I have a Xperia 10 II with SFOS 5.1.0.11 and all antennas are performing poorly. WLAN has very low coverage even when I am three meters from the WLAN router, Bluetooth LE connection disconnects several times per minute, 4G mobile coverage is on 1 and it’s difficult making outgoing calls but incoming calls works just fine. When I used my iPhone SE with the same provider and same phone number I have maximum coverage on the 4G network, maximum WLAN and perfect Bluetooth LE.
Has anyone else experienced this?
Is it simply bad hardware in the Xperia or is it software related?
with /all/ the antennas bugging out, this would normally suggest bad hardware, maybe broken antenna lines in the plastic housing of the antenna module, maybe snapped antenna flex cable between the top and bottom.
fortunately, replacing the antennas is pretty easy. all you need is a heat gun, one of those plastic prying tools, and a jeweler’s philips screwdriver. i found that the credit-card shaped prying tool works best. you might need to replace the antenna flex cables between the top and bottom plastic shield covers with the embedded antenna leads, or the plastic shield covers themselves, or the antenna board. all fairly cheap parts, all fairly widely available. also very easy to test while the back cover is off, just make sure to get a few baseline measurements, with numbers, before you do the repair so you have a target.
however, it doesn’t sound like you’ve fully determined that your antennas are the problem. you could have 3 separate software problems.
what does ‘low coverage’ mean for WLAN? is it low speed? frequent disconnects? package dropping? low signal dB? if its the latter, then it might be the antenna.
bluetooth disconnects could easily be the new bluetooth module changes. the android passthru is very new and it’s breaking all sorts of stuff. do you have this problem if you switch to 5.0 or 4.6?
for LTE, do you happen to know which bands your carrier uses in your area? 3 + 7 + 20 are all supported in both phones. does VoLTE say its registered? can you check that you’re not dropping to 2G when you make calls?
p.s. it must be mentioned that the Xperia 10 III, if the VoLTE support works in your area, is by far the best SFOS experience at the moment, and that they turn up for sale sometimes at a cheap-ish price
Thank younger a very constructive and detailed reply. Much appreciated!
I don’t experience any WLAN problems using it. Though I have not used WLAN heavily, my impression is that it is fast and responsive. But the WLAN indicator is at the bottom when I am 3 m from the Asus router.
I have not tested rolling back to 5.0 och 4.6. At the moment I don’t have the energy for all that work, after six years of long covid. I will wait and see what a never version brings.
I don’t know which bands are used, but at the moment my phone is connected to band 20. It’s registered, 4G/lte.
RSSI% 1% (1…2…1…)
Cell RSSI% 65% (65..65..65..)
Frequencies (d/u) 816.1/857.1
We have just ordered a refurbished Xperia 10 IV for my son, so before I do anything more drastic like replacing antennas och rolling back the version, I will wait and see how his phone behaves.
Here is a post about fixing antennae problems on the XA2 if you feel brave and patient.
I don’t know how far/near is the 10 II, however, but many tutorials are probably easy to find.
You are aware that the IV is very much still ‘beta’ right now yes? Its definitely not the smooth ride of the 10 II… Maybe better get as of now a 10 III for your son?
No, I was not aware of that. I thought that V was the beta model at the moment. We will just see how it goes, and if it doesn’t work, we will get a III.
i can tell you that 10 III is waaay better than the 10 II, for me at least.
what do you mean ‘not available’? the 10 II + III + IV + V were all sold in both countries, unless i am very much mistaken. none of them were sold in my homeland, but they were all easily shippable from europe and china.
if you mean sold officially through some vendor or something, the II and III are ancient and i wouldn’t expect either to be available officially. if you cant find it on tradera or blocket or FBMP, can you use UK ebay?
if you will forgive me a pedantic rant, (
…if you have a bee in your bonnet about ‘used’ vs ‘refurbished’ for a 5+ year old phone-
in this case, you should note that ‘refurbished’, at best, likely means a new screen and back cover, and much more likely just means wiped with a cloth. resellers buy old phones and just sell the clean looking ones as ‘refurbished’ and the scratched ones as ‘used great condition’. most people use cases and screen protectors, and all three of the 10 III devices i bought used from the original owners arrived with zero scratches and no hardware issues. on a side note, the usbc port went bad on 2 of them after a couple of years, but that’s an easy repair by yourself or at a shop.
)
IMPORTANT NOTE: do not buy any sony xperia phone if the model number is SO-52B or SO-41A or SO-G04 or SO anything. instead, make sure the model is exactly XQBT-52 for III or XQAU-51 for II. likewise, do not buy it if it says Docomo or Japanese anywhere in the listing.
=> the japanese carrier phones will often say ‘Unlocked’ in the listing, but this means CARRIER unlocked, and not bootloader unlockable. to the best of my knowledge, NONE of the japanese-branded phones are bootloader unlockable, and you will not be able to install SFOS on it. before i buy an xperia, i always ask the seller if this phone is docomo or japanese. if they dont answer, i dont buy it. i’ve bought and returned 2 docomo devices from sellers who said that they were not docomo, though, in one case, i sent instructions on how to check ‘bootloader unlock allowed’ and the seller actually did it and sent a screenshot.
I can not find any 10 III for sale as second hand. Only 10 II.
I am sceptical buying electronics from Tradera, Blocket or similar, when I cannot go myself and pick it up. I live in the countryside, and buying it shipped from a private person I am not so keen on. I have heard to many horror stories about people getting cheated this way.
I found a ”refurbished” 10 II for € 80, so I go for that one for the time being. The 10 IV will be lying here waiting for a working release of SFOS.
i agree, i have found personal sales thru unregulated market places are not as reliable as ebay, but for me, when the price is low, the risk is acceptable. (i assume an 80% success rate, and calculate the expected value for 20% chance of having to buy the same phone twice vs 80% chance of getting the phone cheap.)
ebay UK offers a money back guarantee that i have used to return a phone that was docomo branded. i see plenty of 10 IIIs for sale there, but for significantly more money (more than double what you paid for the 10 II).
this one looks particularly safe as they offer both XQ-BT52 and SO-52B, but its pricey. www.ebay.co.uk/itm/397696789107
in fact, i am a little worried about this. the last time i bought a 10 III, i found plenty for sale at about what you paid for your 10 II. the phone is getting a little too rare+expensive. i hate to put all my eggs in the JP2’s basket.
I have thought the same thing, that it’s worrisome that the 10 III are getting so scarce, when the 10 IV still isn’t working. I think Jolla will have to step up the production of their own phone if this continues.
I have now found that Sony has an antennagate too, just as Apple. When I hold my Xperia 10 II in an optimal grip, the signal indicator for WLAN is full, but when I hold the phone in a wrong grip, the WLAN indicator is almost empty.
But contrary to Apple, where a phone cover solved the problem, a cover on my Xperia 10 II doesn’t help.
