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Have Sony Messed Up?

ozaz said:
Mid-range Xperia X (SD 650, 3GB RAM, 32GB storage, FHD) priced at £529 in UK with VAT. That's £441 ($621) pre tax.
http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/sim-free-sony-xperia-x-unlocked-32gb-black-p58719.htm

LG G5 (SD 820, 3GB RAM, 32GB storage, QHD): £539 with VAT
Samsung GS7 (SD 820, 3GB RAM, 32GB storage, QHD): £569 with VAT & Gear VR

WTF Sony!
Click to expand...

You got the S7 wrong as I believe in the UK we get the Exynos version? Also not the S7 and G5 have 4GB RAM.
But the reason the Sony phone is so expensive is because they are not selling the Performance version in the UK. And it also makes them more profit.
They won't win any iPhone of Galaxy uses like that, I was playing with my iPhone 6S naked and thinking it really is design porn, and compact, think I'll stick with it as the S7 may still be too big, Sony really need to get the new Compact model out if they are going to make one again? The best competition to the standard iPhone.
 
I think Tim Cook is helping Sony with their mobile division. One competitor less.

I replaced Z3 Compact with Z5 Compact. It's slower, heats up randomly, requires restarts every 1-2 days, has software bugs which have not been fixed since launch (apparently Marshmallow is coming March 7 and will fix them... we'll see...). On the plus side size is perfect, I love the fingerprint reader, uncovered micro USB, water- and dustproof, microSD slot.

The X series looks like roadkill. They're all the same size. Not even + or XY or X Pro series with larger screens. No Compact which is the most exciting phone Sony have. And announcing them MONTHS before premiere is basically begging people "please stop buying Z5s". They should have announced them, like, three days before release.

I thought for a few seconds about selling off my Z5C and waiting for X Performance, then saw suggested price of X Performance in Europe is €699 (Z5C cost me €429). Um. No.

I understand Sony's heart isn't anywhere near their smartphones anymore but the X series is just bizarre. Either try harder or quit, Sony.
 
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navaira said:
I think Tim Cook is helping Sony with their mobile division. One competitor less.

I replaced Z3 Compact with Z5 Compact. It's slower, heats up randomly, requires restarts every 1-2 days, has software bugs which have not been fixed since launch (apparently Marshmallow is coming March 7 and will fix them... we'll see...). On the plus side size is perfect, I love the fingerprint reader, uncovered micro USB, water- and dustproof, microSD slot.

The X series looks like roadkill. They're all the same size. Not even + or XY or X Pro series with larger screens. No Compact which is the most exciting phone Sony have. And announcing them MONTHS before premiere is basically begging people "please stop buying Z5s". They should have announced them, like, three days before release.

I thought for a few seconds about selling off my Z5C and waiting for X Performance, then saw suggested price of X Performance in Europe is €699 (Z5C cost me €429). Um. No.

I understand Sony's heart isn't anywhere near their smartphones anymore but the X series is just bizarre. Either try harder or quit, Sony.
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Having the fault free Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact was the main reason I WAS looking at the Sony Xperia Z series Compact, I haven't even touched the skin as it's great.
But as you said, I read a lot of faults with the Z5 Compact so held off, and the Z3 Compact camera didn't seem capable of matching the iPhone's at the time so didn't buy that either.
It's a shame as Apple do seem to be the only ones offering high end reliable compact phones, unfortunately my iPhone 6S does seem noticeably smaller than the new Galaxy S7.

I was hoping for a new Z6 Compact with the Snapdragon 820, alas no.
 
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Z3 Tablet Compact is PERFECT.

I bought the Z5 Compact and I was thinking all the time "I should have waited for Z6". I hope Marshmallow will solve most of Z5's problems. I don't want anything bigger than 4.7" screen, the size is ideal for me.
 
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Sony had no need to announce the X series given that it is months off. They have instead just dug themselves a grave. No one is going to care about it when it finally is available to buy.

By then, the iphone 7 and Note 6 will be announced.

The premium smartphone industry is now a two horse race between the iphones and the Samsung edges and notes. Just glad that Samsung have been upping their game.

The Z3 Compact Tablet is still my main daily driver (alongside edge plus) but for me let downby the plastic build. Would have preferred a metal or glass back. Otherwise a great device which will be made better when I can increase the paltry internal storage with a marshmallow update.
 
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It would have been better if alongside the new X range they also launched a new 8" tablet. Could have updated the design, given it the fingerpeint scanning power button, updated camera, Snap Dragon 820, the top end one. Wireless charging. It would have got them noticed for sure.
 
2015-smartphone-brand-rankings.png


^ Yup.

Sony is no longer Top 10 anymore like they were two years ago.

I've said it before, the company to watch is Huawei. I hoped HTC and Sony would wow me, but there is more wow in Huawei these days. They could topple Samsung within the next decade because like the Casino (1995) tagline says - Nobody stays on top forever.

Go back even 8-9 years ago, nobody expected Samsung to be where they are now. Most smartphone users had Nokia or a BlackBerry. Then the Galaxy S and Note series came out, and Samsung rose to the cream of the crop while the former top dogs in Nokia and RIM faltered.

The companies to watch for these days are Huawei, Xiaomi, Lenovo, ASUS, Oppo, etc. Don't expect some miraculous comeback by Sony.
 
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There have been rumours for the past 18 months that Sony are pulling out of the phone market so I am surprised they are still around to be honest.

The phones in the OP are not setting the world alight either.
 
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AppleRobert said:
So is the X coming shortly totally out of the running for you folks?
Click to expand...

The fact they are essentially making it a mid tier device with the snapdragon 625 in Europe in the best config available here, means that it is indeed out of the running, especially as they are still expected to ask flagship prices.
 
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I remember the term for ecosystem for technology and not biology wasn't popularized until all the writers writing love letters to Apple started making the term popular.

That ecosystem is where Sony missed the boat on. They currently have an underrated ecosystem, but it seems too little, too late. They were so worried winning the proprietary format wars with Blu-ray because they did not want to lose again with previous format wars that they completely missed the boat on digital distribution. When Microsoft wanted to bring online gaming to gaming consoles with the original Xbox and Xbox Live, Japanese companies Sony and Nintendo, still hesitated and didn't focus on it until the following gen. Nintendo cares about selling software with physical copies. Sony also does as well as win royalties for the proprietary format wars.

Had Sony figured it put digital distribution was the future back in 1999-2000 before the PS2 came out, maybe we would be talking about Sony right now and their well established ecosystem and not Apple. Because hardware vs hardware, Sony is like Michael Jordan and Tony Stark (MCU) to Apple's Kobe Bryant and Peter Parker. Sony inspires Apple in hardware design. What Sony didn't figure out was physical media distribution wasn't going to be around forever.

Now look where Sony is right now. I also could care less for the death of the Z series. It is just a naming scheme. A different won't affect if the phones are good or not. And besides, the first Xperia was the WinMo smartphone, Xperia X1 manufactured by HTC and released in 2008. X or Z, who cares? Sony has more problems than just different naming schemes.
 
Sony is sureleeeee a strange company. I mean I have a launch day PS4, it works fine but sounds like a jet engine on a harrier jump jet and pumps out a lot of heat. Fine and fair enough, but when Sony launched the terabyte model just over a year later then also change the internal components, made it lighter and made it run quieter, thus I feel a bit screwed over now, considering it wasn't even two years between the two models.
And now they are about to launch a more powerful PS4?

They seem to have taken the games console business model everyone buy's a console for and screwed it up and thrown it out the window.... no wonder Jack Tretton left the company.

And then we have the Playstation Plus service, they did and still do on the PS3 offer some great AAA games for free with that service, yet with the PS4 they have only offered indie games, only a splattering handful of AAA games and even some of those have been indie titles!

To give an example of the market place in play here, Microsoft has launched it's Xbox One and left it alone apart from increasing the hard drive space, they are rumoured to be launching a new slim Xbox One this year 3 years after the original model, but it's not expected to be more powerful, just quieter and cooler and smaller.
And they DO offer big name AAA titles alongside indie titles for free to it's Xbox Live GOLD members, it's version of PSN Plus.
Also because of the Xbox One's backwards compatibility the free monthly games the offer that console on it's Gold service can also be played for free on the Xbox One.
Sony's idea of backwards compatibility is to charge you a monthly fee to stream PS3 games.
And you can get the EA access service on it for a cheap yearly price which gives early access to EA games, discounts on digital copy's and extended test play's.


Sony seem hell bent to stay on a collision course to fail? I mean who's going to buy a console where it gets significantly updated every year and a half by the manufacture? People build PC's to do that, they expect to buy a games console and have the same game features for 5 years.

They obviously are selling tons of PS4's, more then Microsoft are selling, but I don't think making a more powerful console with better features and graphics etc 3 year after the last one, and no doubt charging the same or a higher price will guarantee that momentum of sales. And the competition will be launching a smaller cheaper version that's won't be noticeably and significantly more powerful.
 
I had a look at an Xperia X in town today and I really really liked it. Thought it was a lovely looking phone and it felt very nice in the hand too.

I also like the Sony 'skin' which blends nicely with the pretty stock feeling Android experience. I had a look at an S7 too for curiosity sakes, and thought that looked a bit Fisher Price in comparison with its big colourful apps. But I get lots of people like that.

I could see me using the Xperia X actually. I tried the camera out and was very impressed with what I saw. It was extremely quick to take snaps which isn't the case for my Priv at all, and thumbnails appeared instantly to view, something that can take close to 10 seconds on my Priv.

No idea on prices as I don't have any reply intentions to switch, but if I had endless money I'd have easily bought one for the fun of it!
 
How are you supposed to get a feeling for this product if you cannot see the real screen at the store?
 
My Z5 Compact is still stuck on security updates from 1 February and didn't get 6.0.1 update. *cue in laughter from iPhone fans* X – not Performance model – costs the same as S7 (price just dropped to €469 here), Snapdragon 625 vs 820, 3 GB RAM vs 4 GB RAM. I'm afraid Sony lost a customer. At the same time they are pumping out Beta versions of Marshmallow for Z2 and Z3 series because why not.

I'm pretty sure that their mobile division is led by a Samsung executive in disguise.
 
It is a nice phone but I don't think the price is right. I don't understand how they can cut back on things like waterproofing the device, and lowering the internals, yet still charge flag ship prices. This should be £450 at most in the UK for launch.
 
WWell it would appear that the sim free model is 459 in a couple of places new, which doesn't seem too bad. If it were under 450 I'd be very tempted ha.
 
Sony's bread and butter is in its PlayStation and camera division. Everything else they've screwed up on or don't give a crap about.
 
http://www.xperiablog.net/2016/06/0...eriaBlog+(Xperia+Blog)&utm_content=FeedBurner

See that graphic below? That shows what it would cost right now to purchase theXperia X (£499.99) versus the Xperia Z5 (£406.25) from Amazon UK. You can dress it up as you like, but we can’t envisage any scenario where we’d pick up the Xperia X over the Xperia Z5 at the same price point, let alone having to pay over £90 for the privilege.

Simply put, Sony’s biggest issue right now is that they’ve overpriced the Xperia X so much that when placed against the company’s flagship from last September it becomes an extremely difficult sell.
Click to expand...
 
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Ouch:

For $350 or $400? Sure, it’d be easier to feel good about recommending. But you shouldn’t pay $550 for an okay processor. You shouldn’t pay $550 for a phone that lacks a fingerprint sensor. And you shouldn’t pay $550 for a device that does little to improve the ailing fortunes of Sony’s limping mobile division. I’m not sure how stuffing a faster processor into the more expensive Xperia X Performance a couple months from now will sell me on the idea any better. In a smartphone market that’s become so roundly impressive, Sony’s slow crawl and iterative habits are painfully clear now more than ever. It’s time for the company to do some reinventing.

Sony Xperia X review: X marks the flop
An unreasonable price for a reasonable smartphone


http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/10/11889750/sony-xperia-x-review-price-phone-specs


6.7 VERGE SCORE

GOOD STUFF
  • Beautiful display
  • Metal back won't shatter like glass
  • Battery lasts through the day
BAD STUFF
  • Wildly overpriced
  • Uninspired design
  • No fingerprint reader on US model
 
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