Not sure this is worth the hassle. Will have O2 branding and a locked bootloader too (for those who care).

I had a nightmare with O2 trying this on an iPhone. Lots of time making calls to sort it all out. A few days after i'd paid for the phone and cancelled the airtime they debited 440 quid out of my account for the remaining 24 months airtime. Although they admitted the mistake, I was told it would take 14 days to refund. All sorted in the end but not worth the hassle.

Maybe I should get a more robust phone. Not that I drop my phone a lot but I've read these phones shatter easily.

I'd rather spend £23 more and get it sim free unlocked form Amazon who currently sell it for £301.

​yeap don't I know it.... second phone

the phone is so fast, even the uss enterprise can't keep up with it...

How about this Deal on Uswitch.
http://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/contract_deal/f320a2d61404903e60e3be9ea01041119df19e0f?

Ensure the Sim/Handset/Free gift has not been used (use signifies acceptance of your
contract).

So this means you can't test it out to see if you like it then?

http://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/contract_deal/f320a2d61404903e60e3be9ea01041119df19e0f?page=%2Fmobiles%2Fsony_xperia_deals%2F&position=3&sorted_by=bestseller


Or how about this deal?

Is the phone very fragile with glass case both sides?

Bought this phone a couple of weeks ago from Foniacs via eBay. T'was a bargain at £269.99 including free delivery, and the phone is sim free and unlocked.

Having had the Z1 Compact and the Z3 Compact and being very happy with both, I wasn't sure I could justifying upgrading to this one. However, I'm really glad I did! Battery life is immense and the phone is fast and highly responsive.

If you can afford it, buy it...even through this deal which seems to be reasonably priced but a bit of a hassle!!

Voted hot, but wouldn't do this myself since I want a Z5 with an unlockable bootloader.

I did this with my Z3, it was such an enormous hassle. I paid the contract in full as soon as I received the phone (I had already confirmed with O2 customer services that there would be no airtime charge if I did this), I asked about unlocking it and they told me to go in store to do that. I went to my local shop and they just looked at me all blank and said they couldn't do that, they then told me I'd have to make a call on the phone to activate it on the network before I could unlock it! I called customer services back there and then and they were arguing with the shop assistant for a few minutes before telling me that I needed a sim card (I'd thrown it away as they had told me I didn't need it!). So I waited for them to send me another and in the mean time had 2 calls from them a day saying my payment for the airtime contract hadn't gone through (it was already showing on my bank statement), so I insisted that it had! The sim arrived, I made a call and then asked for the unlock which took 24 hours and then received a first monthly bill for the airtime contract!? After a few days querying this they cancelled this for nothing. I then spent around a week or so of calling them to convince them that I'd paid for the airtime contract before it was all agreed. Horrendous, truly horrendous. :disappointed:

Like some others ive had hassle with o2 refresh, double charged me when i paid it off early. even affected my credit rating took months to remove, ended up forking out extra money to pay for experian.

All in all not worth it.

Locked bootloader means you can't flash any other ROMs onto it. You're thinking of unlocked in terms of the SIM unlock status. This will of course get updates slower than a SIM free one too.

Not sure this is worth the hassle. Will have O2 branding and a locked bootloader too (for those who care).

*extend

I know, but those who don't want that, or might want to root to extent its lifespan might want to just pay the extra few quid for an unlocked one, rather than going through the hassle of this.

I can afford contracts but I prefer not to get them. Just a choice thing - some people would rather just buy things there and then. In my case, I swap phones so often that if I get a contract I've invariably sold the phone and squandered the proceeds 18 months before the phone contract runs out.

Fair enough, but in my case I'm only going to be paying 4 quid ish a month for the service so if I really want a new deal before the end of the 24 months it's not going to break the bank. Just wanted to point out there might be better deals out there.

Bought the black version from mobiles.co.uk yesterday and I think I got a hotter deal.

£40 upfront (as there is a Bank Holiday £10 off voucher - MARPAY16) and £14 per month for 24 months on Vodaphone. Ok, so it's only 250mb data, 300 mins and unlimited txts, but that suits hubby's needs and it only works out at £376 total.

So I'm getting 24 months of service for £98 more than just paying for the phone on this deal. If you need more data or calls, I'd recommend checking out mobiles.co.uk before purchasing direct from the service provider. It's always worked out considerably cheaper for me.

Would agree with the OP that it's a great phone though. Teenage son has the Z5 Premium and we've all been VERY impressed. For once, Dad is taking the teenager's advice!