[Q] Why does it have little development and few roms? - Xperia Z3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I'm choosing my new phone and the one think that bothers me of the Z3 (except the badly assembled unities) is the lack of development and I just can't see a reason.
I see really few roms and most of them are just stock with some tweaks.
I don't want to immediately change it, but I cannot understand the reason why

Just conjecturing here, but maybe it's because the camera doesn't have the same functionality on a custom rom, and I know at least I'm perfectly satisfied with stock and Xposed.

Stock is awsome.
We [SONY users] like to keep it simple.

because there is no real need for all those custom roms, most of the custom roms for devices are aosp based with 1 or 2 different tweaks/changes, stock sony does everything it needs to

As others already said, usually custom ROMS are made for better battery, themes, customization but the stock ROM gives you 2 day battery, the official ROM is as close to stock Android as an OEM can get. and with xposed modules and all the mods available, you can customize to your hearts content and basically have a custom ROM of your own.

jassalmithu said:
As others already said, usually custom ROMS are made for better battery, themes, customization but the stock ROM gives you 2 day battery, the official ROM is as close to stock Android as an OEM can get. and with xposed modules and all the mods available, you can customize to your hearts content and basically have a custom ROM of your own.
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I agree with your view. There is no need to have AOSP roms like with Samsung and LG.
Having said that, pure AOSP is cleaner from a design perspective and CM/PA/Omni are even better than Sony from customization and features.
In my opinion the fact that the Z3 is not selling like other flagship (unfortunately) is attracting less devs.
The initial lack of root with locked bootloader (and linked full go back to stock fall back) slowed down the appetite for modding on this device.
If the Z4/Z5/Z3+ will not be launched soon, I think we'll have a solid H2 2015 in term of roms.

Two reasons I can think of:
1) Sony's stock firmware is awesome, so some developers just get lazy and stay on stock because it's one of the few stock firmwares they can tolerate. I'm one of the founders of Omni, and my Z3 holds the record for the longest time I've ever stayed on stock. I'm working with the Sony AOSP team on bugfixes, eventually Omni will be coming based on Sony's AOSP work
2) While Sony does a GREAT job of supporting community developers, the fact that they have that stupid 6-month release cycle for flagships spreads things thin. Some people have the Z2, some have the Z3, some still have a Z1 and are happy with it and see no reason to upgrade. It didn't help that in some countries, Sony took so long to release devices that the next device was already announced. (Z3 was the first device released in a timely fashion in the USA, and that was still a 1-2 month delay.)

TheTeslaCoil said:
You said that CM is better then SONY stock.
That' s a LOL everytime and everywhere.
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Understood.
I made my post clearer.
"Having said that, pure AOSP is cleaner from a design perspective and CM/PA/Omni are even better than Sony from customization and features."
You can say everything good about Sony roms (and I do like them) but the fact that CM/Omni has more options to customize and make the device to fit more your needs, is a given IMHO. With some caveat unfortunately (camera quality, battery life.........).
Wait for @Entropy512 to finish his job and you'll never go back to stock!!!!
---------- Post added at 06:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:01 PM ----------
Entropy512 said:
Two reasons I can think of:
1) Sony's stock firmware is awesome, so some developers just get lazy and stay on stock because it's one of the few stock firmwares they can tolerate. I'm one of the founders of Omni, and my Z3 holds the record for the longest time I've ever stayed on stock. I'm working with the Sony AOSP team on bugfixes, eventually Omni will be coming based on Sony's AOSP work
2) While Sony does a GREAT job of supporting community developers, the fact that they have that stupid 6-month release cycle for flagships spreads things thin. Some people have the Z2, some have the Z3, some still have a Z1 and are happy with it and see no reason to upgrade. It didn't help that in some countries, Sony took so long to release devices that the next device was already announced. (Z3 was the first device released in a timely fashion in the USA, and that was still a 1-2 month delay.)
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Agreed!
And you point nr 2 equal to a lower commercial success than other flagship.
LG G2 and Galaxy S3 (with its infamous Exynos silicon) had a much better AOSP based roms than the Z3 in the first 8 months of its commercial life.
3.10 Kernel Omni 5.1.1 has to come to the Z3!!! And of course I'm not asking for an ETA!! :crying::crying::crying:

Guys keep it simple.
Tre truth is, Omni rom, pa, cm, any other gives you more control, this is true.
But its also true that sony stock rom is among the best in smartphone world, honestly i tried many custom roms on Xperia Neo, Arc, Arc s, S, Z1, Z3...but always ended to use stock one. Why?. Keep it simple, i like minimalistic sony stock rom, animation and it has all i need. And this thought is shared by many.
If you need few more things, root and instal exposed, there is no need for custom roms.

Thread cleaned
Keep it friendly

electrash said:
Guys keep it simple.
Tre truth is, Omni rom, pa, cm, any other gives you more control, this is true.
But its also true that sony stock rom is among the best in smartphone world, honestly i tried many custom roms on Xperia Neo, Arc, Arc s, S, Z1, Z3...but always ended to use stock one. Why?. Keep it simple, i like minimalistic sony stock rom, animation and it has all i need. And this thought is shared by many.
If you need few more things, root and instal exposed, there is no need for custom roms.
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Agreed.
My only concern is that AOSP has some better element from a style prospective (dialer, settings, contacts).
They could have stick with that style fully and add their useful stuff.
This is the only reason why I'm after a good rom, but in a very relaxed way as I like stock rom a lot.
Inviato dal mio D6603 utilizzando Tapatalk

This may be unrelated but since Sony is releasing AOSP drivers. How is the camera quality on custom roms compared to stock? As I understood they also released drivers for camera right? Low light of course won't work since it requires DRM but how about on daylight, is the picture quality of custom roms the same with stock?
Sent from my D6633 using XDA Free mobile app

infinitylook said:
This may be unrelated but since Sony is releasing AOSP drivers. How is the camera quality on custom roms compared to stock? As I understood they also released drivers for camera right? Low light of course won't work since it requires DRM but how about on daylight, is the picture quality of custom roms the same with stock?
Sent from my D6633 using XDA Free mobile app
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Unfortunately camera is the worst part so far. Quality is lower than stock and it produces (regardless the camera app) a fisheye like distortion.
Inviato dal mio D6603 utilizzando Tapatalk

The understanding I have is that currently right now, since the camera sensor is pretty much shared with everything from 4.3 onwards, CM is using the same 4.3 HALs for all shinano/rhine variants with the IMX220 due to the various issues with 4.4 and later HAL blobs on many devices. cdesai found what is likely the key issue behind 4.4/newer HALs totally failing on locked devices, but there's potentially a more "ideal" solution being worked on that hasn't been released yet so cdesai stopped working on that to focus on other stuff. (As I understand it, you can blame lawyers for it taking longer than we'd hope...)
The Z3 has the same sensor but slightly different optics than the Z2/Z1 - as a result, the camera HALs work but have focusing/distortion issues because they assume the wrong lens. (Smartphone optical systems need heavy vignetting/distortion correction by the HAL.)
If that "ideal" solution doesn't materialize by the time I fix the other higher-priority issues with z3 on my TODO list, I'm going to attempt to continue cdesai's work using 5.0 HALs that are device-specific.

Entropy512 said:
The understanding I have is that currently right now, since the camera sensor is pretty much shared with everything from 4.3 onwards, CM is using the same 4.3 HALs for all shinano/rhine variants with the IMX220 due to the various issues with 4.4 and later HAL blobs on many devices. cdesai found what is likely the key issue behind 4.4/newer HALs totally failing on locked devices, but there's potentially a more "ideal" solution being worked on that hasn't been released yet so cdesai stopped working on that to focus on other stuff. (As I understand it, you can blame lawyers for it taking longer than we'd hope...)
The Z3 has the same sensor but slightly different optics than the Z2/Z1 - as a result, the camera HALs work but have focusing/distortion issues because they assume the wrong lens. (Smartphone optical systems need heavy vignetting/distortion correction by the HAL.)
If that "ideal" solution doesn't materialize by the time I fix the other higher-priority issues with z3 on my TODO list, I'm going to attempt to continue cdesai's work using 5.0 HALs that are device-specific.
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That's great to hear.
Can you list what are the otherwise bugs you're working on?
Thanks.
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vittogn said:
That's great to hear.
Can you list what are the otherwise bugs you're working on?
Thanks.
Inviato dal mio D6603 utilizzando Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Z3 AOSP (and Omni):
Pixel corruption on AUO panels
Issues with Bluetooth reconnection on BF64 kernel (walk out of range of the phone with a Moto 360 and it won't reconnect until you reboot.)
General Omni:
CAF av/native ifdefing (this nightmare is the one thing blocking nightlies)
Preliminary work on a new theme engine more capable than Layers but still much lighter weight than CMTE.

One reason not mentioned in this thread in support of custom ROMs is the ability to not have any gapps. Despite how good the stock UI is, an AOSP based rom will be required if you want extra privacy.

Entropy512 said:
Z3 AOSP (and Omni):
Pixel corruption on AUO panels
Issues with Bluetooth reconnection on BF64 kernel (walk out of range of the phone with a Moto 360 and it won't reconnect until you reboot.)
General Omni:
CAF av/native ifdefing (this nightmare is the one thing blocking nightlies)
Preliminary work on a new theme engine more capable than Layers but still much lighter weight than CMTE.
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That doesn't sound bad at all!!
Is pixel corruption the fish-eye camera bug?
Hope to hear for a bug free Omni soon.
Is the recenlty announced Sony recovery support going to help you guys or it will be just a better flashing experience for end users?
Thanks.

vittogn said:
That doesn't sound bad at all!!
Is pixel corruption the fish-eye camera bug?
Hope to hear for a bug free Omni soon.
Is the recenlty announced Sony recovery support going to help you guys or it will be just a better flashing experience for end users?
Thanks.
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Makes everyone's lives easier.
And the pixel corruption is a display issue, specific to 3.10 kernels and the Z3. Fixes have been identified for Sharp and JDI panels, but AUO panels are harder. (In general, there are a lot of issues with 3.10 and command mode panels. All sirius panel definitions were for video mode, leo has 5 panel definitions - command and video for sharp and JDI, but only a command mode timing definition for AUO panels. So we need to either figure out why command mode panels are so funky - we've made a lot of progress but not fixed everything, or we need to reverse engineer a proper video mode timing definition for AUO panels.)
I haven't even started on camera. I hate cellphone cameras so I've basically lived without any camera at all on my z3 for the past two months. If I really want to share a picture from my phone - that's what my a6000's wifi is for.

Entropy512 said:
Makes everyone's lives easier.
And the pixel corruption is a display issue, specific to 3.10 kernels and the Z3. Fixes have been identified for Sharp and JDI panels, but AUO panels are harder. (In general, there are a lot of issues with 3.10 and command mode panels. All sirius panel definitions were for video mode, leo has 5 panel definitions - command and video for sharp and JDI, but only a command mode timing definition for AUO panels. So we need to either figure out why command mode panels are so funky - we've made a lot of progress but not fixed everything, or we need to reverse engineer a proper video mode timing definition for AUO panels.)
I haven't even started on camera. I hate cellphone cameras so I've basically lived without any camera at all on my z3 for the past two months. If I really want to share a picture from my phone - that's what my a6000's wifi is for.
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Thanks for the update. I sold my 5d for an a6000 because of portability.
I don't consider phones as camera alternatives, but they are better and better and you always have your phone with you. The Z3 sensor and lenses combination deserve a good treatment!
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Related

[Q] What's holding AOSP development back?

I am following the experimental CM 11 and the Lollipop threads, but they have lots of things that are not working yet. I am also wondering why AOSP development is not ready for users. Since the Z3 is a minor update to the Z2, shouldn't porting AOSP roms from the Z2 to the Z3 be simple? What needs to happen for us to have AOSP roms good enough for daily use?
Gaúcho comedor said:
I am following the experimental CM 11 and the Lollipop threads, but they have lots of things that are not working yet. I am also wondering why AOSP development is not ready for users. Since the Z3 is a minor update to the Z2, shouldn't porting AOSP roms from the Z2 to the Z3 be simple? What needs to happen for us to have AOSP roms good enough for daily use?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Diferent kernel, camera and other things protected with DRM keys. Many things need to rewrite, build from source, drivers.
And no one want to put effort in kitkat aosp, everyone wait for lollipop firmware from sony and cm, to build nice rom.
electrash said:
Diferent kernel, camera and other things protected with DRM keys. Many things need to rewrite, build from source, drivers.
And no one want to put effort in kitkat aosp, everyone wait for lollipop firmware from sony and cm, to build nice rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty much sums it up. :good:
So, can we expect it to be a popular dev-Friendly device? Because I'm using a Galaxy S4 Exynos variant and it is a mess. There are very few active devs working on it (actually only 2, that I record) and Samsung doens't care about Open Source. I have already ordered my Z3 D6643, but still time to cancel it. I know that Sony is releasing sources and binaries, but will we have sufficient and good ones devs working on it?
mazbot said:
So, can we expect it to be a popular dev-Friendly device? Because I'm using a Galaxy S4 Exynos variant and it is a mess. There are very few active devs working on it (actually only 2, that I record) and Samsung doens't care about Open Source. I have already ordered my Z3 D6643, but still time to cancel it. I know that Sony is releasing sources and binaries, but will we have sufficient and good ones devs working on it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is FXP team, there is doomlord, there is krappabel(sorry for misspellings), and many others good devs which I can't remember right now.
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mazbot said:
So, can we expect it to be a popular dev-Friendly device? Because I'm using a Galaxy S4 Exynos variant and it is a mess. There are very few active devs working on it (actually only 2, that I record) and Samsung doens't care about Open Source. I have already ordered my Z3 D6643, but still time to cancel it. I know that Sony is releasing sources and binaries, but will we have sufficient and good ones devs working on it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't see why not. The Z3 is still very new, and not all the devs have one yet. The Z/Z1/Z2 were all very popular with devs, so I can't see why the Z3 can't be just as popular.
electrash said:
There is FXP team, there is doomlord, there is krappabel(sorry for misspellings), and many others good devs which I can't remember right now.
Sent from my C6903 using XDA Free mobile app
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Click to collapse
epic118 said:
I can't see why not. The Z3 is still very new, and not all the devs have one yet. The Z/Z1/Z2 were all very popular with devs, so I can't see why the Z3 can't be just as popular.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for your answers. Since it's my first Sony device with android, I still don't know who are those devs. I will believe in your words and assume that they are great devs
I'm only afraid that devs just jump this generation (Z3) by having an older one (since they are all great devices) and by waiting for the next one (Z4). But I'm probably concerned with no reasons, since there is a long list of Sony devices sharing the same hardware and there is also the unified kernel.

It is so underwhelming that z3 doesn't have developers support.

i come from note 2 then g2....they both had super developers support....... i feel so bad now such a great phone, such a great hardware ..... but.....
What are you looking for exactly? Do you want a ROM just for the sake of having a ROM? I can honestly respect that if it's what you're looking for. Otherwise, I think we have a lot of options to work around a lot of things these days that just weren't available a few years ago. I also think the argument of Touchwiz and the LG UI are very different from Sony's fairly light customizations.
se1000 said:
What are you looking for exactly? Do you want a ROM just for the sake of having a ROM? I can honestly respect that if it's what you're looking for. Otherwise, I think we have a lot of options to work around a lot of things these days that just weren't available a few years ago. I also think the argument of Touchwiz and the LG UI are very different from Sony's fairly light customizations.
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Click to collapse
I kinda agree with greatgrandking. I come from HTC phones and I've used to be a big fan for years. I've got Z3 for my wife and I will get Z4 (or Z3 if Z4 doesn't have microSD) for myself soon because none of the flagships have band support of Z3 Dual.
What I have noticed with Z3 though is minimal custom ROM development. I guess mainly because the phone is fairly new still and I assume that people are not so crazy about unlocking bootloader as is common in HTC land.
I do agree that Sony's UI is not that heavy, however, the number of additional features and customizations available trough ROM development will never make me satisfied with stock ROM for too long.
I come from a HTC One M7, have custom-rom'd the sh** out of it and i'm pretty happy with the Z3 so far, the only thing i'm missing is root.. I COULD root it, but i don't want to yet. By the way, my One had CM12 / Android 5.0.1 on it and i'm hardly missing a feature on the Z3 yet.
Take a look at the razr i, i was so disappointed of the lacking developer support.. But mainly because i was stuck with an old android version and an impractical interface. My HTC Desire HD needed developer support because HTC gave a sh** about android 4 back then. My One M7 needed developer support because of the heavy interface with few possible modifications. The Z3 is the first phone that is great without custom roms. Also, i wouldn't want anything beside stock based roms due to the camera app..
That is the only reason y I haven't unlocked bootloader yet is due to sonys camrea software.
There is not development because there is no root. People don't want to unlock their bootloaders without make a TA backup first.
se1000 said:
What are you looking for exactly? Do you want a ROM just for the sake of having a ROM? I can honestly respect that if it's what you're looking for. Otherwise, I think we have a lot of options to work around a lot of things these days that just weren't available a few years ago. I also think the argument of Touchwiz and the LG UI are very different from Sony's fairly light customizations.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i just want a liquidsmooth kitkat milestone and a brilliant kernal alongside.....phablet ui......(if im given that i'll be more than happy, i wouldn't even crave lilipop then).....i want viper4android or dsp manager.... or any stock based rom with superb audio and a brilliant kernal ...... and use the camera at 20mp with superior auto.... im missing xposed framework .... i want to customized each n everything. im stuck
caqo71 said:
There is not development because there is no root. People don't want to unlock their bootloaders without make a TA backup first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i know and that sucks
caqo71 said:
There is not development because there is no root. People don't want to unlock their bootloaders without make a TA backup first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't rooted yet because there isn't a decent AOSP rom as of today and the benefits of rooting don't outweigh the negatives of losing the DRM keys. As soon as we have a working AOSP rom, especially Lollipop, I'll root right away, with or without DRM key backup. It'll be worth for me then.

Deciding between the Z5 and Nexus 6P

I've got a hard time deciding between the both. Camera quality is top of priority list, along with custom rom development. From what I can see, the previous Xperia Z didn't have much of that. While I absolutely love that gorgeous camera on the Z5, I do not want to be stuck with the Sony-branded OS. Is there any word if any known devs are taking up the Z5/Z5 premium?
sacredsoul said:
I've got a hard time deciding between the both. Camera quality is top of priority list, along with custom rom development. From what I can see, the previous Xperia Z didn't have much of that. While I absolutely love that gorgeous camera on the Z5, I do not want to be stuck with the Sony-branded OS. Is there any word if any known devs are taking up the Z5/Z5 premium?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know part of the quality of the Sony sensor is the software attached to it. So you will most likely need stock camera software since, any CM, AOSP roms will not work correctly. I am sure there are devs getting ready to jump on this device though.

This phone is depressing! A few thoughts and ramblings...

First off let me say that I love this phone. The build quality while not the best is good enough and the materials used come together very nicely. The Moto X also has all the features I am looking for (quick charge, nice screen, stereo front facing speakers, expandable storage and unlocked and rootable!).
So why am I depressed about it?
The phone seems to not be as popular as it deserves and with that it doesn't get the massive amounts of support of other inferior devices. After owning this phone since October I have tried my hardest to grow to love the stock firmware as it is so close to google's. However (I'm not sure how many of you will agree with me here), I am very fond of CM and seeing that the Moto G 2015 has been officially supported for what feels like forever now I'm not sure the Moto X will ever be.
I know there are dedicated individuals working hard to further development projects for this device and I am very grateful for that. It just feels like the community for this phone is very small which has caught me off guard because the device seemingly has everything most people could want.
Anyways, I'm not entirely sure why I wrote this but I'd like to hear your guys' thoughts and opinions.
I agree with you that I was assuming there would be way more support for this phone and I also though it would be easier to mess with as far as rooting and such. I'm no developer or self proclaimed rooting expert but it seems like if you are on android 6.0 stock it's not that easy to get rooted or downgrade to 5.x and root. I thought being unlocked and so near stock that this would all be a breeze but ever since I unrooted and upgraded to stock 6.0 rooting again is a pretty big undertaking. I'm not complaining here I do really like the stock OS but I love messing with the OS too. Here's to hoping some time in the near future there is a solid root option for stock 6.0
When I first seen the title I was like 'really'?/But as iv read further , there's one spot on point I agree with you on...
I expected the this phone to be one of the more popular, development wise, rom wise.
So when I first came to XDA and looked in the Moto X Pure section, WOW, I was sadly SADLY surprised.
3 CURRENT ROMS. are you joking me?
I told my self once the kernel source(or whatever) was released, THAT'S when things would change, that is when the list would grow..... IT HAS NOT THO....
THIS has been a let down. When I buy a phone, I want to be sure bec to me, its a hassle to do Re-Sale on EBay or Swappa or CL, Its just a hassle, I don't want to do it, Unless I absolutely have to. SO I'm sticking with the phone I buy most likely. So I'm sticking with it.
I could have spent 100 more to get the 6p, but at that time, everyone was talking DOWN the 6p, plus its a tad too big for me, I didn't want it then. Given the unpopularity in development this phone surprisingly is, it would be nice to have the 6p, but to me, going through the resale hassle, I think I'll pass.
Lastly, to the OP of this Post. I agree on one point, its very very surprising the unpopularity of the phone STILL. It's almost unexplainable.
Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk
Ive been a long time lg and htc user prior to this.... Yes theres few roms but heres my take.... while lg g2 g3 g4 have lots of roms activities and users... Let me tell you how it works... First most of the ppl on there only complain about bugs and how they bricked their phones or complain of the hideous lg stock rom lag and interface... Then they flash bug filled. Aosp roms and complain about bugs and camera etc..... Wit moto x ppl dont have to be active in the forum bc first.. Stock rom is aosp... ....... Everything just works and feels great... And you can falsh optimized stock rom and ull have stability of stock roms+fluidness of aosp roms...(no need for users to stick around to complain... They jt flash they're rom and are of to enjoy it) You jt cant lose with this phone!!!! I appreciate the heck out of my fone and of mostly intelligent satisfied users!!!! Im my opinion this phone is second to only the nexus 6p right now.... And well the reason i have this is bc i got it for a measly 83$ on a amazing deal on ebay... Anyways. Thats alll... My opinion is complete
Edit.... Oh and ive nvr owned a phone with a signal quality even close to this one... Its baffling how much better it is then it was on my m8 or g3 or g4...
I came from the LG G4, what they did there is they got a well known Cyanogen Dev to agree to support that device if they helped him get it.
They got Codeworkx, (a great developer btw) and he jump started development right away squashing bugs left and right.
Maybe they can do that here? get a well known Developer to agree and see if they can get donations going for him.
I know things like this have gone down south before with devs not commiting and dropping/selling the device right away.
But there are good devs are there that are commited but just dont have funds to get devices.
Historically, the moto x line has never had much development. My own personal opinion is because there isn't much need: updates come fast, stock moto features are excellent, and performance tends to be very good and there is very little bloat. Other than the nexus line, where the devs have source code to work with, devices that come with good software tend to get less developer interest.
Obviously there are exceptions to this, just my observations after owning many phones over the years.
I just got the X for my dad and i believe its perfect for him (not so sure about the large display though), but he won't be messing around with ROMs and stuff.
However, I simply can't decide between this and the 5x for myself (6P is out of my budget). I love everything the X Style offers but I dread that I will soon get bored of the stock experience and crave for the bells and whistles that custom ROMs offer. The downside to flashing a ROM on the X is you lose out on Moto Display, Voice, Actions, and Assist--is that not the case? If I'm not mistaken, isn't Moto's implementation of these features significantly better than those found in CM?
I will echo what's been said and maybe add some points of my own. I love this phone I do, and maybe the fact that it has no issues is the issue but I also love seeing what else there is out there as far as rom's etc. I have yet to even root/unlock this phone because I almost see no major reason. I mean major, I know there's some xposed modules and whatnot but I used to love/hate trying out new roms just to see what they're like even with the bugs. I've moved on from the whole hack your phone scene but only because it seems to be less and less fun. Maybe the fact that the moto x pure is great as is, is the issue. No reason to really change anything. It's a good problem to have I guess.
roofrider said:
I just got the X for my dad and i believe its perfect for him (not so sure about the large display though), but he won't be messing around with ROMs and stuff.
However, I simply can't decide between this and the 5x for myself (6P is out of my budget). I love everything the X Style offers but I dread that I will soon get bored of the stock experience and crave for the bells and whistles that custom ROMs offer. The downside to flashing a ROM on the X is you lose out on Moto Display, Voice, Actions, and Assist--is that not the case? If I'm not mistaken, isn't Moto's implementation of these features significantly better than those found in CM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Moto's implementation is MUCH better than you'll find on any rom and/or xposed module. You will not find touchless display and moto voice that work well anywhere else. Also, you can get bells and whistles by installing gravitybox on stock-based roms. I've ran cm12.1/13 on my oneplus one for nearly a year and since switching to the moto x with gravitybox, I don't miss a thing.
Google~Android said:
Ive been a long time lg and htc user prior to this.... Yes theres few roms but heres my take.... while lg g2 g3 g4 have lots of roms activities and users... Let me tell you how it works... First most of the ppl on there only complain about bugs and how they bricked their phones or complain of the hideous lg stock rom lag and interface... Then they flash bug filled. Aosp roms and complain about bugs and camera etc..... Wit moto x ppl dont have to be active in the forum bc first.. Stock rom is aosp... ....... Everything just works and feels great... And you can falsh optimized stock rom and ull have stability of stock roms+fluidness of aosp roms...(no need for users to stick around to complain... They jt flash they're rom and are of to enjoy it) You jt cant lose with this phone!!!! I appreciate the heck out of my fone and of mostly intelligent satisfied users!!!! Im my opinion this phone is second to only the nexus 6p right now.... And well the reason i have this is bc i got it for a measly 83$ on a amazing deal on ebay... Anyways. Thats alll... My opinion is complete[emoji14]
Edit.... Oh and ive nvr owned a phone with a signal quality even close to this one... Its baffling how much better it is then it was on my m8 or g3 or g4...
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Good points. I do wish we had a bit more variety rom wise tho.
Yeah 6p was just out my price range at the time, and also it wasnt as popular of a Choice at its launch as its been more recently.
For me specifically, I consume a lot of media, so speakers are a bit more important to me than some others, and was close to the most important feature I was looking for. I came from the htc M7, so when I heard the MXPE, I was not disappointed. As someone else said, this phone probably has the best speakers on a phone, even the 6p...... based on reviews and YouTube videos only.
Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk
Theres not much to fix on this device, if and when CM gets official, you will see more rom in the dev section.
I love this phone that it doesnt get in my way and works just how I want it, heck I dont even keep tapatalk on my phone anymore since I never need to come here look for fixes or improvements
it is just 6months of release.. i think rom numbers and kernel numbers will improve over time...also the processor is almost new...there is very less work on msm8992...
also no vendor gives updates so fast.
LGs,HTCs,Samsungs take forever to update
emoney1219 said:
I agree with you that I was assuming there would be way more support for this phone and I also though it would be easier to mess with as far as rooting and such. I'm no developer or self proclaimed rooting expert but it seems like if you are on android 6.0 stock it's not that easy to get rooted or downgrade to 5.x and root. I thought being unlocked and so near stock that this would all be a breeze but ever since I unrooted and upgraded to stock 6.0 rooting again is a pretty big undertaking. I'm not complaining here I do really like the stock OS but I love messing with the OS too. Here's to hoping some time in the near future there is a solid root option for stock 6.0
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Click to collapse
Unlock the bootloader, flash twrp through platform tools(adb-fastboot), flash chainfire supersu systemless root, it takes 10 min.
Yes, there are less ROMs compared to many other phones, but you must consider that most other phones don't come with a nearly pure Android experience. Those custom ROMs all try to focus on AOSP/CM builds that provide a pure Android experience along with extra features. This phone just doesn't need that as much.
Personally, I use to love flashing different ROMs to find the one that provides the best performance and feature set combination. This phone already has the performance, and Xposed and Layers provide all the features and custom look as desired. We also have a few solid kernels, too.
If you need a lot of ROMs, pick a phone that has a manufacturer-built version of Android that developers want to replace or a Nexus phone
Sent from my XT1575 using XDA Free mobile app
The stock ROM, rooted with Xposed and GravityBox can cover most of what a custom ROM can give you. And without the bugs.
Faint333 said:
First off let me say that I love this phone. The build quality while not the best is good enough and the materials used come together very nicely. The Moto X also has all the features I am looking for (quick charge, nice screen, stereo front facing speakers, expandable storage and unlocked and rootable!).
So why am I depressed about it?
The phone seems to not be as popular as it deserves and with that it doesn't get the massive amounts of support of other inferior devices. After owning this phone since October I have tried my hardest to grow to love the stock firmware as it is so close to google's. However (I'm not sure how many of you will agree with me here), I am very fond of CM and seeing that the Moto G 2015 has been officially supported for what feels like forever now I'm not sure the Moto X will ever be.
I know there are dedicated individuals working hard to further development projects for this device and I am very grateful for that. It just feels like the community for this phone is very small which has caught me off guard because the device seemingly has everything most people could want.
Anyways, I'm not entirely sure why I wrote this but I'd like to hear your guys' thoughts and opinions.
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Click to collapse
It's not depressing if you have Xposed framework and VZW Unlimited Data. I may keep this phone for 1-2 years instead of upgrading every 6 months.
I agree, just got this phone the other day and i thought there'd be a lot of rom support, easy rooting, more mods, etc. Kind of a shame for a very good phone.
About the camera
My main complaint about this phone after owning a LG G4 and Galaxy S6 is the lack of the camera 2 API. Why after virtually bringing this feature on board of the Google Nexus 6 and claming that this phone have a comparable camera to last year's flagships, they take away something out, that us owners are more than capable of taking advantage. The camera is good, but could be better, and if they don't feel like doing it we should've been able to do something about it. Dumb move Motorola.
One problem with this phone is that it has to have qcoms multi Sim implementation. So you will not see (m)any AOSP based ROM's.
This because it is a lot of work to make multi Sim work. And yes the implementation of Qualcomm multi Sim is different then the aosp implementation.
You will only see CM based custom ROM's or stock based modifications. CM based ROM's because CM has a lot more resources to integrate this.
(I tried to get omnirom working, but ran into the multi Sim problem).
the design was good but i got tired of the lag and overheating, even on the s808 chip. went to the iphone 6s for 2 months then im back on droid but with a nexus 6p. best device ive had, no lag or overheating, great support. maybe the OP should consider buying it.
---------- Post added at 10:03 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:02 AM ----------
JOSE89178 said:
I agree, just got this phone the other day and i thought there'd be a lot of rom support, easy rooting, more mods, etc. Kind of a shame for a very good phone.
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Click to collapse
alot of it has to do with levono buying moto and the uncertain future of the moto line. plus the fact moto seems to drop support easily.

Which ROM are you running?

The Z3 community seems to be spoilt for choice with a large number of official ROMS for the device. (surely more than any other phone. Coming from G2, it's amazing to see how Sony have managed to keep so many of the xda community on stock roms! )
Which one are you using?
I'm on the Concept Edition. The thread about this isn't as active as others in the General forum, but for me it's the perfect mixture balance between the official Marshmallow rom (not close enough to stock for me) and the Android N preview (tried preview 2, too many bugs at that stage).
No complaints about Concept really, it would be nice if it was a bit more customization like CM13 on other phones, but I'll be sticking with this ROM, hopefully Sony continue to update it.
seanp25 said:
The Z3 community seems to be spoilt for choice with a large number of official ROMS for the device. (surely more than any other phone. Coming from G2, it's amazing to see how Sony have managed to keep so many of the xda community on stock roms! )
Which one are you using?
I'm on the Concept Edition. The thread about this isn't as active as others in the General forum, but for me it's the perfect mixture balance between the official Marshmallow rom (not close enough to stock for me) and the Android N preview (tried preview 2, too many bugs at that stage).
No complaints about Concept really, it would be nice if it was a bit more customization like CM13 on other phones, but I'll be sticking with this ROM, hopefully Sony continue to update it.
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Click to collapse
to be honest, the Z3 community is far behind the community and effort the Galaxy S3 i9300 had.
Stock roms, stock based roms, official concept... all sony software.
i bought my Z3 mainly for the (fake) claimed "openness".
Z3 vs I9300 is a huge hardware improvement
software side, Sony has stable updates.
Modding side, Z3 is almost dead
Edit: my current ROM is the RXSW Marshmallow Edition 3.0.0

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