14 DAY TRIAL // Sony unveiled the Xperia XZ and Xperia X Compact during IFA 2016 in September and pre-orders for the smartphones went live last month in the US. The smartphones are already up for sale on Amazon, but fans should know that the fingerprint scanner doesn’t work in the US.
Sony didn’t remove the components for fingerprint scanners on the two phones, but rather used software limitations to disable the scanning functionality. In other countries where the Xperia XZ and Xperia X Compact are available, the fingerprint scanner is embedded in the home button, located on the side of the phone.
A post on XDA Developer’s forum shows that the fingerprint scanning functionality can indeed be made available on the two smartphones sold in the country. Since it’s simply a software matter, Xperia XZ and Xperia X Compact owners can change the smartphone’s region by flashing software from another country, one in Europe for example.
The flashing procedure voids the warranty on Xperia XZ and Xperia X Compact phones
Once the flashing is complete, the feature will be available on the phone. One user who flashed his Xperia X Compact purchased from Amazon said that the fingerprint scanner worked perfectly and it was even faster than the one on the Z5 Compact.
In fact, the user said that the scanner unlocks the phone as the screen turned on without having any delays. According to the post, the flashing process only takes about a couple of minutes to complete.
Xperia XZ and Xperia X Compact owners should know that flashing their devices will result in voiding their phone’s warranty, which means that there’s a risk nonetheless. Still, users can flash back to the US software any time and restore the smartphone to a factory state.
Xperia XZ is available for the price of $699.99 unlocked on Amazon and comes with a 5.2-inch FHD display with Gorilla Glass 4. The smartphone runs a Snapdragon 820 processor and comes with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of local storage. It runs Android 6.0 Nougat out of the box and is expected to receive an update to Android 7.0 Nougat at the end of the month.