Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsAvoid at all costs
Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2016
Update from January 2017: Sony still has no clue when they will repair the phone and refuses to escalate the case. If I could I'd give them negative stars. If Sony can't fix their own phones they need to send a replacement or a refund.
Update from 12/12/2016: Sony has had my phone for 2-1/2 weeks now and still no resolution. This is unacceptable. Avoid at all costs, factory warranty is next to useless.
From the beginning purchased this phone back on October 19, received October 21. Charged it up, powered it on, and waited while it ran through the myriads of updates. Noticed immediately the battery was rapidly depleting even while plugged in. Battery performance initially was terrible and would only last about 6 hours or regular use without streaming video or playing games. By the 2nd week battery life had improved and I could go a full day, 12 hours or so, as long as I didn't stream or play games. If I stream I can get about 2-3 hours of use from a full battery. Fit and finish of the phone itself is good as is screen clarity.
Moving on for those with ATT, it does not have all the required bands for full functionality, at least in Orange County, CA. When it does connect to LTE I literally can't walk 50 feet in any direction without dropping to H or H+, and just the act of pulling emails on H or H+ can be hit or miss.
Based on the above I'm giving the phone only a 2. The lack of battery life and ability to connect to ATT is awful. Your mileage may vary with carrier and possibly phone in respect to battery life, but so far my $200 upgrade in budget smart phone has been more downgrade than anything. Luckily I didn't throw my old phone away.
Camera is ok... don't expect fast shooting. Works about as good as my old Samsung S3, but it is a budget phone and I could really care less about the camera.
Now the fun part, by November 22 the touch sensors for the screen took a dump. Touch would either not register or would receive phantom input making it impossible to do anything. After beating around the bush with Sony tech support for a number of hours trying to do the Xperia companion reset, which by the way you need a working screen in order to use :/, it's headed back to the mothership for warranty repair or replacement. We'll see how this goes....
