answered
2019-11-30 20:50:04 +0200
I've now had a Xperia 10 Plus (10+) for a week. I recognize everyone has different preferences, so I'm just sharing from my perspective.
My path has been N9>Xperia X>10+. My wife and two oldest children had the N9s and then we all upgraded to SFOSX. I wanted to investigate the 10/10+ before taking the leap with everyone else. I am very glad that I did.
As a point of reference, I am about 6' 5" (1.95m) tall, so my hands aren't exactly tiny. I can confidently say that after only a week, my right hand is cramped and sore from using this phone. It is simply not a one-handed phone. In order to type on and keep it balanced in my hand, I have to work a lot harder. In order to open apps ordered along the top of the screen or to swipe from the top down, I have to physically move the phone. If trying to do it one-handed, I have to hold my hand in such a way as to let gravity do its thing, yet let it do so in a controlled slide until my thumb can reach the top of the screen and swipe. All of this must be performed flawlessly in order to not drop the phone.
The other option, as when driving (at a red traffic light, of course), is that I have to use my leg to support the phone so I can have my hand reach what I'm trying to tap. The reality has become that this is a two-handed phone, or the smallest tablet I've ever used.
If it was just this that annoyed me, then I would live with it because I want it to work. But I must be doing something wrong because there are too many other things that do not work well enough for me.
This is my only phone and is, obviously, my daily driver. I have two Microsoft Exchange accounts that I use on my phone. On my Xperia X (XX), one account always gave me problems. I am pleased to say that on 10+, both Exchange accounts update every time without incident. That was definitely an improvement. I don't know why it would be different, but for whatever reason it is, and I was pleasantly surprised.
However, I have been entirely unable to have video play back on any Android apps. I install Ubiquiti networks and Axis security cameras for a living. As such, I use those Android apps weekly. I looked forward to the new Android version support on 10/10+ just so I could get the newer version of Android apps. However, I cannot get any video to play on the Axis Companion Classic app. I can successfully log into the app and see all of my sites. I can open a site and see thumbnails of all of the installed cameras. But when I click on any camera, it changes to the screen where it should show me live footage and then an error pops up says the video is too high a resolution. That's in the low-res mode that the XX has not problems playing back, not even the full resolution/high quality mode.
To troubleshoot, I tried playing videos from YouTube. Many won't play in either the stock browser or Chrome. To provide a specific, clearly non-work-related example, if I pull up Starwarstheory's review of Mandalorian episode 4 in either stock browser or Chrome, I can see stupid ads, but the video itself will not play. However, I downloaded YTPlayer and it can find a stream and play it back flawlessly.
Regardless of whether on cellular (T-Mobile USA) or WiFi, I cannot play the video.
With the Ubiquiti app, I can only pull up networks if I use the cellular internet, not the WiFi. The big caveat to that is that if on WiFi, then I can pull up the local network's settings in the Ubiquiti app, but never any remote site.
I realize my use case may be different than Sony's target audience. I don't care to watch wide aspect ratio movies on my phone, so I don't need the extra screen real estate for that. But it has been nice on email, websites, and work apps to have extra space to see more content. I have found it useful to see more of a past text message conversation with someone without scrolling.
Whatsapp did not load on my phone. I will do a test later today of copying the APK file still in my Downloads on my XX and install that upon my 10+ to do an apples-to-apples comparison of precisely the same version. However, using APKPure, I figured the app would load as easily as it did on my XX and it simply did not.
I apparently blew through a 4GB monthly data limit on my T-Mobile plan, so I'm at slow speed until 2 Dec. I've never reached my limit before, so I find that curious. As a result, I've resorted to WiFi at client sites and at home. My observation is going from WiFi, back to slow cellular as I commute, then back to WiFi is not smooth. I have had to reboot my phone to get things working properly every time.
And while I'm on the topic of rebooting my phone... I have accidentally shut down my phone at least seven times in as many days. Just picking the phone up and carrying it to go somewhere or to put in a jacket pocket, I pick it up in such a way as to have it fully in my hand, not dangling from the very top. I tend to pick it up from the sides, not from the glass screen. Well picking it up on the sides, I have unwittingly pressed the button to shut it down and I only find out when the phone does its quick vibration as it's shutting down. I never had this problem on XX or N9. I'm adapting and in last two days have not accidentally shut it down, but it's a slight annoyance nonetheless.
I do like the thumbprint reader on 10+ and its ability to wake the phone up and unlock it all at once. I just put my registered finger on that sensor and wait and it does it all. That is an improvement from the XX.
One of the reasons I got the 10+ was for the 2x optical zoom on the camera. Honestly, I haven't used the camera much yet. I'm not a critical photographer, so readers defer to other reviews of the camera. My use is primarily to take photos of serial numbers or Windows 7 activation keys stuck on a computer underneath a desk so I can type it into Windows 10. I just don't always want to crawl underneath to get the phone super close to the sticker, so the optical zoom is handy. Sometimes I reach around corners or deep into server racks and need to take a photo of something inside for documentation. Having the zoom is helpful to provide an enlarged view. From what little I've used the camera, it's suited my needs. The extra screen real estate looks weird in the stock camera app, but I understand why it's that way, so I just adapted.
Another deal killer for me is the Bluetooth support.
With all of my long passwords for Ubiquiti and Axis sites, I have long used a Logitech K480 keyboard with my XX. It has worked flawlessly for me. On the 10+, it is completely unusable. I may press a key 8 times before I get one letter to register.
I have an Etymotic Blu2 earpiece and have used those since N9 days. On N9 and XX I could have the headset paired and be able to press the button on the headset to answer calls, hang up, put someone on hold, etc. With the 10+, forget about it. I have to press the button on the phone's screen to hang up a call. In fact, now that I think about it, I have the same problem when the phone is paired with my car. I can't use the car to accept calls or hang up when done. I did not have that problem on the XX.
Another annoyance that is more SFOS-related with this new 3.2 is the window that pops up after I end a phone call. A few times I have been at a red traffic light with limited time for doing my phone tasks before I have to put it down and drive again. Just last night I ended a call and was trying to call someone back in the call history. I have to wait five precious red-light seconds for that blasted screen to disappear before I can click what was hidden beneath it. I know the remorse timers on everything else can be swiped away. I tried swiping it away and could not. The light turned green and I had to wait to do what I knew I could have done had that message not popped up. And incidentally, that message seems to only appear when someone hangs up on me, not when I hang up on them. Well, I tried to hang up on them to end the conversation, but the Bluetooth didn't permit it and the other person had to end the conversation. UGH.
All this being said, the only new thing I really tried to do with this phone was load my banking app (Chase Mobile) that I've never been able to have on XX. That was two days of frustration. I could only find an APK from earlier in the year. It loaded, I had to type my credentials repeatedly into the thing (via the on-screen keyboard mind you, because the Bluetooth one did not work in Android). I got the TFA text message, enter the code and my password yet again, and it started to load, then said that they have a new version of the app, then logs me out.
I then embarked upon doing the MicroG tasks that others have kindly posted instructions for a neophyte such as myself to follow. I finally got a new version of the app from the Amazon store and it said it wouldn't work on my version of Android. Are you kidding?!??! After realizing all of the permissions that thing wanted, I decided I'd suffer through the web interface indefinitely. Due to the many things that seemed to be not working, I figured perhaps I messed something up with the MicroG and reflashed my phone. It's been four days with the phone since the reflash and now a sore hand and many frustrations later, I'm moving back to the XX later today.
I will watch the forums and see if others have these problems or if I am just missing simple things. I won't return the 10+ (Best Buy will charge me to restock it). I'm not going to flash it back to Android anyway. But maybe this information, combined with other experiences recounted above, will help save someone else from the aggravations of early adoption.
The bottom line is that for now, I am taking my memory card and SIM card out and putting it back into the XX.
Not to end on a negative note, I am reaallllly pleased Jolla continues to work on everything and making improvements. I appreciate their standpoint on not upgrading Android support on XX. That's a trade-off I'm willing to accept. I did sign up for one year support on XX and have been pleasantly surprised each time I can successfully apply a new SFOS update upon it. That small, hearty crew has my utmost respect for doing so much with so little. I am very thankful to have the results of their labor of love in my life each day. While I get weary of explaining to people around me who don't realize that there are alternatives to iOS and Android, I am pleased to have the option.
Thanks for the review. How about the camera (photos, videos)? In particular noise in pictures, and low-light scenarios?
orangecat ( 2019-11-22 12:31:39 +0200 )editif the buttons in top menu haf a better size there also could be taken more. bit thanks for the review.
NuklearFart ( 2019-11-22 12:44:28 +0200 )editCould post the partition layout ? Basically just running
lsblkand pasting the output here would be fine. :)I am asking for this because on past devices, the rootfs and home size split was very subotimal, mainly due to keeping the original Android partition layout. Now with encryption support the partition layout is reportedly being changed, so I wonder if these issues have been rectified. and if they are not, I guess it could be even harder to fix them now if encryption is in play. :) Thanks in advance! :)
MartinK ( 2019-11-22 13:01:10 +0200 )edit@MartinK: Here are the relevant mountpoints:
|-mmcblk0p2 179:2 0 32M 0 part /mnt/vendor/persist |-mmcblk0p40 259:8 0 1M 0 part /vendor/bt_firmware |-mmcblk0p42 259:10 0 140M 0 part /vendor/firmware_mnt |-mmcblk0p44 259:12 0 16M 0 part /vendor/dsp |-mmcblk0p67 259:35 0 450M 0 part /odm |-mmcblk0p70 259:38 0 850M 0 part /opt |-mmcblk0p72 259:40 0 3.5G 0 part /fimage | |-sailfish-root 252:0 0 2.5G 0 lvm / | `-sailfish-home 252:1 0 45.4G 0 lvm | `-luks-39d38fb9-d2aa-489e-8c9c-9da479147229 252:2 0 45.4G 0 crypt /home `-mmcblk0p74 259:42 0 20M 0 part mmcblk0rpmb 179:32 0 16M 0 disk zram0 253:0 0 1G 0 disk [SWAP]You get approx. 44 GB user space and 1,1 GB free system space. Encryption setup is optional on device installation but recommended if you want to protect your private data. However it would be interesting to known how the numeric pin is hashed to LUKS encryption key and how much CPU power it takes to brute force by iterating numbers.
Nekron ( 2019-11-22 13:16:42 +0200 )edit@Nekron
Thanks for the layout, much appreciated! :)
Looking at the sizes, it looks like they still do the same mistake of making the root partition too small - 1.1 GB free on root by default is much much too little, given that all native applications will be installed there (yet another hurdle for native app authors - people not actually having free space to install their apps!).
Advanced native applications, such as OSM Scout Server + Pure Maps might require 60-100 MB or space to install, which is ~10% of available space after clean installation. And successful updates might require ~400 MB of free space or even more. Having this small rootfs is really insane! :P Especially, given that home already has 44 GB. It would really not hurt Jolla to give an extra 4 GB to rootfs in this case, users will hardly notice their home is not 44 but "only" 40 GB.
As for encryption - if already enabled, this makes resizing the storage layout to a sane size a bit harder, as now you will need no only to reize the respective filesystems and LVM logical volumes, but also the the LUKS container. Thankfully, LUKS containers can be resized, both up and down, even though the maintainers don't recommend that without prior backup:
https://gitlab.com/cryptsetup/cryptsetup/wikis/FrequentlyAskedQuestions
See section: "2.15 Can I resize a dm-crypt or LUKS partition?"
The correct order (but no guarantees, really - use at own rick) will likely now be:
(I recommend keeping some buffer when resizing the various volumes rhather than always trying to exactly add the sizes you remove.)
MartinK ( 2019-11-22 13:56:01 +0200 )edit