Database Develop

[Q] Is Lollipop update worth it?

I have the notification here to update, but I'm not really sure if I should do it. My phone on KitKat is very stable, VERY smooth, good battery life, you know, I don't have any problem with it. That's why I'm kinda afraid of updating and getting a slower, buggier performance. So, what you guys who already updated think?

pibz said:
I have the notification here to update, but I'm not really sure if I should do it. My phone on KitKat is very stable, VERY smooth, good battery life, you know, I don't have any problem with it. That's why I'm kinda afraid of updating and getting a slower, buggier performance. So, what you guys who already updated think?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would say, nope.. i have seen people with better battlife, some with terrible. theres more negative than positives.., check before you update. want to get the new notification on lock? new status bar, icons...etc? new dialer, settings..is it really worth the risk? you can flashback to 4.4.4 anytime. but you will have to root everythinf again. wich is a pain in the ass.
Sent from my D5803 using XDA Free mobile app

I'm using lollipop for 2 weeks and I say no....
Everything is nice etc, but the snappyness and reliability of 4.4.4 is unconparable. with this...

I wont be updating either, or not for a very long time. I had to put up with it on my nexus 4 and 7. Which are both now sold and switched out to 4.4.4 devices.
There is nothing it added but it messed up a lot. the z3c is probably the perfect phone for me, amazing battery coupled with decent specs, so I wont be risking it either. especially as I cant find a 4.4.4 UK tft unbranded anywhere to roll back to!

I'm taking a look at the Sony Mobile forums and it seems like a lot of people are having issues with Lollipop too. I think I'll probably stick with KitKat, at least for now, until Sony fix the major bugs. My phone is too snappy to risk it

Here are the + and the - for me. It's yours to decide.
Against :
- you loose xposed. That's quite a huge loss for YouTube adaway and that kind of stuff.
It should be fixed someday.
- I hate paying in freemium game. You won't be able to use cheat app. Lucky thing, thing engine, thingcih and stuff...
- Minor bug.
- even if I enjoy this, quite a pain to install recovery and flash (I also flashed quite early, when recovery was a hard thing to achieve)
- viper4android does not work.
For :
- I actually (despite the other users) experienced an increase in battery life. +25 to +30%.
- Smoother UI and phone.
- prettier UI and better navbar.
- Smoother auto dim
- better quick bar.
- drm restoration works. Better camera, sound (without viper) , screen.
- phone reset. It cleans it.
- some minor stuff
pibz said:
I'm taking a look at the Sony Mobile forums and it seems like a lot of people are having issues with Lollipop too. I think I'll probably stick with KitKat, at least for now, until Sony fix the major bugs. My phone is too snappy to risk it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
People won't complain if everything is alright.
This is like the glass breaking topic. People won't write their glass didn't broke by itself during the night.
fenchai said:
I would say, nope.. i have seen people with better battlife, some with terrible. theres more negative than positives.., check before you update. want to get the new notification on lock? new status bar, icons...etc? new dialer, settings..is it really worth the risk? you can flashback to 4.4.4 anytime. but you will have to root everythinf again. wich is a pain in the ass.
Sent from my D5803 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you achieved root in the first time and backed up your ta, you can achieve root anytime with a custom recovery.
DrEzkimo said:
I wont be updating either, or not for a very long time. I had to put up with it on my nexus 4 and 7. Which are both now sold and switched out to 4.4.4 devices.
There is nothing it added but it messed up a lot. the z3c is probably the perfect phone for me, amazing battery coupled with decent specs, so I wont be risking it either. especially as I cant find a 4.4.4 UK tft unbranded anywhere to roll back to!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Create your own ftf to restore. This can be rapidly done. Also double check xperifirm.

[Q] Considering move from Nexus to Z3c.. Q's

So I have a Nexus 5 that's screen is dying for the second time and I'm considering my options including a replacement phone. The Z3c is obviously a great spec phone and nicely built... I'm attracted to it by it sensible size also. The Nexus 5 I'm coming from is about the limit of size I'm willing to go. However I'm afraid of moving from the open world of easily being able to install custom ROM's and do whatever I like to the phone. I've read up on what's involved in doing this on the Z3c but I still have some reservations:
How stable are the ROM's available for the Z3c, I'm really just interested in a close to stock ROM with bloatware removed, I'n not looking for experimental features/customisations. I've used Cyanogenmod before on another device, and other ROMs and there always seemed to be something that never worked quite as well as the stock ROM. (CM had bluetooth problems for me)
If you go the route of unlocking the bootloader, are the DRM protected features that are lost deal-breaking? Is it possible to achieve what I want (clean ROM, root) without unlocking the bootloader?
Thanks for your help in advance!

I am facing prettu much the same problem...
But i am moving away from a lg g2. ( it does not have the best custom rom support, but it works)
Anyway, i am willing to give a shot to the stock sony android... because of the DRM keys..
Well.. lets see what the people have to say!

RoryHa said:
How stable are the ROM's available for the Z3c, I'm really just interested in a close to stock ROM with bloatware removed, I'n not looking for experimental features/customisations. I've used Cyanogenmod before on another device, and other ROMs and there always seemed to be something that never worked quite as well as the stock ROM. (CM had bluetooth problems for me)
If you go the route of unlocking the bootloader, are the DRM protected features that are lost deal-breaking? Is it possible to achieve what I want (clean ROM, root) without unlocking the bootloader?
Thanks for your help in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1: The Roms here are really stable and most of them are close to stock Roms so you won't have to worry about that, since most of them are near stock Roms you won't have to worry about the stability either.
2: Only you can judge if you're going to miss the DRM features, I didn't and still don't I couldn't wait for root, so I unlocked my BL and I never regretted my choice.
The only downside to this phone is the camera in my opinion, so gather some info about the camera first.
When unlocking the BL you also lose some camera quality (only really noticeable in low light conditions tho).
See my topic (in sig) for pictures).
And you don't have to unlock your BL at all if you don't want to, only if you want to use another Kernel.

Thanks for the info
Dsteppa said:
The only downside to this phone is the camera in my opinion, so gather some info about the camera first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had a look at the photo there and they are not as good as I thought the camera is.. still they are not bad. The Nexus 5 I currently have is not amazing either so it's not really a deal breaker for me. It seems to be the one thing all non-flagship phones compromise on is the quality of the camera.

Any way to downgrade from 5.1 to 4.4.4?

Got my Droid Turbo recently and decided to upgrade to 5.1 to try it out a few days ago. I hate it-- performance/compatbility w/ apps is completely ruined and my battery drains faster. I also despise the UI of Lollipop.
Can't seem to figure out a way to get back to 4.4.4. Bootloader is locked, so I can't flash the factory 4.4.4 stock image.

Can't be done for now buddy. It is highly unlikely it ever will be.

bjoostema said:
Can't be done for now buddy. It is highly unlikely it ever will be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right! Even if your bootloader was unlocked you would get a bootloop (Tried this before)
Sent from my XT1526

P0PETIN said:
You're right! Even if your bootloader was unlocked...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the boot loader is unlocked, you can do what you want! If you know how to do.

P0PETIN said:
You're right! Even if your bootloader was unlocked you would get a bootloop (Tried this before)
Sent from my XT1526
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I fooled around for a little bit and found out there's a Material Dark theme for the keyboard (along w/ holo white and holo blue), so my major UI complaint is gone (white keyboard). Only other complaint regarding UI is the fact that I have to swipe and then touch the top of the screen to get to my settings.
I read up for a little bit, people are saying that factory resetting/wiping after installing the OTA update fixes performance/battery issues. Gonna try it out, thank you for the response.

aedando said:
I read up for a little bit, people are saying that factory resetting/wiping after installing the OTA update fixes performance/battery issues. Gonna try it out, thank you for the response.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This worked for me. My battery was a lot worse after updating. Especially while not using the phone. I did a factory reset and battery life is probably a little better than when it was on kk.

aedando said:
I fooled around for a little bit and found out there's a Material Dark theme for the keyboard (along w/ holo white and holo blue), so my major UI complaint is gone (white keyboard). Only other complaint regarding UI is the fact that I have to swipe and then touch the top of the screen to get to my settings.
I read up for a little bit, people are saying that factory resetting/wiping after installing the OTA update fixes performance/battery issues. Gonna try it out, thank you for the response.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Double finger swipe down gets the quick settings open.

Dude it's android the beautiful thing about that is its fully customizable wtf?

aedando said:
Got my Droid Turbo recently and decided to upgrade to 5.1 to try it out a few days ago. I hate it-- performance/compatbility w/ apps is completely ruined and my battery drains faster. I also despise the UI of Lollipop.
Can't seem to figure out a way to get back to 4.4.4. Bootloader is locked, so I can't flash the factory 4.4.4 stock image.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I should preface all my posts with: "this is just my thought process and not anything official / backed by research."
That said... 5.1 is very very new to the Turbo. So new, in fact that I highly doubt, boxed, in inventory, phones have been upgraded.
So lets say you have a warranty or insurance of some kind.. and your Turbo happens to... fall in a toilet.. run over by a garbage truck....eaten by a lion...
The replacement Turbo you would get, would, statistically, be running 4.4.4 and not 5.1
Yup.

It's funny how some people are dying to get 5.1 while others want to go back to 4.4.4
Regarding battery and performance, a lot of people have reported better battery life and performance after wiping cache, if not satisfied full wipe.
Regarding the rest, I agree with you, it takes a while to get used to, and without the ability to root and use nice customisation apps to tune it to the way you like it, this can be stressful. Despite that, soon enough you can get root on 5.1 and you should be able to tweak it using Xposed and the such.
I know exactly how you feel as I am currently on a 4.4.4 stock unrooted. Which sucks compared to my lovely rooted fully customised experience. I had to though to use my company corporate apps (MobileIron) which detects root and complains about almost everything unless stock. Stupid app. So for me I would swap my 4.4.4 unlocked with your 5.1 stock any time of the day because I can't modify it anyway.
Good luck mate. Try to calculate your risk, this is a pretty expensive device and I won't risk hard bricking it.

The 5.1 update I side-loaded doubled my battery life and makes it fly. Hasn't lagged one time. Using Nova Pro and DU Battery Saver. I'm a power user and it lasts all day and late into the morning.
Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Kiwironic said:
Despite that, soon enough you can get root on 5.1 and you should be able to tweak it using Xposed and the such.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not trying to be all negative, but this isn't exactly correct. There is no guarantee 5.1 users will ever see root. With the Turbo soon(ish) to hit it's first birthday, (for what I've seen) developers tend to go for the latest/greatest/newest challenge (IE: the latest phone to tweak with). Everyday there is less and less appeal to root the Turbo as everyday there are less and less Turbo users. (upgrades and whatnot)

ntxct said:
Not trying to be all negative, but this isn't exactly correct. There is no guarantee 5.1 users will ever see root. With the Turbo soon(ish) to hit it's first birthday, (for what I've seen) developers tend to go for the latest/greatest/newest challenge (IE: the latest phone to tweak with). Everyday there is less and less appeal to root the Turbo as everyday there are less and less Turbo users. (upgrades and whatnot)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We knew this would happen when we choose the Turbo over the Moto X, the turbo has terrible support because it is not a mainstreamer. We have to live with the risks and work with the challenges. I am not considering root, but I am confident that's it is going to happen, the same problem was facing unlocking the droid turbo and rooting it, and even though it was very late but it did happen. It's only a matter of time.
I have learned my lesson from this and I am sticking with the more supported devices despite all the extras. Moto X 2015 is my next device if it ends up being half as decent as the rumours.

I never experienced battery drains before (Only when I overclocked) but either way I just use Greenify to manage battery life and trust me it works and if the bootloader is unlocked it may depend on the device your trying to downgrade. In my experience I tried to downgrade a S5 T-Mobile using Odin using official ROM from samsung and got the phone into a bootloop until I downloaded lollipop (Latest version) and it stopped but I hope you get a work around this.
Cheers!!

ntxct said:
Not trying to be all negative, but this isn't exactly correct. There is no guarantee 5.1 users will ever see root. With the Turbo soon(ish) to hit it's first birthday, (for what I've seen) developers tend to go for the latest/greatest/newest challenge (IE: the latest phone to tweak with). Everyday there is less and less appeal to root the Turbo as everyday there are less and less Turbo users. (upgrades and whatnot)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am running my Moto E 2015 with 5.1.1 rooted and xposed framework

P0PETIN said:
I am running my Moto E 2015 with 5.1.1 rooted and xposed framework
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right, sorry, I should've been more specific... "there's no guarantee Verizon Droid Turbo 5.1 users"

Kiwironic said:
It's funny how some people are dying to get 5.1 while others want to go back to 4.4.4
Regarding battery and performance, a lot of people have reported better battery life and performance after wiping cache, if not satisfied full wipe.
Regarding the rest, I agree with you, it takes a while to get used to, and without the ability to root and use nice customisation apps to tune it to the way you like it, this can be stressful. Despite that, soon enough you can get root on 5.1 and you should be able to tweak it using Xposed and the such.
I know exactly how you feel as I am currently on a 4.4.4 stock unrooted. Which sucks compared to my lovely rooted fully customised experience. I had to though to use my company corporate apps (MobileIron) which detects root and complains about almost everything unless stock. Stupid app. So for me I would swap my 4.4.4 unlocked with your 5.1 stock any time of the day because I can't modify it anyway.
Good luck mate. Try to calculate your risk, this is a pretty expensive device and I won't risk hard bricking it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm just going to wait until there's an established way to get back to 4.4.4. If there isn't, then too bad for me then
Also, I cleared cleared my cache data and now everything's running amazing and using less battery. What an odd fix.

aedando said:
I'm just going to wait until there's an established way to get back to 4.4.4. If there isn't, then too bad for me then
Also, I cleared cleared my cache data and now everything's running amazing and using less battery. What an odd fix.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only way to do that is a bootloader unlock. You may be waiting forever.

yes you can downgrade, only if you took the ota i might write a tutorial about it

Using mofo, I can freely upgrade and downgrade between 5.1 and 4.4.4. Those who took the OTA, well, we told you so.

Rom & Mod Reccomendations (Just got a Z1)

Hi,
I'm picking up a Xperia Z1 C6903 for a friend. She basically checks email and takes photos with her phone, so Camera/Video and Battery Life are priority.
Can anyone please recommend a good Rom and/or Mods for me.
I usually get more obscure phones for myself (never had a Sony) without so many options of mods and custom roms, so its a bit harder than I'm used to to sort through the pages on XDA... there so much to go through here so any help to narrow things down a bit for me would be appreciated.
Thanks!

rich333 said:
Hi,
I'm picking up a Xperia Z1 C6903 for a friend. She basically checks email and takes photos with her phone, so Camera/Video and Battery Life are priority.
Can anyone please recommend a good Rom and/or Mods for me.
I usually get more obscure phones for myself (never had a Sony) without so many options of mods and custom roms, so its a bit harder than I'm used to to sort through the pages on XDA... there so much to go through here so any help to narrow things down a bit for me would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you /she is not big fan of custom ROM (aospa, paranoid, CM, DU, PAC etc.) I would say just root the phone and use stock ROM.
Stock ROM is best for battery and photos together.
Rooting is good in case she wants Xposed and all the modules.
Don't unlock the bootloader since this will remove some propriety code for display and camera.
I haven't used any stock ROM so can't talk about them.
Sent from my Xperia Z1 using Tapatalk

Thanks, I often find custom roms better for battery life. And can see that there's a few camera mods available. So I assumed a custom rom (either with a Stock based or not?) and camera mod would be the way to go? Also, is the stock camera app the best performer (in terms of image quality?)

Really can't see any need to meddle with the standard rom.
The Xperia range of phones all have outstanding battery life and excellent photo/video software built in as standard.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

I was thinking this sound good: [MOD] Z1, Z1C & Z1S 8th Edition - Camera… | Sony Xperia Z1....
And there seems to be a few scripts which claim to improve battery life & speed like Fly-on-Mod...
I guess i'm just not used to stock being the best option!!! I cant help but want to change something

If you want to meddle then root and Xposed would be the simplest option.
But given the original criteria are already met by the standard rom and the fact that it's not your phone I still can't see the need.
Do you really want your friend coming to you with every minor niggle they can dream up, thinking that you caused it by modifying their phone?
Just make sure they upgrade to 5.1.1 which is due out any day now.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

thanks.
I've got it running stock KK, rooted, locked bootloader with xposed & dual recovery.
I decided not to update to LP until 5.1.1 is out (any day now it seems...?) due to slow downs in 5.0.2
From what I can see I'll have to update with Flashtool (if I can find the "Customized AU" file) or updated via Sony PC Companion and re-root & re-install recovery.
will both methods will result in a data wipe?
When it does come out - is there a way to update without loosing here data/settings? & will current rooting methods still work (I used easy root?)
Thanks for your help everyone!

Root/Custom ROM/Bluetooth/DRM issues (Stop me buying an iPhone 6s!)

Hi guys,
My knowledge of ROMs and rooting isn't the best so please bare with me if this question seems dumb. And before anyone says, I have read this thread (and countless others) but would like some clarification.
I've always wanted to install CyanogenMod to my Z3 Compact because my car, an E46 BMW has not been able to pair with my phone since 4.2.2 when a change to bluetooth.default.so was made - Cyanogenmod has the fix.
I have seen recent posts on this forum that suggest if the phone is rooted and a custom ROM is installed, I'm still able to maintain my camera quality which previously was limited (fish-eye effect and low light poor quality) due to the loss of DRM'd software due to a DRM restore fix created by one of the forum members. Is this correct? This was the only thing that ever stopped me rooting my Z3 as camera quality is of high importance to me.
I've been using an iPhone 5s since my screen smashed last month and I planned to buy an iPhone 6s this weekend but if it seems I can use the Z3 Compact for all purposes ( In-car Bluetooth, stable Android, good camera and battery life) then I will definitely get the screen repaired tomorrow!
Thanks in advance.
This is a link explaining the Bluetooth issue I'm talking about.

tsmr said:
Hi guys,
My knowledge of ROMs and rooting isn't the best so please bare with me if this question seems dumb. And before anyone says, I have read this thread (and countless others) but would like some clarification.
I've always wanted to install CyanogenMod to my Z3 Compact because my car, an E46 BMW has not been able to pair with my phone since 4.2.2 when a change to bluetooth.default.so was made - Cyanogenmod has the fix.
I have seen recent posts on this forum that suggest if the phone is rooted and a custom ROM is installed, I'm still able to maintain my camera quality which previously was limited (fish-eye effect and low light poor quality) due to the loss of DRM'd software due to a DRM restore fix created by one of the forum members. Is this correct? This was the only thing that ever stopped me rooting my Z3 as camera quality is of high importance to me.
I've been using an iPhone 5s since my screen smashed last month and I planned to buy an iPhone 6s this weekend but if it seems I can use the Z3 Compact for all purposes ( In-car Bluetooth, stable Android, good camera and battery life) then I will definitely get the screen repaired tomorrow!
Thanks in advance.
This is a link explaining the Bluetooth issue I'm talking about.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is true, I am using DRM fix for my Z3c because I didn't backup my DRM keys (duh!) and the camera quality seems perfect, although the fix says it also restores X-Reality and whatnot but I haven't got to get the engine working, I fixed that with Color Control to match my saturation and colors needs...
As for the Bluetooth issues, I've kinda experienced problems with it too, I have a Bluetooth gamepad, and whenever I'm playing an Android game that supports controllers, it disconnects, but when I play on emulators it doesn't happen... I don't know if there's a fix for that but oh well.

DRM fix works only on stock based roms and on Concept roms.
It doesn't work on custom roms like Cyanogenmod.

istux said:
DRM fix works only on stock based roms and on Concept roms.
It doesn't work on custom roms like Cyanogenmod.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. I don't actually need CyanogenMod, I just need to be able to edit the bluetooth.default.so file as per the thread I linked so that in-car Bluetooth works with my handset. Is this possible whilst maintaining camera quality?
Also when you say 'only works on stock based ROMs' - does this mean that I could install stock Android 6.0 to my device with a custom bluetooth.default.so file, then install the DRM fix and it will work as normal? This would be amazing!
PS. What is a Concept ROM?
I'm so sorry for asking what are most probably stupid questions but I'm fairly new to the Android scene thus still learning.

Of course its possible, you don't need unlocked bootloader to edit system files lol. Unlock bootloaders are used to install custom kernels or firmwares not made by Sony, like CyanogenMod or AOKP and etc.
Concept, is the "Alpha" Edition of Marshmallow that Sony plans to ship out within the next few months, they let a select a number of people to test out the rom and help them debug it. I don't recommend installing it as it is near beta stage and the number of bugs really don't make it suitable as a daily driver for you phone, stick with Lollipop until we get the official stable update unless you know what you're doing.
Good luck!

Revontheus said:
Of course its possible, you don't need unlocked bootloader to edit system files lol. Unlock bootloaders are used to install custom kernels or firmwares not made by Sony, like CyanogenMod or AOKP and etc.
Concept, is the "Alpha" Edition of Marshmallow that Sony plans to ship out within the next few months, they let a select a number of people to test out the rom and help them debug it. I don't recommend installing it as it is near beta stage and the number of bugs really don't make it suitable as a daily driver for you phone, stick with Lollipop until we get the official stable update unless you know what you're doing.
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for explaining what Concept is. I guess that's not something that I need right now! To clarify; are you saying that to be able to edit system files, I don't need to unlock my bootloader? I was under the impression that to do this I'd need to:
a) Unlock bootloader.
b) Root device.
c) Access/edit the bluetooth system files.
Any advice on the steps I need to take to have my Z3 Compact work with my car whilst maintaining original camera quality would be much appreciated!
PS. Due to the prompt, positive responses in this thread, I've just taken my Z3 to a local to store so the screen can be repaired. Thanks all for the help - such good folk!

tsmr said:
Thanks for the reply. I don't actually need CyanogenMod, I just need to be able to edit the bluetooth.default.so file as per the thread I linked so that in-car Bluetooth works with my handset. Is this possible whilst maintaining camera quality?
Also when you say 'only works on stock based ROMs' - does this mean that I could install stock Android 6.0 to my device with a custom bluetooth.default.so file, then install the DRM fix and it will work as normal? This would be amazing!
PS. What is a Concept ROM?
I'm so sorry for asking what are most probably stupid questions but I'm fairly new to the Android scene thus still learning.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you need only the root in order to work on that bluetooth file, you can do it without unlocking the bootloader.
Follow this tutorial: http://forum.xda-developers.com/z3-compact/general/how-to-root-backup-drm-keys-t3013343
You will be able to get root without losing DRM keys and else you will make a backup of DRM keys So, if in the future you need/want to unlock the bootloader, you have a safe copy of your keys. :good:

istux said:
If you need only the root in order to work on that bluetooth file, you can do it without unlocking the bootloader.
Follow this tutorial: http://forum.xda-developers.com/z3-compact/general/how-to-root-backup-drm-keys-t3013343
You will be able to get root without losing DRM keys and else you will make a backup of DRM keys So, if in the future you need/want to unlock the bootloader, you have a safe copy of your keys. :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much. Will try this in the morning and hopefully I will be able to use Bluetooth in my car once again!

tsmr said:
My knowledge of ROMs and rooting isn't the best[...]I have seen recent posts on this forum that suggest if the phone is rooted and a custom ROM is installed, I'm still able to maintain my camera quality[...]camera quality is of high importance to me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My suggestion (solely based on the points your described):
Either get a Z3c and stick to stock ROM
Or get an iPhone (seriously)
Now don't get me wrong, I am not being against custom ROMs. I am running CM myself and the first think I do before buying any android phone is to check if it has official CM support But you need to know that custom ROMs come with their own cost, and it depends whether you're willing to pay the price.
Reasons for my suggestion to you is that the road to unlocked bootloader and custom ROMs is a rough one. You'll be adding more mods and flashing more updates and you quickly end up with a phone which gets into the way and needs constant maintenance. Then there are issues with warranty, security, bugs, etc. Checking the forums for changelogs, kernels and ROMs will become a normal routine.
If you're regular user who wants his/her phone to just work, accept one of my suggestion and save yourself some pain. However, you might choose to be adventurous, then welcome to the community
PS: I'm myself exploring Z3c and iPhone 5s for my next phone.

Honestly, the road to rooting and properly running a rooted software is really not that long and rocky if you follow the linked thread perfectly. You also don't NEED to unlock the BL to get most of the advantages (there are many pre-rooted customized ROMs available without needing an unlocked BL). Follow the thread, stick to a good stable ROM or customization (I'm on Max Fury right now and she did some amazing work, check it out), and you'll be just fine. My BL is not even unlockable, doesn't bother me one bit. You can use Nova for a more Google-ish feel, and Sony's 5.1.1 is already pretty good at not being "Sony-fied".
Anyhow, this is the best phone I've ever owned, not looking back (I've had MANY more than just in my signature).

hv6478 said:
NOTE: annotated snippets from original comment
- if you follow the linked thread perfectly
- you also don't NEED to unlock the BL to get most of the advantages (it's upto you to figure out that just which advantages follow under that "most" category)
- follow the thread
- stick to a good stable ROM or customization (it's upto you to figure out whether you need a rom or customization)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. This proves my point even more! Now just compare this to getting a phone that just works
Although ROM customization is a beautiful and powerful idea, it's not for everyone, and comes at a cost (read: complexity). If anyone is ready to handle the complexity, please dive right in
Please don't mistake me. I'm not trying to disrespect the devs or offend custom ROM users, I'm both. I'm just trying to list down the pros and cons.