First let me tell you why I decided to buy the Sony Z5 Compact.
For years now I have been using an Apple iPhone. Although everything there works fine, I am constantly unhappy or frustrated with the following:
- Boring UI
- iTunes is just the biggest pain in the world
- Battery life is quite poor (currently using an iPhone 5s)
- Only ok’ish camera
I am totally against > 5” smartphones, so following Sony’s reputation the Z5C was the natural choice: great camera, great battery life, and an acceptable size.
Immediately after unpacking and turning on the phone, it started running hot. And I do mean hot, not just warm. Even before I even started loading apps or anything.
I used it for a whole day, and it was becoming hot even when just writing an email or taking a look at the latest Facebook updates. I hadn’t even placed my Sim card in the Z5C and decided that I just can’t use a phone that gets that hot. I put it back in the box and decided to return it during the following week.
Due to work I did not have time to immediately return it and every evening I was seeing the box on my desk, tempting me to give it another chance. So I set it up again, and decided to be “strong” and use it for a few days to really get a better feel of it. I got acquainted to it for a couple of days at home and then had to go on a business trip, so I thought it’s the best way to fully test the device in “real world” situations.
I tried to go past the fact that the phone turned hot just when I grabbed it to send a couple of Whatsapp messages. But it was getting so hot and making my hands moist, making the fingerprint scanner not recognize my prints anymore. Countless times I had to unlock the phone by entering the code.
I was also suffering from a few other annoyances, the biggest being that the phone was not able at all to select by itself a roaming network. Despite it being set to “automatic”, I did have to manually load the list of networks and select one myself. If I would lose the network while going through an area without coverage, then I would have to go back to the list and select manually a network again. I travel abroad quite a lot for work, so this is just unacceptable. This never, ever happened with the iPhone.
My Exchange professional account also wouldn’t sync by push on a roaming network, which never happened with my iPhone, so I knew it was an issue with the Z5C.
One can criticize how iOS is a locked OS, and I’m one of those people, but on the other hand Android is just too much! What’s the point of having a “gallery” app, and a “photos” app (or was it album?). Anyway, after taking a photo, or saving a photo that I received by email or Whatsapp, I never knew where to find it again in the phone. Just save all the pictures at the same place for cyring out loud!
Then let’s talk about the camera. Yeah, sure, it’s got 4 times more megapixels than my iPhone. Unfortunately in no way does it take better pictures. I got a lot of out of focus shots despite shooting a very contrasted landscape for example. Maybe Sony should not aim at having the fastest autofocus ever and rather on having a precise autofocus? Also the colors of the photos that I took were far from being accurate, and the pictures had lots of artifacts in them.
Finally I’m going to talk about the battery. What does this phone have? About 1000 mAh more than an iPhone 5s? Eventually, I used it less than I use my iPhone, because the overheating issues make it very uncomfortable having the phone in your hands for a long time. And despite this, the phone was running very low on battery at the end of the afternoon, forcing me to use my power pack to recharge it… exactly like my iPhone.
To sum up, I do love the Z5C’s form factor and design, and I really wanted to love using this phone. Unfortunately, the overheating issue was a major show stopper, together with all the other annoyances that I mentioned above.
Now I have to find a way to get rid of it because the shop where I bought it does not offer refund or even an exchange policy. Right now I’m 600 euros poorer and back on my iPhone 5s… wondering what to do next as it’s out of the question to buy an iPhone 6 for 749 euros (and don’t even start me on the 6s….)
For years now I have been using an Apple iPhone. Although everything there works fine, I am constantly unhappy or frustrated with the following:
- Boring UI
- iTunes is just the biggest pain in the world
- Battery life is quite poor (currently using an iPhone 5s)
- Only ok’ish camera
I am totally against > 5” smartphones, so following Sony’s reputation the Z5C was the natural choice: great camera, great battery life, and an acceptable size.
Immediately after unpacking and turning on the phone, it started running hot. And I do mean hot, not just warm. Even before I even started loading apps or anything.
I used it for a whole day, and it was becoming hot even when just writing an email or taking a look at the latest Facebook updates. I hadn’t even placed my Sim card in the Z5C and decided that I just can’t use a phone that gets that hot. I put it back in the box and decided to return it during the following week.
Due to work I did not have time to immediately return it and every evening I was seeing the box on my desk, tempting me to give it another chance. So I set it up again, and decided to be “strong” and use it for a few days to really get a better feel of it. I got acquainted to it for a couple of days at home and then had to go on a business trip, so I thought it’s the best way to fully test the device in “real world” situations.
I tried to go past the fact that the phone turned hot just when I grabbed it to send a couple of Whatsapp messages. But it was getting so hot and making my hands moist, making the fingerprint scanner not recognize my prints anymore. Countless times I had to unlock the phone by entering the code.
I was also suffering from a few other annoyances, the biggest being that the phone was not able at all to select by itself a roaming network. Despite it being set to “automatic”, I did have to manually load the list of networks and select one myself. If I would lose the network while going through an area without coverage, then I would have to go back to the list and select manually a network again. I travel abroad quite a lot for work, so this is just unacceptable. This never, ever happened with the iPhone.
My Exchange professional account also wouldn’t sync by push on a roaming network, which never happened with my iPhone, so I knew it was an issue with the Z5C.
One can criticize how iOS is a locked OS, and I’m one of those people, but on the other hand Android is just too much! What’s the point of having a “gallery” app, and a “photos” app (or was it album?). Anyway, after taking a photo, or saving a photo that I received by email or Whatsapp, I never knew where to find it again in the phone. Just save all the pictures at the same place for cyring out loud!
Then let’s talk about the camera. Yeah, sure, it’s got 4 times more megapixels than my iPhone. Unfortunately in no way does it take better pictures. I got a lot of out of focus shots despite shooting a very contrasted landscape for example. Maybe Sony should not aim at having the fastest autofocus ever and rather on having a precise autofocus? Also the colors of the photos that I took were far from being accurate, and the pictures had lots of artifacts in them.
Finally I’m going to talk about the battery. What does this phone have? About 1000 mAh more than an iPhone 5s? Eventually, I used it less than I use my iPhone, because the overheating issues make it very uncomfortable having the phone in your hands for a long time. And despite this, the phone was running very low on battery at the end of the afternoon, forcing me to use my power pack to recharge it… exactly like my iPhone.
To sum up, I do love the Z5C’s form factor and design, and I really wanted to love using this phone. Unfortunately, the overheating issue was a major show stopper, together with all the other annoyances that I mentioned above.
Now I have to find a way to get rid of it because the shop where I bought it does not offer refund or even an exchange policy. Right now I’m 600 euros poorer and back on my iPhone 5s… wondering what to do next as it’s out of the question to buy an iPhone 6 for 749 euros (and don’t even start me on the 6s….)
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