Install Official LineageOS 15.1 ROM on Sony Xperia Z

The Xperia Z was Sony’s flagship phone for 2013 and continued the screen size and resolution arms race with its 5in, 1,920×1,080 display, which compares well to contemporary rivals such as the Full HD-equipped HTC One. The phone looks great and feels good in the hand even with the large display. The device started with Android 4.4 Kit Kat OS initially, but that’s not the end of the road for it. Early in 2015, Sony is promising to update the Xperia Z to Android 5.0, effectively giving the phone a whole new lease of life. Recent news is that there is an Official Android 8.1 Oreo-based custom ROM ported to this device. Here is a simple guide on how to download and Install Official LineageOS 15.1 ROM on Sony Xperia Z.

Both sides of the Xperia Z are encased in a tempered, shatter-resistant glass that already makes the phone look pretty darn sleek. That black slate look that I love so much is here, as the phone is, save for its various logos and legal information, completely black. On the front, you don’t even get any capacitive buttons because the Xperia UI has it built in like a Nexus device. The front camera is a 2.2-MP shooter powered by an EXMOR R sensor capable of HDR. It also has all the specifications (during that time) you would expect from a high-end smartphone, including a quad-core 1.5GHz processor and a camera with a huge 13-megapixel sensor. It features a 5-inch display with 1080 x 1920 pixels, 16:9 ratio resolution. The result is a pretty great TFT capacitive display that unfortunately has a few minor but noticeable flaws.

LineageOS 15.1 ROM

The LineageOS is an AOSP based aftermarket custom ROM and is a continuation to the highly popular CyanogenMod ROM. It brings stock Android interface to your device along with a plethora of customizations.. It’s heavily skinned & tweaked for better performance. It has got all those features a common user needs. LineageOS ROMs are quite stable. They are ROMs just ported from the CM branch. No major changes are there between the initial LineageOS builds and the last CM builds. If you observe Google’s vanilla Android OS and Lineage OS, you’ll find a lot of granular settings in the latter. You can customize your device to your own taste and have more security options as well. You might experience random reboots and minor glitches in the functionality but its splendid customizations drop shadow over them.

Installing a custom ROM is quite simple and you will need a custom ROM like TWRP to install flashable ZIP files. As installing the ROM would wipe your device, make sure to take a nandroid backup. This ensures that you have a complete backup of your device in case you run into boot loop issue or a bricked device. However, the nandroid backup doesn’t include your internal storage. So, make sure to back up your photos and other important stuff on your internal storage to PC.

The LineageOS 15.1 is Android Oreo-based customized build. It provides near to stock experience of Android. And… gives you the latest security updates and is the base ROM for many other ROMs like Resurrection and Pixel Experience. It has always been an ideal ROM since its arrival. So without any ado lets see how to Install Official LineageOS 15.1 ROM on Sony Xperia Z.

Preparations

1. Charge your device at least 50% before flashing the ROM.
2. Backup your device to make sure you’ve all the important data if something doesn’t go as per the plan.
3. Make sure you have a proper TWRP installed on your device. Download the TWRP link here, and follow this guide to Install TWRP on any Android device.

Downloads

Download the Gapps and Official OS ROM for Xperia Z to your device’s storage.

• Official LineageOS 15.1 for Xperia Z
• Gapps for Android Oreo Official OS 15.1

How to Install Official LineageOS 15.1 ROM on Sony Xperia Z

1. Make sure you have the TWRP recovery installed on your phone.
2. Also, ensure that you have copied the Gapps and Official OS 15.1 ROM files after installing TWRP.
3. Power down your smartphone.
4. Boot in recovery mode by pressing and holding Volume Up/Volume Down and Power Button at the same time. When the screen flickers, release all buttons and you will see the recovery screen in a few seconds.
5. Make a nandroid backup of your device in TWRP recovery. To do this, navigate to Backup option, select the partitions available and swipe right to make a backup.
6. Format your device, once the backup is completed.
7. In TWRP recovery, click on Wipe » Advanced Wipe. Select data, system, cache and, Dalvik-cache on this page and wipe them.
8. In the TWRP, click on Install » Install Zip » Locate and select the Official OS ROM file. Swipe screen to flash this file.
9. Similarly, flash the Gapps for Android Pie.
10. In the end, get back to the main menu in TWRP and click on Wipe » Advanced Wipe » Select Cache & Dalvik Cache » Swipe screen to wipe.
11. After wiping, reboot your device.

That’s all. The first boot will take some time as it needs to build the cache. Once the device boots up, you can see the Android Pie setup screen.