When a new device launches, it’s never good to hear about it experiencing problems so soon after. Especially when it’s such a high profile device like the Xperia Z is for Sony. XperiaBlog is reporting that a number of users are experiencing severe problems with their new Xperia Zs, in that they are randomly shutting down never to turn back on again. Ouch. Hopefully this is a problem that only affects a number of users, as Sony could have a real problem on their hands otherwise.
Users are reporting that their phones will shut down, without warning, and fail to turn back on again. Some have said that performing a hard reset fixes the problem but, this doesn’t appear to be a blanket fix and might not work for all. A hard reset can be done by holding power and volume up. Sony have said that they have a fix ready to prevent such a thing from happening, and that it will be rolled out in the device’s next software build. How long that’s going to take though, is a whole other story. With carriers wanting to “test” an update before it rolls out, this could still affect users for some time to come.
The question is though, if a hard reset doesn’t work and you can’t turn your smartphone back on, how are you going to get that update? Well, as always, it’s best to contact the manufacturer when something goes this badly wrong. Dropping Sony an e-mail or even going back to the network that you got the device from might be a good idea. In a lot of cases, if you’re on contract, your operator might replace your faulty device for free. This happened to me and a faulty One X, O2 kindly sent me a replacement phone. Your mileage will, of course, vary depending on where in the world you are and how you bought the device.
It’s sad to see things like this happen to Sony, especially when they have quite a bit riding on the Xperia Z to position them as high-end players alongside Samsung and HTC.