Sony xperia m4 aqua

donnapuppy

I recently bought a Sony xperia m4 aqua in carphone warehouse. I wanted a z1 compact but it was sold out and I was told this was the exact same except for screen size and camera. The phone which I was sold as an 8gb phone actually only has 4gb storage available as 4.03gb is taken up by the android system. This doesn't seem right to me. When I questioned carphone warehouse they were rude abrupt and unhelpful and told me all phones were like that but I've never had a phone with half its storage capacity already used on purchase.
My sister has since bought the z1 compact and has 11gb which is all available to her. When I brought this up with carphone warehouse they made me feel like I was being difficult and eventually said they would contact the Sony rep. They rang back to say that was standard for 4.03gb to be taken up by the android system and basically nothing I can do.
I have a memory card which I constantly have to transfer data across to, like photos music videos, some apps etc, but a lot of apps won't transfer to the memory card so I can't download any new apps as I have insufficient space.

Basically want to know is this standard for an android as I previously had iphones?

jimmii

Its standard for all phones would have been the same for your iPhone. You would have hoped they might warn you it takes up half the memory though I guess they probably weren't aware of it. If you like the phone just get a micro SD for it if not they should exchange it assuming you only just got it.

brooke 2

donnapuppy wrote: »

I recently bought a Sony xperia m4 aqua in carphone warehouse. I wanted a z1 compact but it was sold out and I was told this was the exact same except for screen size and camera. The phone which I was sold as an 8gb phone actually only has 4gb storage available as 4.03gb is taken up by the android system. This doesn't seem right to me. When I questioned carphone warehouse they were rude abrupt and unhelpful and told me all phones were like that but I've never had a phone with half its storage capacity already used on purchase.
My sister has since bought the z1 compact and has 11gb which is all available to her. When I brought this up with carphone warehouse they made me feel like I was being difficult and eventually said they would contact the Sony rep. They rang back to say that was standard for 4.03gb to be taken up by the android system and basically nothing I can do.
I have a memory card which I constantly have to transfer data across to, like photos music videos, some apps etc, but a lot of apps won't transfer to the memory card so I can't download any new apps as I have insufficient space.

Basically want to know is this standard for an android as I previously had iphones?

Just saw this! Was fobbed off by Vodafone with one of these phones as a so-called free upgrade on my iPhone 4 at my contract renewal. My heart is broken with it! Have a path worn down to the local Vodafone store - have not received any satisfaction. Heard Conor Pope dealing with a consumer's complaint re so-called upgrades which are fobbed off on the unsuspecting public. As he says, if it is not better than your previous phone, it can't be correctly called an 'upgrade'. From the moment I got it, I was being notified that my storage space was running out.
As it advertises itself as having 8gb of memory, when, in reality, it only has a little over 1gb, to my mind this is clearly false advertising. So, armed with your post, I am heading back down to the Vodafone store again today. If I get the usual unsatisfactory response, Guess I might try to give Conor a shout!! Am at my wits end with this Sony xperia Aqua so-called 'upgrade' piece of garbage!!

fergiesfolly

brooke 2 wrote: »

Just saw this! Was fobbed off by Vodafone with one of these phones as a so-called free upgrade on my iPhone 4 at my contract renewal. My heart is broken with it! Have a path worn down to the local Vodafone store - have not received any satisfaction. Heard Conor Pope dealing with a consumer's complaint re so-called upgrades which are fobbed off on the unsuspecting public. As he says, if it is not better than your previous phone, it can't be correctly called an 'upgrade'. From the moment I got it, I was being notified that my storage space was running out.
As it advertises itself as having 8gb of memory, when, in reality, it only has a little over 1gb, to my mind this is clearly false advertising. So, armed with your post, I am heading back down to the Vodafone store again today. If I get the usual unsatisfactory response, Guess I might try to give Conor a shout!! Am at my wits end with this Sony xperia Aqua so-called 'upgrade' piece of garbage!!

I bought this phone for my wife on prepay, without realising how small the memory is.
She's been plagued with messages regarding lack of space for update since and hasn't added any apps to save space.
I've moved and deleted what apps I can, but she's coming to the end of her tether.
If only Sony would update, to allow apps to be installed on the SD card, it'd be a grand little phone. But that is unlikely to happen.

beauf

Its a known issue world wide with this phone.

1) Android is very bad a managing/moving apps to SD card
2) Sony M4 Aqua has too small internal disk.
3) Sony filled it with bloat which you can't remove
4) Android is very bad at pushing updates to phones via the operators.

iPhone and Windows phone don't have this problem.

If you search the web you'll find a lot about this issue.
https://www.google.ie/search?sourceid=chrome-psyapi2&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8&q=sony%20aqua%20m4%20storage&oq=Sony%20Aqua%20M4%20Storage&aqs=chrome.0.0l4.8271j0j7

There is an update which will help a little, but you're unlikely to get an operator here to release that update.
http://www.androidheadlines.com/2015/10/sony-issue-update-to-8gb-xperia-m4-aqua-that-removes-apps.html

Fundamentally its a flawed phone. Not much you do will change this.

Something like a Moto G 3rd gen with 8GB doesn't have the same problem because

1) its not full of bloat
2) its has the latest version of android which handles SD card better
3) if you buy it sim free it likely to get updates.

missblondie89

I have an M4 Aqua also, exact same issue, it constantly runs out of space as half of it is gone for the Android System, it is stuck on Android 5.0. I enquired with Carphone Warehouse as to when I would get 6.0, they said that these phones are not due to receive anymore updates although Sony Support have released Marshmallow a month or two ago (even worse now that Android 7.0 is due out very soon)

Now the phone no longer connects USB to PC anymore it is not recognized by any laptop as being connected have no clue why it has stopped being recognized, USB debugging is turned on have tried different data cables and have spoken to both ID Mobile and Car phone Warehouse about this and they don't have a clue either...worse thing is I'm stuck with this device for another 14 months as am on a 24 month contract 😕 It a shame because it was pretty good phone for the first couple of weeks until the dreaded "You are running low on disk space" started popping up and since then it has been extremely glitchy as well as full up of Sony crap apps which you cannot remove!

I personally cannot understand why network providers will not provide updates why the manufacturer has released them, especially when you are on Billpay and are expected to pay for a phone with no space and out of date software which cannot be rectified unless you root the phone altogether which the carrier will not allow!

Sorry had to rant about this when I seen the thread, the phone is driving me nuts!!! 😡

beauf

missblondie89 wrote: »

...Now the phone no longer connects USB to PC anymore it is not recognized by any laptop as being connected have no clue why it has stopped being recognized, USB debugging is turned on have tried different data cables and have spoken to both ID Mobile and Car phone Warehouse about this and they don't have a clue either...

If its faulty then just return it.

beauf

missblondie89 wrote: »

.... I personally cannot understand why network providers will not provide updates why the manufacturer has released them, ...

Most android phones don't get updates. Only a few like Nexus get updates. Motorola used to get them, but its Lenovo now own them so who knows if they will now. Otherwise only the top end Android gets updates.

Apple gets updates, and Windows Phones do too. Because they don't go through the operators.

Bloatware is a big problem on Android phones. Nexus phones and motorola phones generally don't have any though.

missblondie89

beauf wrote: »

Most android phones don't get updates. Only a few like Nexus get updates. Motorola used to get them, but its Lenovo now own them so who knows if they will now. Otherwise only the top end Android gets updates.

Apple gets updates, and Windows Phones do too. Because they don't go through the operators.

Bloatware is a big problem on Android phones. Nexus phones and motorola phones generally don't have any though.

I had a look online on Carphone Warehouse just now, turns out they do trade ins even on bill pay so will be making my way down there next week, I will probably have to point out to them about the USB connection but hopefully they will still do something, no point getting it repaired as phone will get worse over time anyway over lack of updates....will probably at look at HTC or Huawei as they are pretty decent phones.
Cannot afford Apple phones they are ridiculously priced and Windows Mobile are not known to be very good, so will stick to good old Android but will be checking the specs more closely this time round,
Sony are not the worst I have had some great mobiles made by them but they should have put more thought into the M4 Aqua as it did have great potential and could have been a best seller for the budget smartphones range all it needed was bit more storage really, oh well I suppose you get what you pay for really....

beauf

When buying a phone took at their older models and see did they get updates. Otherwise you'll have the same problem again.

missblondie89

Definitely checking the versions of Android this time on the phones that I'll be looking at, half of the phones on the website still only have 5.0 and don't have any indications of getting updated to newer versions which seems a waste of technology tbh

Didn't have a clue about the Android os when I got this phone last year, however since I started working with different versions of iOS Android and Windows in my job, I have a far better idea of what specs I will be wanting to look for in the future, storage, updates and a device that does not overheat constantly which seems to be another common issue with the M4...

Thanks for the tip

beauf

Dont look at the latest ones. Look how they supported the older one.