I have the 1 IV, not 5 IV, but it shouldn’t differ much because it’s basically same hardware (except for less RAM and storage and smaller display on the 5 IV). Besides no mobile data in AAS (already fixed on 5 IV, just waiting for 1 IV kernel rebuild when @rinigus has the time to do it), its only issues are the aforementioned video playback glitches in SFOS (being actively worked on as we talk, see e.g. here) and (more severe) in AAS, plus USB port only working in SFOS atm for charging (so all kinds of stuff like file transfer, developer mode, ssh, sftp, etc. need to be done via WiFi). Other than that, it is (and I really mean it) rock stable and fully functional. Just imagine not having experienced OOM killer a single time (which on the 10 III has been even more aggressive and troublesome since OS 5.0, including AAS), no echo in calls, perfectly working VoLTE, SMS, MMS and all the remaining telephony stuff (well, at least with my operator T-Mobile PL) with only one exception - no SMS delivery confirmation on VoLTE, very fast GPS (and no “all audio suddenly gone” type issues whatsoever after using it, troubling the 10 III since day one until today), normally working fingerprint sensor (another nightmare on the 10 III), properly suspending in idle (even down to 12-30 mA), and so on. I would say that even the camera is (already now, with only one of the three back cameras accessible) of higher usability than on the 10 III, because its quality is much better, the working unit is the main one with zoom, and in addition to it as you zoom in beyond that camera’s range, it switches to the telephoto one (so, actually, there is such indirect access to 2 out of 3 back cameras atm). The selfie camera also works OK and has very nice quality. Add to it very good stereo audio from the speakers, very good battery life, and a really really fast device overall (with this CPU it beats the upcoming Jolla 2) and you get the full picture. Long story short, a few minor glitches remaining to be fixed and it really gets the best you can get for SFOS, but it certainly is daily-drivable already now. As for Android support, except for no mobile data on the 1 IV atm and aforementioned audio/video codecs issues, it doesn’t differ at all from how it is on the 10 III, other than that it obviously works faster and isn’t getting troubled by OOM killer…
Unfortunately I got those changes wrong the first time, and they switched to software decoding.
Fortunately, that helped discover that no-media-buffers actually made gstreamer playback work.
Unfortunately, not with the sample video that you folks shared. And indeed it has some green bars e.g. in own recorded videos.
Same zypper commands as before, but more packages will be coming in. You can still disable avc hardware decoding if green bars are a major problem in some video, maybe I find a fix later.
Do you know or have experience if (given having a license + access to packages) AAS seems installable on any aarch64 device port? Any Sony-specific platform magic involved?
I see both available for ~300 € aftermarket.
Given more memory, X1 IV could be the obvious better value for money, but any thoughts on this base price level being even appropriate for these old flagships?
EDIT OK reading up on the “green line” screen failure, I think I’d skip Xperia 5 for now, having ordered J2 anyway.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SonyXperia/comments/1rxpgoj/green_lines_appear_on_the_screen_5_iv_xqcq44/
https://www.reddit.com/r/SonyXperia/comments/1kgohbn/which_sony_phone_get_green_line_issue/
Lovely, thank you! I’ll test it right away!
Regarding photo quality, my feeling is that we see too much the lens deformations. We might be missing software lens correction for our specific models (and the whole lens correction stuff may just be missing from the Camera app).
By the way, I want to share the positive feedback from @wetab73, I’m very happy with my X 5 IV, impressive battery life for instance, I’m on the 2nd day of what look like to be a 4 days run without reload).
I had to disable the double-tap gesture via mcetool to avoid lighting my pockets, but otherwise yes : double-tap gesture works.
I miss a little bit the word suggestions in the keyboard, but else Multi Layout Keyboard dev took my PR, I tested my dev version via ssh over wifi, and that is convincing for my Linux-lover friends still under Android…
Well, as we discuss in this thread, apparently there can be some device specific glitches like missing kernel config options affecting some functionality, broken codecs, etc. There’s probably no rule, it all depends on device specific differences, underlying specific Android / LOS base (which also can have its own bugs, changes, etc), and so on. But, again, as in this port, it’s not something that couldn’t be fixed.
I paid almost 370 € for mine but I was lucky enough to get one in a really perfect condition. It doesn’t differ from a brand new unit. In such a state, I would say that it was 100% worth it as it is really a great piece of hardware.
I’m not sure if it is really a problem. It’s like with everyone complaining about those Snapdragon 8 gen 1 devices allegedly getting so burning hot, while in reality my unit doesn’t even get warm. Maybe on Android with those advanced Sony camera applications in 4K resolution or when playing heavy 3D games, but not at all in normal use, including long and multitab web browsing. Same thing with all those scary rumours about DRM keys getting lost forever when one unlocks the bootloader, not allowing to ever restore full camera functionality and quality, which also turned out to be completely untrue. So after using the 1 IV for two months now, I’d say that all those issues are actually strongly exaggerated.
Indeed, there are some perceptible deformations, fish eye and barrel type, but so it is on the 10 III. But on the 1 IV, even in SFOS i.e. without all that Sony stuff dedicated to this specific camera, I really enjoy much lower noise levels and overall much better light sensitivity than on the 10 III (at least on the main camera, the telephoto one isn’t that good). In a dim room, without flash, it takes really clean pictures and videos and - what’s even more important - doesn’t have any problems with focusing. In the same conditions the 10 III struggles to focus and is much noisier.
Well, technically, XT9 does work. The problem is of purely legal matter.
Also, as of daily driver usage, in the current software state its worth noticing that the X 10 III is a way better torch, specifically for outdoor torch usage. While indoor, nagara’s dim-set torch is ~OK.
Yes, the flashlight on the 1 IV is surprisingly weak. But maybe it is so to protect the device from overheating. One day, my 10 III’s flash switched on in my pocket and stayed on long enough to make the entire device literally burning hot. Soon after that the phone started malfunctioning (mobile network connectivity related problems), so - quite possibly - the heat generated by the flashlight literally damaged the device. Fortunately, I got the mainboard replaced under warranty a week before it ended.
I sometimes think of buying new one, but 700€ for X1 IV (or 580€ for X5 IV) seems a lot for such a old flagship and in that case I wouldn’t be able to buy the J2 later. But I’m not sure if my current device survive till J2 (which I didn’t preorder yet).
Yeah it makes 0 sense buying these as new.
I’ve scanned some marketplaces, and used grade B+ Xperia 1 IV-s should go for around 200 € on average.
But I just discovered a deal-breaker: EMEA versions have a single nano-SIM slot, and since SFOS doesn’t support eSIM for still an unknown amount of time, dual nano-SIM for a physical-as-eSIM is a must have for travellers.
So I should start that thread I was mentioning.
I am dailying a such 1 sim 1 esim device.
The “only” problem was that I could not get the eSim that mattered registered through sailfish, so I had to flash Lineage to do that - and it “sticks” afterwards.. The testing I did before, with toy eSIMs worked
Hmmm… sounds promising? So one could flash multiple eSIMs (redundancy, let’s say Maya and Airalo) while still in Android, and they’d show up in SFOS?
Yes, but you should first try the SimPro / lpac maybe they just work. (writing the wiki now..)
It certainly isn’t worth 700€ or even 580€. But aftermarket devices in very good condition are achievable for much, much less. As I wrote earlier, I paid around 370€ for mine, no single scratch. The seller that I got my 1 IV from seems to currently offer two 5 IV’s (with some minor traces of use, though) for some 1099 PLN, i.e. around 240€. Might be worth checking. He proved to be reliable and he gives 2 year warranty…
Sadly, with no-media-buffers it got much worse, to the point that actually nothing plays normally on my 1 IV. It’s not just semi-transparent bars but the entire image looking like if it was twisted / scrambled or something, nothing is visible.
Example screenshots:
So for now I’m back to video/avc=0 
Does it work OK on the 5 IV? If so, maybe 1 IV’s different display resolution is responsible for that?
P.S. @remote’s sample video doesn’t play in Gallery no matter if avc decoder is enabled or not (it plays just fine in web browser, though). It actually makes the Gallery freeze, without showing a single frame. But that’s actually the only video that doesn’t play at all, no matter if the hw decoder is on or off. With hw decoder disabled most other videos I ever encountered play fine, and only around 5-10% have some bars or stripes of varying intensity, something like this:
On the other hand, if I enable hw decoder and no-media-buffers, everything gets totally scrambled as on the three screenshots earlier. Removing no-media-buffers makes most videos look entirely correct, but after a few seconds videos stutter and then freeze 
To be fair, I don’t have much videos I tested with, but the worst I got was a green bar. Maybe you can share one more video (and yes, back to avc=0…)
Here is a short video for you (mp4)!
On my 1 IV the >only< video that plays semi OK (with narrow green vertical bar on the right, but other than that OK) is the one recorded with the 1 IV itself. Out of the videos downloaded from the web (e.g. from meme sites like 9gag where mostly typical avc videos are uploaded by people) literally no single one plays correctly, all of them look like in the 3 examples above, totally scrambled (they do play normally with hardware codec disabled or in the SFOS web browser, though).
Some examples of such completely broken videos (to download and play back in Gallery):
https://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/aByA3YA_460sv.mp4
https://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/agmDvvn_460sv.mp4
and actually any other…
If they play OK on your 5 IV then it must be something 1 IV specific…
P.S. If I keep the hardware decoder enabled but only remove no-media-buffers from quircks, I get back to the original situation from a few weeks ago, i.e. all those videos start playing a few initial seconds normally with correct picture and no green bars or such things, but then quickly start stuttering and eventually freeze (while audio keeps playing fine) and then take Gallery with them.