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Shindroid 3.0 - Thoughts and Stuff

Shindroid 3.0

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Back by public demand. Or rather, because Dickson insisted. So, guys, I mentioned that I ditched Samsung phones. For good. Okay, maybe never say never. Maybe they will change. I went into the bowels of Luthuli Avenue and got my awesome Sony Xperia Z5. Oh yes I did, a while back. I am a hustler, people. Get this, the authorized Sony dealer that was based next to Uchumi Sarit Centre (until recently, not sure where it was moved to) was selling it for almost 80,000 KES. 80,000 people! Who does that? Like why, then, don’t I just get the S7 that everyone was head over heels and that very much tempted me? That camera, eish!

Anyway, I was not going to change my mind because of a camera and good customer service at their service centres. No way. Background, Shindroid 2.1 went kaput for a while. I think I jinxed after I wrote about it. I had to go back to Samsung folks to fix it at an outrageous price. But a Kikuyu had mercy on me and did the same thing for almost half the price. So it’s a brand new phone again and belongs to my mother. Two birds, one stone.

So how much, did I buy my Sony Z5? Take a wild guess.

Genuine to the core, just not found in a Safaricom shop or some glitzy mall. Ladies and gentlemen, it went for 46,000 KES. And it is worth every penny. Quick question though, why does Safaricom not sell Sony phones? How weird is that? Is it some sort of competition? O.o Anyhuuuuu, I was not going to get it there anyway. I learnt a while back that Safaricom cheats you with bundles and sijui bonga points and just like that, you buy a phone at an extra few thousands. Bundles huisha, my friends. You can get the same genuine phone elsewhere. But let me get to the gist of the story.

I did my research before I got this phone. It was going to be a Nexus, but then how was I going to smuggle it into the country urgently? So after a few weeks of arguing with phone guy, I hit OLX, found a guy and bam landed at his shop. It was a crowded shop with a lot of testosterone around, but for some reason I felt right at home. I had a choice between white and black. I never get white phones. It is good to accept who you are. Enough said. To cut the long story short, the box was opened and out came the most beautiful phone I have ever owned. Sleek. Defined. Grey. Slim. We turned it on. Dual SIM. Well, that was going to be a phone I only use for half its purposes. I don’t do dual SIMs (says the person hating on Safcom lack of competitiveness) but hey, this was a good deal. It won’t hurt to ignore that part of the phone. My brother on the other hand, cannot buy a normal phone (read a single SIM phone as it should be) and so could not use some Bonga points he had quickly amassed after someone borrowed his phone secretly on a bus. Borrowed without asking. Borrowed never to return. As you may know or guess, Safaricom do not sell Dual SIM phones. These people have every single point of competition covered, ey?

The Sony Xperia Z5 is a tiny phone, for people who love big phones, again like my brother. I don’t understand why people like big phones. To keep dropping it? For every Tom, Dick and Harry to see what’s on your phone? To look like you are speaking on a tablet when you make a call? Smh. I like my phones thin and graspable. Quickly, I learnt how to double tap the screen to wake it up. This was a huge difference from Samsung which has a Home button. So now when I have to turn on a Samsung phone, I find myself double tapping. Lol. Habit. The other difference is the back button. It’s on the left, not right. As for bloatware, both Sony and Samsung have lots of that. Only difference is that Sony’s bloatware is kinda awesome. I rarely use it all the same. The bloatware includes XPERIA Lounge, What’s New and AR Effect. These are however interesting and I find myself peeping in for updates and offers. AR effect does funny stuff to your photos. The rest of the apps that come with the phone are the usual useful Google apps and others that you can actually uninstall but don’t feel the urge because you have enough space. 32 GB total space. I completely forgot that I can add a memory card to this phone. I am not even kidding. It’s super-fast. Does not freeze. And if it senses that it is heating up, it gives you a warning and shuts down the app responsible. Like for real, that’s super courteous of it.Update

Thanks to my bad Samsung experience when I upgraded to Lollipop, I have completely refused to upgrade to Marshmallow, an upgrade that was available immediately I got the phone. I have enough faith in my Z5 to believe that it will not get messed up once I upgrade, but… once bitten, twice shy. Now, who knows how I can get rid of that system update message on the notification panel? So currently, we are still on 5.1.1 and enjoying some good battery time. I particularly love Stamina mode that switches off all unnecessary functions on the phone when battery levels are low. Did I mention that this phone lets me call and browse in the exact same places that I couldn’t with the S4 due to poor connectivity? I am not even kidding you. Maybe it’s because it’s on LTE. I don’t know man. Is LTE 4G? I am that clueless. Lemme Google. One sec. This kinda makes sense I guess. I clearly I am being too real today. I should at least pretend to know what I am talking about. Too late.

The Music app is amazing. Forget Play Music. Okay, the only edge Play Music has over the Sony Music app is the fact that you can swipe tracks out of a playlist without having to press and scroll down options to delete. The sound is amazing, of course. This is Sony we’re talking about. The camera is not all that, 23 MP and all but I manage. 😀 Haven’t even thought of installing Google Camera yet, actually. Hmmm. That says something, despite the fact that they made is harder to download. Not worth the hassle of looking for the APK.

There are features I don’t use because I got tired after the excitement. For example, fingerprint unlocking. Super cool, but the time to keep aligning my thumb right is a bit lacking. 😛 NFC. Cast screen, sadly. I so wish I had a TV nearby that I could use this function for. When-I-move-out goals.Apps

And now, let’s wrap up with my Most Used apps, now that Sony gives you that option, to arrange by Most Used. This is based on 3 months of usage. A year ago, I wrote about my favourite/most used apps. That has changed.

  1. Telegram – superior WhatsApp.
  2. Messaging – I ditched Hangouts for a while. The problem with this default messaging app is that it does not have that cool features that Google Hangouts and Messenger have where you can text while still on another app.
  3. Phone – you’d think this would be the first, but no. I only mostly pick calls. Once a day or something.
  4. Twitter – Because I am not (actively) on Facebook.
  5. Camera – love taking pics, same as you.
  6. Google –got to Google.
  7. WordPress –got to blog and stuff.
  8. Authy – got to keep secure.
  9. Page Manager –got to earn a living.
  10. Safaricom –got to build the country.
  11. Music – got to release the stress.
  12. Album – got to scroll down memories.
  13. Slack – again, girl got to work.
  14. Hangouts – like I said.
  15. Chrome – nani kama Chrome?
  16. Google+ – to the last breath.
  17. LinkedIn – girl got to stalk.
  18. Flipboard – got to keep updated. This goes to the bottom of the pile because I no longer have commute time. There’s a downside to everything.
  19. Photos – girl got to play with Google’s AI.
  20. Uber – girl got to Uber man.

You thought Prisma would make the cut? Tafadhali tuheshimiane. :’D

If I remember something awesome that I might have forgotten, I will add it.

Till next time. Peace!

Update: 30th January 2017

We’re on Android 7.0 now, Nougat. Z5 still going strong and looking good. So the excitement of this post still stands. 

9 thoughts on “Shindroid 3.0

  1. I’m in the market for a new phone. But I can’t just seem to save up. Every weekend there’s new plot lol. But from 80K to 46K did someone lala in ICU for that phone? heheh

  2. The S7’s camera does look good. And the Edge. So smooth. But I swore of Samsung so yeah. The Xperia music is King. However, I am starting to have doubts with sony’s innovation because it does not seem to move forward fast enough or in the direction I want. Now that you are on Z5 you’d expect the X Performance or XZ to be vastly superior but no. No need to feel like you are upgrading. You can easily stay with that phone for years. That is until Sony stops the OS upgrades. Kinda like what they did with the Z3c. Which in my opinion is the best compact phone Xperia came up with. Even if it had some major exterior build flaws.

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