●► Xperia ZL - Pool of thoughts ◄● experiences, problems, ideas

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Luchoc

Senior Member
Feb 9, 2012
111
54
Buenos Aires
Hey there, Xperia ZL C6502 user here.

I bought it at the official Sony Store here in Argentina on August last year. It's been "assembled" here (that is they send the manufactured parts from China ready to be put on the phone and the gov't plays it as if it was actually made here). It's contract-free, black, with an unlocked bootloader. I am now running the latest Omni nightly, though I've been trying to build ParanoidAndroid for the past week (been visiting XDA since 2011, but it's my first time actually building something!). Of course, it's rooted. Both mine and a friend's C6506 sport no hardware issues whatsoever.

I love the device's look and feel except from the annoying anti-shatter film, which gathers fingerprints and scratches as if it was made from cheap plastic. The plastic back does feel nice and grippy and I prefer the black model's textured back to the white version's soft-touch one, but a friend imported an Xperia Z from another part of the world and its glass back does feel nicer. Apart from the front-facing camera (which is not that of a big deal anyway), everything's in the right place.

I bought it because I wanted a good 1080p all-rounder that could also run AOSP-based ROMs smoothly, so it had to have a Qualcomm CPU. Coming from the Galaxy S3's crap Exynos chipset it was the main thing I was looking for. At that time, the only good phones available with a Qualcomm CPU here were this one or the LG Optimus G. I chose the ZL 'cause of the display, MicroSD slot, the software buttons and the fact that I really like the stock Sony UI. I now regret the display part, since the Optimus G's has better contrast and viewing angles and the resolution bump is not that big of a deal.
Since I bought the ZL, both the LG G2 and the Xperia Z1 came to Argentina (though the latter came with an ISDB-T TV tuner, so I suspect they had to put a smaller battery on it) so now I'd probably buy an LG G2. I'm not tied to any brand but I do like to run AOSP, which is a piece of cake on the G2.

For me, if there's ever a ZL successor it should have the Z1's internals (but the smaller bezels of the ZL), plus a (substantially) better display without any anti-shatter film (but neither bigger nor more than 1080p). That's about it, really. Also, functions-wise it should never become as bloated as Samsung or LG. Keeping it simple, close to stock and useful is what I like the most from Sony
 
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Meister_Li

Senior Member
Jun 26, 2010
298
37
Cork
I unfortunately have some problems with the camera - namely a black dot that appears in all images I take with it like this one:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mlrswlsy3jnfw12/DSC_0015.JPG

I contacted Sony about it, awaiting an answer now to see if it's covered by the warranty.

I am also using the stock rom and I am rooted - Additionally, the Compass seems to mostly not work.

I have now sent it off to a Service Station from Sony after some back and forth with the support. I bought the phone in Germany, so I contacted their support first, but they told me they could only send it to a location in Germany and that I should contact the Support for the Country I am in (Ireland). After doing that, they told me that they can't service me since the ZL is not sold in the UK. Awesome. Well, I asked for a superior to look at my request again and than they offered to have a technician have a look at it. I've sent it out today.

I really hope they can do something about the camera and compass issues I've been having. I in general really love this phone and it'd be a huge shame and waste to not be able to make proper photos with it any more, as that is why I bought it in the first place only half a year ago!
 

kcorkwr

New member
Mar 16, 2013
2
0
sony zl 6506 proximity sensor issue

Sony zl 6506. Locked bootloader
Rooted/Dualrecovery
10.4.B.569
I seem to be having an hardware issue after flashing and rooting using the downgrade then upgrade method.. Everything's working great except proximity sensor not able to calibration
 

Meister_Li

Senior Member
Jun 26, 2010
298
37
Cork
I have now sent it off to a Service Station from Sony after some back and forth with the support. I bought the phone in Germany, so I contacted their support first, but they told me they could only send it to a location in Germany and that I should contact the Support for the Country I am in (Ireland). After doing that, they told me that they can't service me since the ZL is not sold in the UK. Awesome. Well, I asked for a superior to look at my request again and than they offered to have a technician have a look at it. I've sent it out today.

I really hope they can do something about the camera and compass issues I've been having. I in general really love this phone and it'd be a huge shame and waste to not be able to make proper photos with it any more, as that is why I bought it in the first place only half a year ago!

So, after one and a half months of waiting (half of that time with the support not even being able to find the phone in their system because me saying "Ireland" apparently is too complicated for most Sony Reps), I finally got the phone back - the camera was fixed...

But new spots appeared after just two days of use. Great. I guess I'll just have to buy an entirely new phone, as this is clearly either breaking the sensor or I just have horrible luck. Guess it's back to Samsung - their design is a lot less nice, but at least their support does work pretty reliably. ;_;
 

xyge

Senior Member
Jun 2, 2012
381
187
Mumbai
Google Pixel 4a
Not sure if am lucky or really bad at picking faults! :p

My zl,
got it pretty cheap from a retailer here in india(he actually didn't know what zl was until i insisted and he confirmed it from his supplier :p )

i have a white one that i unlocked the first day and on omni/cm11/pa eversince (kinda switch every week!)

now the best part is, even after flashing like crazy and quite rough use, the phone is keeping up really well..no battery issues as others or any other faults! In fact the phone has taken some really bad falls and even fell in a tub once(all it took was a night of drying in a rice bowl)

If i were to point out the faults or my dislikes there are just two i can think of right now,

the display is not up to the mark, i had a xperia ion before and was expecting this to be better, there was quite a lot of hype around the display but apart from the resolution i feel the colors were way more accurate on sony's older panels(ion,ray) try comparing the depth of red and grey on the zl to these phones and ull see what i mean.

also i dont really like the way sony has introduced the reset button, yes its intended to 'ease' the process but it doesnt :/
its harder for me to find a thin pin/pen to use the button than to use the 'vol up plus power' combination as on previous phones.

Coming to the experience, well i love this tank/power house, this is quite the best combination of all the stuff i really care about...its tough, good battery, compact, decent speakers, pretty good cameras (trust me all u need is to experiment with a few camera apps..the sensor is still one of the best n market), and the excellent reception. Oh and of course that notification led :p
 
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apitruia1

Member
Feb 18, 2014
13
2
Not sure if am lucky or really bad at picking faults! :p

My zl,
got it pretty cheap from a retailer here in india(he actually didn't know what zl was until i insisted and he confirmed it from his supplier :p )

i have a white one that i unlocked the first day and on omni/cm11/pa eversince (kinda switch every week!)

now the best part is, even after flashing like crazy and quite rough use, the phone is keeping up really well..no battery issues as others or any other faults! In fact the phone has taken some really bad falls and even fell in a tub once(all it took was a night of drying in a rice bowl)

If i were to point out the faults or my dislikes there are just two i can think of right now,

the display is not up to the mark, i had a xperia ion before and was expecting this to be better, there was quite a lot of hype around the display but apart from the resolution i feel the colors were way more accurate on sony's older panels(ion,ray) try comparing the depth of red and grey on the zl to these phones and ull see what i mean.

also i dont really like the way sony has introduced the reset button, yes its intended to 'ease' the process but it doesnt :/
its harder for me to find a thin pin/pen to use the button than to use the 'vol up plus power' combination as on previous phones.

Coming to the experience, well i love this tank/power house, this is quite the best combination of all the stuff i really care about...its tough, good battery, compact, decent speakers, pretty good cameras (trust me all u need is to experiment with a few camera apps..the sensor is still one of the best n market), and the excellent reception. Oh and of course that notification led :p

Thanks brother for your valuable review............ I am not very happy with camera performance of Xperia ZL......... Can you suggest good camera app

Sent from my Xperia ZL using xda app-developers app
 

CokeJunkee

Senior Member
Aug 18, 2011
122
56
Thanks brother for your valuable review............ I am not very happy with camera performance of Xperia ZL......... Can you suggest good camera app

Sent from my Xperia ZL using xda app-developers app

I tried a lot of camera apps and "Camera FV-5" and "ProCapture" seem to be the best. They also work perfectly with the camera button on the ZL.
 

xyge

Senior Member
Jun 2, 2012
381
187
Mumbai
Google Pixel 4a
Thanks brother for your valuable review............ I am not very happy with camera performance of Xperia ZL......... Can you suggest good camera app

Sent from my Xperia ZL using xda app-developers app







I tried a lot of camera apps and "Camera FV-5" and "ProCapture" seem to be the best. They also work perfectly with the camera button on the ZL.

Yep camera FV-5 is pretty awesome if u are a advanced user, for the rest I prefer camera2 it's real time filters and setups get quite awesome shots for every mood!


Sent from my Odin using Tapatalk
 

TheTofu

Senior Member
Nov 14, 2012
351
129
Los Angeles
Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e
also i dont really like the way sony has introduced the reset button, yes its intended to 'ease' the process but it doesnt :/
its harder for me to find a thin pin/pen to use the button than to use the 'vol up plus power' combination as on previous phones.

I find the reset button really easy to trigger with the plug on my earphones, which is nice because 99% of the time I have my earphones with me.

On the topic of earphones, I'm quite amazed at how well the earphones that came with my ZL have held up so far, I like the way they sound, they're really comfortable and I always just toss 'em in my pocket, they still work great after a year, which usually most other earphones develop some sort of issue by now.
I have a more expensive pair of earphones I stopped using because they're not as comfortable, they don't have a microphone and button, and even though they sound great I still prefer the way the ZL earphones sound. They're still a far cry from my full size headphones but for something I can take with me everywhere I go, they're pretty great.
 

JRBT24

Senior Member
Mar 23, 2012
77
14
Quezon City
Meanwhile, I have sweaty hands and the power button that was made with "attention to detail" doesn't look as good anymore :(. I expected the battery to get better over time too, but I still just get 3 hours give or take 15 mins of screen on time with my type of usage. Other than those though, I can't complain anything more. My Xperia ZL is still blazing fast even with lots of apps that I've already installed. It's turning 1 year old next month and I don't even notice that I'm getting left out, unlike my Xperia Arc before :D
 

dmeerpa

Senior Member
Jul 12, 2013
89
40
Aalst
Summarised : worst phone I ever owned (and I already had a lot of phones).

I agree that ever electronic device can have a hardware issue but :

  • dead batterie
  • dead pixels on the camera
  • IR Blaster not able to learn any new IR codes
  • upper layer of the cover peeling off

These are a lot of problems on one and the same phone. The first 3 problems are occurring a lot with other users also.
When I even look at the price I payed, I should expect a lot more quality.

After three visits at the repair center the IR Blaster is still not working (learning mode)
after three weeks I had the upper layer of the cover peeling off image. They refused to repair that, the kept saying I used a liquid on it, what's not true. Only thing that can happen was indirect contact with 'sun oil' during holiday or some 'window cleaner' that could have left on my hands after cleaning the windows. But other phones never had any issues with normal use of household products.

The only thing why I did not already replaced the phone, is because it's the smallest 5" smartphone on the market and I like the notification LED a lot.
 

safuan7822

Senior Member
May 12, 2012
131
7
Alls good. Just the power button a lil bit sinkin and discoloured. ( ugly )

Sent from my C6502 using XDA Free mobile app
 

mrsatan

Senior Member
Jul 12, 2009
1,889
501
SLC
My red one is holding up great. My mom stepped on the screen and nothing happened besides scratching on the back. I really like the phone.

Sent from my C6503
 

BeatB

Senior Member
Sep 24, 2010
299
72
Vienna
Best Phone i ever owned. And the compact size for a 5 inch Phone is awesome. Only the edge is peeling Off but that is because of the hard Cover i am using.

Sent from my Xperia ZL
 
So I've bought my ZL in July last year. Ordered it from eBay, from the US. The total cost of the device plus import fees to Greece added up to 630 euros but I do not regret a single cent. The first night I received my phone, I went out to celebrate and dropped it on concrete from a height of about 1.2m. My screen has no shatterproof film because that's the first thing I removed when I unlocked it. So what happened? It hit the ground with the right upper corner of the device, bounced once and landed on the screen. Imagine what was going through my mind as my phone was sitting face down on the concrete. "it's probably dead. Shattered into a million pieces". Well I pick it up expecting to have to punch myself in the face for my stupidity only to discover that the phone is fine. Not even a single scratch on the screen. Even without that godawful screen film. And the corner that made contact with the concrete? The slightest of scuff marks that actually disappeared after a few days because of my phone constantly being taken in and out of jeans pockets (and the inherited friction that comes from that).

Let's talk form factor. I bought the ZL to replace my galaxy note OG. I did this because of two reasons: the galaxy note was a big clunky beast of a device with a great screen but horrible design, looks and feel; second reason was because I hated (and still hate) capacitive buttons. The first time I saw a leaked picture of the ZL, I fell in love with it. The bezel, or lack thereof, the dedicated two-step camera button, the textured rough back, the screen size relative to the phone size and last but not least the design philosophy that still has me stating at this beautiful black slab of a phone that I've been using daily, heavily, for nearly a year now. I just love looking at it and I've yet to see anything on the market that captures my eye as strongly as the ZL did. The fact that the corners of the phone are also quite sharp unlike most other phones out there (especially Samsung) is also a huge draw for me. I want my device to be as square ad possible and I'm waiting for the day when I'll see a completely square phone with sharp corners.

Now onto hardware. The camera of the ZL is decent to good. Great if using proper camera software. This of you running stock Sony roms can atest to the quality of the pictures shot with the ZL + stock Sony camera software. Even on AOSP based roms, the quality is on par with most other devices out there that came out the same year as the ZL. I have no dead pixels on my camera so I guess I was lucky with that. Also there's a flash. The flash is great. I love flash on phones. Not because it's useful for taking pictures at night (it's not) but because it doubles as a flashlight which adds functionality to the phone.
The screen of the ZL and it's amazing 441ppi is quite beautiful to look at, nice and bright for the most part and doesn't mess up and oversaturate colors like Samsung screens. That being said, it suffers from the well known visibility angle issue with some people hate. Personally I have no issue with the viewing angles. I always stare straight into my phone whenever I use it. If it's on the table and I get a message or something, I don't unlock it and leave it on the table and look at it from a crooked angle. I bring it close to my face at a 90 degree viewing angle which negates any viewing angle issues.
The placement of the hardware buttons is also a beautiful and really handy thing for me. I'm left-handed and I mainly operate the phone with my left hand. Because of the way the phone fits in my hand I have access to all four physical buttons at the same time. I could technically press them all together at once if I so desired, which speaks volumes to the ergonomics of the phone.
The ZL's speaker is probably one of it's only major faults in my opinion. It sounds horrible for anything other than the moet basic notification sounds and ring tones. Music through the speaker? Forget it, you might as well stab yourself in the ears with a fork. That being said, I knew what I was getting into prior to my purchase, so together with my ZL, I purchased a Philips Bluetooth speaker for when I feel like bothering other people with my music.
I guess I should say a thing or two about the internals since those are hardware as well. Internals are great! Simple, right? The ZL is a fast phone that never disappointed me once speed wise. Fast quad-core Qualcomm CPU, 2 gigs of ram that I have never managed to fill up, and the gpu which, if I'm not mistaken is an adreno 320, together make for a smooth, lagfree android experience. I don't play games on my phone so I can't really say much about that but I'm sure it handles anything you throw at it just fine.
Call quality is, well, it's fine really. I can hear people just fine and people can hear me just fine. Nothing to complain about there.
SD card slot is also a great hardware feature that was a big factor in my purchase.
Lack of removable battery is the only big hardware downside that made me think long and hard before buying my ZL. But as it turns out, the battery life is fine enough, giving me 4 hours of screen time for the most part. Could it be better? Sure, battery life could and should always get better, but until now I've never really felt like other devices are doing a much better job with their battery times compared to my ZL.
Notification LED was also a big draw for me. It's usefulness is beyond belief when having a chat with someone while your phone is on silent so it doesn't bother people with the notification sounds. As if having a notification LED wasn't enough, the ZL's LED is also insanely pretty to look at and wonderfully positioned at the bottom. I love it and it's a testament to Sony's attention to detail.
Last but not least on the hardware front is the IR blaster which I've only used once, the day I unboxed my phone, before I flashed CM. IR is a nice feature to have but it's not something I really minded losing when switching to aosp.

Speaking of aosp, let's talk about software. Nothing I can really say about the stock Sony software experience since I only used it for about 15 minutes. It seemed nice and snappy but a bit bloated. Camera app was great. Onscreen navigation keys are the main reason I left stock behind. I hate giving up screen real-estate to that ugly black band (it being transparent still doesn't make it any better) so I've been using PIE from the day I got my ZL and I've never used anything else since. I love PIE and it makes the phone's interface look do much better and clean.

Would I buy the ZL again? Definitely. Would I buy the next iteration of the ZL? Not if it looks like the leaked pictures I've seen. I want an even smaller bezel from my next device.

Oh yes, my phone model is a 6502. Yes the non-lte version. I saw no reason to get the lte one since I barely use mobile data and when I do I use it for things that require barely any fast data. 3g is more than enough for me. Maybe this is why I have no camera dead pixel issues? Maybe the 6502 was spared.
I'd be curious to hear if other 6502 owners have camera issues.

Sent from my Xperia ZL
 
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xyge

Senior Member
Jun 2, 2012
381
187
Mumbai
Google Pixel 4a
So I've bought my ZL in July last year. Ordered it from eBay, from the US. The total cost of the device plus import fees to Greece added up to 630 euros but I do not regret a single cent. The first night I received my phone, I went out to celebrate and dropped it on concrete from a height of about 1.2m. My screen has no shatterproof film because that's the first thing I removed when I unlocked it. So what happened? It hit the ground with the right upper corner of the device, bounced once and landed on the screen. Imagine what was going through my mind as my phone was sitting face down on the concrete. "it's probably dead. Shattered into a million pieces". Well I pick it up expecting to have to punch myself in the face for my stupidity only to discover that the phone is fine. Not even a single scratch on the screen. Even without that godawful screen film. And the corner that made contact with the concrete? The slightest of scuff marks that actually disappeared after a few days because of my phone constantly being taken in and out of jeans pockets (and the inherited friction that comes from that).

Let's talk form factor. I bought the ZL to replace my galaxy note OG. I did this because of two reasons: the galaxy note was a big clunky beast of a device with a great screen but horrible design, looks and feel; second reason was because I hated (and still hate) capacitive buttons. The first time I saw a leaked picture of the ZL, I fell in love with it. The bezel, or lack thereof, the dedicated two-step camera button, the textured rough back, the screen size relative to the phone size and last but not least the design philosophy that still has me stating at this beautiful black slab of a phone that I've been using daily, heavily, for nearly a year now. I just love looking at it and I've yet to see anything on the market that captures my eye as strongly as the ZL did. The fact that the corners of the phone are also quite sharp unlike most other phones out there (especially Samsung) is also a huge draw for me. I want my device to be as square ad possible and I'm waiting for the day when I'll see a completely square phone with sharp corners.

Now onto hardware. The camera of the ZL is decent to good. Great if using proper camera software. This of you running stock Sony roms can atest to the quality of the pictures shot with the ZL + stock Sony camera software. Even on AOSP based roms, the quality is on par with most other devices out there that came out the same year as the ZL. I have no dead pixels on my camera so I guess I was lucky with that. Also there's a flash. The flash is great. I love flash on phones. Not because it's useful for taking pictures at night (it's not) but because it doubles as a flashlight which adds functionality to the phone.
The screen of the ZL and it's amazing 441ppi is quite beautiful to look at, nice and bright for the most part and doesn't mess up and oversaturate colors like Samsung screens. That being said, it suffers from the well known visibility angle issue with some people hate. Personally I have no issue with the viewing angles. I always stare straight into my phone whenever I use it. If it's on the table and I get a message or something, I don't unlock it and leave it on the table and look at it from a crooked angle. I bring it close to my face at a 90 degree viewing angle which negates any viewing angle issues.
The placement of the hardware buttons is also a beautiful and really handy thing for me. I'm left-handed and I mainly operate the phone with my left hand. Because of the way the phone fits in my hand I have access to all four physical buttons at the same time. I could technically press them all together at once if I so desired, which speaks volumes to the ergonomics of the phone.
The ZL's speaker is probably one of it's only major faults in my opinion. It sounds horrible for anything other than the moet basic notification sounds and ring tones. Music through the speaker? Forget it, you might as well stab yourself in the ears with a fork. That being said, I knew what I was getting into prior to my purchase, so together with my ZL, I purchased a Philips Bluetooth speaker for when I feel like bothering other people with my music.
I guess I should say a thing or two about the internals since those are hardware as well. Internals are great! Simple, right? The ZL is a fast phone that never disappointed me once speed wise. Fast quad-core Qualcomm CPU, 2 gigs of ram that I have never managed to fill up, and the gpu which, if I'm not mistaken is an adreno 320, together make for a smooth, lagfree android experience. I don't play games on my phone so I can't really say much about that but I'm sure it handles anything you throw at it just fine.
Call quality is, well, it's fine really. I can hear people just fine and people can hear me just fine. Nothing to complain about there.
SD card slot is also a great hardware feature that was a big factor in my purchase.
Lack of removable battery is the only big hardware downside that made me think long and hard before buying my ZL. But as it turns out, the battery life is fine enough, giving me 4 hours of screen time for the most part. Could it be better? Sure, battery life could and should always get better, but until now I've never really felt like other devices are doing a much better job with their battery times compared to my ZL.
Notification LED was also a big draw for me. It's usefulness is beyond belief when having a chat with someone while your phone is on silent so it doesn't bother people with the notification sounds. As if having a notification LED wasn't enough, the ZL's LED is also insanely pretty to look at and wonderfully positioned at the bottom. I love it and it's a testament to Sony's attention to detail.
Last but not least on the hardware front is the IR blaster which I've only used once, the day I unboxed my phone, before I flashed CM. IR is a nice feature to have but it's not something I really minded losing when switching to aosp.

Speaking of aosp, let's talk about software. Nothing I can really say about the stock Sony software experience since I only used it for about 15 minutes. It seemed nice and snappy but a bit bloated. Camera app was great. Onscreen navigation keys are the main reason I left stock behind. I hate giving up screen real-estate to that ugly black band (it being transparent still doesn't make it any better) so I've been using PIE from the day I got my ZL and I've never used anything else since. I love PIE and it makes the phone's interface look do much better and clean.

Would I buy the ZL again? Definitely. Would I buy the next iteration of the ZL? Not if it looks like the leaked pictures I've seen. I want an even smaller bezel from my next device.

Oh yes, my phone model is a 6502. Yes the non-lte version. I saw no reason to get the lte one since I barely use mobile data and when I do I use it for things that require barely any fast data. 3g is more than enough for me. Maybe this is why I have no camera dead pixel issues? Maybe the 6502 was spared.
I'd be curious to hear if other 6502 owners have camera issues.

Sent from my Xperia ZL

Dude, try Viper fx with low treble and speaker optimisation enabled for the phone speakers.... Sound improves leaps and bounds :D

Edit: c6502 user here... No issues with camera battery or display.

Sent from my Xperia ZL using Tapatalk
 
Dude, try Viper fx with low treble and speaker optimisation enabled for the phone speakers.... Sound improves leaps and bounds :D

Edit: c6502 user here... No issues with camera battery or display.

Sent from my Xperia ZL using Tapatalk
Yeah I've always heard good things about it but I mostly just use headphones for my music and the poweramp equalizer does the job fairly well for that. I'm waiting for a real audio fix for out stuttering issue and then I'll give Viper a try.
 

CokeJunkee

Senior Member
Aug 18, 2011
122
56
Yeah I've always heard good things about it but I mostly just use headphones for my music and the poweramp equalizer does the job fairly well for that. I'm waiting for a real audio fix for out stuttering issue and then I'll give Viper a try.

If you want to use a stock based firmware and still have pie controls, use LMT Launcher. It's basically pie with some extray functionality ;)
 
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    An interesting thing happened to me recently. The faulty battery problem killed my phone right after I finished installing the .569 update. I won't bore you with the details of the symptoms since it's been covered extensively here. Needless to say, I had to call up Sony for a warranty service repair. Luckily I am running bone stock and had no worries about being covered or not. I sent the phone in to their service center and got my phone back 10 business days later.

    They replaced:
    • Battery
    • Battery connector
    • Front assembly
    • Battery ground
    • All buttons
    • Misc. screws
    • Speaker cover
    • Mic cover
    • Misc. adhesives

    It's funny because they replaced almost all cosmetic parts except for the back cover and SIM/SD card door.

    *** I should warn all users who are thinking about officially unlocking their bootloader or opening up your phone to hold off on doing anything that would void your warranty. You never know what can go wrong with the phone. ***

    As for the phone, I think it's one of the best on the market. The 4.3 update made it much smoother and more enjoyable to use. I no longer mess around with custom ROM all the time. I find that stock is best for what I need to phone to do. I need the thing to be rock solid stable; it is a tool to get my work done so I need everything to work. Is it perfect? No. Nothing is, but stock is the most stable. The skin is feature rich enough without being bloated. It is more charming than pure Android.

    I had to use my old Galaxy Nexus while the ZL was out for repairs. The difference was so noticeable that I am very happy to be back using the ZL. The Galaxy Nexus would stutter at the most simple tasks if I've been using it heavily. The home screen would blank out and have to redraw constantly. The ZL has been more cooperative when it comes to being able to handle a heavier workload. I recently bought the Xperia Z1S for my brother, and that thing is a beast. It can handle more tasks without slowing down. The speed difference is less noticeable than the Galaxy Nexus to the ZL, but I wouldn't complain if someone bought it for me.

    My next phone will be a waterproof one for sure. I like Sony's design language and skin so I think I will stick with them. I don't think I will buy a new phone anytime soon though, but if I were, I would look for something that is similar in dimensions to the ZL with all the features of the waterproof ones.
    2
    ●► Xperia ZL - Pool of thoughts ◄● experiences, problems, ideas

    .


    Hello there, dear friends and ZL users, fans and haters.

    Sadly, there are lots of threads on the ZL forum (and other places on the web) talking about the different hardware failures
    our phone has to offer, such as dead batteries, cracking noise on the mic, dead pixles on the camera, flickering displays,
    proximity and other sensors not working, LEDs not flashing and phones that just don't want to boot from the very first day.

    Personally, I've never had any of those faults even though I consider myself a power user, flashing roms, kernels and mods
    on a daily basis, playing around with voltage levels and even taking the whole device apart.
    I've got the phone since may last year and it's still running like it should. A few friends of mine also own the ZL and they
    didn't experience any hardware problems neither.
    So I'm asking myself why there are so many faulty devices out there..

    I would love to see some ideas and opinions about the actual hardware and how Xperias could/should develop in the future,
    read some stories about your experiences with the phone and the Sony warranty service.
    What do you think about the look and feel?
    Are things like cameras, buttons and sensors placed in the right corners?
    Any thoughts on material and build quality?
    Why did you buy it and would you buy it again?
    How should a possible ZL successor be for you to buy it?
    What functions would you like to see in future Xperias that others already have?
    ..etc..
    There might be some Sony folks out there who actually read xda forums and who knows..


    Please also post some infos like device model, the rom you're running, BL and root status and where and when you've bought it.


    .
    2
    So I've bought my ZL in July last year. Ordered it from eBay, from the US. The total cost of the device plus import fees to Greece added up to 630 euros but I do not regret a single cent. The first night I received my phone, I went out to celebrate and dropped it on concrete from a height of about 1.2m. My screen has no shatterproof film because that's the first thing I removed when I unlocked it. So what happened? It hit the ground with the right upper corner of the device, bounced once and landed on the screen. Imagine what was going through my mind as my phone was sitting face down on the concrete. "it's probably dead. Shattered into a million pieces". Well I pick it up expecting to have to punch myself in the face for my stupidity only to discover that the phone is fine. Not even a single scratch on the screen. Even without that godawful screen film. And the corner that made contact with the concrete? The slightest of scuff marks that actually disappeared after a few days because of my phone constantly being taken in and out of jeans pockets (and the inherited friction that comes from that).

    Let's talk form factor. I bought the ZL to replace my galaxy note OG. I did this because of two reasons: the galaxy note was a big clunky beast of a device with a great screen but horrible design, looks and feel; second reason was because I hated (and still hate) capacitive buttons. The first time I saw a leaked picture of the ZL, I fell in love with it. The bezel, or lack thereof, the dedicated two-step camera button, the textured rough back, the screen size relative to the phone size and last but not least the design philosophy that still has me stating at this beautiful black slab of a phone that I've been using daily, heavily, for nearly a year now. I just love looking at it and I've yet to see anything on the market that captures my eye as strongly as the ZL did. The fact that the corners of the phone are also quite sharp unlike most other phones out there (especially Samsung) is also a huge draw for me. I want my device to be as square ad possible and I'm waiting for the day when I'll see a completely square phone with sharp corners.

    Now onto hardware. The camera of the ZL is decent to good. Great if using proper camera software. This of you running stock Sony roms can atest to the quality of the pictures shot with the ZL + stock Sony camera software. Even on AOSP based roms, the quality is on par with most other devices out there that came out the same year as the ZL. I have no dead pixels on my camera so I guess I was lucky with that. Also there's a flash. The flash is great. I love flash on phones. Not because it's useful for taking pictures at night (it's not) but because it doubles as a flashlight which adds functionality to the phone.
    The screen of the ZL and it's amazing 441ppi is quite beautiful to look at, nice and bright for the most part and doesn't mess up and oversaturate colors like Samsung screens. That being said, it suffers from the well known visibility angle issue with some people hate. Personally I have no issue with the viewing angles. I always stare straight into my phone whenever I use it. If it's on the table and I get a message or something, I don't unlock it and leave it on the table and look at it from a crooked angle. I bring it close to my face at a 90 degree viewing angle which negates any viewing angle issues.
    The placement of the hardware buttons is also a beautiful and really handy thing for me. I'm left-handed and I mainly operate the phone with my left hand. Because of the way the phone fits in my hand I have access to all four physical buttons at the same time. I could technically press them all together at once if I so desired, which speaks volumes to the ergonomics of the phone.
    The ZL's speaker is probably one of it's only major faults in my opinion. It sounds horrible for anything other than the moet basic notification sounds and ring tones. Music through the speaker? Forget it, you might as well stab yourself in the ears with a fork. That being said, I knew what I was getting into prior to my purchase, so together with my ZL, I purchased a Philips Bluetooth speaker for when I feel like bothering other people with my music.
    I guess I should say a thing or two about the internals since those are hardware as well. Internals are great! Simple, right? The ZL is a fast phone that never disappointed me once speed wise. Fast quad-core Qualcomm CPU, 2 gigs of ram that I have never managed to fill up, and the gpu which, if I'm not mistaken is an adreno 320, together make for a smooth, lagfree android experience. I don't play games on my phone so I can't really say much about that but I'm sure it handles anything you throw at it just fine.
    Call quality is, well, it's fine really. I can hear people just fine and people can hear me just fine. Nothing to complain about there.
    SD card slot is also a great hardware feature that was a big factor in my purchase.
    Lack of removable battery is the only big hardware downside that made me think long and hard before buying my ZL. But as it turns out, the battery life is fine enough, giving me 4 hours of screen time for the most part. Could it be better? Sure, battery life could and should always get better, but until now I've never really felt like other devices are doing a much better job with their battery times compared to my ZL.
    Notification LED was also a big draw for me. It's usefulness is beyond belief when having a chat with someone while your phone is on silent so it doesn't bother people with the notification sounds. As if having a notification LED wasn't enough, the ZL's LED is also insanely pretty to look at and wonderfully positioned at the bottom. I love it and it's a testament to Sony's attention to detail.
    Last but not least on the hardware front is the IR blaster which I've only used once, the day I unboxed my phone, before I flashed CM. IR is a nice feature to have but it's not something I really minded losing when switching to aosp.

    Speaking of aosp, let's talk about software. Nothing I can really say about the stock Sony software experience since I only used it for about 15 minutes. It seemed nice and snappy but a bit bloated. Camera app was great. Onscreen navigation keys are the main reason I left stock behind. I hate giving up screen real-estate to that ugly black band (it being transparent still doesn't make it any better) so I've been using PIE from the day I got my ZL and I've never used anything else since. I love PIE and it makes the phone's interface look do much better and clean.

    Would I buy the ZL again? Definitely. Would I buy the next iteration of the ZL? Not if it looks like the leaked pictures I've seen. I want an even smaller bezel from my next device.

    Oh yes, my phone model is a 6502. Yes the non-lte version. I saw no reason to get the lte one since I barely use mobile data and when I do I use it for things that require barely any fast data. 3g is more than enough for me. Maybe this is why I have no camera dead pixel issues? Maybe the 6502 was spared.
    I'd be curious to hear if other 6502 owners have camera issues.

    Sent from my Xperia ZL
    1
    Mine:
    - Xperia ZL C6503, bought at a store around the corner (Germany) in may 2013
    - running PAC-man rom (2014.01.22 nightly)
    - BL is unlocked
    - got root access
    - voltages back to normal
    - hardware problems: none so far. (well, there is one single tiny dead pixel on the display, but its so small I can't really see it)


    For me it had to be a phone that can handle LTE traffic and it should have a non-glass back and a dedicated camera button.
    Honestly, I don't understand why it is so hard for those companies to attach a camera button to their devices..
    Coming from Galaxy S3, I wanted a whole new design (and sony did a good job here!) and a phone without an EFS-partition
    that could accidentally be deleted running my phone useless..
    So it had to be the ZL, but I had concerns from the beginning as the ZL was released at the same time as the Z and there
    was almost no publicity for the ZL on the media. I knew sooner or later Sony might abandon the ZL.

    The only thing I really don't like, is the non removable battery (that's a plus for Samsung).


    Your turn. :cool:
    1
    Yeah I've always heard good things about it but I mostly just use headphones for my music and the poweramp equalizer does the job fairly well for that. I'm waiting for a real audio fix for out stuttering issue and then I'll give Viper a try.

    If you want to use a stock based firmware and still have pie controls, use LMT Launcher. It's basically pie with some extray functionality ;)