The only problem with the compact lineup (and Sony as a whole) is that it has zero presence in the US. Have any of the compact phones actually been sold by US carriers? You can buy a Z1 compact off of Amazon and I'm sure its a great phone but the lack of carrier support means a lot of niche features dont get integrated. Also judging by the specs it looks like its missing band 17 and band 12 LTE which is nuts (especially for AT&T customers). That's a dealbreaker by itself. Sony basically gave up on the US so device support is just terrible here which is sad because the Xperia line was a pretty unique set of phones.
Tmobile does. You're right about the presence. Their mobile division is a sinking ship and their CEO gave them one year to turn it around. From the looks of it, this might be the last year Sony will offer mobile phones.
at&t lte band 12 is just used for lte roaming and that just started, if i'm not mistaken. otherwise i agree with the absence of band 17. although the z5 compact does have both of those bands. not sure why he would go for an older model. sony z3 compact and above already have marshmallow in beta testing for thousands of users. if gucci had an iphone 4, 5, and 6, chances are he wouldn't keep the phone long enough for android n anyway. sony announced (today as a matter of fact) it's opening it's first factory in 20 years dedicated to smartphones. just because they don't have a presence here doesn't mean that they don't internationally. the inclusion of those two bands were for the stateside fans. that said, i'm not that big of a song fan anyhow.
Band 12 is just a superset of Band 17. The FCC forced AT&T to broadcast their spectrum as either Band 12 or 17 now so you need one of them to get AT&T's 700 mhz LTE. All lower 700 mhz spectrum in the US now operates on Band 12. With that said, currently no carrier in the US is selling any of the compact lines. And no carrier is selling any of the Z5 phones. And the important point with that is that there's no guarantee of American LTE support. Additionally because they are bypassing carrier certification, that means no VoLTE and/or wifi calling as well. Bottom line, I'd pass on Sony. Dont buy from companies that wont support their phones in the US. The cellular industry is in the midst of some major technology changes and manufacturer support is a big deal.
After the Motorola debacle where they announced a few of their last year models aren't receiving Marshmallow (mostly carrier models) I think I'm done with any phones other than Nexus. I really wanted a moto x pure but I have to wait and see the state of where their software updates are going. I'm not a huge ROM flasher anymore and since Android 6.0, I haven't even bothered rooting my phone. that 6p is nice but I'll wait for the massive price drop before considering it. I wasn't too happy when my nexus 6's value took a huge nosedive.
This is an android problem and Motorola is trying to be very lean in its operation. They'd rather not have the headache of optimizing an android build for several models which in turn requires a significant amount of development and testing resources. This is true of other manufacturers as well. The Nexus phones avoid this problem because of Google's direct support but ultimately Google has to gain some more control over manufacturers and somehow increase OS support. This to me is Apple's biggest strength and it also helps maintain the value of the phone.
the bands are correct for it to work on lte, but yes volte would likely be out the window. i've heard of no problems with carriers not inputing sony imei's into their systems, but if it's imported, sims might have to be either cut down from the previous phone or the the same sim would have to be used. pretty sure there would be problems when dropping down to hspa too. also, any semblance of warranty assistance would be troublesome at best. importing is what he should avoid because there's just too many headaches. i don't know off hand which carriers, if any, are carrying the z5 models but if it's carrier purchased it should be fine. gucci may want to look at some ip54 (water resistant) devices other than waterproof because there simply isn't enough of the latter not named sony. at this point even sony is recommending not dipping their z5 products in water. i make the mistake of getting a non-nexus device a couple of times a year and enjoy them briefly (the s6 edge it's the prettiest phone i've owned), but keep going back the nexus route because they haven't been raped by the oems and carriers. gucci should just forget waterproofing and get a nexus or iphone. regarding motorola and updates...it's not an android problem that motorola is having, it's a motorola problem. no one is forcing these oems to skin (no matter how light the skin) android. also being bought out by lenovo, who has been having problems of their own, is contributing to that. lastly, having to maintain the value of the phone is very quickly going away except for a small subset of users (which i'm a part of). lease programs from oems and jump programs from carriers are making sure of that.
I agree for the most part, but I think most of it has to do with the carrier having to put their grubby fingerprints all over the phone with bloatware. I like what motorola did by offering just one model for all carriers unlocked and free of bloat. That should be a step in the right direction to faster updates. We'll find out soon if that ends up being true but it's something I highly doubt samsung or LG would ever follow up with.
the slow pace of updates and tendency for companies stop issuing updates for devices just 1 or 2 years after release for non-Nexus android devices is definitely a problem. http://www.engadget.com/2015/10/14/android-vulnerabilities/ It's quite amazing that only 8% of android devices are on 5.1 with 76% of devices stuck on outdated version of android that will not get security patches from Google or any hope of any official OS update from their manufacturers. http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html
I'm not too impressed with the Nexus this year and still even if I have to get a new phone, I probably will get the 6P for the updates alone. Thought about going with Moto as well, but the Moto G rather than the X Pure/Play. Part of me wants to give the new Windows Phones a try. A bit bummed that my favorite phone Nexus 4 has stopped its update life, but its a good 3+ years. Still love typing on this thing with its glass back.
I recently retired my rooted S3 with a S6. I will miss flashing ROMs but by December it will probably get MM and at that point I should be OK with the S6. I considered the G4, the Pure X and the new N5 but I got a good deal on the S6 (actually, good deal on four S6s). I was really looking forward to the new N5, and I understand the interest in making it affordable, but the the phone looks and feels cheap (especially compared to the S6, the G4, and Pure X... heck, even compared to the N4). I really was interested in the Sony phones but finding them is near impossible (even T Mobile didn't have any). I just got a new company phone... a S5. Jeez, the charging cable and maxi USB connector and flap. Glad Samsung dropped that pain in the butt...
A regular MicroUsb cable will charge the S5. Use the stock 3.0 cable if you're transferring a lot of data to/from your phone.
So I'm really in need of an upgraded phone. My S4 is constantly restarting by itself while in the middle of something. I'm on Verizon, any Android suggestions? I've recently been looking at the Nexus 5X and 6P on the Google Store and found an article that said they will work on Verizon. Is that true?
Yes and No on the 5x/6p. Verizon does not officially support either so if you bring in one of them, they will not activate it on their network. However, if you already have an active nano SIM (so if your existing phone uses a nano SIM), you can actually take it out and put it in the 5x/6p and it will work just fine. This is true for other phones that Verizon does not officially support that have CDMA radios and proper LTE band support. I believe the S4 uses a mini SIM rather than a nano SIM so you'll be out of luck for the Nexus workaround. However, if you can temporarily get your hands on a nano SIM phone that Verizon will activate, you could activate that phone on your line, take out the Nano SIM and then put it into your Nexus phone. I've seen people go to best buy, buy a phone with nano sim support (like an iphone), activate it, take out the nano SIM and put it into a new phone and then return the iphone.
they will work. your s4 doesn't use a mini sim. the s4 had a micro sim card. had one for a short while in 2013. Spoiler also any brick and mortar store worth a darn should have one of these... http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00JD...sim+cutter&dpPl=1&dpID=51iKgyhi35L&ref=plSrch they will cut your micro sim into a nano. i've had it done at an att store and it works fine. the articles you read aren't taking into account that a few xda/reddit users that have received theirs early and have plugged their imei into this site... http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/nso/enterDeviceId.do?&zipRdr=y ... with verification that vzw does identify the 6p as a 6p and that it is supported, so simply having them activate a nano sim should work. however, the first option i mentioned to you is quicker and the store should have the tool (foolproof option in the event of some out of the ordinary reason that vzw can't activate the nano sim). if not, they are six bucks on the amazon site i linked above.
Worst case scenario you'll have to cut your sim to nano sim size. Doesn't cost much to do so. Cutter cost 5-7 bucks or go to a cell store an be they can do for the same price. Best case scenario is that Verizon actually got the IMEI numbers ahead of time into their system and they can activate a new sim for you.
Droid Turbo 2 just announced for Verizon. Definitely a consideration if you're not worried about slow updates and locked bootloader and your'e on Verizon. 4 year guarantee on shatterproof 5.4" AMOLED screen 3760mah battery 21mp camera starts off at 32gb storage with microSD moto enhancements comes with 5.1.1 initially. *crosses fingers for marshmallow in a timely manner* Pretty stout specs from a solid phone maker. Probably need a bit more details on the compatibility of the phone on other networks. I'm wondering if it somehow keeps the carrier support of the Moto X pure. http://www.motorola.com/us/products/droid-turbo-2
Thanks for the feedback folks. After going through this thread and researching, it actually sounds like my iPhone still offers most of the things I want more than any other phone currently on the market. I'm a fan of Samsung's camera but not sure I can downgrade on the battery life aspect.
