How to Overclock the Sony Xperia Z (Video)

Want a bit more performance from your Sony Xperia Z? Overclocking, while sounding dangerous, might be a great solution for you. Essentially you are going to up the frequencies of the processor slightly above the stock levels to get that much more power from it without jeopardizing much since we can always restore a backup if things go wonky. Here’s how to overclock the Sony Xperia Z.

I. Root the Sony Xperia Z and Unlock the Bootloader

1. You must be rooted AND have an unlocked bootloader. If you aren’t, head to our How to Root, Flash a Custom Recovery, and Unlock the Bootloader on the Sony Xperia Z (Video) procedure and follow that entirely then come back here to continue.

II. Download and Flash the Kernel

1. Head here to download a recommended kernel with overclocking support, scroll down and find the latest download in the first post on the page and save it to your computer.

2. Plug in your device via USB.

3. Copy the kernel .zip file to the internal storage of your device.

4. Unplug the device.

5. Open XZRecovery (should be installed by the end of out how to root procedure) and click Reboot Recovery.

6. Once in recovery mode, tap Backup, swipe to backup, and then wait for it to backup.

7. Hit back.

8. Tap Install and scroll down to find the kernel .zip file and install it.

9. Once it’s flashed, hit back.

10. Hit Reboot > System.

III. Overclock the Sony Xperia Z

1. Go to the Play Store.

2. Search for and install No-frills CPU Control.

3. Open No-frills CPU Control.

4. Make sure Set on Boot is OFF.

5. Tap on the Max Clock Frequency dropdown and select the next highest frequency (do NOT jump to the highest frequency), then hit Apply, and then use the phone for a bit normally.

6. If there are no issues, then go back to the app and try the next highest frequency, then hit Apply, and then use the phone for a bit normally.

7. Repeat until you get to the highest frequency the device will allow (if it crashes or reboots then you know to use the frequency just below that one that it didn’t crash on).

8. Once you’ve settled on a new max frequency, you can check Set on Boot to have it automatically apply the new max frequency every time the phone starts (you wouldn’t want to set this before you know which frequency is good for you because otherwise if it crashed from a frequency it would just constantly crash since that frequency would be set every time the phone turned on).

9. Enjoy! (You can also run tests like Quadrant Benchmark Test from the Play Store on your original frequency vs the new one to see how much performance you’ve gained).

If this procedure helped you please thank/donate to the original developers here.