yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Xperia Z5 Compact General] DrvLikHell:
Heat isn't an issue because I don't do anything intensive for long periods of time, like gaming. The camera I don't know about. My Moto X camera is ok, my Galaxy S3 camera was good, but that's all I've got to compare to. So maybe if I never had a better one I won't notice.

I also tried out a phablet, the Asus Zenfone 2. Really awesome phone, but awesomely huge as well. 64GB, 4GB ram, 4 Intel Atom cores, dual sim, SD slot, fully unlockable. I figured if I was going to go big, why not get crazy with specs too. While it performed great and had every option available, it was just too big. I felt like I was pulling out a ham sandwich to make a phone call. I could barely reach the power button one-handed, never mind navigate it one-handed. But my friend was enamored with it, so I sold it to him, and I'm on the hunt again.

The battery life could be an issue. Usually I end up with around 30% left on my Moto, but sometimes I'll have to use it a lot more than normal and hit single digits by the end of the day. I've never had it die on me though. I've heard mixed reviews about the fingerprint scanner ranging from "ok", to "crap." But I don't have one now, so I won't miss it if I don't use it, right? What I'll miss is the Moto Display where it semi-wakes when you pick it up or take it out of your pocket or get a notification. No other phones wake/unlock feature can hold a candle to that.

The thing that concerns me most is the RAM leak that people talk about and the stuttering. A lot of people complain that they have to restart their phone from once a day to once every 3-4 days to restore it's speed. Otherwise it starts to choke even with just one app open. Something about app caching or precaching or whatever, I can't remember. That would be a HUGE problem for me. I want a phone that's as fast today as it was a week ago when I turned it on. Even Windows doesn't have that problem anymore. And stuttering when swiping and/or moving from app to app. That would feel gheto, like I've got a $29 phone from Walmart. If I'm going to pay several hundred bucks for a phone, it needs to move like a several hundred dollar phone. My Moto is still smooth, even when it's loading or navigating a heavy app. It's just a little pokey about it sometimes.

I really appreciate your input guys. It helps substantially because no one I know AFK knows squat about phones.
[Xperia Z5 Compact General] uchechris:
You just need to realize that no phone is perfect....all phones has its pros and cons, kinda wish there was more small phones but nowadays its always big phones big phones big phones which is very annoying, but hey welcome to history of technology, it keeps improving every year :p
[Xperia Z5 Compact General] civicsr2cool:
Most people come to these forums to fix problems or discuss issues so there won't be a lot of positive threads. But then again there's not much nice to say about the z5c lol if you can live with side charging go with the z3c. The xperia line has a lot of users that are too scared to root so the development is really slim. The z3c is at a more of a mature state than the z5c so it's your best bet.
[Xperia Z5 Compact General] ksc6000:
I guess I just don't understand where did this problem of the phone being slow comes from. Because if there's anything positive that I can say about the Z5 compact that is that it is super fast and I am currently using a Nexus 6p which arguably is the fastest Android experience you can get and the Z5 compact doesn't feel any slower to me. I guess the camera is probably slower because I have noticed it take a half second longer to open than I would expect it and the photos take about a second to 2 seconds to fully load but really other than that the phone is blazing fast in my opinion.
[Xperia Z5 Compact General] DrvLikHell:
I don't mind the side charge, but with only 16GB, it's a step down from what I have now in terms of storage. It's also 2 years old and I'm looking for something a little newer. If you go to other forums, there are a larger percentage of people talking about how they love their phone in spite of some issue they created or something they're trying to achieve or fix. I've seen users on the Moto X forum state that they'll give up their phone when someone pries it from their cold dead hands. Others have wept when their phone was irreparably damaged. I've seen the same thing said about the LG G2. You are quite correct about older phones being in a more mature state though. The S6/S7 don't have a Cyanogen build available yet, and neither does the Z5C. But the Z3C does.

It's not that the Z5C is slow all together, the complaints I've been reading are that it slows down after a few days of use due to an issue with the RAM not clearing properly. Everyone says a restart fixes/clears the issue till it builds up again. Sorta like Windows 98. If you don't restart your Z5C for a week, does it still feel just as fast as your Nexus?
[Xperia Z5 Compact General] FranzDages:
I can't say that mine doesn't slow down somewhat after a week or so, but I've never had it happen to the point it is unusable. I've gone weeks without a restart with no real problems. I've noticed that it does slow down some, but nothing that I can't live with. And even with a slowdown, are you so in need of being connected 24/7 that you can't take the a minute periodically to reboot?

I've read some varying reports that the 6.0.1 update improves the memory management, and at least helps this issue. However, I haven't had a chance to use flashtool to update yet, so I can't say for sure.

The Z5 Compact (mine at least) does have a bit of the 810 overheating problem. The only time it impacted anything for me, I had been setting in a hot car and then tried to use the camera. I got the 'overheating... camera will close' message. I had that happen to me a few times on the Z3 compact the didn't have the Snapdragon 810 SOC.

Battery life isn't awesome, but then again I'm not really a power user. Little gaming, little social media checking, etc... I work in a location with no signal at all for the phone. It spends almost all of the day trying to connect. I generally go out to the car at lunch for a little while, but that is about all the time it is connected during the day. I don't think it has ever actually died on me doing this. If it has, it was maybe once.

When I'm somewhere that has signal all day, I've never had an issue unless I'm using navigation a lot, or something similar.

I've tried a few other phones over the last few years, and even if they have worked well they are just too freaking big. I've stuck with the Xperia compacts because they are the only <5" phone that offers true flagship specs.

Just my two cents. You're mileage may vary. If you get it and hate it, please don't blame me.
[Xperia Z5 Compact General] Sadman Khan:
Look if you're happy, you're not gonna bother posting about it. That's human nature. There are a lot of happy users like me who don't have anything to complain about. People will only open a thread or comment if they run into a problem. Anyway, this phone has been fantastic for me since 6.0 update. And now after the 6.0.1 update, the camera starts almost instantly. So I can finally say that this was a worthwhile investment from my part.
[Xperia Z5 Compact General] manilu001:
i have z5c 3 months now, using MM and don't have any problems, using my phone for photos, navigation and regular calls and so on, last night i was travel with car, navigation was on 3,5 hours ( connected on charger :) ), phone was hot but didn't FC navigation and did't have any problems, but when i took it in my hands it was hot, checked temp and it was 42 C, so nothing to wory about, battery life depends how you use it, i can make whole day and before bed time i have over 50% left, but if i use wifi while in bed that 50% will be gone in 2 hours, i never tried on this phone but on my work phone( only calls and sms, data turned off) htc 320 battery last over 15 days in standby without problems, back on topic, camera is great for me, clear nice colors and 4k video recording is great, really can't find anything bed in this phone, if you wanna be sure battery would last whole day charge it over night
[Xperia Z5 Compact General] dillalade:
The z5c with MM is a very fast and capable multitasker.

The only negative is the camera really isn't a comparison to its competitors.

Sony sent the z5c out with an utterly p!ss poor Lollipop firmware. You can trust those review you've read at that point the z5c "was" an utter disgrace and let a complete let down.

However since MM the device is as you'd have expected it to be. It's a performer and a half.

Again it's only the sub par camera quality that negates away from an almost legendary device.
[Xperia Z5 Compact General] civicsr2cool:
Ive never come close to running out of 16gb on internal storage on any phone ive ever had and I've got two grand theft auto installed. I put everything on a 200gb sd, I can't stand a phone without SD slots lol

I agree with other forums showing more love, this is the third Sony phone I've tried over the years and the third one that I have very little nice things to say about it. But the z5c forums have only just started to take off since the US release, it was real real dead before that.
[Xperia Z5 Compact General] ksc6000:
Yeah in my opinion the phone is still as fast and I do not have to reboot every week or whatever. I would still say that it remains as fast and doesn't seem to slow down at all in my opinion. My sister also has the Z5 Compact and she also does not notice any slowdowns of any sort and doesn't have to reboot regularly and the only does it if necessary while changing SIM cards or something.

So again my main gripes with this phone are the idle battery life which I can live with even though it's really annoying, but the fingerprint scanner is just not good in my opinion. Especially after using a nice one that works every time and seamlessly and it's just so effortless, it's really hard to use this when it screws up more than half the time it feels like. However my sister's Z5 compact fingerprint scanner seems to be a little bit better, I don't understand why. The difference only is that she has the black model and I have the white one and I know that there was an issue with the screen not responding to touch properly when the phones first came out just for the white model so maybe there's a difference in the hardware of the fingerprint scanner as well.
[Xperia Z5 Compact General] thedosbox:
Bear in mind that people who don't have problems have little reason to post on forums.

I went from a XT1058 to a discounted Nexus 5 to a Z5C and have been mostly happy.

The only issues I've had:

- Phone app crashes after a call ends when using Android Auto

- Camera app is a little slow to launch

- No "active display" (i.e. google's equivalent of moto display)

- Absolutely needs a case as it's too slippery to use bare (unlike the Moto X)

- Phone gets really warm after using it with Android Auto
[Xperia Z5 Compact General] algiuz:
Really after Mm update z5c is blazing fast, no complains what so ever when it comes to performance. Sometimes it gets a bit hot, but nothing to be concerned about. And I don't know why everyone complaints about fingereader, it works 95 proc of time for me. I register same finger three times. I don't really use camera that much, but it opens super fast for me, but even I can tell quality is not great. At least auto mode.
[Xperia Z5 Compact General] 4ty-phive:
My experience with this device has been mostly a pleasant one. One of the previous poster mentioned that no device is perfect and this one is no different. You will always find something that you feel the manufacturer didn't get right. The gripes I have with this device:

- Slow camera app. (Also, I can't find a burst mode...is there one?)

- Wi-Fi connection when the phone is sleeping (this is sometime-y)

- Some of the Sony apps are useless

The positives:

- Size size size

- Fingerprint scanner is fast (not iPhone fast, but fast)

- Battery life is nice. I've gotten 2 1/2 days (mostly idle time. On screen was about 3hrs)

- Playing hi-res music (subjective...well, I guess all of this is subjective)

- The 820 is a great piece of silicone (it would be extraordinary if not for the occasional heat)

- SD card slot (and the ability to use it to back up your settings)

- The diagnostic tool in the "About Phone" section

- Front facing speakers. Not going to blow your mind, but they're facing you..not away.

I know there are more that I'm missing but the point is that it's been positive. I'm not a big fan of MM, but that is a different story.

Scribe'd on my everlasting Z5C
[Xperia Z5 Compact General] espadasmoran:
I dont recomend the z5c at all, i use it for working, and the phone really struggles with facebook pages, youtube, Chrome, facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp all the time receiving notifications and messeges.

The phone overheats to the point that everything lags like a 2008 Android phone.

When i play real Racing 3, i always have couple of Ice cube close to me, for let my phone cools down to avoid lag while playing.

Dont buy it, go for a nexus or Samsung, and sacrifice the size thing, and remember ALWAYS AN ALUMINUM PHONE WILL HAVE LESS HEAT ISSUES THAN A GLASS P PHONE, BECAUSE OF HEAT DISCIPATION.
[Xperia Z5 Compact General] DrvLikHell:
Thanks a lot guys, you all have been really helpful. I understand that no one comes online solely to praise their phone, but on the Moto forums many people are like "Oh no, this terrible thing happened, please help me save my beloved phone." Where here on the Z5C forum the attitude more often like "This terrible thing happened, another reason to get rid of this piece of crap." Just an observation. And the one that pointed out that the Z5C is very new has a point. The Moto X has been around a long time and has developed a little bit of a cult following.

There isn't a perfect phone out there, but I at least don't want to dislike my next phone. Especially when I'm paying several hundred bucks for it. My problem is that I've been spoiled by a phone that comes very close to the "perfect phone" for me.

As for the overheating issue, I don't have a bunch of garbage, like Facebook, running on my phone. I keep background stuff to a minimum, mostly to avoid eating up my mobile data. And I never play games on my phone. Though it does concern me that heat could be an issue when taxing the processor. It's kinda like having a big V8 engine in your car, but you can't ever give it full throttle because it'll choke and stall.

Since MM was just released for the Z5C, and it's said to have a huge impact on the phones issues, I think I'll give it a maybe a month or so and see if the atmosphere and gripes change. Right now I'm still torn between the Z5C and it's awesome smallness, the Galaxy S7 and it's uber expensive sorta not-so-bigness, or the 2nd gen Moto X as an inexpensive band-aid to wait and see if something better hits the market. Granted, the 2nd gen Moto X is around the same size as the S7, but at least it wouldn't be $500 for something that I may not be entirely pleased with.
[Xperia Z5 Compact General] uchechris:
Since you mention that you not a social media type person and not a gamer, then i believe this phone is perfect for you.....its getting more cheaper since the X series of the xperia are being released, if i were you, you should check out on Swappa since you can get them very affordable unless you want the phone completely new. Im just waiting for someone to find root on locked BL before i can buy the Z5C.
[Xperia Z5 Compact General] croozah:
For a little context, I waited forever to fully jump into the Android ecosystem. My beloved Nokia N9 w/ 4" screen running Meego was just getting to be unusable and/or unreliable. Wanting a small phone, I waited for the Z5C release in the US and got one. (I did have Android experience w/ previous HTC and LG devices.)

I am thrilled with this phone!

No fingerprint reader, but that was known going in.

I have no issues whatsoever with any of the radio functions - wifi, BT, 4G are all rock solid. I do not use NFC.

I've rebooted it 3 times since purchase: twice for software updates, once just because. The phone doesn't slow down, as others have mentioned.

No RAM/memory issues at all.

Battery life has exceeded my expectations. If I talk for +1 hr, sms off and on, browse a bit, check FB, and play a card game I love for 30-45 mins, I easily get 2 days on the battery. I do not use a lot of the apps like Whatsapp etc. - just GMail, corp email, FB, GPS apps (OSMAnd, Here, Earthmate), some news apps. I disabled many of the Sony apps, some Google apps (Hangouts, G+, Chrome).

My standards are low, but I am extremely happy with the camera quality and performance.

Audio quality is excellent - headphones, calls, BT.

Water/dustproofing means a lot to me, and it works.

I was concerned about root, but decided to try and live w/o root. In the past, I found AdAway and Titanium pretty essential, and some other root-only apps quite nice. I have not rooted, and find the only thing I miss is AdAway. I use uBlock Origin in FF and NetGuard from FDroid and have a pleasantly ad-free experience, but they're not completely gone.

It's all subjective and entirely dependent on how you use the phone, but buying the Z5C to go all-in on Android for me has been a great experience.
[Xperia Z5 Compact General] uchechris:
What was your average screen on time if you don't mind asking? Did it ever overheat? Im thinking of going without root if i plan to buy it....Im coming from a Z3C and the reason i had root on that cuz i want to get rid of useless apps from titanium backup
[Xperia Z5 Compact General] Archimedes660:
BECAUSE I love it...

...I stopped constantly talking about it.

Obviously I can only speak for myself. Since the purpose of communities like xda developers is all about tweaking, rooting and enhancing features of hardware and software that doesn't suit all our needs as sold ... some of you guys out there may not like hearing what I have to admit now:

The Sony Xperia Z5 (Compact, in my case) is just perfect the way it is.

Again, for me.

Having been a Samsung user for quite some years before, I was so used to root and tweak and (cyanogen) mod my phone I wasn't able to imagine that there would come a phone that could simply stop consuming my time and efforts - just because the lack of a need in improvement. So thank you for being in my life, Z5C.

So what happened over the past years? Some things have already been solved by Google or Sony or the SD card manufacturers or just all of them together. I could now start listing it all up, talking about

- the ridiculous need for a so-called 'GPS fix'

- battery saving apps like Juice Defender

- tools like Titanium Backup to both backup my chat history and shoot all the needless Samsung bloat ware apps to definite freeze

- and countless more ...

...but I'm sure no one of you really needs that list. Just checked for these (my old) apps on Google play a few minutes ago and had a good laugh looking at this history of android deficiencies.

I know I may sound like an apple fan boy now (which I'm definitely NOT!) but I am tired of tweaking and fixing and modding and I'm very happy that I finally found my Z5C. It is fast, it is waterproof, it is beautiful (in the eye of the beholder -> mine) and it is currently state-of-the-art. I even didn't feel the need for root access on my Z5C yet and the update speed of Sony is ok, compared to Samsung.

Of course you can always find a higher benchmark score, a better camera, a higher screen resolution blah blah blah

But let's face it - on what level are we complaining here? Isn't it more SEARCHING hard for something to complain about? To me it would be and I simply refuse to take part in.

Just wanted to say: my search is over, especially with MM 6.0.1 on my Z5C. And since I am convinced to have found the right phone for the current time I'd neither compete with other users nor argue with them anymore. Nothing to proof, quite a relief.

Still stopping by because of the nice company of this community and happy for hidden features, tips and tricks to collect

so thank you all.

(was that positive enough?) :D
[Xperia Z5 Compact General] bigdfmartin:
I've had several Sony and Sony-Ericcson phones and rooted all of them except for the z5c. I haven't felt it was necessary. The only things I could ask for on the z5c is better screen brightness adaptivity or at least a toggle in the pull down settings so I can switch it on and off, and would like someone to make a battery case for it. I have one for my z1c. I've rarely had to actually use it, but it's nice to have when I needed it on a long busy weekend. The current screen resolution is perfectly fine- the only reason I'd ever want 1080 is if I used Cardboard very often, which I don't.

dave
[Xperia Z5 Compact General] Grady Llwyd:
Good to see some solid positive feedback on the z5c, I have been considering this phone for a little while now however I am torn if I'll wait it out and get whatever comes after the z5c or drop the $500 required to get it.
[Xperia Z5 Compact General] toxic_garden:
you're not alone there. ;)

The z5c is also my first phone which i did not feel any need to mod and/or root. On every other android phone i used over the past six years, i way always excited to see first which custom roms and tweaked kernels are available. When the original system was crappy enough, i fiddled around with xposed modules and other stuff too. But for today, i haven't even rooted my z5 compact since the overall quality is just perfectly fine the way it is. Of course it DOES get pretty warm when playing graphic intensive games, but that's nothing i was in any way worried about at any time. Pictures turn out to be great, even in low light environment. The only thing i _could_ complain about is the fingerprint reader, which recognizes my thumb only on 3 of 10 cases. But since i never used it for unlocking or sth else, it doesn't bother me too much.

Given my history of android devices (started with HTC, continued with Samsung, Xiaomi, Motorola and some more) i can pretty sure state out that i am not a fanboy of any manufacturer at all, but for this exact moment, i'm 100% satisfied with the z5c as well as my girlfriend is with her z1c i gave her back then. ;)
[Xperia Z5 Compact General] DrvLikHell:
Croozah, Archimedes, and smartphone-tester, thank you very much for recounting your experience with the Z5C. Special thanks to smartphone-tester because the Z5C and the S7 are the exact two phones I'm deciding between. Your comparison was most excellent and very valuable.

I'm leaning heavily towards the Z5C because of it's size and price. All of the other features that mean the most to me are present in both phones; flagship internals, waterproof, sd card slot, large internal memory. The noted shortcomings of the Z5C are things that don't bother me, or that I won't use. I'll never use a fingerprint scanner on any phone for fear of my phone or Google being hacked and having my fingerprint floating around cyberspace. Pin numbers can be changed, fingerprints can't. Both cameras are at least point-and-shoot quality. If I want to do some real photography I'll defer to Canon. I don't play games, so heat isn't a big deal... unless Sygic would make it heat up.

On the flip side, using a phone one handed is very important to me. I tried it with an S6, which is nearly identical in size to the S7, and it was very awkward. I can tell that it'll never be a fluid motion like it is with my Moto. The Z5C is slightly smaller than my Moto so no problems there. The only option I'd like on the Z5C that the S7 has is dual sims on the 930FD. But, the second sim occupies the SD card slot, so I'd gain one option but potentially loose another.

Then there's price. On Swappa, an S7 930FD goes for around $500-$550. A regular 930 goes for $450-$500 on the low end. A Z5C can be had for around $350ish. As long the Z5C doesn't have slowdown issues after the MM update then the S7 doesn't have much over the Z5C for me.

Thanks again for all your replies. You guys would think I've lost my marbles if you knew how much research and reading I've done while looking for a new phone.