[akg fanboy]

   
From what I've read, the U Ultra does NOT have a dedicated DAC like the HTC 10 does, unless someone can dispute that? But that article seems pretty sure it doesn't. And no headphone jack either too. 

yeah it doesn't, however the earphones are still the same usb c ones that came with the htc bolt, which are identical to the ones with the 10 but with a usb c connector instead, kind of like apple's earpods with the lightning connector which are identical to their 3.5mm ones. The cable itself has a mini DAC but obviously not as high quality and only limited to the specific earphones which aren't that all that great

 

[RockStar2005]

  yeah it doesn't, however the earphones are still the same usb c ones that came with the htc bolt, which are identical to the ones with the 10 but with a usb c connector instead, kind of like apple's earpods with the lightning connector which are identical to their 3.5mm ones. The cable itself has a mini DAC but obviously not as high quality and only limited to the specific earphones which aren't that all that great

 
I C. Ok. So still mehh. lol
 
Anyone can just get the AudioQuest Dragonfly Black v1.5 or Red v1.5 and that will make up for any shortcomings. lol And they're both so small they're more like in-line remotes than 3rd devices you have to actually hold. lol

 

[RockStar2005]

akg..........skim these 2 parts of this article, and tell me What? lol 
 

Even though the HTC 10 only has a 24-bit DAC, it sounds at least as good as all of the other phones in our list, due to a strong amp and software optimizations put in place by HTC. Instead of simply using the 

Aqstic audio codec by Qualcomm

 like it was originally rumored to, HTC opted to include a different one, which turns out to have far superior audio quality. Qualcomm initially advertised the HTC 10 as one of the first devices to come with the chip maker's own codec, however, HTC released the 10 with Aqstic merely as a fallback codec. They used their own undisclosed and proprietary codec to handle music being played from the stock application.
 

My only gripes are that the HTC 10 isn't technically capable of playing Hi-Fi audio, and its stock music player is the incredibly basic Google Play Music, which we can't even uninstall. This is your only choice if you want to listen to locally-stored music files with HTC's codec, as every third-party player gets used with the Qualcomm Aqstic codec instead. However, if you stream music, then everything works perfectly—the HTC codec works with Spotify, Pandora, and every other streaming service we tested it with.
 
 
*Ignore the Hi-Fi Audio part cuz who cares about resolution.
 
So even though you get the dedicated DAC of the HTC 10 regardless of what you use, you only get the HTC-made codec with "far superior audio quality" if you use Google Music?? What the flying F?! Is this really true? I mean it still sounds as great as my Oppo HA-2 did, but What?!! 

 

[RockStar2005]

Better to be safe than sorry. lol 

 

[aertus]

haha its funny. Samsung now relying on sony more than ever before. 

 

[aertus]

  Personally I think the g6 looks pretty nice lol, I dunu if it's a glass back or not but I hope not..... their ui is pretty terrible though and I can speak from first hand experience on both features and performance.
I sony's next phone will be a decent alternative to the xz but I don't think it's going to win them any more market share from what I have seen. However, I do think their mid range bezeless xa ultra successor will do pretty well. 

as long as they keep working on fixing all the stuff previously wrong with all other xperias, fix ram mangment, make the camera  better, make the battery life better. They already have a larger market share than google pixel and htc combined. 
 
then they might get somewhere 

 

[RockStar2005]

  haha its funny. Samsung now relying on sony more than ever before. 

 
Yup. lol

 

[RockStar2005]

  as long as they keep working on fixing all the stuff previously wrong with all other xperias, fix ram mangment, make the camera  better, make the battery life better. They already have a larger market share than google pixel and htc combined. 
 
then they might get somewhere 

 
Those are some BIG IFs my friend. lol But I wish them the best either way. 

 

[akg fanboy]

  akg..........skim these 2 parts of this article, and tell me What? lol 
 

Even though the HTC 10 only has a 24-bit DAC, it sounds at least as good as all of the other phones in our list, due to a strong amp and software optimizations put in place by HTC. Instead of simply using the 

Aqstic audio codec by Qualcomm

 like it was originally rumored to, HTC opted to include a different one, which turns out to have far superior audio quality. Qualcomm initially advertised the HTC 10 as one of the first devices to come with the chip maker's own codec, however, HTC released the 10 with Aqstic merely as a fallback codec. They used their own undisclosed and proprietary codec to handle music being played from the stock application.
 

My only gripes are that the HTC 10 isn't technically capable of playing Hi-Fi audio, and its stock music player is the incredibly basic Google Play Music, which we can't even uninstall. This is your only choice if you want to listen to locally-stored music files with HTC's codec, as every third-party player gets used with the Qualcomm Aqstic codec instead. However, if you stream music, then everything works perfectly—the HTC codec works with Spotify, Pandora, and every other streaming service we tested it with.
 
 
*Ignore the Hi-Fi Audio part cuz who cares about resolution.
 
So even though you get the dedicated DAC of the HTC 10 regardless of what you use, you only get the HTC-made codec with "far superior audio quality" if you use Google Music?? What the flying F?! Is this really true? I mean it still sounds as great as my Oppo HA-2 did, but What?!! 

That's how it all used to be in 2015.... htc is still stuck in the past lol. The lg v10 and axon pro both had that exact same limitations when they first came out and their dacs were limited only to the stock music player to save battery life, but after many complaints both issued a software update to fix this. I DUNU where the dude sourced his info from as I have never read that, but it is indeed interesting

 

[akg fanboy]

  Better to be safe than sorry. lol 

Pretty SHURE they were using LG batteries at one point.... I know sony makes the batteries for the chinese smartphones but interesting stuff for SAMDUNG lol

 

[akg fanboy]

  as long as they keep working on fixing all the stuff previously wrong with all other xperias, fix ram mangment, make the camera  better, make the battery life better. They already have a larger market share than google pixel and htc combined. 
 
then they might get somewhere 

My biggest gripes with sony are really these things:
1. boot up time takes the absolute longest compared to any other android smartphone
2. battery life has decreased since the legendary z3 and no longer top tier 
3. the camera has too many megapickles and suffers in low light
4. still overheats when recording 4k or taking too many pictures
5. the ram is always skimped on and the next flagship will only have 4gb ram. Like I said before, even if it was a pure nexus device, 4gb ram is simply NOT enough for me and as a power user I require at least 6gb on a STOCK skin.
 
IF sony fixes all 5 of those issues as well as QC/customer service that rockstar talked about, then I think sony has room for a big comeback. Otherwise stay home sony lol
 
You may not be aware of this, but the older z/z1/z2 phones all have battery issues where it swells over time and cracks open the back or screen. This is a common problem for older sony phones as they packed in a battery with such little space that it leaves no room for the battery naturally expanding as it gets older and little heat dissipation which leads to faster battery swelling 

 

[RockStar2005]

  That's how it all used to be in 2015.... htc is still stuck in the past lol. The lg v10 and axon pro both had that exact same limitations when they first came out and their dacs were limited only to the stock music player to save battery life, but after many complaints both issued a software update to fix this. I DUNU where the dude sourced his info from as I have never read that, but it is indeed interesting

 
Interesting. 

So are you saying it's NOT true or that it is true but HTC will probably change that in the future? 
 
I'd be A LOT more 

 if Poweramp wasn't utilizing the DEDICATED DAC & dedicated amp, but at least it is doing that, so I can forgive this not using the HTC-made codec moronic BS. lol

 

[RockStar2005]

  My biggest gripes with sony are really these things:
1. boot up time takes the absolute longest compared to any other android smartphone
2. battery life has decreased since the legendary z3 and no longer top tier 
3. the camera has too many megapickles and suffers in low light
4. still overheats when recording 4k or taking too many pictures
5. the ram is always skimped on and the next flagship will only have 4gb ram. Like I said before, even if it was a pure nexus device, 4gb ram is simply NOT enough for me and as a power user I require at least 6gb on a STOCK skin.
 
IF sony fixes all 5 of those issues as well as QC/customer service that rockstar talked about, then I think sony has room for a big comeback. Otherwise stay home sony lol
 
You may not be aware of this, but the older z/z1/z2 phones all have battery issues where it swells over time and cracks open the back or screen. This is a common problem for older sony phones as they packed in a battery with such little space that it leaves no room for the battery naturally expanding as it gets older and little heat dissipation which leads to faster battery swelling 

 
I agree with 100% of your post. LOL Well, at least the parts I'm familiar with. I'll take your word on the low light issue, and I've only taken ONE 4K video in my life, and it was on my Z3. So no clue if the new ones still overheat, but I'm ASSUMING you read that in a review for a NEWER Xperia model? 
 
Ok the RAM thing I may not totally agree on but I guess I'd rather have 6 than 4. lol 
 
Yeah their CS not always but typically isn't much help. 
 
Well I'm glad to hear than since the Z3 they finally gave those batteries a lil more space then! lol

 

[akg fanboy]

   
Interesting. 

So are you saying it's NOT true or that it is true but HTC will probably change that in the future? 
 
I'd be A LOT more 

 if Poweramp wasn't utilizing the DEDICATED DAC & dedicated amp, but at least it is doing that, so I can forgive this not using the HTC-made codec moronic BS. lol

They possibly could change the issue but htc does not like talking about this stuff which is why we never even knew about it nor the dac chip it uses to this day, htc needs to be more upfront about their information.
 
I DUNU if poweramp uses it, I think it is up to the developer to put in the support

 

[akg fanboy]

   
I agree with 100% of your post. LOL Well, at least the parts I'm familiar with. I'll take your word on the low light issue, and I've only taken ONE 4K video in my life, and it was on my Z3. So no clue if the new ones still overheat, but I'm ASSUMING you read that in a review for a NEWER Xperia model? 
 
Ok the RAM thing I may not totally agree on but I guess I'd rather have 6 than 4. lol 
 
Yeah their CS not always but typically isn't much help. 
 
Well I'm glad to hear than since the Z3 they finally gave those batteries a lil more space then! lol

Yeah the new ones still have the issue, seen the tests with the z5 and x performance, not completely shure about the xz but not much has changed with the xz on the hardware side of things.
 
That could possibly explain why the battery size of their newer phones have been steadily DECREASING since the z3......