After quite a bit of suspense, Sony Mobile has announced the schedule of Android Jelly Bean upgrades for its Xperia smartphones. However, there is a big surprise in store – not all 2012 Xperia smartphones are on the list. The announcement also clearly states that the update will bring Android Jelly Bean 4.1 on board.
The smartphones that will get the update first are – Xperia T, Xperia TX and Xperia V. The Jelly Bean update will roll out globally for these phones during February 2013 and March 2013. In the second phase, the Xperia P, Xperia J and Xperia Go will receive the upgrades. This rollout will start towards the end of March 2013. The third bunch of upgrades will cover the Xperia S, Xperia SL, Xperia Ion and Xperia Acro S, which “will follow in the subsequent weeks”.
Unfortunately, not all Xperia phones will get the Jelly Bean upgrade. We knew beforehand that the 2011 Xperia range isn’t eligible, but the surprise element has been the exclusion of some of the 2012 phones from this list. The phones are – Xperia U, Xperia Tipo, Xperia Miro and Xperia Sola.
We are rather relieved that the upgrade schedule is finally available. We must praise Sony for being fairly communicative in this regard, seen even during the summer-2011 Android 4.0 upgrade. However, we do find the decision to drop certain phones as fairly unacceptable. These phones do meet the minimum requirements for a good Android experience, and surely should have been upgraded. It is rather sad for those who have just purchased the U, Tipo, Miro or Sola. Secondly, the rollout will begin sometime in February-March 2013, which quite frankly, is just too far down the road.
Source: Sony Mobile