Issues
Some of the issues that people are reporting in the new KitKat update can be found below. It is worth noting that these issues don’t seem to affect everyone. For example, we have not experienced faster than usual battery drain or overheating.
Sound bug – Some users are also complaining of a sound bug where the sound from calls, notifications, alarms or music is played through the internal speaker, rather than the external speaker. The issue can appear randomly rather than consistently which makes it more frustrating, especially when trying to troubleshoot.
Heating – A common complaint we are hearing on the Xperia Z1, especially, is that the phone overheats when running the camera.
Battery drain – Perhaps related to the above issue, some users are complaining of faster batter drain in KitKat versus Jelly Bean.
Slow camera performance – Some people are finding lag when navigating options in the camera or when trying camera apps.
Memory card restrictions – Google has changed the way it treats SD cards within Android KitKat. Please read our previous article on this which goes into detail in what these changes are and how it may impact on your decision to upgrade to KitKat.
Final words
Overall, once you move past the initial disappointment of not seeing some anticipated software features from the Xperia Z2, such as tap to wake, the Xperia Android 4.4.2 KitKat firmware update (14.3.A.0.681) is a pleasure to use with a smooth performance overall. As you can see across this review, there are a number of changes in the move from Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.
Some of these are significant, such as the transparent elements brought by native KitKat, Movie Creator, additional options in the various camera modes, Calendar, Answering Machine, One-touch setup, Wireless Media Transfer, Printing and the ability to manage notifications.
Overall it is worthwhile update and we would expect some more tweaks in future KitKat updates. Obviously apart from quashing the bugs outlined above, we would hope that the notifications menu will move to a transparent background to keep it consistent with the KitKat UI. There is also a chance of seeing some of the Xperia Z2’s features to appear in the Xperia Z1, Z1 Compact and Z Ultra over time.
