As a phone repair tech myself, I consider both Sony and Motorola phones underrated when it comes to repairability. They’ve never given me any grief when it comes to screen, battery, or charge port replacement.

Beside good repairability, Sony also supports AOSP and provides everything necessary to build your own custom ROM (including build guides and bootloader-unlock). This usually takes a few months, but it is much better than throwing away a phone after it no longer gets security updates.

I'm genuinely thinking about getting a Sony as my next phone - an SD card, headphone jack, and software that works well with my Sony camera!

"Its a job for trusty alcohol. Not only can it relive your tension, but the phone's, too." Best line I've heard from Hugh

Currently watching this on my 10 III, I bought it second hand about a year ago at a really good price and I've never had a problem. The one issue I did have with updating the OS was handled very well by their official online support. I'm very relieved to hear that at least when the battery kaputs or something that it'll be relatively easy to repair or get repaired.

wish they had a trade-in program for their phones, that could probably get others to buy their phones. Sony literally makes some of the best phones on the market and I'm glad they haven't discontinued them despite not many sales.

Hugh's videos give me euphoria when he uploads. I like his videos and he is chill when he talks. He's a chill person after all. Hugh, I like your videos and I've been watching since like last year I think.

Great video as always! That repair was fast too! That back glass with easy to remove ahdesive really helps in that case. I'm pretty sure the next owner gonna have a great "Xperience" with that phone repaired by you :)

Mostly had Sony phones but with them not in Australia, I started looking at other options, after making a list of features that I wanted/didn't want, it brought me back to Sony and ended up importing one. With things like side fingerprint sensor, headphones jack and no under display camera to name a few

I've always loved repairing my own personal devices as well as those of family and friends. Just for fun. It is nice to find a channel by someone who seems to share that passion tenfold haha. Cheers mate.

I imported my Xperia 1 III from Hong Kong shortly after its release and I've been using it since then it has all the features I want and more.

That actually looks like quite the complex repair for a sony phone. I've owned Xperia XZ1 and now Xperia 5 II, both of which I've personally repaired (in case of 5 II I've replaced camera module after fall damage to one of the lenses, battery and on another occasion dead power button) and all of these repairs were noticeably easier when compared to what is seen in this video. Regardless, sony phones continuously seem to be among the most repairable devices out there, especially in contrast to questionable anti-repair solutions employed by other brands in recent years.

Real wonderful to see this! I personally joined the Xperia experience about a month and a half ago with the Xperia 1 V and i'm loving it. Bezels for front cameras are so much better than punchholes and whatever other shit companies throw at you.

This is a great coincidence I literally just watched the video where you bought the phone lot last night right before I went to bed and to my surprise when I woke up you had up loaded this one . What a great way to start my day . I've been watching you for so many years now, and thanks to you I have summoned up the courage to fix my own devices and minimize E-Waste in our landfills. So thank you for all the knowledge you share with us.

I have the exact same phone sat in my repair pile, glad to know it’ll be an easy one! Thanks Hugh!

Damn, go Sony! I know I've seen a few in the UK, but it was actually in the Alza shops in the Czech Republic where I see the most adverts. They have quite big advertising displays! And they're effective displays; I love my Xperia 1 IV. :D

This one seemed very straightforward to repair, I've found that a lot of Sony phones are laid out strangely inside with lots of complicated overlaying parts and unusual connectors, some older models with a frail and thin antenna frame over the components. Thankfully the thing that seems universal is their reasonably glued back panels, you have to try hard to break one.

I always wanted an Xperia, back when the Arc was around. Loved their design and theme back then (that TV switch off on locking the screen was very cool, and I miss that playfulness) I still use a Walkman A15 for my FLACs (with wired headphones, of course) cause most phones had wonky audio in some way, my Sammy A72 does this, too. Bass really rolls off and everything starts to sound weird, once you hit 85vol (up to 150).

I've just brought the new model of this phone, I really like it with it's legacy features such as a headphone jack and a plastic back.

Thank you so much Hugh 😊

Another great repair by Hugh Jeffreys.

hey hugh, just an idea that i think falls nicely within the recycling theme. i think it would be nice to make small projects showcasing what other things you can do with spare components such as the screen (maybe attach a display controller with hdmi input into it), or maybe utilizing phone batteries to power miscellanous devices/simple circuitries, or things that you can do with bluetooth modules inside a dead airpods, etc

I've been using the Xperia 5 ii for more than 3 years now replaced the battery myself and it is still water resistant after a drop in water it was easy to work on and it still feels like day one

Am thinking to get a used Xperia 5 IV... they are only around 400 USD here in Japan where I live! Or a Samsung S22 maybe... Anyway good to know that Sony makes easy repairable phones!!!

It's nice to see how many components are made by Sony itself

There's Sony models we don't even get in the US. The Xperia 5 V isn't coming to the US, which really sucks. The 5 IV was very nice, and sold fairly well (for Sony) here.

7:53 "it's held together with glue, but a bit weaker than most" - accurate description of my life right now.

I have the Xperia 1 Mk 5, the one with the 4K screen. It is vastly superior to the iPhone 15 Pro and Pixel 8 Pro under all aspects. The video, the photos and the audio (thru wired earphones) can't be compared; Sony could burn Apple, Google and Samsung if only made some ads for their Xperia phones. But the fact is here standing in front of our eyes. And yes, there is the headphone/microphone jack, and a micro-SD card slot. I paid a little fortune for the 1 TB extreme Pro memory card, which can record 4K with no dropped frames - but hey, I got everything I need with me all the times. And the USB-C port is Thunderbolt compliant (cable sold separately). Thank you for the video, I was very interested seeing an Xperia from inside; now I know I can replace the battery by myself: no pairing, Sony truly cared this time for their customers - and not for their spare pennies! Thank you Mr. Jeffrey for all your efforts and your dedication. Greetings from the UK, Anthony

Well, not really the 1 IV that I have, but it's really nice that I seem to have made a good choice regarding repairability. And once the EU's replaceable battery regulation kicks in, it might even give companies like fairphone a run for their money. Headphone jack and all...

Great video; thanks.

My Sony phone was the best phone I ever used. I only quit using it when my carrier wouldn't certify it for VoLTE. Of course after I replaced it, the added it to the whitelist. Among the many things I liked was the aspect ratio meant that (with my small hands) I could reach my thumb across the front of the screen when holding it. With phones getting bigger, this is now only possible for me with a small phone or with one that has a taller aspect ratio.

I’m using an Xperia XA2, 2018 model, goes great, decent camera for a budget phone, used an Xperia S (2011) too. All were great phones.

I used to have the Sony Z3 when it was new back in 2014? I think it was, what a great phone. I do miss the nice features like dedicated camera button, SD card etc but I am more than happy with my S22 Ultra now. Sadly it got killed off by the baseband randomly deciding to refuse to connect to cellular network and I was quoted more than the phone was worth to fix it.

I love Sony! My phone is a Sony Xperia 10iv.. similar to this fix one you did. Mine is black, but not a glass back!!

I loved my Sony phones, was very sad when they withdrew from Aus. had to replace screens on them a few times too, were always great phones to work on

Sony in general is very reasonable when it comes to repair, they offer replacement parts for a long time for different products they sell.

I have an Xperia back in 2012ish LOVED THAT PHONE

01:33 - "Like little Legos..." 😏😉🤣🤣🤣 😎🇬🇧

I had a couple of Xperia phones in the past and thought they were really good. The biggest issue was a lack of factory Android updates.

I have an Xperia 10 Mark II, & it has been a good solid phone, going on 3 years now.

Nice video, thank you for it. Sony phones are very underrated indeed, although they're quite overpriced when purchased as new. I've been using Sony (Ericsson)s for 17 years now since my T610 (which still works) to my current 1 II. And it won't change.

"Not only alcohol can relieve your tension, but your phone's too." Hugh Jeffreys - 2023

Cool! I wonder if the IV is similar enough to follow this guide. Need to replace the screen on mine. (had it already swapped once by Sony, but then they had to erase all data, don't want that again)

Sony phones are really great, I still use my xperia xz for daily use, I even installed Ubuntu Touch on it since it is one of the most compatible phones for it....

I love sony xperia, I'm saving so much for the next year buying a new phone sony Xperia. I hope they still going strong and people give some recognition they deserved

I've had 10+ Sony/Sony Ericson/Ericsson phones in my time. Still have a xz premium though it's charge port is flaky and battery isn't too good anymore. It's my backup phone, which has come out of storage a few times in the last 2 years

I own an Xperia 5 Mark IV, which I bought for the headphone jack, Qi charging and good cameras, and have had it for almost ten months. That aside, I can immediately understand why Sony's phones aren't remotely as popular as One Plus or Motorola, much less Samsung: barely usable thumbprint scanners (though it's nice they're including in the power button), bad UI choices, random restarts and the worst pocket detection I've ever seen in a phone. Windows Phones 7s had better pocket detection than this, and the solution on Sony's forums is "Yeah, probably turn it in your pocket so it's facing away from your hip." Then again, the recommendation for the awful thumbprint scanner is to scan the same finger for 5 to 10 separate finger profiles and see if that helps, so it's about what you'd expect. I'd be more annoyed if I hadn't gotten it discounted by almost 40% new, which brought it much more in the area of what it's actually worth. "Headphone jack and it looks very nice," is a pretty poor excuse to pay even a discounted premium price for that many issues. Still, nice to know if it's ever damaged, it may be easy to repair.

I was hoping that other flagship phones have a headphone jack comeback. Not only earbud cannot access battery replacement, but it's not environmentally friendly and ended up going to ewaste. The earbud battery aren't last longer and more expensive than traditional wire headphones jack.

Very satisfying video

I used to have one of their early Xperias like the XZ or Z3

I loved the Sony Xperia line, but where do they even ship from these days?

How did you clean the glue out of the panel gap on the back? I've used liquid adhesives before and its always messy looking in the gaps. Thx

I almost got a Motorola but went for the iPhone 14 plus instead. Brilliant repair job 😊

My question is, why attach a battery with such a strong adhesive? It's being held in place by the chassis on the sides and screen and back glass on the front and back. The room is tight enough to stop it from moving around and simple double sided tape should be enough to secure it. Thoughts?

The other day I replaced the speakers of my xperia 1ii after I burn them using mods on costum ROMs, I had to disassemble everything because of the earpiece, and it was super easy to do. The hardest part was removing the back glass because I don't have a suction cup.

Hi Hugh would like to see if you can implement glass only repair, how efective it is with cost and quality

I cave the 10III since it came out, and like all the other sony phones I had before, it's a great phone. Realy good specs for only 450€.

I knew someone who worked for Sony back when they were still selling in Australia. He said the reason why they tanked here is because of a failed marketing campaign (something about how they said waterproof even though their phones were, in fact, water-resistant, and some higher-up's stubbornness in not rectifying the language). It led to heavy losses and legal trouble, leading to them pulling out of the market here. Based on this story, it's not so much lack of interest from consumers, but trauma from getting burned for a few badly chosen words in a marketing campaign. I love that they go against the grain and keep going with things like the headphone jack (which I really feel the pain of with my Xiaomi 12 since my car uses an AUX cable, no Bluetooth audio...). The only problem I have with importing Xperias as an Aussie is their lack of support for VoLTE and 5G, even in newer models such as the Xperia 1 iii which my friend has. With 3G getting switched off, Xperias aren't a viable option anymore unless there's a workaround like installing SEA firmware.

Good video as usual, but you have to invest into soundproofing while recording your audio. It's very echoey.

Where did you get the screen including the frame?

My experience with sony xperias is great, all the phones we had at home lasted to this day, being replaced only for being outdated and unpowered for today's needs, they work, batteries hold well, both my parents had a Xperia E5 and they still have them working, also externally they look great as i love the more square edges, and i also like their android skin, but the phones they have avalible in my country are too expensive now and thats probably the main reason of their decline

The Xperia is pretty good, but I've noticed mine that's just a few years old has pretty well been abandoned for support, with a fingerprint reader that just stops working until a reboot at times and quite a few UI issues that even older Samsung phones don't have in the same apps.

I hadn't heard of the Xperia before. After looking into it, I think that may be my next phone!

Sony is pure art and love it so much. The overall device is very satisfying

If they have an option that's not absolutely gigantic like other mainline phones then I might consider giving one of these a go for my next phone.

Nice restore

Sony phones used to be popular, but Im pretty sure that the increase in their price was the main reason they stopped being popular at least in my market, that combined with region specific features was a recipe for disaster, and yeah, most Sony phones are imported lol, even my personal phone is an Xperia X Performance from the japanese carrier SoftBank : )

where do you buy replacement parts?

The main reason I went for a Sony Xperia 1 3 was because of the headphone jack and expandable memory. Having a 4K screen in 21:9 is great, but it chews through the battery.

i owned half a dozen sony phones in a row, starting with an Xperia GO, they were all very sturdy and dependable and as easy+cheap to repair as this one. this ended when they stopped selling them here in AUS. My current phone is a Umidigi bison which has been far better than its price would suggest, but has some weird behaviors (OS related). When thats up for replacement im probably going to grey import a Sony,

Nice pun on the alcohol

I've been looking into replacing my aging Moto Z Play from 2017 or so, but pretty much all current phones lack microSD and headphone jack, or they disqualify themselves in some other way (Xiaomi with awful quality and software bloat, mid-range Motorolas by excluding a compass on some models (wtf?) and others by using Mediatek and other garbage SoCs). Looking at the specs of the Xperia 10 Mk. 3/4/5, they all seem like decent replacements. My only gripes are the step backwards to USB-C 2.0 (the Mk 3 had USB 3.0 with Displayport video output, the 4 and 5 only have USB 2.0 for some reason) and the annoying side-mounted fingerprint reader. I guess these are as close as I can get to my "ideal" phone, as no company seems to be making one that ticks _all_ the boxes anymore

That was a really nice and repair friendly device, and I'm glad the repair went smoothly for you. Let's hope whoever owns this device in the future has a good experience with it.

Sony Xperias hardware are fantastic their new Xperia V series 1, 5 and 10's are absolutely amazing, all of which have a headphone jack!. the problem with Xperias in my case is that their software is downright just awful. the rom they use looks stock and feels fluid but stuff like the finger print scanner being on the side of the phone sounds good until you find out it likes to constantly register a "fingerprint" in your pocket so when you pull it out your phone is locked for 10 or even 30 seconds. due to the phone being a 21:9 aspect ratio a lot of social medias don't run correctly instagram for example sometimes tries to play 2 videos at once. (this is a third party developer issue I know). I'm hoping they further improve further in the future because I believe Xperia phones to be hands down the best multimedia smartphones in the industry; from their camera, beautiful screens, their physical design, micro sd support! and the classic headphone jack. Xperia makes "pro" phones like the iPhone pros and the galaxy s ultra phones just look like paperweights in comparison. Here's to hoping Sony will work harder on improving these amazing smartphones.

I think the only thing that would maybe stop me getting a Sony phone, even though I've considered them before, is I've been spoiled by the macro camera on my Redmi, and really wouldn't want to not have one of those now. As for previously, they never quite had a phone in my exact budget, usually ~£300.

Assembled similarly to the LG G6 you repaired

Yap, have a F5321 Sony Xperia X Compact Changed the battery and headphone jack without trouble. Sony is very niche, but that's what I love about it

Love seeing a Sony phone, the few I've watched multiple times now

Ah, the Xperia. When I was an Android user, the Xperia was my go to phone. I switched over to iPhone because I hate using the Android interface and these particular phones get so buggy. They were bloody nice looking phones and took really great photos for the time tho.

From my experience, having a spare screwdriver to wind the battery adhesives out seems to be a pretty good way of removing them reliably

I had previously used a xperia 5 ii. Had to move to a different one due to the gree line isshue that came with 2020 oleds. I gotta say that phone is a beast and i miss it soo much.

Do i need to add additional glue when replace the back case or just use adhesive back case when i buy new one?🤔

Hi there. I wanna ask...in practical use or based on your experience or what you have read would you choose Sony Xperia 10 v or Pixel 6a for overall photo quality in dynamic range, colour rendition, white balance, natural colour, video stabilization? Or would rather recommend me something else?

What is the adhesive you are using in this video?

price was the stopper for back when sony sold phones in OZ

The only Sony phone i ever had was the Xperia Arc back in the day. Cool phone but i switched to Samsung and stayed there until the S10 plus. After that i switched to Oppo and i still have that phone. Sony has never even crossed my mind again, but my carrier also doesnt seem to sell them either. Mostly Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi and Google. They sell some und are misc tab with Fairphone and Nokia, but they do not advertise them in any way.

hugh jeffreys is the only person rocking the 2017 diy ac at home type video music

Not only Sony has jack and SD card slot but they don't cheap out on DisplayPort Alt mode! Their phones all come with HDMI-over-USB-C function. Great for zero delay gaming.

I'm on the 5 II currently. Where'd you get the battery for this? Because I can't find a good quality one at all, and mine is starting to give out.

I've thought of buying a Sony phone for a while already, but now I am totally convinced. Guess particluarly this one is no longer water resistant after the repair

Hugh, have you ever done a lcd glass replacement on a phone?

Watching this from an Xperia 1 IV great phone

I love my Sony Xperia 10 IV but man its seriously sad knowing that most people can only think of Samsung or Apple. My whole family was questioning why I wasn't going to get either of em instead.

Its weird I never seen Sony phones in the stores lmao

Is the replacement display you put in in this video genuine Sony or aftermarket? I'm still rocking an XA2 for which I recently had to replace the battery. (It had inflated). Replacement was pretty straightforward. Only issue I had was one of the antenna connectors broke off the motherboard which was a pain to resolder. Getting a replacement battery wasn't hard, but I couldn't find an original from Sony. Also, has anyone done a bend test on this (or similar designs from Sony)? It looks pretty long, thin and narrow...

The Sony adhesive for the back glass tends to wear down with mine slowly coming off creating a gap in the back of my sony xperia 10II

For a while xperia were still including an FM tuner. Liked the phone. On to Motorola now that Sony has ditched FM.

I just bought a couple of days ago a used Sony Xperia 5 II as a temporary phone, cause I lost my Pixel 6 and it turned out to be such an amazing phone for me, that I am searching now for a newer gen Xperia 5 or the same one in mint condition. It is very comfortable to hold in hand, and it has a 3.5 jack, notification LED, and good specs, what more could you ask for

What adhesive did he use?

Sony's biggest issues are 1- Not being available in a lot of countries and 2- Not having competitive prices or a mid range lineup. They could absolutely destroy Samsung and Apple if they wanted to, yet they don't for some reason.