Xperia Z bugs / issues noticed

[evad]

I have Sony Xperia Z for few days now and thought to share few bugs and issues which I've noticed with it so far. I've decided to post them here rather than general forums like xda-devs hoping it will get picked up by relevant people at Sony and actioned if necessary.

Automatic brightness doesn't work as expected

When Automatic Brightness mode is turned on, it is still possible to manually control the brightness using the slider. That's not to say that automatic brightness doesn't work, however the thresholds are too narrow and essentially user is still forced to manually dim the screen in the darkness (as it's too bright) and then max it out oustide in sunlight (because it's too dark) - all despite Automatic mode is selected.

"Automatic Brightness" mode should really be, well, automatic and use full range of brightness available without requiring user to manually tweak it.

Socialife issues

I was really happy to see much better social networking client, a vast improvement over Timescape, however it's still far from perfect. I've noticed several issues around it:

• the homescreen widget keeps way too little history, it should allow scrolling down through much more posts;
• the widget is really buggy when it comes to refreshing stuff, despite setting Socialife to refresh every 30 minutes, it often fails to reload content even after passing that threshold. Also, tapping on "refresh" icon doesn't provide any feedback indicating reload action, which leads to multiple unnecessary taps (as it takes ages to reload content without any indication of it);
• the main app view also isn't very responsive when it comes to loading new content, it seem to take ages to refresh and doing "pull down to refresh" action also often fails.

"Devices" app drains battery

The "Devices" application, which I believe is responsible for DLNA-related activity, does seem to keep device awake in the background unnecessarily. I sometimes display pictures and videos from the phone on my DLNA-capable TV and noticed that each time after using that service, the Devices app starts the battery drain - despite no longer actively used. It also seem to transfer way too much background data without clear reason for it. See few screenshots below:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mjt4khjwp2tsetc/Screenshot_2013-02-25-22-49-09.png

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nttzfcd5tqizvx2/Screenshot_2013-02-25-22-49-18.png (notice how battery usage and "Awake" dramatically changes around the time when DLNA service is used)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fhmpqb87p3y75h1/Screenshot_2013-02-25-22-49-26.png

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1if8ffglctc8wdr/Screenshot_2013-02-25-23-00-46.png (background data attributed to Devices app)

Lockscreen sometimes ignored

Not exactly sure what causes this issue, however noticed that turning screen on using on/off button, it gets straight to the homescreen, omitting lockscreen completely. It happens intermittently and might have something to do with Stamina mode, as it hasn't happened since I switched Stamina mode off. I'll update this thread once I find the way to replicate this issue.

So these are the most prominent problems I've noticed with my new Xperia Z so far. Hoping these will get addressed in future software updates, as all of them are software-related issues anyway. Will update this thread further as soon as I discover any other bugs.

[Johan]

The device app has now been checked by the project and it will be optimized in next software update. So my suggestion is to await the next software release and update.

Unfortunately I have no time line for next software update at the moment.

[xperiago_karuna]

Automatic brightness doesn't work in Xperia GO as well

[msung]

My Xperia Z Cannot charge after power off.

My Xperia got "DEAD" one time, after I revive my Xperia using HARD RESET button, my Xperia Z cannot charge while device power off, need always power on the device to charge~~~

http://talk.sonymobile.com/thread/124155?start=0&tstart=0

[deejayscorp]

Hey Johan thank you for the update!!!

but there are few more bugs that I noticed, i dont know of what gravity they are though, like if they can be resolved or not!

Nothing major just few bugs with my xperia z

---

A common problem that I face with my xperia z is the wifi connectivity (A general problem I suppose with ICS & Jelly Bean android phones). It fails to connect the router at times and disconnects and reconnects automatically the other times. Most of the time it says authentication problem. (Wi-Fi sleep policy is off).

It gets really hot very quickly, specially when I am surfing the internet or playing games like Real Racing 3.

The battery on normal use is really good even with 3g on, it would last the whole day with continuous texting and facebook. But when connected to wi-fi network or playing a game it drops quickly.

In the notification bar, the battery percentage icon and aswell as the alarm icon disappear most of the times.

The widgets like recent calls and weather widget sometimes take sometime (like 6-8 seconds) to load when swiping around the screen.

While sometimes downloading image files with *.jpg extension using stock chrome browser it would automatically rename it with *.jpg.jpeg, though the image would open in the album but you you wont be able to use it as wallpaper or for any other purpose. Also some of my image files (not downloaded but transferred from PC) which were view able before on the phone when i started using it, now are being shown as damaged files.

A problem that i faced with data management is when you disable few apps from using background data like play store and when you enable them again, they wont work unless and until you don't restart the phone.

One major problem is the vibration: It does not work when you keep the whatsapp on default vibration (you have to change it to short or long) and similarly with hotmail app the vibration will not work when set on default vibration and with hotmail app you cannot change the vibration mode except for switching it off (remember: the default vibration mode for the phone is switched on).

These are minor bugs which i think can be sorted/resolved in the next update. Apart from these I am really happy with my Xperia z xperiance!!

[el_bolto]

Hi all

Problems for me: Camera app completely stopped working, attempts to load then comes up with a message saying "Sorry Camera not available"

When using a Sat nav app or something likr strava which uses gprs. WiFi will become completely unavailable,

Typing into address bar is sometimes impossible-cant tap to place cursor in field.

Overall real slugish performance.

Been searching for updates but it seems like the UK has not got one yet?

Moan over!

[Supersaiyan_IV]

BUG 1: Wrap-select in Chrome address bar doesn't work. Works in Vanilla Android. There are more cases where wrap-select doesn't work, but this is the only one I remember at the moment.

BUG 2:

1. Go to developer options.
2. Set Window Animation, Transition Animation, and Animator Duration to off.
3. Now tapping any launcher icon doesn't start any application. Or simply - the GUI is completely broken. Refactorise?
4. Go to settings and reset the same options to 1x again. Reboot.
5. Now you're back to the forcefully animated environment.

[GeoffH]

you may need to kill the app - settings apps

I wonder how many of you guy piled a load of apps on your phones as soon as you had them out of the box - I ran mine for a few days to check stability before installing anything

I have the normal bugs  - like low volume  - gmail app - notification led - camera quality etc but very little else, so I'm extemely  happy with my EZ -  a lovely piece of hardware

[GeoffH]

To the OP

I don't agree or experience half of what you have written in there - sorry, a lot of what you describe is down to personal preferences and not actually bugs as such

from another thread http://talk.sonymobile.com/thread/124759?tstart=0

I would prefer that they concentrate  on some of the minor bugs that people are experiencing with 4.1.2 although in saying that here is what I think is going on        T

I think Sony are working on a new release of FW (including 4.2.2) with several fixes for the various issues being reported here (excluding HW issues obviously)    

Tweaks to the camera - improve quality - reduce sensitivity to colours especially in low light 

user interface 

stamina mode (interuption of downloads wifi disconnect and notification led) 

gmail crashes on certain mail content 

general volume levels 

wifi tweaks  maybe but reception IMO is a hardware issue and is what it is 

social network issues FB etc    

if they manage to get all that sorted in the next 2 months I'll be very pleased - bold items should be fixed in 4.1.2 in IMO

[cowjl18]

Hi Johan,

re The LED notification during Stamina mode:

Do you have any further information on this? I've tried contacting Sony a couple of times about this, and they keep telling me that it is an intentional feature and that it will not be fixed.

Many Thanks,

Wendy

[GeoffH]

what do you tell the people that want to turn the notifications off in certain situations

Stamina turns off wifi BT and mobile data when the screen is off - it is not impacting your battery usage as much as you think - and if you want any of these to remain on in standby then what's the point of even enableing stamina

I don't use stamina - my BT is rarely on and mobile data is off always - my wifi is on 100% of the time and accounts for less than 1% of my battery usage