Sony Is Letting Hackers Put Stock Android On The Xperia Z, But There's A Massive Price To Pay

Sony is letting hackers put stock Android on the Xperia Z, but there’s a massive price to pay

BY Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu

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All Articles by Stefan Constantinescu

Published 24 Apr 2013

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Stock Android is said to be the greatest invention ever conceived by man. As someone who once owned a Nexus One and now owns a Galaxy Note II, I don’t agree with that sentiment, but whatever, mob mentality.

Sony, looking to appeal to hackers and people who spend most of their time lurking on custom Android ROM forums, has just added the Xperia Z to the Android Open Source Project. What that means is Sony will let anyone play with the source code for their 2013 flagship phone.

Sounds great, right? Wrong. While web browsers, instant messaging clients, and other user facing apps have no problems being open source, drivers do. If you want to fiddle with the Sony AOSP project, prepare to kiss your camera and cellular capability goodbye. That’s right, no more phone calls, no more pictures, all in the name of stock Android.

Look, if you want your phone to look like a Nexus, just install a replacement launcher, a replacement lock screen, a third party keyboard, and call it a day. No need to root.