Sony Xperia Z1 Compact Tips and Tricks

Android 4.3 (Jellybean)
Phone: Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
Factory OS: Android 4.3 (Jellybean)

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Then view tips for the most recent OS version(s): Android 9 (Pie) & Android 8 (Oreo)
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If you find the vibration of your phone a little too much, this can easily be reduced.

From the homescreen press Menu – Settings – Sound – Vibration intensity. Then slide the bars left or right to change the intensity for various features.

You can also turn off Haptic feedback if you really don’t want any feedback.

To silence the phone when ringing there are two methods:

Either press the Volume Down (or Up) button or if the phone is on a surface facing up, simply flip it over so it is facing down.

To delete or remove homescreen widgets, simply press and hold. Then drag the widget to the top-right corner of the screen and into the Trash icon.

To enable / disable your notification light, go to Settings – LED indicator.

From here you can choose various options.

This may not be available on all models. An alternative however is to download NoLED from the Play Store, which has many options for incoming notifications.

While typing emails or notes, you can simply tap the space key twice and the phone will insert a full stop / period

To soft reset your phone press and hold the Power/Lock button for around 8 to 10 seconds. The phone will restart automatically.

If that doesn’t work, then remove the battery (if it has one). Wait 30 seconds and put the battery back in. Then press the Power/Lock button to turn the phone on.

To copy files between your phone and PC, go to the Android Play Market and download an app called Air Droid.

This is an extremely useful App that connects your phone to your PC wirelessly, allowing you to move files and many, many other things.

Android manages Apps very well and some Apps do not have the option to close them specifically. Normally the App will stay running in the background and only close when many other Apps have been opened.

If you do want to close or terminate an App, then press and hold the Home key on your phone. Then you can swipe the Apps off the screen to close them.

By default, the phone will recognise swear words, but insert x’s instead of the word. To change this, go to Settings – Voice input & output – Voice recognition settings. Then untick Block offensive words.

Normally you can simply insert a SIM card and you will be able to browse the internet using 3G. Sometimes, this must be setup manually however. Before you start, you will need to ask your carrier or Telco for your APN settings.

Once you have those, from your homescreen press Menu – Settings – More networks – Mobile networks – Access Point Names.

From here press the Menu key again (bottom left corner) and select New APN. Then fill in the details your carrier gave you. Then press the menu icon again and press Save.