OK, I have owned the Z1 for around 6 months now, and I have LOVED the product...I more or less have no complaints, and its become pretty much my favorite electronic device, except for my gaming PC : D
I use it day in day out, listen to the radio, watch video, surf the web, exepriment with all kinds of the incredible apps, and of course, play games (and it will be gaming that my comment is primarily about)
Thing is....gaming on the Xpeia Z1 is a GOOD experience....excellent GPU performance (though it gets HOT! ...really noticeably HOT..not warm....**bleep** it gets hot! : D), great screen, great sound with headphones (though the headphones jack tends to get in the way when holding the unit in landscape), and if playing without headphones, I find my hand covers the speaker and totally muffles the sound!
These are just small niggles, but nevertheless, things I notice, that I would desire to be slightly changed if I had the chance, but I realise they are issues with the hardware and design, so Im happy to wait unitl I get my next phone (likely the Xperia that comes out in 18 months when my contract is up!) and see how they are dealt with through the evolution of the series.
These are just mega picky things Ive noticed in an otherwise perfect design (for me....just my opinion).
However...the only thing that REALLY REALLY REALLY ticks me off, is a software issue....that has apparently been dealt with via the 'Immersive Mode' feature in Kitkat 4.4.4 (which I am running on my Xperia)....
That is the 'Soft keys' not disapearing in games, and taking up quite a large chunk of screen real estate.....in a very annoying place that depending on the game, can even quite easily be accidentally touched, kicking the unwary user out of the game,! (ARRRGHHH!)
Now I realise that proper support for 'Immersive mode' is actually up to the developers (am i right in thinking this?) and I have tried a couple of games that advertise support, and its all well and good, and works fine, also my comic book reader supports it, and so I get ALL my screen for books (rarely, I use HDX for that), documents and comics....and of course the built in video player has seemingly ALWAYS supported complete fullscreen without these **bleep** buttons getting in the way....
And its such a GREAT screen too....does anyone know exaclty WHY it is, that the Xperia series in particular sacrifices so much screen to these buttons while gaming?
All games Ive tried have the 'Top Bar' (with battery, signal and time etc..nto sure what its called officially)...automatically hidden..so why not the 'bottom bar?'..the menu keys? Especially since the strip of screen is so HUGE!!
To show 3 **bleep** buttons!
What really makes me wonder, is that even my Kindle Fire HDX (which I use primarily for actualy reading books/newspaper/articles) and that I consider an 'inferior' device in most respects..actually has a 'hide soft keys' feature...where in games and apps the 3 buttons and strip of screen are replaced by a very small and unobtrusive little tab...that you simply swipe out to expose the keys....
A GREAT solutuion!
Why isnt there something like this on the Xperia series?
I have deliberately explained myself fully here because I have become very frustrated wth this just recently, as I have been playing a lot of the brilliant games by the developer RORTOS...that makes impressive flight simulator games....games that (Particularly F-18 Carrier landings Pro 2) cannot run very well on my Kindle FIre HDX....
They play beautifully smoothly while maxed out on the Z1 though....(and the same goes for GTA Vice City, that I have been enjoying playing again on mobile on the way to work every morning : D...thanks Sony and Rockstar for a great start to my workday xD)
BUT these great games are being MARRED quite badly by those DAMNED BUTTONS!!
In F18 Carrier Landings Pro 2 and Airfighters (2 RORTOS games that are really superb if you like flight sims) several controls are positioned at the edge of the screen...and the soft keys are right in the way...so they are functionally gettiing in the way...
and whats more, they ruin the original design philosophy of the Xperia Z1...the design philosophy of 'OmniBalance'..because the game image is not equidistant from the left AND the right side...but shunted one side or the other, because of these **bleep** buttons!
(I hope I have explaiend this, and you can picture what I mean...it really irritates me : D)
Yes I am aware of a few apps that are available, both root and non root solutions.. but I have found them all too imperfect...just not good enough, too clunky, too much configuring and messing around to get them to work...and even then they have too much impact on other functions to be worth it for me...since i do use my Z1 for a LOT of different things.....
The ones Ive tried are fine as kind of Dev Tools...but I really love the overall design of the Z1...and I like to KEEP it beautiful and slick to use...as slick as it looks...(yep, I like the cosmetics so much, I cant even bring myself to keep it in a case xD...I just have to be careful with it...and its hardly got a scratch so far...just a few hairline type ones : (....
So...can Sony please add a little feature, like the small tab that I mention above on the Kindle Fire HDX, to hide those keys?
I have messaged RORTOS about them supporting Immersive mode fully, and they said they would look into it (of course they said that!), bur that most devices these days ALREADY hide the soft keys in games...and in my experience, thats true!
Out of 5 or 6 devices Ive played games on, i have to say that the Xperia series is easily the most effected by this issue.
and its ANNOYING as **bleep**...and I KNOW Im not the only one that thinks this...but I havent found an official Sony response (or indeed Android or Developer one) about what is likely to be done.
So does anyone have any news?
Does anyone know why one of the best screens and best GFX performers in a mobile device is still suffering from the soft keys being present at all times in games?....(except every now and then Ive noticed the keys are slightly camoflaged, as white dots....the strip of screen is still taken up, but the actual key icons are reduced to white dots (anyone else seen this?) but this just seems to happen randomly......sometimes it does that, mostly it does NOT...and besides, its not a real solution anyway...since a chunk of screen is STILL used up by it....
Please Sony, you use a custom Android, just liek Amazon do on the Kindle Fire HDX (though admittedly, not quite SO customised xD), and THEY can hide these keys without immersive Mode support...
Why cant Sony?
rant over...
I still totally love the phone..Im only going off on one like this because I love everything else about it...but this one thing I think is actually a pretty big deal.....so please address it ..
Please?
All the ebst
jim.
(PS I am also really harrassing RORTOS about supporting Immersive Mode too....if ALL the Devs supported it, then this wont be an problem (I suppose anyway?)....but Im not sure if there is an issue about how many people are actually USING KitKat 4.4.4...I would guess a LOT but perhaps not quite enough to make a special effort for?....anyway...Im not just picking on Sony : D)
rant really over.....for now.....
