Xperia Ray after ICS 4.0.3

Question

Hi!
Yesterday I connected my RAY to PC companion for some backup, and notice that the new Android version 4.0.3. was available.
I was expecting it, since we always like to have the latest features on our phones, so I did the update to the new version.
The update went ok! No issues during the process.
Few hour past since the update process and I already went from a great feeling of having a "new" RAY to the terrible feeling of wishing not to made the update. I believe that this is the worst feeling that  a costumer can feel about having a new release for its great phone.
My RAY went from a great tool to a malfunction piece of high end technology.
So I would like to share here, some of the "after ICS" issues I'm experiencing:
1 - RING TONE VOLUME CONTROL:
The ring tone volume control is now terrible. I'm not able to really low the volume. The volume goes lower from the top to the mute state, but the high is really high and the low is like middle in the previous 2.3. The level after mute, that should be lower and discreet is now very audible in a moderate noisy place, so I'm just using mute + vibe. Is its really bad. I test it with Audio Manager Pro, and different sound as ring tone, but I did not get any positive result. The volume control behaviour is OK for media and alerts sounds.
2 - WIFI:
Wifi is now a feature that i can't get it to work. All my previous stored Wifi hotspots are now dead, even after edit each one.
I try to store the same hotspots from a fresh search and I still can't get them to work. All the Wifi spots I have stored are working perfectly and no setting was changed, so the issue I'm getting is from the RAY.
3- GALLERY (now XPERIA GALERIA):
The gallery crashes very often, mostly on landscape position and during swipe trough photos. After the update, I can only see 4 to 6 photos of each album before it crashes and returns to gallery root folder or phone main menu.
4 - MULTIMEDIA shortcuts widget:
There is a problem with the MULTIMEDIA shortcuts widget, since it almost doubled the space it takes on the screen. Actually the visual size of this widget is just fine, the problem is the area around it that is oversized.
5 - THE PHONE:
Making or answering a call is now a trouble... and this is the major purpose of this equipment...
The phone freezes very often while receiving a call and takes too long (sometimes more than 10 second) to open the phone feature. Sometimes it crashes while trying to open the phone feature and there's is the need to take battery out (since yesterday... happen twice).
6- OVERALL
The new android version for this model is pretty, but there are several issues to be solved. Along with the ones I believe are really serious, I'm experiencing a great decrease in phone performance. Screen animations between pages and menus are now almost imperceptible and the ones that still exist are not fluid (jumps, like a low frame rate on a video footage), moving from a page to another is now slower and jumpy and feels like I own a first generation Android phone with low tech capabilities. Scrolling is now different too. It is slower, and the acceleration is not so great like in previous 2.3
7- MEMORY
The available RAM is now lower than when I had 2.3... and i did not have more apps working... at least I did not start them. So he new 4.0 must gave some more processes running, I believe.
8 - SCREEN FLASHES RED AND GREEN (added on April 27)
RecentlyI found another "not so bad, but annoying issue".
Sometimes, the screen flashes fully red or green for a second, during:
Menus swipes, camera access, skype camera change (from rear to front and vice versa), when Draw something app loads, and browser opens...
So, here is my "less than 24hours" Xperia"ence" with the ICS for RAY... Not happy with it and looking forward to see it solved, or to roll it back to 2.3.
If there is no visible solution for this and many other issues, this will probably be my last SE phone, from a long and solid history with this brand.
Kind regards and best wishes  to everyone.
Bruno
Message was edited by: Zamzibar

Answer 1

Hi ply17410,
Thank you very much for your contribution!
The RAY I own is the ST18i purchased as a standalone mobile, no carrier dependant.
I'm using a portuguese Vodafone SIM card and these are my RAY's unit versions:
Phone software version: 1248-9545_4.1.A.0.562,
Boot version: 1241-3656 R9A028,
Customization version: 1252-0929_R20D
File system version: WORLD-i_4.1.A.0.562
No SIM lock applied, and bootloader unlock allowed.
The wifi issue is getting worst, right now I can only access web via 3G data connection.
Bluetooth works fine for audio and data transfer.
Today I found another "not so bad, but annoying issue".
Sometimes, my screen flashes fully red or green for a second, during:
Menus swipes, camera access, skype camera change (from rear to front and vice versa), when Draw something app loads, and browser opens...
Kind regards,
Bruno
Lisbon, Portugal