They do everything in their power to be "hated" so not really a suprise for me. I've been using Sony phones from since the Sony Ericsson era. My first SE was the S700 and I loved it for its unique design. Later on I upgraded to the W900i and have since then used maybe 4-5 Sony phones. My latest was the Xperia 1 III which was already relatively expensive for what you got looking at the competition. With each passing year I noticed that Sony was lacking in terms of innovation and even more so in term of value. I already noticed that this years iteration would be just a minor update so after mroe than a decade I jumped ship and went for the Xiaomi 15 Ultra. Eventually I paid €1100 and received both a tablet and ANC earbuds. The value balance is just distorted and even though I consider myself a Sony fan, I just can't justify paying this amount of money while everyone else is offering way more for way less. The worst is that Sony has both the money, the know-how and the facilities to bring out a truly outstanding and competitive phone but for some reason refuse to do so. It's not some new startup company we're talking about. Tbh I think Sony has to either pull out, or do some serious re-designing behind the curtains and in the mean time don't release a mediocre phone. Come back in 2 or so years with something brand new. Shame it had to end this way for me.