Living with Sony Xperia Z Premium

A while back I noticed a bunch of problems with the Sony Xperia Z Premium. First, one of the external speakers stopped working — put simply, only one speaker produced sound.

I also found yellow spots along the edge of the screen, maybe a screen issue.

Since mine was a China-market unit, I went to Sony after-sales service.

This time the Sony service location had moved to the Erqi Square area of Zhengzhou, on Dehua Street. I don’t think I’ve been here in ages… it’s changed quite a bit.

Honestly, Dehua Street looks pretty decent now.

As soon as I got to the repair place I realized this spot is pretty badass — though what’s even more badass, I think, is Huawei…

I spent ages explaining my problems to the customer service girl, and she completely ignored me, just saying “Don’t bother, I’ll just send it back to the factory.”

She also told me my phone was a bit bent…

In the end all I was left with was a pickup slip and this thing…

Less than a week later, I got a call saying it was fixed…

When I went to pick it up, I saw they’d replaced the screen, the frame, the top and bottom bezels, and the battery too…

It felt like a completely new phone. The only annoying part was that the firmware had been switched to the China ROM, so flashing the Hong Kong ROM took some effort. I first tried the Malaysian version, but Flashtools wouldn’t flash it, so I just flashed the Hong Kong one and it was fine.

Pretty damn satisfying — went straight out for some good food.