so on you will find yourself having to disable the Sony versions.
One oddity my Z3C has is that is is fussy about which micro USB cable will charge it. So if like me you have a collection of micro USB cables and chargers from previous phone they may not all work. I guess this may be due to tighter tolerances required water proofing the charge port. Not a biggy but worth knowing.
I find the Xperia Keyboard gesture input (aka Swype input) to be a PITA. Miss rate is too high and deleting errors is tedious. Shame becuase it works very well on other phones.
Small size is great. Can easily slip it in a front trouser pocket.
BUT I have yet to feel "vibrate on for calls" when it is my pocket. When someone does call when Z5C in pocket when I am doing somehting noisey like mowing a lawn, I dont feel the vinration alert, it seemingly wakes the phone and thereafter movement leads to random screen presses. So when I eventually retrieve it form my pocket an hour later the screen is still on and it is in some weird screen such as the camera or emerg dialer. Perhpas I am missing something here though. Oh and definitely don't buy it for the camera if you are expecting a point and shoot with a high % of great shots.
That's my thoughts.
Coming from a nexus 5, I love this phone! Never charge it from the mains only from my car every day(1 hour commute each way) and it keeps going strong! Pretty quick and feels good.
Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk
Coming from Samsung S3
This Z5 is very bad...unstable sw, no optimization, really slow...bleah! I think i will never buy again a sony device. Oh...customer care is bad too.
Camera is slow and poor quality, GPS is very inaccurate, BT disconnet and reconnect every 15 secs (i think the problem is trhow but i can't disable it...)
So...i'm not a satisfied user..
Thank you all for your replies.
logger said:
I came from a Moto G (2nd Gen) to the Z5C which is my first Sony phone. So a similar path to what you are considering. It comes with way more "crap" on in than the Motorola did. Where my Moto G (2nd Gen) might have had 5 Motorola utilities, the Z5C has maybe 30. Many of them are app/tools that seemingly connect you into the Sony Sphere. PlayStation stuff, Dinosaur images pop up in the camera you can stamp on your photos and super cheesy Japanese schoolgirl emoticons for your text input.
If you like the clean native Google apps such as Gmail, Calendar, Photos messaging and so on you will find yourself having to disable the Sony versions.
One oddity my Z3C has is that is is fussy about which micro USB cable will charge it. So if like me you have a collection of micro USB cables and chargers from previous phone they may not all work. I guess this may be due to tighter tolerances required water proofing the charge port. Not a biggy but worth knowing.
I find the Xperia Keyboard gesture input (aka Swype input) to be a PITA. Miss rate is too high and deleting errors is tedious. Shame becuase it works very well on other phones.
Small size is great. Can easily slip it in a front trouser pocket.
BUT I have yet to feel "vibrate on for calls" when it is my pocket. When someone does call when Z5C in pocket when I am doing somehting noisey like mowing a lawn, I dont feel the vinration alert, it seemingly wakes the phone and thereafter movement leads to random screen presses. So when I eventually retrieve it form my pocket an hour later the screen is still on and it is in some weird screen such as the camera or emerg dialer. Perhpas I am missing something here though. Oh and definitely don't buy it for the camera if you are expecting a point and shoot with a high % of great shots.
That's my thoughts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually never use the original cables since I have set up a "charging station". Which cables does the Z5C not accept? Is there a pattern?
And I'm not buying this for the camera, I have a DSLR for that
Tuonorosso said:
Coming from Samsung S3
This Z5 is very bad...unstable sw, no optimization, really slow...bleah! I think i will never buy again a sony device. Oh...customer care is bad too.
Camera is slow and poor quality, GPS is very inaccurate, BT disconnet and reconnect every 15 secs (i think the problem is trhow but i can't disable it...)
So...i'm not a satisfied user..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have the newest firmware ? AFAIK a few things should have been fixed with the latest update. What experience do you have with the customer care ?
ricostuart said:
Coming from a nexus 5, I love this phone! Never charge it from the mains only from my car every day(1 hour commute each way) and it keeps going strong! Pretty quick and feels good.
Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How was the Z5C in terms of "snappiness" compared to the Nexus ?
nazgoul said:
Do you have the newest firmware ? AFAIK a few things should have been fixed with the latest update. What experience do you have with the customer care ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, last fw: 32.0.A.6.152
Customer care have reset the phone 4 times. Each trial did not resolve the problem. In the end they told me to bring it to service but they had no idea of the repair time and they not given me any temporary phone.
My phone has only one month and i need it for work...i can't stay weeks without it. For a 600$ phone i think this is unacceptable.
At this time i have the same initial problems...
I hope in Marshmallow ...
Coming from Moto G first Gen (falcon)
Coming from Moto G 1st Gen. This is my first Sony Phone.
I am loving the Z5C.
Few things to note that that will give you an idea between the two phones
1. The flash on the moto g is noticeably brighter and warmer. Idc about cameras, but I find I use the flashlight a lot
2. The chip on the Z5C does feel much faster. Not sure how to describe it other than the UI on the Z5C being more "fluid"
3. The chip on the Z5C does get noticeably warm (but not hot) on the back under certain loads. E.g. running long sessions of RDP or installing lots of apps in quick succession or recording 4K video. Under normal use like browsing the web or watching youtube it does not get warm.
4. The camera is way better than the Moto G
5. The hardware feels really solid. It feels dense. I like it
6. The battery life is significantly better. At my usage, the Moto G will die at about 8pm or 9pm (taking off the charge at 7am). I have yet to kill the Z5C in a single day in my normal use
(my normal use usually has a few hours of music, and at least 4 hours of screen time)
7. The stereo speakers are much nicer, but the stereo effect is small, and they aren't not as loud as the moto g's single speaker
8. The max brightness of the Z5C's screen is about the same as the one on the Moto G. The min brightness is on the Z5C is lower though.
9 The physical dimensions of the Z5C is smaller in width and height. The Z5C does feel thicker because of its more boxy shape though
In terms of bloatware, there is quite a bit. I have a lot of apps disabled from settings or hidden (I use Apex)
There are some features that sony added that are nice though.
1. Built in screen recording
2. "Small Apps" - a bit like floating widgets
3. Nice audio optimizations that make my music experience nicer
4. Being able to customize the quick settings in the notification center
5. Battery percentage in the status bar (this is important to me )
6. The screen colours can be calibrated to your liking
Other things to consider
- The fingerprint sensor is pretty bad, but that could be just my fingers.
- The phone is really slippery compared to the Moto G. A case is highly recommended.
- Stamina mode - I havent tested if this has a positive effect on battery life, but i'm letting the placebo effect take place
- The microsd slot is nice for future proofing, although given that I had a 8GB moto g, and the Z5C comes with 32GB, Im not going to need a microsd in the near future.
- Water proofing
- Of the 32GB, about 10GB is taken up by the android system, and thus we cannot use for our own stuff
- I found the volume button placement on the Z5C wierd until I got used to it in less than a week. Unless you actively need access to it all the time, its not annoying
- I find that everything on screen is too large for my liking, so I have my DPI set to 280, the same as what I had on my Moto G
In response to some of the things said above:
- Bluetooth works fine for me. It has never lost connection to my Microsoft Band when I needed them to be connected
- I've used my Z5C with 3 different usb cables, none of them have a problem.
- Camera does launch slow if Photo Analyser Service is not disabled. The camera launches quite fast now (but admittedly not as fast as say an iPhone 6s)
- The GPS locks quicker than the Moto G, and has yet to be inaccurate for me.
I am really looking forward to Marshmallow
I hope that answers your questions. Sorry for long response lol
I have both nexus 6p and z5 compact. Previously had nexus 6.
I went for the z5c as it had wifi calling, and is a pretty small but powerful phone.
Notables, z5c is under-clocked, could be because heat dissipation on small device yielded unsatisfactory result, could be another one of those battery optimisation things.
It also seems to be on a conservative or power save profile, making it slow to start, but if you launch a game it gets into gear.
It was stuttering even with the OTAs of which i had received two, just a few days ago, even with factory resets it did not go away.
I used the sony PC companion to do a full firmware flash, not an incremental OTA and it became pretty smooth and slick to use again with all 0.5 speed animations and about 20 apps installed. I also disabled all of the original media apps and extra Sony stuff and use my own, poweramp and mxplayer is all i really need.
Pretty good experience to use now. Too bad about it using some sort of powersave profile even with stamina disabled. Good thing i have an nexus 6p to play with too.
you5urf said:
I used the sony PC companion to do a full firmware flash, not an incremental OTA and it became pretty smooth and slick to use again with all 0.5 speed animations and about 20 apps installed. I also disabled all of the original media apps and extra Sony stuff and use my own, poweramp and mxplayer is all i really need.
Pretty good experience to use now. Too bad about it using some sort of powersave profile even with stamina disabled. Good thing i have an nexus 6p to play with too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you know how to disable throw?
Coming from the N5:
Disadvantages:
- Much less free RAM (N5X also has this issue, I think it's related to Android 64 bits).
- Much lower photo quality
Advantages:
- 200% or much more battery life.
- overall quality
- vídeo quality
Sent from my E5823
I am coming from the HTC One M7 which can be considered an old phone now I guess.
Good:
-Battery life finally gets me over the day and sometimes into the second.
-Better camera, but by far not great.
-Better display brightness
Bad:
-Sonys Android design looks like a toy. It lacks the beautiful HTC Sense look and features.
-Even with the latest firmware and fresh format its doesnt feel any fast than the old HTC One. Sense had a nicer flow overall.
-In general, switching between apps is not faster, once in the app, the processor surely shows its power. Antutu gave me 31k on HTC One and 62k on Z5C, so technically twice as fast.
-Having the phone in the front pockets of your jeans just looks stupid with the hard edges. The HTC one with its beautiful round design was basically invisible in your pocket.
The HTC One was far from perfect and had its issues, but my heart is still with that phone and I dont beleive I am gonna buy another Sony phone. I wanted a small powerful phone, but its not easy to like this phone I am afraid.
eivissa said:
I am coming from the HTC One M7 which can be considered an old phone now I guess.
Good:
-Battery life finally gets me over the day and sometimes into the second.
-Better camera, but by far not great.
-Better display brightness
Bad:
-Sonys Android design looks like a toy. It lacks the beautiful HTC Sense look and features.
-Even with the latest firmware and fresh format its doesnt feel any fast than the old HTC One. Sense had a nicer flow overall.
-In general, switching between apps is not faster, once in the app, the processor surely shows its power. Antutu gave me 31k on HTC One and 62k on Z5C, so technically twice as fast.
-Having the phone in the front pockets of your jeans just looks stupid with the hard edges. The HTC one with its beautiful round design was basically invisible in your pocket.
The HTC One was far from perfect and had its issues, but my heart is still with that phone and I dont beleive I am gonna buy another Sony phone. I wanted a small powerful phone, but its not easy to like this phone I am afraid.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm also coming from a HTC ONE M7 and I'm feeling exactly as you. I have had the phone for 5 days now and I'm seriously considering to sell it and keep using my M7 since I'm seeing the same things than you see.
I have great expectations for this phone but now that I have it, I'm a little bit disappointed...I don't know if it's cause I'm so use to my old phone or cause my old phone is sooo good that I don't see anything new or improved on the z5c...maybe expect for the waterproofing things.
I'll give it another week to see If I can fall in love with it...maybe when the custom roms start showing up I'll start to see the advantages of changing.
I've been used some HTC and got a Z1c and S6. Guys plz give sometime to this phone, my S6 also took a couple of months to improve before got satisfy result. I believe Android 6.0 will give a new life to this phone.
I've only experienced Apple's devices so I came over from an iPhone 3G, iPhone 4S and then an iPhone 6S. I absolutely LOVE this sucker. And I must have gotten very lucky because I haven't seen any of the issues that others have.
Pros:
1. Fascinated by the Android OS. There's just so much you can do with it! So much more freeing than Apple's IOS. They both have a few positive and negative quirks, but I'm not really missing IOS that much. I did miss the Safari left/right swipe browser initially, but found out about the Rbrowser app with built in ad-block and the swipe feature, and couldn't be happier.
2. The device is quick. Compared to my iPhone devices haven't experienced nearly as much lag even under load.
3. I love the camera and video. Takes far better pictures and video than any camera I've ever used before, and with the latest update, the menu selection is so easy to use. I think the side button to open the camera app is a genius. I also never experienced the blur issue that a lot of others complained about.
4. The size and look of the device totally compliments me. I find modern phones like the Galaxy S6 and the iPhone 6S way too big and clunky. This device is exactly the right size. Slightly larger than my old 4S, but still comfortable to hold, and type one handed with. I also absolutely love the sharp right angles on the phone. I dig the thickness of the Compact, and I love the bright punky yellow of the case color I selected.
5. The fingerprint scanner is so fun to use. I had one on the 6S that worked maybe slightly better, but that's only because there was more surface area to press, but still having a fingerprint reader makes me feel like a spy a bit.
6. I haven't had any issues with the heat of the phone. It gets warm, but after a month of use, I've never experienced it getting warmer than the 4S or the 6S even while playing graphic intensive games, using the GPS, or recording video. It never gets warm while browsing websites, or doing day to day smartphone things.
7. The device did have a little bit of bloatware, but then, so did Apple's devices. Removing/disabling the bloat was easy to do.
8. So far no unexpected surprises. The alarm works. the phone rings and vibrates as it ought. The apps all open fine. I get all my expected alerts and then some. Messaging works fine. The screen is bright and easy to read and watch. I love the little FM radio app (though I don't use it too much). Haven't had any issues with the GPS. Everything does what it's supposed to do.
Negatives:
1. Coming from devices with only one bottom speaker, I thought that having two front facing stereo speakers would make this device monster loud....it isn't. In fact, it's slightly quieter than the 6S (though louder than the 4S). That said, I do love the stereo effect, and I think having so many audio controls is awesome. I just wish the device was a bit louder. Hopefully when the device becomes rootable I can find a fix for that.
2. The boot up time on this device is pretty slow. From powered off, the 6S starts up in a matter of a couple seconds. It takes like half a minute or longer for the Z5 to start up. Course, this isn't much of an issue most of the time since the device doesn't usually need to be powered off or restarted.
3. The iPhone 6S 3D touch is pretty amazing, and I can see them doing some cool things with it over time. There was nothing about it that was super amazing while I had it. No apps to really take too much of an advantage of it yet, but I can see that it'll be awesome to have some time down the road.
4. The voicemail was a bit odd to set up. I'm used to Apple's easy voicemail integration that just works out of the box. For this device I had to download and setup a "visual voicemail" system that I'm not used to, and that I found a bit annoying.
My first Android phone was a Sony xperia mini. Was worse than Motorola Milestone (gsm droid) that replaced it. I since moved onto Samsung original Galaxy S and then Galaxy Nexus. Then the original Moto X dev edition which is the same size as this Z5C. I love the form factor. Ever since the Nexus 6 which I have one of those, Moto is obsessed with phone size. The Nexus 6 was named Shamu for a reason. I am hoping the just under 5" phones are not s dying breed because this device is the perfect size for me. I also like the subtle tweaks Sony does with their ROM compared to vanilla stock. Its also a fast device and I like the build quality compared to the Samsung devices I have owned. Those are my thoughts anyway.

Selling my Z5 compact, here's why

Hi,
I'm selling my Z5 Compact under MM. The decision was hard because I kinda love the fingerprint but...
The battery is a complete joke, it doesn't last a day compared to my old Z3C which is far more better in everything,
The device gets warm and hot all the time, in any application I go (I have no games and I mostly use Google apps and Telegram)
The back camera glass protector has some problem, see: http://forum.xda-developers.com/z5-compact/help/dirty-camera-glass-protection-t3336230
I'm going to take back my good old Z3 Compact which is far more better.
And you ? Do you also share the same feelings about it ?
Before the MM update - yes, I felt the same. Since MM and the newest update mine has been great.
If it weren't for z3c side charging I would have never chosen the z5c. I'm holding onto mine for a bit longer until this HTC mini, s7 mini, and xiaomi mini release. Front facing speakers are keeping me from downgrading back to a mini Samsung for the time being.
And as far as battery life and heat issues I'm right on the same page. I've adapted to it for now by quick charging at lunch time to get me through the work day and clipping phone to me so I'm not burning myself in my pocket.
I am thinking about doing that too, but there are 2 things that keeping me from that, fingerprint sensor and camera! I don't know what to do, wait for S7 Mini,go for S7, wait for SONY to maybe fix issues of this phone or what else?
I think if only this phone had 3GBs of RAM we had no problem or even SONY used good old Snapdragon 801!
i had drain and heat problem until i shutoff 4G, now (3G.5HPSA) only dosnt need really need fast internet
now my phone is 40-90 hours average use , instand 12-30
i have 5.1.1 but maybe it will work also with 6, u can try
I am quite happy with the phones performance and battery life since MM, but I have now preordered the HTC10 and my neighbour is already waiting to buy the Z5C from me. If the HTC10 is as good as I beleive it is, I can overlook the fakt that I hate big phones in this case. Ive been a very happy HTC owner since the HD2 and lastly the M7. The Z5C is a great phone to me, but it will never be more than that. HTC usually managed to float my boat just that tiny bit better than the other brands
eivissa said:
I am quite happy with the phones performance and battery life since MM, but I have now preordered the HTC10 and my neighbour is already waiting to buy the Z5C from me. If the HTC10 is as good as I beleive it is, I can overlook the fakt that I hate big phones in this case. Ive been a very happy HTC owner since the HD2 and lastly the M7. The Z5C is a great phone to me, but it will never be more than that. HTC usually managed to float my boat just that tiny bit better than the other brands
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used to be a big HTC fan until they went to the one series. They are supposedly bring an h10 mini out with flagship specs this year. Hopefully they don't disappoint like the last two minis, I want to go HTC again.
eivissa said:
I am quite happy with the phones performance and battery life since MM, but I have now preordered the HTC10 and my neighbour is already waiting to buy the Z5C from me. If the HTC10 is as good as I beleive it is, I can overlook the fakt that I hate big phones in this case. Ive been a very happy HTC owner since the HD2 and lastly the M7. The Z5C is a great phone to me, but it will never be more than that. HTC usually managed to float my boat just that tiny bit better than the other brands
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you know the HTC 10 has not stereo speakers anymore? only dual speakers one (lower) for bass and for top on high pitch
Z5C is kind the same thing BUT! still stereo , Z5C top speaker wave range of 150hz-22050KHz and bottom speaker is 500HZ-22050Khz (less bass)
Superrman said:
you know the HTC 10 has not stereo speakers anymore? only dual speakers one (lower) for bass and for top on high pitch
Z5C is kind the same thing BUT! still stereo , Z5C top speaker wave range of 150hz-22050KHz and bottom speaker is 500HZ-22050Khz (less bass)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude, I dont care about that stuff. If I want to listen to music I get me a proper stereo and speakers or headphones. Any cellphone speaker sounds horrible.
What kind of personality disorders do people have these days to need a stabilized photosensor for selfies? Is a look in the mirror in the morning not good enough anymore? Million megapixels cellphone cameras still make crappy pictures in comparison to any 100€ camera Ive gotten my hands on.
Marketing makes us beleive that we need so many things in our cellphones, but in the end they usualy cant to one thing great.
I bought the Z5C because it was the only product available that offered highclass specs in a small phone. I dont like the design of it, the picture quality, speaker sound quality, sony customizations...you name it. Its a good phone for what it is. A phone. Snappy performance and 2 days on a charge make me a happy user.
The HTC10 is not compact, which I am not happy about, but it has a beautiful design and HTC Sense. Apparently it also has better sound quality if you connect good headphones to it and I like to listen to music with the best possible quality. This is an archievable goal in a phone btw...dslr picture quality isnt!
If someone builds a phone with the size of the Z5C (or even smaller), 1080p resolution, aluminium body/looks like the HTC One series, happily dumps the selfy camera and top-spec hardware, but little to no changes to stock android, then I buy that phone in a heartbeat.
The complete contrast for me is Samsung now. Make it huge, put useless features on it and customize it to the max. Full throttle marketing bull**** in my mind, but people seem to love it.
eivissa said:
Dude, I dont care about that stuff. If I want to listen to music I get me a proper stereo and speakers or headphones. Any cellphone speaker sounds horrible.
What kind of personality disorders do people have these days to need a stabilized photosensor for selfies? Is a look in the mirror in the morning not good enough anymore? Million megapixels cellphone cameras still make crappy pictures in comparison to any 100€ camera Ive gotten my hands on.
Marketing makes us beleive that we need so many things in our cellphones, but in the end they usualy cant to one thing great.
I bought the Z5C because it was the only product available that offered highclass specs in a small phone. I dont like the design of it, the picture quality, speaker sound quality, sony customizations...you name it. Its a good phone for what it is. A phone. Snappy performance and 2 days on a charge make me a happy user.
The HTC10 is not compact, which I am not happy about, but it has a beautiful design and HTC Sense. Apparently it also has better sound quality if you connect good headphones to it and I like to listen to music with the best possible quality. This is an archievable goal in a phone btw...dslr picture quality isnt!
If someone builds a phone with the size of the Z5C (or even smaller), 1080p resolution, aluminium body/looks like the HTC One series, happily dumps the selfy camera and top-spec hardware, but little to no changes to stock android, then I buy that phone in a heartbeat.
The complete contrast for me is Samsung now. Make it huge, put useless features on it and customize it to the max. Full throttle marketing bull**** in my mind, but people seem to love it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yup also one of the reason i bought this phone because its small, my previous phone was 3.5" sony with walkman WT19 , so even this one abit big for me, lol..
im mostly disappointed of
1.camera lens (plastic) can scartch easly and can ruin the shots
2.photos are noisy\blurry even with good light ,
3.phone heating fast, (even low end apps or, even 4G signal; if high end apps like asphalt 8 in 2mins its 50c\120F)
4.when phone get hotter it become slower ,
5.speakers are uneven and weak , loudspeaker awful, my previous phone was 4times louder didnt need it use of bluetooth in car, now i need...
6.didnt came with quickcharge QC adapter
7.didnt came with in-ear headphones
8.update the phone to MM make it worse battery and lags,camera*, didnt upgrade it yet*
still pretty fast phone with nice battery but not worth the price (mine cost about 800 US$ when i bought it)
My only problems with the phone are:
some hick-ups during normal operations
overheating
average camera
poor system customization options
Otherwise the phone is perfect. The battery is great, I've recently lasted two days (~10% when going to sleep on the 2nd day) with automatic brightness and 24h sync with mobile data, some sms and a few calls, I even played some Hearthstone on a bus. The battery seems to have problems on certain units.
Greets
EDIT:
Mine was 390 USD... gotta love Europe

Is the z5C still worth buying?

The z5c came out almost 1 year ago, do you guys think the z5c is still worth buying?
What do you guys think? If no, what would you consider buying, considering the z5c as first option?
***edit: it's my 1000th post on xda yay! ***
i think yes, small phone, great performance, great camera, didn't have any problems in 5 months except camera lens, but devilcase lens protector fixed that, i would buy again
Poslano sa mog E5823 koristeći Tapatalk
I bought it 2 months ago. Totally happy with it. No problems up to now.
I wanted a small phone with good performance, and this one was the only one that fitted these criteria.
My 2nd option was iPhone SE... since I came from an iPhone 4S, I was a bit tired of iOS. Personally I think Android Marshmallow is in a really good shape when compared to iOS, in my opinion it is even better.
Buy.
bought one yesterday. Its the best small phone i could find for the $380 i spent. iPhone SE is about the only other 1 i would have considered.
If you dont require a sd slot there are better options.
I picked one up for USD370 (including shipping) for my wife. She had a Z3C before and loved it, but the screen stopped responding. For that price it is an amazing phone.
The latest firmware almost fixed all stuffs, the phone is pretty usable and finally safe to buy and recommended now. The only thing disapointed me is the photo/video quality still not as good as my older Z1c at high ISO(the sensor indeed got 25MP not only 23MP which is over crowed on a small 1/2.3" size) but no doubt Z5c focus speed and camera speed way faster and screen much much clear.
I think yes if you want to buy a small flagship phone. It's just great in everything, almost. I bought it on February and I love this phone.
+
fast
Responsive touchscreen
No lag in almost every game and apps even in high graphics
The camera is awesome (front and rear). but sadly it's can't run the camera over 25 min in 4k. The autofocus actually fast this will be great when you record a video. You can make a bokeh, hdr, or a long exposure pictures. And it's camera is also good in low light.
I like the keyboard, you can swipe like swift keyboard and the auto correct is very usefull
The battery life good also, I got 6-8 hours in normal use (social media, music and browsing) and 4-5 hours when I play fifa 16
-
The phone getting hot very fast when you use the camera, and play online game like fifa 16.
For me it recently sure was. As a former iPhone 5 user I wanted to switch to Android on a small (< 5" screen) high-end device. Early 2015 I choose a Z3C based on these criteria. Very nice in almost any way, though camera -especially rooted- was kind of crappy.
I recently upgraded to the Z5C based on the same search criteria. It seems that most manufacturers tend to put more low-end hardware in smaller devices, here Sony has done a nice job. I considered the Samsung Galaxy A3, though the Z5C came out best for me.
I look forward to the day that a more complete and stable version of Cyanogenmod will be released for the Z3C This is likely to make my Z35 experience optimal.
I had a z3c, love the small size and massive capabilities. I replaced it with the z5c about 8 months ago. There is no other device on the market I would rather have. Even tried a galaxy S6 for a bit... Hated every moment of having that one.
My only beef with its I cannot have any special software that comes from having a vendor branded device. (No VOIP on AT&T)
Bought one month before. Best decision according to me. But not the best for those who doesnt want small size or fm radio.
How do you guys have "great performance" from your Z5 Compact? Mine runs worse than my older HTC One M8 in games. The Z5 Compact gets hot after 2 minutes of high graphics gaming, however, if you know how to root, install a new kernel etc. you might get good performance. I'd say underclock the CPU and let it get a bit hotter before automatically downclocking. That's at least what I'm trying now. The camera is good, however not the best. Batterylife is better than most phones, speakers are meh, and overall the phone is stable. Used it for 3 months or so and since I got it 100 dollars cheaper than the iPhone SE I think it's good enough. Just hope I can push the performance to at least as good as my One M8 :/
InterestedHacker said:
How do you guys have "great performance" from your Z5 Compact? Mine runs worse than my older HTC One M8 in games. The Z5 Compact gets hot after 2 minutes of high graphics gaming, however, if you know how to root, install a new kernel etc. you might get good performance. I'd say underclock the CPU and let it get a bit hotter before automatically downclocking. That's at least what I'm trying now. The camera is good, however not the best. Batterylife is better than most phones, speakers are meh, and overall the phone is stable. Used it for 3 months or so and since I got it 100 dollars cheaper than the iPhone SE I think it's good enough. Just hope I can push the performance to at least as good as my One M8 :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most of the guys that claim good stories are unrooted so you know they don't actually use their phones. I've had great results in power consumption and heat with androplus v34, but it comes at the price of performance.
My 2 are rooted (one with dry restrored) and running xposed,and xpower rom. Both seem to be faster and smoother than my sons' - much bulkier - m8 and iPhone 6. Can't find anything close to the quality of this phone at this convenient size.
I actually wouldn't recommend it at all since Sony stopped updating the software already. I am still on 1 April security patches. I find that unforgivable. And I'm going to switch to S7 once T-Mobile gets its sheet together –*they raised the price by 100 euro a week before I could extend my contract.
+
Small
microSD
water/dustproof
I like the screen very much
-
2 GB RAM which means apps unload faster than you can say "but I just opened two tabs in Chrome"
gets hot even without gaming (I reinstalled the software just in case but it didn't help)
no software updates
camera is not what I expected
I would actually recommend Z3C over Z5C. It's same size, cheaper, works faster (!), doesn't get hot and the Concept software is awesome.
Going to research rooting now, maybe it will manage memory a bit better.
S6 looks like on the same boat stuck with 1 April security patches. 720P required less memory intensive. Z3c is very easy to get touch screen problem after one year and the camera quality even worse than Z1c. I don't satisfied with Z5c but the price is dropping so I think still worth for new owner.
raytheblacksmith said:
I actually wouldn't recommend it at all since Sony stopped updating the software already. I am still on 1 April security patches. I find that unforgivable. And I'm going to switch to S7 once T-Mobile gets its sheet together –*they raised the price by 100 euro a week before I could extend my contract.
+
Small
microSD
water/dustproof
I like the screen very much
-
2 GB RAM which means apps unload faster than you can say "but I just opened two tabs in Chrome"
gets hot even without gaming (I reinstalled the software just in case but it didn't help)
no software updates
camera is not what I expected
I would actually recommend Z3C over Z5C. It's same size, cheaper, works faster (!), doesn't get hot and the Concept software is awesome.
Going to research rooting now, maybe it will manage memory a bit better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you on the latest software? Because i owned the z3c and now the z5c and besides the battery life i love this phone way more. Camera is far better and the software runs pretty smooth also even with a sheet load of apps in the ram is still fast.
Actually, the other important thing bugged me is the slow AC wifi speed but since the compact model got only single wifi antenna(Z5 got dual wifi antenna), it is impossible to top out wifi if you got a damn fast Internet connection and router like me.
When you build a NAS or share files via router, the Z5c can't playback ultra quality videos(like the video shoot from a DSLR at 100M+ 4K) though the connection detected at 433Mbps but in reality, I got only 70~120Mbps around. The speed is faster than 802.11b/g/n and good for general Internet purpose but only reached the very entry quality of AC speed.
Plus the rom I'm running Xpower 3.0(.224) bugged to browser vidoes shared out via win10 smb. I can view any photo but can't playback all videos, tested to roll back 5.1.1 and no problem. Not sure if .253 fixed the issue, been waiting for Xpower 4.0(.253) to release.
Yeah I am on the latest software. I had great hopes for it. But for instance today the phone heated up, stayed hot, lost 70% battery in three hours and then finally shut down with the red light blinking. Ummmmmmmm.
raytheblacksmith said:
Yeah I am on the latest software. I had great hopes for it. But for instance today the phone heated up, stayed hot, lost 70% battery in three hours and then finally shut down with the red light blinking. Ummmmmmmm.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Real hard to solve without root. If you root it, you can flash the Increase thermal-performance mod plus lower down the max cpu clock for the price of slower speed. In my experiences, they are quite a helping hand but sure can't fix all, might be 50% better experiences though.
If the X Compact with sd820 is real coming up, probably it can fix the heat issue(even so, sd820 is also hot). But I doubt I will switch to Xc bcoz Z5c already spend me much money, or only until the price dropping a lot next year.

Z5c vs Z3c in 2017

Hey everyone. This is my first post in xda and I joined specifically to ask this question. I'm posting this as a new thread because I wanted an answer from the perspective of 2017.
Should I go for the Z5c or Z3c? I'm looking for a new phone. Personally I love the size of the phones, and I fell in love with the screen positioning on the Z3c, where it's more symmetric unlike the Z5c whose top bezel is bigger. But yeah, the Z5c has the fingerprint sensor, and has better specs I guess? I also prefer the rounded edges of the Z3c, but everyone I know is asking me to go for the Z5c. Help?
Z3C doesn't have Nougat and won't receive updates anymore. Although Z5C has a bit worse battery life, it is better in every other aspect.
Zenthusiast said:
Z3C doesn't have Nougat and won't receive updates anymore. Although Z5C has a bit worse battery life, it is better in every other aspect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will not receiving Nougat matter? From what I've read it caused plenty of bugs in the Z5c. Also, will not having Nougat mean the Z3c won't receive the latest updates on apps?
I'm sorry I don't know a lot
Z5c faster from Z3c almost x2 also finger scanner. better speakers from every Z series (even other z5)
but if you can buy go to Xperia X performance (is only 0.2 bigger and still small) and faster then both, and 3GB RAM, the screen got 1080P and not 720P although is enough if you wont use VR
btw you also have xperia X Compact but hes in-between z3 to z5 so leave it last he just looks like small XZ but specs not much different from z3 and performance if you want better design and android 7
anyway the big cons for me (i have z5c for 1 year now,):
1. 2GB RAM only (If i open highend, big\app\game) it use all the 2GB its even close the whatsapp!
2.the phone gets hot fast 40C/105F degrees after 5 minutes then the device close the big 4cores to cool down (mostly in highend apps)
some software bugs but this you can change(ROM) and or get updates so its any sony phone
---------- Post added at 04:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:18 PM ----------
PS
software bugs in Z5's started from 6 marshmallow not from 7 nugget
the big bugs for me is
1.limited charge voltage cannot be turned off (maybe thats why some ppl get abit low life battery its like the battery stop charging at 90%) but its good to the long term anyway to prolong battery life
2.unbalance speakers (only in the stock app they fix it)
3.only one speaker works in ringtones
I'd say the z3c is getting a bit long in the tooth now, however, the Z5 is a bit of a disaster - overheats, battery drain issues, and the nougat firmware is littered with bugs. If you absolutely have to have a Sony compact, go for the X compact. In most cases it faster than a Z5C for general usage due to the dire throttling of the processor in the Z5C. (Z5C will still be better for gaming, if you wear oven gloves)
Personally, I'm waiting to see what comes along next, as I'm hoping for an XZ compact or similar.
i agree with stevo almost on all parts he said, beside battery, i charging my phone every 2days, or every 24hours on average+ usage . even with the battery software bug
and X compact Cpu only bit better, and not get hot,
but GPU is almost 2 times faster on the z5c , if you dont gaming Xperia XC will be enough for you
anyway im not happy with sony anymore, and probably my last device from them, customer service and support is sucks, they rarely update with new device come up, they barely put in any updates
i was also looking for small device with P68 and stereo speakers , and this was the closest most companies stopped doing mini phones with high end specs
also iwas happy with my previous sony, the speakers was X2 better and louder i didn't even needed bluetooth for my car, now i got one..
he got CM updates till 2day and he from 2011, and the fourm there is still active Z5C barely a year or so and this forum dieing, meaning ,less Customs Roms, and updates from sony for sure,, the last android will be no more than N7.1.1
z3 compact is my proposal.
A ton of custom roms makes sure your phone stays lightning fast, very customizable, root without unlock bootloader, a couple of camera mods with unbelievable quality, a bit better battery, not getting warm, cheaper ...
I had it a few weeks, got stolen, then i went and bought the z5compact.
I am still searching for someone to switch phones with...
personal opinion,
new processor+new camera+fingerprint <<< community support

Categories

Resources