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what are the implication of unlocking the bootloader?

warranty aside, what are the implication of unlocking the bootloader? I've read something about DRM keys being deleted but what are the effects of it? will the phone loss some of the feature it previously has?

noobAKO said:
warranty aside, what are the implication of unlocking the bootloader? I've read something about DRM keys being deleted but what are the effects of it? will the phone loss some of the feature it previously has?
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I have been using a unlocked phone for a week now.. and I see no harmful effects

The only direct implication of that is your warranty is voided. That's it - you void it officially, yourself when you request the unlock code from Sony.
No changes in usability or workability.

thanks guys. can i get a little bit off topic?
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the power button of my phone feels a little bit fragile. is it normal? it feels like pressing a key on a keyboard.
edit: I just want to confirm whether if the power button is softer than other model. or is it a factory defect?

It is true that DRM keys are erased from Sony devices when unlocked. For flagship Z devices this includes DRM related to camera processing so image quality is reduced on unlocked phones.
However the 5mpx camera sensor in E3 is several orders of magnitude inferior to the 20mpx camera sensor in Z3.
Either this device does not include similar camera DRM or the sensor is so bad that it didn't make a difference anyway. I see zero difference in any part of an unlocked E3 running stock ROM.

adfad666 said:
It is true that DRM keys are erased from Sony devices when unlocked. For flagship Z devices this includes DRM related to camera processing so image quality is reduced on unlocked phones.
However the 5mpx camera sensor in E3 is several orders of magnitude inferior to the 20mpx camera sensor in Z3.
Either this device does not include similar camera DRM or the sensor is so bad that it didn't make a difference anyway. I see zero difference in any part of an unlocked E3 running stock ROM.
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yeah i ulockedbootloader and able to run all sony apps like walkman ar effects

Xperia XZ Camera vs iPhone 7

I've been a long time Xperia user. Currently have the Z3 and plan to move up to XZ. The Z3 camera is a so so. Beaten by Samsung and iPhone easily. The Z3 is flare galore and I have 2 of them purchased at different times so it is not a sampling issue.
The Xperia XZ is now advertised as "Our camera know-how, in a smartphone". With all those fancy laser focus, high megapixels, and quick focus; yet, from the following review, iPhone 7 beats the XZ in terms of IQ and resolution. Resolution, at least, in the blue colors.
Please tell me the review above is incorrect and the XZ camera is at least comparable to iPhone 7.

From my experience with my XP vs iPhone 6 the iPhone almost always adheres true to the experience detailed in this video.
I would anticipate that the video comparison is true to past form which seemingly continues through to the XZ/iPhone7 stand off.
Unfortunate yes. Somehow iphone are always sh!tting on Sony's camera advances.
You'd be forgiven to think Sony would have the upper hand in atleast the camera department. But it's just not the case. Sure the XZ is going to have a great camera, but I would assume the conclusion from the video would remain true.
Albeit first hand comparisons are required to judge for self. Even then, unfortunately I foresee I'd probably end up concurring with the btekt guys conclusion (based on historical trends with what Sony and indeed iPhone bring to the table with each respective iteration.)
Sent from my F8131 using XDA-Developers mobile app

Watching above video, I noticed that his xperia xz camera was in manual mode and not in default values because settings icon turned blue.
Pictures of low light seem over exposure with xperia. I don't think it was on default setting.
I doubt the video is unbiased. Just my cents.
Sent from my SGP771 using Tapatalk

Sony just developed these new sensors.. and as always they need a lot of time to tweak the software in order for everything to work correctly and as it should. Basically it is happening with every sony device. So let's be patiend and see how the XZ is going to.. ''evolve''.

effective said:
Sony just developed these new sensors.. and as always they need a lot of time to tweak the software in order for everything to work correctly and as it should. Basically it is happening with every sony device. So let's be patiend and see how the XZ is going to.. ''evolve''.
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Exactly, it really does not seem to be "default" setting for Sony.
But will need to test low light pictures on my own to get the clue.
I know how it was with Z5, I really hope this time they are doing proper testing before putting it into the boxes...

I had never seen a sony phone that in it's first or second release rom the camera or overall experience is good. a couple or rom updates, and then it could give more fight.
Anyway, it's a shame that sony develop the iphone camera's sensors, but for own usage, they use (IHMO) the less good. OR, the camera software by sony is a crap.

In my experiences with Xperia videography (from Z2 onwards) it's best to deactivate Scene Autodetection because it stops camera software over-compensating when perhaps you don't want/need it to ...
Whilst I think the iPhone records superb video, so does my XP (and so did my Z2, Z3+, Z5C) ... I'd be hard pressed to tell you which is which in blind testing.
The XZ I have on order should only improve the Sony videography.
Also, have you tried recording stereo sound with your video on the iPhone? It's a hassle and can't be done without addons (I'm pretty sure the iPhone 7(+) still records monaural unless someone can correct me?)
Smartphone Photography belongs to Apple.
Smartphone Videography, the motion picture, *could* belong to Sony if they get their marketing right (and their thermals lol)

Can you change white balance settings (not just the tint) in video mode? There is a video on YouTube comparing it to the iPhone 6 Plus and the WB control on the XZ is terrible - it shifts whenever the camera moves to the tables while the iPhone is fairly stable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNFsnQg3cG8

It is a personal point of view but Sony is way better than 6s... At least for me and from this comparison.
Sent from my HTC 10 using XDA-Developers mobile app

Camera review

A few things that occur to me with any cam comparison is what the photographers knowledge/skill is and, as mentioned above, what settings were used. Those things affect the final output of the camera. I try to determine if their knowledge/skill is similar to mine. Then I can determine if I could have possibly gotten a better picture or not in a similar situation.
Try to find comparison photos on the web from the cameras you want to compare. Make sure they're not altered and that you know what settings were used. Each phone has it's own signature on the picture and you may prefer a certain phone's "photo look" over another. Some phones are good in some conditions, some are better in others. Some are good overall, but not great in any one area. Determine what matters to you most.
Beyond the actual photo quality, there's the user experience that must also be considered. Focus speed, shutter responsiveness, app ease-of-use...that all makes a difference.

Iphone has better cameras. I'm ashamed of my 23megapixel camera
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Is it worth to change?

Hey,
I don't know if this is the right place to ask, but I'll give it a shot.
I'm wondering if it's worth to change my phone, I've been using the Xperia Z3 since 3 years and I'm thinking about moving into Z5.
Would it be a good move? what are the pros and cons?
Thanks in advance!

honest truth for me, i would love to go back to my Z3 only cause of the battery life. like for like use i would get a day and half with the Z3 and now i barely make it to a full day.
i would probably look at one of the newer Sony's at least that way support will be there for a little while longer as well.

Doesn't agree with you, I'm running SlimX Custom ROM With Xposed + Amplify, Doze, Greenify ect..
I managed to customize my energy consumption using kernel Auditor and my z5 is now fully adapted to my everyday task and usage, my battery is way more efficient than when I was running stock

Malerovi said:
Hey,
I don't know if this is the right place to ask, but I'll give it a shot.
I'm wondering if it's worth to change my phone, I've been using the Xperia Z3 since 3 years and I'm thinking about moving into Z5.
Would it be a good move? what are the pros and cons?
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
z5 has added features like 4k screen and better battery but the device heats and shows battery drainage if its not rooted and you haven't customized it accordingly! also z5 screen brightness has been kept lower than z3 so during day time you may face visibility issues
i would suggest if you wana upgrade try considering XZs or upcoming XZP having better 4g connectivity with 4 inbuilt antennas and snadragon 835 process

YasuHamed said:
i would suggest if you wana upgrade try considering XZs or upcoming XZP having better 4g connectivity with 4 inbuilt antennas and snadragon 835 process
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Thanks for your opinion.
By the way, what do you mean by XZs or XZP?

Malerovi said:
Thanks for your opinion.
By the way, what do you mean by XZs or XZP?
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the next generation of sony Xperia
Xperia XZs (released)
Xperia XZP (forthcoming)

At first I thought I decided wrong but now let say u use marshmallow, xposed grenify u won't regret it. I moved to stock nougat and it is great, just waiting for xposed
But I agree with colleagues here, take a look at XZ premium

The Xperia Z 5 Premium? the Dual sim one¿?
If that's it, it's around 450USD in my country, way cheap according to the normal Z5

Malerovi said:
The Xperia Z 5 Premium? the Dual sim one¿?
If that's it, it's around 450USD in my country, way cheap according to the normal Z5
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No Z5 premium, but XZ Premium it is not realeased yet.

And between Z5 comun and Z5 Premi(dual), which one would u recommend guys?? I can get the E6853 (single sim) y E6833 Dual SIM, any of these for 450USD, NEW.

Malerovi said:
And between Z5 comun and Z5 Premi(dual), which one would u recommend guys?? I can get the E6853 (single sim) y E6833 Dual SIM, any of these for 450USD, NEW.
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If you need two sims get dual sim, otherwise no need for dual sim.
But for that money you should get OnePlus 3T, which is 10 times better,

Malerovi said:
And between Z5 comun and Z5 Premi(dual), which one would u recommend guys?? I can get the E6853 (single sim) y E6833 Dual SIM, any of these for 450USD, NEW.
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Z5P is bigger screen 4k support device and amazing 801dpi
but at the same time its a responsibility to carry this big device
on the other hand z5 is pretty hand with a bit smaller screen
if you have deskjob and you spend most of the time indoors then go for z5p
if your more outgoing/sport/ athelete type person! got for Z5

Thank you for answering, I'll have that in mind

As a previous Z2, currently Z5 Premium and also many Sony accessories owner, my humble advise is: don't buy Sony.
Not that they are bad phones in any way, however as a company, Sony can not catch up with the competition and doesn't listen to the customers.
A couple of examples:
1) DRM thing. If you happen to root your phone they say it is out of warranty and some "special" code which improves camera, screen and sound quality is lost, forever! Sure there are workarounds for these DRM keys but this doesn't chance the fact that Sony is not being developer friendly here. Also, remember the guy who sued Apple and won? The court has decided that "the software which was bought with the hardware, is fully belonged to the customer and the customer is free to customize it". So, Sony dictating us NOT to root or live without an important-ish code, which I pay for when buying the phone, is nothing but only being disrespectful to the customer.
2) camera problem. As you probably noticed, Sony phones have the highest Megapixel cameras out there. We'll, that's just a gimmick. Every Sony phone's superior auto mode shoots at 8mp. Sony also suggests that we should use 8mp whether it's superior auto or - so called- manual shooting. As a camera manufacturer, Sony sells cameras to other companies and most of them flat out come with 16mp, without any advise for a lower resolution shooting. The reason to that is, if you compare a 23mp manual shot with an 8mp manual shot at mid or low light conditions, you'll notice that there is almost no difference. Only that, the 23mp shot is bigger in size and can be zoomed more, which gives you noting but a pastel noise. In addition to that, Sony never shares its true driver for camera, rendering 3rd party camera apps almost useless as they can only register 8mp wide screen and 3.15mp 4:3 shooting mode.
Sony will never admit the truth, but my educated guess is, the sensor has to share some resources while recording the light and colors, thus making it technically save it in 23mp but physically capable of intaking enough light and real life data only for a highest quality 8mp shot. This is why 23mp clear sky shot in the morning will be good quality but a low light shot will suffer and be even lower quality than 16mp cameras. At 8mp level, it is unrivaled though.
Again, that leaves us, customers in a fooled point. Technically Sony is not lying, but also not delivering what is expected. Nowadays, Sony's only advantage to a 12-13mp Pixel or iPhone 7+ is a wide angle FOV. nothing else.
3) screen thing. We, Z5 Premium owners have an 4K screen who runs at 1080p due to the heating and battery concerns. It only converts to true 4K with supported Sony apps. Rivals switched to the 1440p already. Full time 1440p. Japanese people try to understand market's demands so rookiely here, they simply think offering a potentially higher resolution screen will attract the customers. But again, this puts them into a lower moral position than even Apple's. Look at Oneplus, they do their best for a budget screen and make it 1080p, the premium rivals like Google and LG make theirs' 1440p and Android fully supports it. Sony is already a great screen manufacturer, why try gimmicks like that? I mean with their already present screen quality they could easily produce the best 1080p screen out there and market it "being the best of everything: screen quality, battery preserving, heat reducing, and with the clearest whites". Instead they make a 4K screen which only runs at 4K when selected few apps are used. The rest of the time it is 1080p.
Sony don't have a leading behavior in the market either. So it can not make it's rivals jealous and switch to 4K, in order to adapt Android world into 4K rapidly. They simply don't have that influence, actually I believe next Sony phone will be 4K+ resolution with 2:1 ratio..
4) development support problem. Developers actually love companies who are developer friendly. Sony is the only company who release an AOSP code for almost every phone they release, also all of their phones come with lockable bootloader. Yet, they lag when it comes to kernel, Rom, mod etc. support. Somehow developers won't prefer Sony phones. Hell, they even fight with unlockable and frustrating Samsungs and don't show love for Sony for some reason.
Well, I trust these guys. They are giving people, who use their free time to make things better and share it with us for freely, and also sit here and respond to our never ending problems. If they don't prefer Sony most if the time I say they know something.
So, long story short; I am holding a phone in my hands right now. It has a super screen, nice build quality and good sound for music. Also comes with good battery life, dual speakers etc. But I can't trust the company behind it for the future. I can't use 3rd party camera apps, I can't use the full quality of the screen, camera and sound with my desired ROM, I can't use it to its full performance without it slowing down due to heating easily... Also, there are totally visible touch modules in the best screen of the world!
I will enjoy this phone till it's old enough, but then I'll never buy a Sony product again, as Sony is the only Japanese in the world who lost my respect. It'll go right next to Samsung in my blacklist..

IS sony trig to hush up a scandal?

The thread discussing about the camera distortion issue seems intentionally deleted.
https://talk.sonymobile.com/t5/Xper...-serious-distortion-issue/td-p/1226669/page/8
If they are trying to hush up the issue, it's a really bad move!

yyiimm said:
The thread discussing about the camera distortion issue seems intentionally deleted.
https://talk.sonymobile.com/t5/Xper...-serious-distortion-issue/td-p/1226669/page/8
If they are trying to hush up the issue, it's a really bad move!
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It was intentionally deleted because Sony already explained the reason of the distortion issue, if that forum was't deleted people would have thought that the distortion issue is an issue.

Alex2483 said:
It was intentionally deleted because Sony already explained the reason of the distortion issue, if that forum was't deleted people would have thought that the distortion issue is an issue.
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Yeah but it is an issue! Sony's explanation is pathetic because the issue should be minimized with the software. The problem we all have is not with the distortion which is normal with wide angle lens but with lack of software fix included in the camera.
Samsung fixed the exact same issue in S7 with an update so it's right for us to expect the same from Sony.

Sensination said:
Yeah but it is an issue! Sony's explanation is pathetic because the issue should be minimized with the software. The problem we all have is not with the distortion which is normal with wide angle lens but with lack of software fix included in the camera.
Samsung fixed the exact same issue in S7 with an update so it's right for us to expect the same from Sony.
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Yes just be patient they will update it sooner.. If not well sell our xzp and buy note 8 or pixel 2..[emoji1]
Sent from my G8142 using XDA-Developers Legacy app

Sensination said:
Yeah but it is an issue! Sony's explanation is pathetic because the issue should be minimized with the software. The problem we all have is not with the distortion which is normal with wide angle lens but with lack of software fix included in the camera.
Samsung fixed the exact same issue in S7 with an update so it's right for us to expect the same from Sony.
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The lens of Sony are different, you will have the same issue with XZ and other Sony phones with the same lens, I never heard distorion issue on S7, but if it had the same issue it wasn't lens' fault

Alex2483 said:
The lens of Sony are different, you will have the same issue with XZ and other Sony phones with the same lens, I never heard distorion issue on S7, but if it had the same issue it wasn't lens' fault
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I see you have absolutely no idea about photography and lack basic understanding of simple physics...
The issue is 100% due to wide angle lens and is present to some extent in EVERY camera that has ever been manufactured since the invention of photography. It will be more or less visible depending on the focal length of the lens but it is in EVERY camera. The only way to remedy this is by intelligent software which is all we want from Sony. If Samsung did it, Sony should as well. Is this really so much to ask? Check this link from Reddit...
https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyS7/comments/4frpzj/rear_cam_distortion_fixed/

The Distortion issue is Software based.

The so called distortion there is when trying to take a photo with the XZP camera is common to all smartphone cameras. And this distortion disappears when entering Video mode. Test it for yourself using this target:
https://static.bhphotovideo.com/explora/sites/default/files/bandh-test-target.jpg
You don't even need to take a picture. Just check the target first in Photo Mode, and then switch to Video Camera. You will see that in Video mode, there are no distortions.
Obviously this is not a lens issue but a software issue. They could fix it with an update.

I don't think you're aware that there are more than one lens in a camera lol

Ypallage said:
I don't think you're aware that there are more than one lens in a camera lol
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Ummmm, I am no camera expert (as you no doubt are) but with a single lens camera ALL images are going through all the lenses (if there is more than one) as they are stacked one on top of the other! It's not as if one lens is moving out of the way while another one goes to work. LOL

jaseman said:
Ummmm, I am no camera expert (as you no doubt are) but with a single lens camera ALL images are going through all the lenses (if there is more than one) as they are stacked one on top of the other! It's not as if one lens is moving out of the way while another one goes to work. LOL
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Click to collapse
Exactly.

@nomailx this has been discussed at lenght in several forums. Partially, you are right. A fix is possible with a software update but life is never black or white, sdadly.
The tech that is fixing distortion in Video mode is Sony's magical stabilization algorithm(parts of it anyway). For a huge variety of reasons, it is off during picture mode.
I am fairly confident they were aware of the minor (yep, we've seen much worse on smartphones) distortion and decided to go with it, as fixing that would take away from somth else. Balance in the universe and all that..
If they decide to tweak or not, we are yet to see.

Hi all
Does the latest firmware fix this problem?

nomailx said:
Obviously this is not a lens issue but a software issue. They could fix it with an update.
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Click to collapse
Actually, it would be more accurate to say that it is a lens issue, but it's a lens issue that most smartphone lenses will have.
Normally it should be corrected for in software with a profile of the specific distortion of the lens, but for some reason Sony haven't done this.

Knowbody42 said:
Actually, it would be more accurate to say that it is a lens issue, but it's a lens issue that most smartphone lenses will have.
Normally it should be corrected for in software with a profile of the specific distortion of the lens, but for some reason Sony haven't done this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is ...
... correct.
But only Sony would put the best wide lens camera without a proper software. Cause they're too busy to ... Actually I have no idea about what they're doing. Even they don't know what they're doing.
And maybe you may have heard the Actual XZ Premium's Speakers capabilities when listening to a "not so common" HD Audio file and wonder: Wait what? The Speakers can sound like that? But then why they don't sound like that with 95% of the media and Apps. Again, Sony's failing on the software department.