Unlocking Your Sony Xperia Z3 Bootloader Could Adversely Affect Camera Performance

Sony’s latest flagship smartphone – Xperia Z3 was launched at IFA last month and is now starting to go on sale in many markets around the world. One of the biggest USP of the smartphone is its 20.7MP rear with an improved Sony G Lens at the back. But if you’re someone who likes to explore the various custom ROMs and mods available, there’s some really bad news for you. The Z3 camera functionality is reported to be affected significantly if you unlock the bootloader of the device.

Sony has been known for being one of the most developer friendly OEMs out there, and has received the OEM of the year recognition from the XDA developers community multiple times. The manufacturer also has a very easy method for unlocking the bootloader on its devices and also actively supports AOSP development for Xperia devices.

The reason behind the camera not working is the fact that Sony has some camera algorithms that have been protected by DRM. Unlocking the device’s bootloader wipes these keys, affecting the camera functionality. We suspect the BIONZ image processing is also protected by DRM keys and affects the performance of the camera heavily when the bootloader is unlocked. This issue was seen on the Xperia Z1 as well and there was a lot of frustration among Z1 users regarding this matter. The Xperia Z2 was also affected.

On Sony Mobile’s web page about bootloader unlock the company has mentioned that unlocking the bootloader on recent high-end devices like the Xperia Z3 would result in some DRM keys being lost, removing noise reduction algorithm and degrading the low-light performance of the camera. Members on XDA developers forum have posted comparison pictures taken with a device with locked bootloader and another an unlocked bootloader. The difference in overall quality is very apparent, with the photos from the device with unlocked bootloader being a lot noisier and picking the wrong white-balance.

Many were hoping that Sony would fix the issue with the camera on unlocked bootloaders with the Xperia Z3. But that clearly is not the case. We do believe that the users should have a fully functional camera even if they decide to unlock the bootloader. After all, the warranty is lose the moment you unlock the bootloader of your device. So it is indeed extremely frustrating to see the performance of the camera see a nose dive even after losing any kind of official warranty and support. We hope that this issue would be solved with its next flagship device.