I have had the Sony Z1 since November, let me tell my tale of woe.
Before I had the Z1 I had iPhone 4, note 1, note 2, s3, iPhone 5. The wife had iPhone 4s and now a s4. The daughter had a iPhone 3GS and Nokia 710. I am a tech influenced guy who reads a lot of stuff and researches even more.
When I made the leap to the Z1 I was really impressed. Great structural integrity, waterproof, skinned well, amazing size.
I have only once had the heat issue and that was when I left it in direct sunlight when we reached 27 here in sunny London.
My first faults with the phone centred around navigating the options menu or using the camera, the phone would freeze or reboot. Even both. After 3months I grew tired and called my network. They had me do the usual stuff. Reboot phone, reset phone, re flash phone software. In the end the phone developed another fault. The vibrating pager motor in the device would rattle like a bag of nuts in a washing machine when it went off. This strangely only occurred when the phone was held at an acute angle. You all know the one I mean. The phone is in your hand. You are staring at the screen. Then you drop your arm to your side. The phone is at a weird angle. Diagonal almost. Yes, that angle. About 2-3weeks later the sound from the speaker sounded less crisp as it used to be. I rarely play music from the device or loudspeaker my calls but I certainly noticed a marked difference from the first few months of usage and the sound quality I was receiving now. Enough was enough. I rang the network and arranged for the phone to go for repair.
I took the time to explain and document all the faults, instances faults would occur etc etc so the tech would have a clear understanding of the issue at hand. It was not only software issues but also hardware.
3weeks later my phone came back. I looked at the repair log in the docket and it said "screening, cosmetic replacement and software update". I was in the networks high street store when the phone came back so I called the repairs department.
Screening meant they took the phone from the courier packaging and have it a look over.
Cosmetic replacement meant they had replaced either front screen, rear cover or the silver band around the device.
Software update equated to re flashing the device.
I looked at the device. The rear was still scratched and In fact had more marks in it where the tech struggled to remove the cover. The front still had the dust stuck to it where my screen protector had been on from day 1 and tiny specs got under the edges. And the band around the device was still scratched from change and keys in my pocket. Oh, did I mention there was no speaker grill in the bottom of the phone?
I called them and they explained again that the replaced part was a speaker grill.....it hadn't been put on though. They hadn't fixed the speaker either.
I booted the device and set vibrate up and it still sounded and felt awful. I played with the camera instore infront of the manager and it froze and rebooted the device.
After 2hrs on the phone I went through 5 different call centre agents and one kind gentleman was so angered with the stupidity of other staff that he couriered me a phone the next day to replace the one I had back from repairs.
This phone arrived. It was great! It worked! I spent 2hrs replacing apps, accounts and settings and let it charge up. While charging the device got warm....I removed the charger and the phone was on 87% ish so I knew it would last a while. I set about playing with the phone. I noticed my fingers were catching on something so I turned the phone over to investigate. The back of the phone was fixed properly leaving a slight risen edge along the side. No worries, I firmly pushed it down around the edge and left it on the side. I came back later, around 2hrs later and picked the phone up and started using it. After around 1hr the phone was quite warm and the gap reappeared around the edge. Only this time I could see the battery. I held the phone by the edge of the phone only, and the back literally fell off. Just for a moment.....imagine how annoyed I was. Go on, do it.
I rang them up and had luckily another understanding call centre agent and this person arranged for the repair centre to send me yet another device. Originally they wanted me to send the device in for repair so they could investigate the issue. I refused and said I am not going without a phone for another 3-4weeks for yet again, someone not being able to complete their jobs correctly.
So, the new device arrived the next day just in time for my night out on Saturday. I was off to Wembley Stadium out see Eminem.
I pulled my phone out and took some photos.....no drama it worked fine. The second support act came on, I took 3 photos and a video and my phone froze. I was not impressed. No buttons worked, I had to reboot the device myself.
Eminem came on and I once again removed my phone to take some pics and yet again the device froze. Yet again I had to reboot. I navigated to the menu screen to turn my brightness down as it was getting dark and I didn't want to be blinded by the device when looking at the stage and guess what.....it froze again. I was less than impressed.
So far I tried to use the phone a few more times for photos etc and it's been hit and miss. Sometimes it freezes sometimes it does not.
Today I contacted both my network and sony to see if there was any diagnostic tools that did more than top level analysis, so I could try see if the device internally logged error reports and then I could ascertain the causes of the issues. Neither my network or sony could help. So I'm stuck with a device where my only option is to repeatedly send the device back for repairs, not have a replacement handset from my network that gives me the services I pay for. Each time for 3-4weeks...I wasn't impressed.
Then it hit me. As much as I loved the openers of android. The freedom of expression and the ability to use themes, widgets and enjoy the large screen. I am going to probably go back to Apple.
For all of Apples faults and stupidity at times, at least if I walk into a Apple store to the Genius Bar the problem goes away and I either get a fix or a replacement there and then (in my experience).
So yea, that's that. Enjoy my tale of awfulness and really consider if that amazing android is really what you want. If I could have the device without the faults, I'd be android for life.
