Xperia 10 III - OS not ready, but devices gone

Devices
#41

I do not see in which way these technologies were “too old”. According to Sony Open Devices program, Xperia X could be upgraded up to Kernel 4.9/Android 9, which was up to date when new “Alien Dalvik” was rolled out for XA2. Of course, it was not done out of spite. But it’s about priorities: instead of making a new adaptation of the older device which majority of users had at the time, the decision was to make an adaptation for a new device. Which basically meant “if you want a current Android compatibility, you need to buy a new phone and a new license just two years after you spent on previous Sailfish phone”. Oh, of course people were not salty, why would they have been.

That’s exactly the point: FP2 was still available at the time of XA2 launch, and even longer that that, so re-porting would have been justified.

Oh right, on the fourth time they finally made it right. So, those XA2 and 10 owners, who were affected by the aforementioned common bugs can just buy a new phone and a new license. 'cause it’s clear that those inherent bugs will persist until the end. That’s the better way to go, no sh…

Sony kernels
Sony kernels1254×893 102 KB

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#42

I imagine that Jolla is using Sony devices because very few handset manufacturers have a program similar to Sony’s Open Devices. A large company like Sony will potentially be around longer and also (potentially but not necessarily) have more available resources available to Jolla.

I bought a Xperia 10 III last year with the hopes of using Sailfish OS. I am not a big fan of Sony phones but do like Sailfish so will use whatever device is supported. I use the 10 III on android as my main phone for now and I am not surprised that Jolla is having issues with the port. I am using the android that Sony provided with the phone and even though I have kept up with the (software/firmware) updates the camera is very buggy. It crashes and is at times very slow.

Even if there are some bugs and small issues with the port that Jolla is working on I would be more than happy to pay Jolla for a Sailfish and android support license right now so that I can use Sailfish (with Android support) on my 10 III. If they are able to improve port later in a month or a year then great. If not and the port is usable I would like to use it. Even if maybe the camera or video is disabled.

I do not expect a small company like Jolla to having everything working. This community, although important to Jolla, is only a small source of revenue.

7 Likes
#43

You are right, 5 years availability of a new Fairphone 4 isn’t certain, it needs to be seen. Perhaps it will, perhaps not. But a system of repairability and spare parts is absolutely relevant. Sony has no plans to work on it to my regret.
My ipadmini cellular is nearly 10 years old. I still can update it and it still works fine as a satnav on GPS only. I love durable things. It’s crazy that we have to buy new devices every few years. Apple started with it but when a new device comes out there are no queue of people waiting for Apple stores anymore, fortunately.

2 Likes
#44

I bought Xperia 10 III a week ago. I have witnessed the same thing. Grass is not always greener on the other side. Android’s telephone/calling app crashed two times (2!) before I got to make the first call. I thought this is an ability that only SFOS can :face_with_hand_over_mouth: I was terribly wrong :rofl:

And it goes on;
Connecting the phone with Android Auto to my car, makes the whole phone reboot sometimes when searching for an address to navigate to.

The only thing that bugs me quite alot with the switch to SFOS is that I loose connectivity to my camera (Fujifilm) …but you need to give something to gain something I guess :nerd_face:

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#45

Have you tried to connect your camera with a USB cabel. I was able to connect my Panasonic with a cabel.

1 Like
#46

A bit positive angle: Purchased Xperia 10 III, ianternational edition from eBay.
It came with Android 11 (plus few upgrades from Sony). Activated my old SIM from Xperia X2 on ATT (must give them IME).
Telephone works. I am using it all over the places (in USA and in Mexico). All works.
Aside from the fact that Android UI is written by use-hostile developers (I am a developer myself and I know what I talk about). I had to install different launcher in order to tame the beast. SFOS interface UI is better by tons! Anyhow 10 III works solid in all major metro areas.
All features similar to which I used to have in SFOS work.
I had to silence almost all App notifications (hate it when app is talking to me when not asked for).
Access point config had to be reconfigured, of course, before I got LTE to work. Beware! there are still towers on ATT network which can not talk to X III due to frequncy not being supported by those towers. check your provider here Will Sony Xperia 10 III work in USA?
For example I have to manually stop/start LTE in some remote regions of US in order to have LTE. X III tends to “loose” LTE connection on some highways and in some towns (Like Yuma, CA) the basic phone is not even working.
I even don’t have a google account (after I configured phone fully and no longer need a Play Store access, I removed account from Accounts. (Doing so you will loose your contacts, so before removing account do backup onto the device first, choose export contacts in vcf format and then restore contacts back, after removing account. (Note that android vcf format is different from SFOS vcf format! so do this using android after migrating to it). At least you can run this phone in US and choose not to share you contacts with google.
Now waiting for SFOS for Xperia 10 III to happen, knowing that phone works.

5 Likes
#47

Glad to hear the 10 III works better than expected in the US!

You probably know this already, but for anyone who doesn’t: wait for SFOS VoLTE support before flashing your device in USA.AT&T has DC’d 3g and T-Mo will turn theirs off soon – or possibly sooner than soon depending on your location.

#48

I’m on the fence between 10 III for official support or 5 II for community builds.
I’m also happy to hear that the 10 III works well in the US. But does anyone know if it works just as well with T-Mobile? (In the US or Puerto Rico :sweat_smile: )

#49

I have a new 10-III in a box, it was EUR 335 iirc. A tolerable cost, given my X battery life is not as great as it was and now the USB port is borked for data (loading music on it was a major PITA).

I wait patiently, and my Xperia X is functioning very well now as far as I can tell (some app compatibility problems obviously)

#50

Crikey … I may actually put a SIM in mine and see whether it actually works as a phone. :o

#51

Yeah, I would really have appreciated the X being upgraded to the kernel 4.9 level with associated improved Android support at the time. That ship sailed :frowning: (see what I did there?)

#52

Thanks for the tip! :+1:
I tried to connect to Fujifilm (X-Pro3 v1.31) yesterday. I set camera to “USB Card Reader” mode as I would connect it to computer too.

Then connected with USB-C to USB-C cable to my Xperia XA2 (v4.4.0.58). The camera recognizes it is connected and goes to USB mode. But XA2 says in the Settings/USB that “Nothing connected” :frowning:
I started also “File Browser” but couldn’t find anything from camera related there either.

I’m not that tech savvy that I could start to debug this…

#53

Hi :frowning:
If it is working on my camera it not always necessary that it will works on other models.
But anyway I will show how I do it :slight_smile:

I connect the camera as you can see on the picture.

20220425_123337
20220425_1233374160×3120 873 KB

Then I open Settings and then Storage.
I will then see an overview of my storage. Here I click on my storage on the camera and chose Mount.
Now the camera storage is mounted to the phone and you can browse it by clicking on the storage icon, in the same window.

I hope this will do it.

5 Likes
#54

This is great!
Working with every adapter?
Or is it like by flashing where some cables don’t always work?

#55

Awesome, I appreciate a million that you took the time to show the method! I’ll try it some day soon. Well, if it works, then I’ll be thrilled. If it won’t I’m still thankful for the advice/tip.

#56

Are you using an OTG usb-c adapter?

#57

It’s always “some cables work” when it’s USB we’re talking about… Some cheap cables only charge (no data wires), but most do both. I think USB 3 (and up) cable require all wires, though.

Note this does not imply USB-C in any way; I have two USB-A to USB-C cables that are USB 2.0 only. I also have a USB 3.0 hub that has two quick charge ports which do not have data pins in them. All bets are off, until observed to function properly… Simple innit? :smiley:

TL;DR If your phone asks what to do when you plug it into a computer, it’s a data+charge cable :slight_smile:

Edit: On second read I think you meant USB-OTG instead. AFAIK all USB-OTG adapters should work.

3 Likes
#58

I can’t work with a standard usb-c cable. You need an USB-OTG adapter to be able to read an external storage.

1 Like
#59

Thanks a lot phklrz and everybody else too!
I got the phone connected via OTG to a SD card reader and it worked.

However, Fujifilm uses exFAT to write to SD cards, and if I understood correctly SFOS doesn’t support it. So, my phone is bugging about formatting because it doesn’t recognize the file format.

I saw that there are some exFAT softwares in OpenRepos, but some were quite old, not sure what to to start with. Does somebody already have a working solution to get exFAT mounted?

ps… Sorry, I’ve gone quite a lot off-topic here… sorry…

EDIT: Heureca! I found one solution! Fuji camera makes FAT32/VFAT file system on cards smaller than 64GB and 64GB is what I have. So, I have to go down to 32GB and I’m good to go.
But, better of course would be if SFOS could mount exFAT too…

2 Likes
#60

[OT] Maybe just make a 63Gb partition instead of a new card?
[/OT]