The Sony Xperia Z3 is one of the top ten smartphones in the world on our list and the Compact version is slightly more affordable. When it comes to opening up a smartphone away from the restrictions in place by the manufacturer, you want that to come with minimal risk. That means the cheaper the device the better. That’s why if you want to start installing custom ROMs, extra apps from the Google Play store and custom firmware to trial future over the air software updates from official builds, you should gain root access.
By taking control of the system internals full power you can increase the battery performance by removing bloatware put in place by the phone carrier networks and the device manufacturer, install apps to help with increasing performance by overclocking the CPU and more.
We’ll show you everything you need for hacking the compact variant of the Z3 with little fuss. Before we start the steps we want to run over the essentials which provides a list of everything you’ll need to end up laving here in a better mood than you arrived.
Details of Note
- A backup is important so you don’t lose any data. It’s common to need to apply a factory reset if you are customizing a device with unofficial builds. After gaining root privileges, you can start taking Nandroid backups from in the custom recovery. However, before then we must take a normal backup if you must apply a factory reset before you open the custom recovery.
- Make sure you have enough battery to last through the steps. You don’t want the phone turning off during the flashing. A battery with 50% power should be enough since we are connecting to the computer and using some USB charging.
- Make sure you allow for the USB Debugging mode permission from the Developer Options menu.
- We are using the SuperSU app which is made by Chainfire. If you read our blog a lot you’d know him from earlier work. We use his guides a great deal because they are often one of the easier ways to go about unlocking the phone and they are reliable.
- Ensuring root access with SuperSU is leaving your device with a close to stock Android experience unlike some of the other guides out there using different tools.
- By unlocking the Compact you are taking away any warranty that is working on the device. You can only gain the same back once more by returning back to the stock firmware which you are running.
- We don’t recommend flashing future OTA updates. You can still find over the air notifications coming your way as a normal system message. However, do not tap the buttons and install the software update. If you want to try a new official software build by Google, you want to flash that file manually using the flash tool.
- You must have ClockworkMod recovery pre-installed before installing the SuperSU pack. You can install CWM and come back here.
How to root the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact with SuperSU
- Download the SuperSU pack here.
- Connect the Z3 to the computer with the USB cable.
- Transfer the zip file (zipped) to the phones internal memory SD card.
- Disconnect the phone from the computer.
- Enter the ClockworkMod recovery on your device.
- Select “install zip from SD card,” followed by “choose zip from SD card.”
- Upload the SuperSU file you transferred earlier.
- Wait until it finishes loading.
- Go back and reboot the device in normal mode from the main menu in recovery.
That’s all it takes to have the device unlocked away from the factory restrictions using Chainfire’s program. If you are experiencing difficulties it’s best to go back to recovery mode and perform a factory reset. The reset will wipe any unsaved data so hopefully you backed up during the pre-requisites. Try downloading the reboot manager application from the Google Play Store if you are struggling to enter the hard keys for recovery mode in future. The app requires root so it’s no good to you until after finishing the steps. That said, there’s plenty of times in the future it will come in handy if you are installing unofficial builds.