Google quietly released some new Google Play edition devices last week. These included the first GPe tablet, the LG G Pad 8.3 and the Sony Z Ultra, which is a phablet with a 6.4-inch display. While the Sony Z Ultra was available for purchase immediately, it now appears the handset has begun shipping with some rather surprising bugs. These touch on security and the ability to uninstall apps.
The first of these bugs was discovered by JR Raphael from Computer World and it touches on the ability to access the security settings. Or in the case of the Sony Z Ultra GPe, the inability to access those security settings. It seems navigating to Settings -> Security simply doesn’t work. The handset will open in Settings, but tapping to enter Security causes a crash.
We have yet to see anything suggesting how widespread this particular issue is, but looking at the comments from the Google+ posting by Raphael and it seems there are at least a few others with the same problem. The other issue seems to be just as surprising and deals with uninstalling apps.
This one was discovered by Android Central, and again, this isn’t so much a bug, but the inability to delete apps you installed. Users trying to uninstall an app will be presented with the uninstallation screen with options for Cancel and Ok, but clicking the latter will cause the handset to reboot. Similar to the issue with accessing Security settings, we have yet to see just how widespread an issue this really is. But again, it seems there are at least enough complaints to attract some attention.
In our experience with the Sony Z Ultra GPe handset, we were able to fully replicate the issue getting into the security settings. Navigating to Security -> Settings gave the “unfortunately, settings has stopped” message. As for the app uninstalls, we saw this to an extent. We are not able to uninstall any apps, but our handset is not fully rebooting. Either way though, it is rather surprising to get a handset with bugs preventing you from accessing the security settings and uninstalling apps.
