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Lenovo ZUK z1 is worth or not

Hi,
I have read the comments in amazon and also seen the reviews of Lenovo ZUK Z1 indian unit.
i found there are some issues like :-
-near the home button right side led light is not working properly.
-there are some heating issues in normal usage also.
-it hangs when we are in a call and there is only one way i.e. reboot of device.
-i also found comments saying that there is much difference between indian unit and other unit.
According to specs the hardware is realy good in this price segment but still some comments are saying its not worth to buy it.
Can anyone suggests wether i should go for Lenovo ZUK z1 (indian unit) or not.

I'm fairly happy with my ZUK Z1! I myself dide any of the issues you described, though I did have a major battery issue which I had to get fixed. Much more detail below;
The capacitive buttons' LED lights are just small white dots - they are a bit dim and hard to see outside (I believe that's just the way they are on the device). Regardless they do work fine - though I personally prefer on-screen buttons (navbar), which is an awesome option on Cyanogen which I do use (together with the physical home button). Phone does not feel hot to me (compared to other Android I tried - such as Sony Xperia Z3 Compact and LG G4 which did get confidently hotter). Calls work fine. I have no experience at all with the Indian version, I just had the International version with Cyanogen OS.
Now the problem I did have was that the battery my device came with was screwed up. The phone would turn off at random times and often display inaccurate battery percentages (e.g. fluctuating percentages, or phone displaying 1% for hours). It was really bad, a serious fault. Thankfully I was able to get it fixed for free thru warranty - since I bought it from a local store with 1 year warranty coverage (which was extremely useful for once). They replaced my battery for free and now it works great!
So that being said - there is indeed always a risk of getting a device with a hardware fault. Budget devices like this may be more prone to QA issues but remember that devices of any type or price occasionally have unit faults like that. Also keep in mind that people who have these issues are more likely to shout online than people who don't.
Overall though - I am quite happy with this device. It is fast and snappy, the battery life is indeed very good (lasts me a day and a half of fairly heavy usage) and I also like the fingerprint sensor (though I've had some mixed results with it. My tip is to make sure you initially scan your finger as best and fully as you can). I like the stock+ Android feel with Cyanogen OS (though Cyanogen are taking their sweet time with the Marshmallow update for this device! Though there are good custom ROMs for this device including CM13). I can recommend it.
If you can get it with warranty I say it's really a good choice, especially as a decent warranty can remove your worries. If I'd consider another device it would Xiamoi Redmi 3 Note Pro, which has similar specs but with a newer, better more efficient Snapdragon chip. There is also the ZUK Z2, but I think it's a shame that it has a smaller battery.

It's a decent phone but I wouldn't recommend it. A lot of people have problems with the home button (mine included) the fingerprint scanner doesn't work anymore. Cos has some nice features but the security patch is from last month and still no word on when we receive marshmallow.

My 2 cents, do yourself a favor, forget this phone unless it's free or very good bargain, it was promising at the start, end up as nightmare for most owners, just read some of the thread, every components has some issues, sound, GPS, home bottom, screen, battery, charging, COs patches, you name it.

Yeah, this phone turned out to be a huge disappointment. I faced issues with the original unit as well as the replacement unit. Eventually, I returned it and got myself a refund.
1. Back button led is dimmer than the menu button led. This is really annoying if you're used to the capacitive buttons. Even though it's a mid-range phone, this is not something that I'd expect because Rs.13,500 is still a good amount of money.
2. The phone has very obvious heating issues, especially near the top. Even when idle, temps refused to drop below 37-38 degrees. While charging, it was easily crossing the 50 degree mark. While running apps, it was crossing 60 degrees. My first unit became warm in my pocket for no reason at all.
3. The replacement unit that I received had vibration issues. The vibration kept turning off randomly. It used to turn back on after a few seconds.
4. Adaptive brightness is very slow. It takes a good 3-4 seconds for the ambient sensor to recognize the change in light intensity. I turned it off immediately.
5. Double tap to wake stops working after some time and you have to soft reboot the phone to get it to work again. However, I did not face this issue with the replacement unit.
6. The fingerprint sensor is not really as accurate and fast as the company claims it to be. The fact that you have to press the home button to wake the phone first adds to the time taken to unlock the phone. The fact that the home button isn't exactly soft does not help. More often than not, I had to keep my finger placed on the home button even after waking the device just to get it to recognize my fingerprint.
7. This one's a minor con but the ZUK printed below Lenovo on the back was slanted and not aligned perfectly below Lenovo. The print also appeared cheap and looked like it will come off pretty easily.
Considering the OPO has pretty much the same specs, I don't understand why the ZUK Z1 is plagued with so many issues. Also, in all the online reviews, the international version of the phone didn't seem to have all the above issues. Kinda makes me wonder if Lenovo has cut corners for the Indian launch of the phone, hence, the lower than the international version pricing.
Honestly, at this point, there's not much point in buying this phone. There are better and cheaper options available. Not to mention, some great phones will be coming out in the next couple of months, so it'd be better if you're willing to wait.

karthiksha said:
zuk z1 international version same in India ?
indian unit zuk z1 model is "z1221" its is same international version ???
any hardware changes in Indian units ??
why Indian unit having lenovo logo,zuk logo & other information in back side.. ?
but in international version only zuk logo on back side..
in Facebook and other site - my mobile recognized as "Sony xperia z1" anybody facing this problems ??
anyone using volte ?? zuk z1 have volte ??
how to check support mobile connectivity information like gsm band,lte band ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine is also showing up as a xperia z 1

very happy with this phone. after a day's work, i still have about 50% of juice. I've had xiaomi, LG, Xperia in the past. this phone just rocks.
using zuk z1

wouldnt recommend. breaking home button and missing software support and updates ... if my homebutton is broken i will swap it at amazon und buy another phone.

anybody solved the problem of failed recognition (zuk z1 = sony xperia z1). is it possible that that is the reason for google play store some apps show me that my device is not supported?

Stable marshmallow aosp

Anyone checked this? Is its really stable? What about camera
http://www.android.gs/update-sony-x...with-stable-android-6-0-marshmallow-aosp-rom/

I understand everyone's urge to jump on Marshmallow but none are stable and none will be stable for a long time, just wait
And "what about camera?" has been asked TRILLIONS of times already on the MM ROM pages, if it started working i'm sure it will be spammed absolutely everywhere as a miracle.

Ranjith pottekkatt said:
Anyone checked this? Is its really stable? What about camera
http://www.android.gs/update-sony-x...with-stable-android-6-0-marshmallow-aosp-rom/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This guy is a fraud and waste of time. Did you check his links? Those are empty folders.
There is no stable MM and there will never be. MM won't even be beta. Remember, last year we had LP5.1.1 stable at this time. And by October/November there will be Android N, but not for Xperia Z1.
You know why there will never be any other rom above LP5.1.1 for Z1? Because CM and others have switched to AOSP trees and AOSP has NEVER had a stable rom for Z1 or Z1c. Not LP, Not Kitkat, and not even Jeallybean...

optimumpro said:
This guy is a fraud and waste of time. Did you check his links? Those are empty folders.
There is no stable MM and there will never be. MM won't even be beta. Remember, last year we had LP5.1.1 stable at this time. And by October/November there will be Android N, but not for Xperia Z1.
You know why there will never be any other rom above LP5.1.1 for Z1? Because CM and others have switched to AOSP trees and AOSP has NEVER had a stable rom for Z1 or Z1c. Not LP, Not Kitkat, and not even Jeallybean...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So thats mean those MM developers are wasting their time?

alfred0725 said:
So thats mean those MM developers are wasting their time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No one is wasting their time. MM official developers are not wasting their time, because they cover many devices. Those who compile unofficial builds are just building; they are not improving/modifying. AOSP Sony developers are the only ones who are probably close to wasting their time, because Sony would never provide truly working binaries for patent reasons and absent that their open source developers are working blind.
CM switched to AOSP binaries, because of DRM issues. If I were them, I would disable DRM for rhine devices, but they will never do that.
The bottom line is: the only way to have the camera work is to return to CM tree with a camera wrapper, which would require disabling DRM feature, because Sony MM camera binaries are DRM protected...

optimumpro said:
No one is wasting their time. MM official developers are not wasting their time, because they cover many devices. Those who compile unofficial builds are just building; they are not improving/modifying. AOSP Sony developers are the only ones who are probably close to wasting their time, because Sony would never provide truly working binaries for patent reasons and absent that their open source developers are working blind.
CM switched to AOSP binaries, because of DRM issues. If I were them, I would disable DRM for rhine devices, but they will never do that.
The bottom line is: the only way to have the camera work is to return to CM tree with a camera wrapper, which would require disabling DRM feature, because Sony MM camera binaries are DRM protected...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I am noob!:crying::crying::crying:
But what is the advantage of AOSP binaries rather than CM tree?

optimumpro said:
No one is wasting their time. MM official developers are not wasting their time, because they cover many devices. Those who compile unofficial builds are just building; they are not improving/modifying. AOSP Sony developers are the only ones who are probably close to wasting their time, because Sony would never provide truly working binaries for patent reasons and absent that their open source developers are working blind.
CM switched to AOSP binaries, because of DRM issues. If I were them, I would disable DRM for rhine devices, but they will never do that.
The bottom line is: the only way to have the camera work is to return to CM tree with a camera wrapper, which would require disabling DRM feature, because Sony MM camera binaries are DRM protected...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why are you always talking about camera when it comes to aosp MM stability? I think that many people (like me) don't really need that much of a quality when it comes to camera. I use dedicated camera when I want to take a nice photo of something and I use phone camera only for notes from school.
What I consider stable is not restarting, not overheating, not draining battery rom. Of course with everything working. The problem I have is that 3.10 aosp kernel drains more battery in deep sleep and my phone heats a bit faster than on stock with custom kernel. Also it sometimes freezes and restarts. (maybe they fixed it with some workaround now? I'll try it when I'll have more free time to build the rom)
If they fix those issues I won't complain.

SuperLamic said:
Why are you always talking about camera when it comes to aosp MM stability? I think that many people (like me) don't really need that much of a quality when it comes to camera. I use dedicated camera when I want to take a nice photo of something and I use phone camera only for notes from school.
What I consider stable is not restarting, not overheating, not draining battery rom. Of course with everything working. The problem I have is that 3.10 aosp kernel drains more battery in deep sleep and my phone heats a bit faster than on stock with custom kernel. Also it sometimes freezes and restarts. (maybe they fixed it with some workaround now? I'll try it when I'll have more free time to build the rom)
If they fix those issues I won't complain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because camera is a major piece of hardware and without it working properly, a rom can't be stable. But with regard to MM, there are other big problems some of which you mentioned: data, sound, overheating, restarting, slow charging, offline charging. Looks like with every release Google starts from zero. In addition, CM is no longer spending time on fixing issues, because they have their own OS.

optimumpro said:
Because camera is a major piece of hardware and without it working properly, a rom can't be stable. But with regard to MM, there are other big problems some of which you mentioned: data, sound, overheating, restarting, slow charging, offline charging. Looks like with every release Google starts from zero. In addition, CM is no longer spending time on fixing issues, because they have their own OS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
by the way I saw that the offline charging maybe got fixed. (https://github.com/sonyxperiadev/device-sony-common/commit/e1b7ca125c4bf776be586066baf3efc8b5631e40 )
And I'll maybe try to fully fix at last the jack detection as it drives me mad when it doesn't detect my mi pistons (if I don't hold headset button when connecting) and when I plug 3-pole headphones it gives me long-press of headset button all the time.
I found out it's maybe related to jack detection (all these issues) - https://github.com/SuperLamic/kernel/commit/5df476d4a4fb0e628b431ecd93999a1a764fb633 (this solves just the connection of 4-pole jack)
I haven't noticed any slow charging? (I charge my phone all night anyway). For the data problem - I don't have any mobile data problems, but wifi strength is low and it sometime disconnects..
You're right I hate how google is modding their api every version they release. (does it even improve the system somehow or it's just to make portation of new versions harder?)

SuperLamic said:
by the way I saw that the offline charging maybe got fixed. (https://github.com/sonyxperiadev/device-sony-common/commit/e1b7ca125c4bf776be586066baf3efc8b5631e40 )
And I'll maybe try to fully fix at last the jack detection as it drives me mad when it doesn't detect my mi pistons (if I don't hold headset button when connecting) and when I plug 3-pole headphones it gives me long-press of headset button all the time.
I found out it's maybe related to jack detection (all these issues) - https://github.com/SuperLamic/kernel/commit/5df476d4a4fb0e628b431ecd93999a1a764fb633 (this solves just the connection of 4-pole jack)
I haven't noticed any slow charging? (I charge my phone all night anyway). For the data problem - I don't have any mobile data problems, but wifi strength is low and it sometime disconnects..
You're right I hate how google is modding their api every version they release. (does it even improve the system somehow or it's just to make portation of new versions harder?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Slow charging is, in fact an issue, at least for me. The phone never detects AC supply in my case, and so always charges at ~500mA. However, I hear this is not an issue with people using magnetic charging cables.
And I have to agree with optimumpro to some extent. I had faith in Sony, and hoped they'd make things stable by now. But I don't see anything productive happening anytime soon (latest blobs were released about 2 months ago). Hopefully, with all the efforts done to match Google's master branch, porting newer versions of Android would not take as much time as it did for MM (if things ever get stable).

drakonizer said:
Slow charging is, in fact an issue, at least for me. The phone never detects AC supply in my case, and so always charges at ~500mA. However, I hear this is not an issue with people using magnetic charging cables.
And I have to agree with optimumpro to some extent. I had faith in Sony, and hoped they'd make things stable by now. But I don't see anything productive happening anytime soon (latest blobs were released about 2 months ago). Hopefully, with all the efforts done to match Google's master branch, porting newer versions of Android would not take as much time as it did for MM (if things ever get stable).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is that the new Xperias were released and Z1 is quite old device, so it's just logical that they would prioritize newer ones.
hah, I'm always using magnetic charger (to prevent damage to waterproof). That's probably why I don't have this issue, I'll take a look at it - maybe in july? (I'm not really linux/android developer, so I'm not promising anything).

SuperLamic said:
The problem is that the new Xperias were released and Z1 is quite old device, so it's just logical that they would prioritize newer ones.
hah, I'm always using magnetic charger (to prevent damage to waterproof). That's probably why I don't have this issue, I'll take a look at it - maybe in july? (I'm not really linux/android developer, so I'm not promising anything).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not about priority. In fact, the MSM8974 is one of the easier SoCs to work with, compared to the others. None of the other Xperias have stable MM yet (though this charger issue is unheard of). From what I see in the dmesg, it appears to be a problem with healthd (i.e kernel based issue). I took a look at it, but nothing seems to be wrong from an initial run through. Maybe some experienced dev can help out.
In any case, working on a WIP project is much better than sitting around and complaining everywhere. It's especially bad when the person in question is of the best devs for our device.

I might buy a MI5, looking for some answers/advice

Hey folks, I am Canadian that is looking to possibly import an MI5 but I figured I should find out a few things from you all that have been living with these phones for a while before buying.
Are there any hardware or software issues with the MI5 that I should be concerned about? I have a sony z3 compact right now and it's been infamous for vibration motors, headphone jacks, and screen failures. It also has no AOSP based daily drivers.
Development seems to be pretty active here, is that actually true? Are developers dropping off from this phone or is there still a steady amount of work being done?
From the lurking I've done it seems that unlocking, rooting and ROM installing is pretty easy. Are there any permanent dangers to doing these hacks (above and beyond the usual)?
I'm aware there is some camera quality issues on non-stock ROMs, is the camera still usable? How is the battery on custom ROMs?
Is there anything preventing this phone from being a daily driver when using a custom ROM like RR? Does the fingerprint sensor work on AOSP ROMs?
I am also aware of the radio bands the MI5 supports, I should be fine with that as my imported Z3 Compact has the same bands (as far as I can tell).
Edit: I was also wondering if the IR blaster works on custom ROMs!
Thanks for reading, answering and putting up with my ignorance. I'm just looking for some answers I couldn't find on this forum when I was searching yesterday.

Community is happy to help
1. Hardware wise you have to keep in mind the phone is fairly fragile. Low light performance of the camera is a bit poor. Audio out of the headphone jack isn't great on stock MIUI, but that can be fixed with Viper4Arise or any AOSP ROM. RAM management and general performance on MIUI is "ok" - but the phone is blazing fast on AOSP + CAF. There is no component that is prone to fail that I am aware of, but I have read of the occasional hard-brick triggered from nothing more than a reboot on custom ROMs - this can be solved by flashing stock ROM in EDL mode.
2. There seems to be a steady amount of development going on - we just got the drop on about 7 new ROMs in the last month. However, there are and have been developers leaving in favour of the One Plus 3, and development is only moderate compared to its forum.
3. It's fairly easy, but a bit frustrating getting the bootloader unlock from Xiaomi, as it usually takes about 5 days for the unlock to be approved and then 5 more days for it to actually work. There is also a possible driver issue on Windows which can prevent unlocking, so if you're stuck that's probably the case. Except for the above mentioned possible hard-brick there are no additional dangers, and dare I say less so than other phones I worked on.
4. The camera is usable on custom ROMs but considerably worse. Mainly there is a lot more noise in the photos, but detail remains high. Video recording seems to be broken on most AOSP ROMs, but alternative camera apps are apparently a work around. In my experience battery life is better on custom ROMs as they have functional Doze on Nougat, but not by much.
5. Fingerprint sensor works fine on custom ROMs, even better if you consider that you can wake + unlock your phone without pressing the button. There have been reports of some people experiencing slow fingerprint scanning on custom ROMs (3-4s). I use a custom ROM as my DD and I don't have any major issues except video recording that I haven't yet bothered to address.
I hope that this information finds you well. The Mi5 isn't perfect, but I'd be damned to say that a better phone exists for $200. The camera, battery life, performance, screen, audio, and design is good and there really isn't much to worry about.

xdadevet said:
Community is happy to help
1. Hardware wise you have to keep in mind the phone is fairly fragile. Low light performance of the camera is a bit poor. Audio out of the headphone jack isn't great on stock MIUI, but that can be fixed with Viper4Arise or any AOSP ROM. RAM management and general performance on MIUI is "ok" - but the phone is blazing fast on AOSP + CAF. There is no component that is prone to fail that I am aware of, but I have read of the occasional hard-brick triggered from nothing more than a reboot on custom ROMs - this can be solved by flashing stock ROM in EDL mode.
2. There seems to be a steady amount of development going on - we just got the drop on about 7 new ROMs in the last month. However, there are and have been developers leaving in favour of the One Plus 3, and development is only moderate compared to its forum.
3. It's fairly easy, but a bit frustrating getting the bootloader unlock from Xiaomi, as it usually takes about 5 days for the unlock to be approved and then 5 more days for it to actually work. There is also a possible driver issue on Windows which can prevent unlocking, so if you're stuck that's probably the case. Except for the above mentioned possible hard-brick there are no additional dangers, and dare I say less so than other phones I worked on.
4. The camera is usable on custom ROMs but considerably worse. Mainly there is a lot more noise in the photos, but detail remains high. Video recording seems to be broken on most AOSP ROMs, but alternative camera apps are apparently a work around. In my experience battery life is better on custom ROMs as they have functional Doze on Nougat, but not by much.
5. Fingerprint sensor works fine on custom ROMs, even better if you consider that you can wake + unlock your phone without pressing the button. There have been reports of some people experiencing slow fingerprint scanning on custom ROMs (3-4s). I use a custom ROM as my DD and I don't have any major issues except video recording that I haven't yet bothered to address.
I hope that this information finds you well. The Mi5 isn't perfect, but I'd be damned to say that a better phone exists for $200. The camera, battery life, performance, screen, audio, and design is good and there really isn't much to worry about.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much for the detailed response! Greatly appreciated!
This all is reminding me of the fun I had with AOSP ROMs back on my Galaxy SIII, happy thoughts! (I've been stuck in Sony's software for too long!)
What is CAF?
Is the IR blaster working in AOSP-based ROMs?

TheHow7zer said:
Thank you so much for the detailed response! Greatly appreciated!
This all is reminding me of the fun I had with AOSP ROMs back on my Galaxy SIII, happy thoughts! (I've been stuck in Sony's software for too long!)
What is CAF?
Is the IR blaster working in AOSP-based ROMs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a pleasure
Well then it's good to know they run brilliantly on the Mi5 (buttery smooth UI, and I get good numbers on benchmarks as testament, see attached pics).
CAF is short for Code Aurora Forums, a collection of companies that merge their updated driver code with the vanilla AOSP code from Google.
I don't know if the IR blaster works on AOSP as I currently don't have any devices on me to test it with. I could try this weekend when I get home.
Edit: I've since arrived home and can confirm the IR blaster works on AOSP. I used Anymote if you're interested.

How to root Xperia XZ1 Compact ?

Hello everyone I open this discussion to discuss together on a possible way to root the device.
Since I'm new to Sony I've heard a lot of different things about the root method, so that's why I prefer to gather here to avoid believing anything and everything on the internet.
Thanks you

Is root a taboo on this phone ?
I can't seem to find any clear information on wether it's rootable or not.
I don't care about DRM or stuff, I just want my stock ROM rooted, would KingRoot do the job ?

JackyJacks said:
Is root a taboo on this phone ?
I can't seem to find any clear information on wether it's rootable or not.
I don't care about DRM or stuff, I just want my stock ROM rooted, would KingRoot do the job ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a hack under development by sToRm// for our XZ1 compacts. It's working for XZP's.
You don't want to use kingroot, your IMEI number will be cloned as well as malware being installed in your phone.
The DRM stuff, no camera is not an option for most phone users, so I would urge you to care about it a little.
There is the AOSP project launched by Sony, but it does require some development skills to get it set up and it's not bug free.
I think there will be a root process within the next few weeks, keep looking here on the forum.

JackyJacks said:
Is root a taboo on this phone ?
I can't seem to find any clear information on wether it's rootable or not.
I don't care about DRM or stuff, I just want my stock ROM rooted, would KingRoot do the job ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not a taboo subject, it just isn't possible, at the moment, to "just get root".
In order to get root, you must also have an unlocked bootloader.
Sony has a developer's program, under which, you can submit your IMEI and they will email you a code you can use to unlock your bootloader.
Once you do that, the following things will happen:
- Your camera will stop working.
- Other Sony "DRM" enabled functions will stop working.
- Your warranty will be void.
- You can never "re-lock" the bootloader and go back to an un-modified state.
- You can install whatever boot and system modifications you like, including root (so long as you disable RIC and dm-verity).
I blame Sony for confusion regarding the term "root" among those who own Sony phones.
Sometimes they use it to refer to super-user permissions, and sometimes they use it to refer to the bootloader lock state.
That has led most people here in the Sony forums to use the term ambiguously and interchangeably as well.
So if you only want super-user level permissions, then there is no way to do that.
If you want to unlock your bootloader, then there's no secret at all. Just go to Sony's open devices site.

JackyJacks said:
Is root a taboo on this phone ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's more a matter of the "consequences" of rooting Xperias.
Sony lets you unlock the bootloader (unless you got your phone from a locked down source), so in theory you can flash any ROM you like with whatever root solution you prefer.
So what's stopping people from just unlocking the bootloader? See, Sony decided that it was a brilliant idea to bind some of their assets to DRM keys.
The kicker is, unlocking the bootloader wipes those precious DRM keys, which means you lose certain functionalities.
Unfortunately, there's no way to unlock without permanently losing those keys. Furthermore, those keys are unique to each device, so you can't just use someone else's without bricking your phone.
Now, it wasn't as big of a deal for pre-2017 Xperias, because the features you lose are relatively non-essential.
For example, X-Reality, which supposedly enhances the image in specific Sony apps, is nice to have but does not affect functionality, so not that important relatively speaking.
The biggest loss is Sony's advanced low light noise reduction algorithms for the camera, it makes a very noticeable difference in picture quality. But you'd still be able to use the camera normally otherwise.
For many people, the trade-off is worth it; the benefits of having root far outweighs the ability to take less ****ty pictures in places with ****ty lighting or enhancing the pores on your selfie.
It also helps that people eventually found exploits in earlier Android versions that makes it possible to backup those DRM keys and restore them.
However, for most of the phones released this year (models starting with designation G), Sony figured it has had enough of its customers enjoying their phones.
In a display of the traditional roots of Sony-style hyper obsession with DRMing and locking down the hell out of their stuff, now when you unlock the bootloader, the camera simply stops working.
Well, not entirely - the camera app launches as usual, and you can still see the live view on screen, tap to focus and change settings and all that.
But no matter what you do, it will only take one type of photo, a canvas of pure, solid green. It's effectively broken.
Obviously, that **** move causes hesitation with people interested in rooting their phones. They'd want their cameras to at least be able to take pictures.
Currently, aside from building and flashing Sony's AOSP ROM yourself, or a handful of third-party camera apps, or developing your own solution, there's simply no way of restoring the camera function after the bootloader has been unlocked.
Lots of people just want root on top of the stock firmware, but it's not possible without breaking the camera.
So in conclusion, no, it's not a taboo, rooting is just ridiculously undesirable for now given the conditions.

This is total BS. I might cancel my Amazon order and go with a non-Sony phone now. Maybe the Galaxy S8. I was very excited about the XZ1c.

Didgesteve said:
There is a hack under development by sToRm// for our XZ1 compacts. It's working for XZP's.
You don't want to use kingroot, your IMEI number will be cloned as well as malware being installed in your phone.
The DRM stuff, no camera is not an option for most phone users, so I would urge you to care about it a little.
There is the AOSP project launched by Sony, but it does require some development skills to get it set up and it's not bug free.
I think there will be a root process within the next few weeks, keep looking here on the forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the details.
I did not know camera was impacted by DRM, I thought this was only streaming apps like spotify or netflix...
I'll wait patiently then

JackyJacks said:
I did not know camera was impacted by DRM, I thought this was only streaming apps like spotify or netflix...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not that kind of DRM. Ironically, those will work with an unlocked bootloader assuming you're using them as intended.

Potential 2nd Hand Purchase - hardware faults to look for?

Hi all,
so I'm looking at getting a 2nd hand Note 9 via a store with a warranty (not someone off the street, based in the UK).
I've been browsing trying to catch up on faults and things to look out for. I've noticed that there's at least a camera modal fault where at various levels of zoom the camera may cause noises and vibrations. This common?
Of course, there's always trying to check battery health too.
Otherwise, doesn't seem too much wrong hardware wise - have noticed a lot of people wanting to roll back to Oreo due to changes in UI? Also, looks like I need to check Knox in download mode at least.
Anything else I should keep an eye out for?
I do only get 6 months warranty and have been burnt via a Nexus battery failure on a second hand phone before that was just out of warranty to return it. I'm also coming from a Note 4 where I had a fault on the board which lead to it's replacement.

Spen remote function. mine s pen remote functionality not working right after latest pie OTA update. i am getting spen not connected error. so make sure spen is connected to phone and it's battery (Spen battery) last approximate 200 button clicks.