Why round edges? That's not Sony. I want that sleek, flat back. Please.

Bought this to replace the X/Z 2 Compact, which was my favorite phone that I've ever had. This current phone has strange proportions (oddly tall) so I would recommend seeing it in person before you buy it. Two main issues: all of the buttons, including the finger sensor are on the side where you try to grip the phone. I accidentally unlock the phone more than I would like to. Also, the swipe-down shortcuts are frequently activated in my pocket, while locked. I'll take my phone out sometimes and the flashlight will be going and Bluetooth will have been turned on. That's really frustrating.... Read More  Hide

I had protected my phone with a protective phone cover. However, my phone screen cracked on a minor collision against an opening door even though the phone had a gorilla 6 glass which was supposed to be shatter proof.

I'm really torn on this one... for years I've been a diehard Pixel user, but I couldn't follow the move to the new Tensor SoC. I spent a loooot of time shopping around and I could not decide where to go. At the end of the day, I chose this phone because it's a Sony phone... I've owned several Sony products over the years, and I've always been satisfied -- Sony is one of the few brand names I trust. But this is why it's upsetting.... I love the actual device -- audio quality is slightly above average phones, the camera is amazing (I mean, it's a Sony camera....), and Sony hit the mark dead on with the Xperia 5 III regarding screen-size/pocket-friendly ratio. The thing is, though, there's no shortage of quality hardware on the smartphone market. For a device like a smartphone, a multi-purpose computer for your pocket, quality software can make mediocre hardware seem great, and quality hardware is pointless with mediocre software. The Xperia 5 III runs a pretty bland version of Android, not far from AOSP. Most of the major departures from straight AOSP, it seems, are in fact Google apps (messaging, dialer, calendar, files, etc).... Other than the pre-installed system bloatware, that is (admittedly, I am a huge fan of the Photography Pro). The OS seems just kinda subtly buggy, and for some reason my bluetooth is always delayed by 5 seconds. But the thing that gets me all riled up more than anything, is my Android 12 smartphone is running an Android 11 vendor image. I'm not going to go into ALL the details about HALs and ramdisks and permissions changes came along with Android 12, but it just makes sense that we'd want the same versions of software available on each of the partitions (audio HAL -> v7 on system, v6 on vendor).... Read More  Hide