XZ2 Compact or Xperia 10 III

Devices
#1

Hello everybody,

this is my first post here, and I’m looking forward to be part of a great community :slight_smile:
But before taking part actively, I have to decide for a device.
I am wavering between an XZ2 Compact and an Xperia 10 III.

I know the XZ2c is quite old, but I appreciate its small form factor. Now I have listed a few things that are part of the weighing process for me, for example: the Xperia 10 III’s lack of echo cancellation could certainly bother me. The XZ2c doesn’t have that problem, does it?
I would like to use the phone for a while, I am not a fan of disposable items. Is the XZ2c fast enough to handle a few SFOS generations properly? (OK, I’m not asking for crystal ball reading here, but you can already tell if a device reaches its limits or still has reserves). I have an FP2 with SFOS here, which is already borderline in the browser, for example. So, how should the XZ2c be rated in terms of performance compared to the 10 III?
How do you rate the battery life of the XZ2c (yes, it depends on the usage, of course)?
What also bothers me, but this is of course my personal insecurity: the 10 III will certainly be supported for many years, but if the porter of the XZ2c should at some point no longer have time or desire (which would be perfectly legitimate), I would have a device with stuck SFOS (I myself definitely do not have enough knowledge to maintain the port…).

All in all: can I buy an XZ2 Compact with a clear conscience or would I have to take a 10 III for future-proofing reasons?

I have tried the search function but have not found a correct answer. If I searched badly, I would also appreciate a link to a thread with the relevant information.

Best regards

#2

The XZ2 Compact main advantage is that it’s compact. But it lacks for example Jack audio
and it’s not officially supported.
The X10 III is huge compared to Compact, is officially supported but has still some basic problems.
There’s a bit about it here (don’t get fooled with X 10 title, there’s info about 10 and 10 III).

#3

Unfortunately, the xz2c has different touchscreens: mine was not working properly, when battery is below 50%. Also for volte, you should take the x10 ii or iii…

#5

Sorry, didn’t want to hijack your thread, I am just also interested in this. I’ll wait and read along.

#6

Haha, don’t worry. If you are asking yourself the same questions, why not asking them here? No need to apologize!

So we have the same remaining question, I guess: is the XZ2 really powerful enough to run SFOS in a few years?

#7

And thanks lolek and mankir for the helpful input!

#8

Unfortunately, I can confirm that. AFAIK, there is no way to identify the touchscreen vendor from the outside. Mine is very difficult to use even at higher battery levels. The keyboard responds with up to four characters per touch, which makes it unusable for entering passwords.
I’d love to find some hidden switch to repair that. So far, I have used this documentation to play with parameters, but I guess the problem is one level below this layer of abstraction.

#9

Someone reported here on another Tama thread that the apparently “unsupported” 6GB dual sim version of the xz2 works with this port. All you have to do is pretend when unlocking bootloader and flashing that it’s the 4GB version. Obviously, no guarantees. I was tempted to buy one new on ebay for 175€ but my xz2c works fine. Battery not great but ok for low intensity user.

#10

I have both devices but my daily driver is a xz2c dual sim. This Sony device is a very good one, besides no audio jack! Please check below my experience with it:

xz2c pros

  • smaller
  • as fast as x10iii (or maybe a tad faster)
  • battery is able to survive a day with whisperfish on and low/medium usage (data connection uses lots of battery, much less is used if you are under wifi)
  • very high quality port
  • better encryption than Jolla’s official one (backed by HW)

xz2c cons

  • no audio jack (this is my biggest con)
  • bluetooth problems (I can connect a headphone but not to my car)
  • nfc does not work
  • video records without sound (maybe that only happens to me)
  • no official support (therefore no official Android), the porter is very good (@rinigus) but if he quits the port will be done (however this year Jolla only released 4.4…)
  • no volte calls for now (and probably it will never come to ported devices)
  • touchscreen sometimes fails, I need to lock/unlock to recover
  • less memory than x10iii
  • not an OLED screen
  • old device, more prone to issues and less available parts
  • some xz2c have touchscreen that is not compatible with this port

The browser issue with FP2 you mentioned can be due to the outdated Firefox engine used by SFOS. If that’s the case, your bad experience will be reproduced in all SFOS devices.
(edit: updated pros/cons)

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#11

The no headphone jack isn’t much of an issue if you have a nice pair of BT earbuds.

#12

Does that mean that BT headphones don’t work? @ApB mentioned them as workaround for missing headphone jack and I own a good pair of BT headphones.

Well, that would be the biggest con for me mentioned so far!

Does that apply to cams with Waydroid too, maybe OpenCamera from f-droid?

#13

Up until they broke mine used to work fine. Just need to buy new ones.

#14

one nice pair of good working wired headphones costs me around 10EUR if I’ll break them I won’t even think about it and will buy next one. One pair of good working wireless headphones which I need to remember to charge costs way more than 10EUR and from what I hear it’s easy to lose them. So yes it is an option, but very very bad one. Not to mention even the sound quality.

#15

I guess that a good pair of headphones can’t be had for 10€. And I am very sure that BT in combination with really OK-ish headphones can’t be worse than wired 10€-headphones.
What I consider worst about BT in-ears is that they are throwaway gadgets as it is nearly impossible to replace battery. Therefore I went with a pair of over-ears with a repair service by the manufacturer.

But that aside: I never read about video recording without sound on the XZ2 before. Does really nobody care enough to mention this? It is very interesting how differently the use cases seem to be. One of the things I frequently use my device for is taking photos and videos of my little child. This is no offense, I just find it interesting how differently people use their phones.

Video without sound makes it a showstopper for me if it can’t be circumvented by cameras on Waydroid. :frowning:

#16

Video with sound works here BTW. Just tested.

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#17

Thank you all, that was very valuable input, very much appreciated!

I think I’ll go with an XZ2 compact then.

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#18

Well I checked, sound goods better than BT ones. To get a decent BT headphones that can match 20EUR headphones (other ones I have) I need to go to the price range for BT for 125EUR and these were something really big over head from JBL so sorry, nope.

#19

As a porter behind XZ2c, I would suggest to get some newer device. Tama port doesn’t have VoLTE and, if it happens that VoLTE is required in my country, I will have some serious internal debate whether to flash Andoid on it. Which would mean that you would either have to take over the port or fond someone to do so. Whether I’ll be also off SFOS in this case, I don’t know. Let’s see if we get to that.

For some unknown reason, Jolla refuses to release their implementation bits for a glue that makes VoLTE tick in the newer devices. Unfortunately, it feels to me as a common pattern when Jolla’s code is involved and it prevents collaboration on that bit. For us, porters, it would be helpful to look into how it works for Jolla’s official devices. I suspect that in the case of Tama port, I could almost make copy-and-paste as it has the similar/same base.

Apart from that, XZ2c and other Tama devices have 4GB RAM which is limiting with Waydroid. Maybe we have to enable swap to get around it…

Touchscreen issues have been mentioned - I don’t have much of those on my development XZ2c (although, I use XZ2 as a main device).

As the device is old, there is a risk of it getting broken. Again, if it happens with my devices, that would result in me either starting a new port, joining some other port or switching to an official device.

Compared to official devices, we have better encryption implementation and use Waydroid for Android app support. Whether Waydroid is better or worse than Jolla’s option, I don’t know. For my limited use, Waydroid is fine.

10 Likes
#20

So the only way to find out would be to unlock the bootloader and try out?
Then, if the problem applies to my specific devio, I can’t easily reflash stock and sell it because DRM keys are lost?

Sounds like a high stakes bet…

EDIT: well, of course I could reflash stock Android but if I understand it correctly, I can’t restore the DRM keys which makes it much less desirable for potential buyers.

1 Like
#21

I’ve read mixed things about this. Some say it deletes the drm others that this was only done on older devices.