Phone a Prototype?

[Awesome5ammy]

Hello all. I am very confused and hoping someone might be able to shed some light on my situation.  I recently bought a Z3 from Ebay, and the phone I received is not able to connect to any service.  I hooked it up to my computer and downloaded the Xperia Companion to try to repair the software - and it tells me it is unable to update or repair a prototype device except from specific IP's. 

Do I actually have a prototype device or is this some sort of error?  How would I tell?  And lastly, what can I do?  If it's a prototype I obviously feel like I shouldn't have it. 

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Qatrium]

Hello @Awesome5ammy and welcome to the community!

I can try to find out if it's a prototype or not, but you need to get me your device's customization version. You can check this version by dialing the code *#*#7378423#*#* then tap on "Software info".

If I couldn't get you an answer using this number, you'll have to wait till one of the official Sony support staff comes by so you can send him/her your IMEI number for further investigation.

[Awesome5ammy]

My customization version is 1288-4387_R4C

Hope that tells us something.  🙂 I feel like I'm drowning in my lack of knowledge of all things phone.  

[jrt71]

hi there got same problem. Cannot update or even repair my Z3. It tells that my unit is a prototype.

My customization version is 1286-2777-R9B

[krashd]

Well, Quester?  Did you have any luck or what?

I have the same customization version as Sammy, 1288-4387_R4C, and my phone also states that it is a prototype everytime I try to update it.

My phone has build number 23.1.A.0.726 with Lollipop 5.0.2 but when I connect it to Xperia Companion or put it's IMEI number in to Sony's support site it tells me I am up to date with build number 23.5.A.1.291 and Marshmallow 6.0 which is wrong.

More confusing is that my phone has the physical dimensions of an Xperia Z3 (with a 5.2' screen) but the hardware reported by apps is closer to that of a Z3 compact, for example I only have 2GB of RAM instead of 3GB.

Now can anyone shine a light on this?  I just want to get Marshmallow on this thing and would rather do it properly if possible rather than installing a recovery and root access.  (especially since I have no idea what this Frankenphone really is in order to root it correctly)

[Qatrium]

@krashd

Your phone customization is MENA customized, which is not a prototype. My advice is to perform a software repair using Xperia Companion. This will do a clean installation of the latest firmware and will also wipe your internal memory, so if you have any important data on it then you should backup also. You need your phone charged and switched off before you start this procedure.

[mubashirzaidi]

I have the same problem.

[WebRant]

Hi, it appears I have a prototype. Can anyone assist me confirming this please. The active customization is 1298-5167_R2D. It's a Sony Xperia Z5 Compact.

[Qatrium]

@WebRant 

This customization version belongs to RU/UA/KZ/BY, and it's not a prototype. What makes you think it is?

[WebRant]

Thanks for the reply. The phone recently started having issues with charging and network reception. It was working perfectly a few weeks ago before some international travel. I used the handset whilst in Malaysia with a CMLink data SIM and had no issues at all. On my return home and reinsertion of my home SIM I only get limited connectivity; following some troubleshooting it's probably only when I'm close to a tower.

In direct repsonse to your question, I factory reset the handset and upon bootup observed a number of checkboxes, one of which was greyed out (i.e. I'm unable to uncheck it). This box related to sending usage reports to Sony, and can;t be unchecked because the device is a prototype. That's the entire basis of my belief.