Xperia Beta Program to close

Sony Mobile has confirmed that the Xperia Beta Program will close. There will be no more planned beta firmware releases, the last firmware that rolled was build number 23.5.A.1.238. Sony confirmed that there will be new commercial firmware release that will hit all Xperia Z2/Z3 owners “in the coming weeks” – anyone on the beta program will be updated to this new firmware automatically. There is no word whether the program will be resurrected at some point, but for now it looks like no more beta firmware builds are planned.

Thanks Niek and Pro Sony!

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Sony releases Football and Tennis Xperia Themes with lockscreen analog clock

Sony Mobile has recently launched new Xperia Themes centred around football (soccer) and tennis. The bright themes look great and even include a styled keyboard. However, a nice new addition with these themes is the addition of a lockscreen analogue clock, depicting either a football or tennis ball, which is a nice touch. However, the latter feature is only available on Xperia Z2 models and above, running at least Android 5.1 Lollipop. Have a look at the pictures below and let us know which one is your favourite.

Football Xperia Theme

Tennis Xperia Theme

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Update hits the Xperia Z5 and Z3 Plus devices with improved Bluetooth (32.2.A.0.253)

A new firmware update is now rolling for the Sony Xperia Z5/Z3+ series of handsets which moves the build number from 32.2.A.0.224 to version 32.2.A.0.253. The update includes a number of bug fixes as well as improved handling of Bluetooth devices. We will include FTF firmware links below in due course, but if you have installed the new updated let us know your impressions below.

Thanks 3_nity, Dan and shnam!

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Marshmallow for Xperia M4 Aqua coming soon as firmware gets certified (26.3.A.0.131)

It looks like the PTCRB has just certified Android Marshmallow for the Xperia M4 Aqua and M4 Aqua Dual. A new update with build number 26.3.A.0.131 has appeared on the PTCRB page, which compares to current build 26.1.A.3.111 (Android 5.0 Lollipop).

The move from ‘26.1’ to ‘26.3’ based firmware is very likely to indicate that this is the long-awaited Marshmallow build. We hope that the update includes adoptable storage, as it is a phone that really needs it, especially the 8GB variants. We’ll let you know once it starts to roll, it shouldn’t be too much longer now.

Thanks Julius, Marko and xezrunner!

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New Sony Xperia flagship to launch in H2 2016; model number F833X revealed

Sony Mobile is set to launch a new high-end Xperia smartphone during the second half of the year, as we have caught wind of a new model number. The Sony F8331 (F833X) model number has been revealed on the GFXBench benchmarking site, sporting a higher model designation than that of the Xperia X Performance (F813X). In addition, the Sony Xperia F8331 and F8332 model numbers have also been revealed through UAProf links.

The above information reveals a specification set that is very similar to that of the Xperia X Performance. This includes a phone that is powered by the Snapdragon 820 (MSM8996) chipset and has a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels. GFXBench pegs the display at 5.1-inches, but the site is often wrong about display sizes so we wouldn’t read too much into it.

Other specs highlighted include 3GB RAM, 32GB internal storage, a 23MP rear camera and a 13MP front-facing camera. If these specs hold up, it will be interesting to see how the handset differs from the Xperia X Performance. We may see a departure from the 5-inch display size of the X Performance or we could see a new design altogether. The likely announcement for such a device is expected to be during IFA in early September. We’ll keep you posted with further developments once we have them.

Thanks Ben!

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Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 announced; 10 percent faster than the 820

Qualcomm has unveiled its latest high-end chipset in the form of the Snapdragon 821 (MSM8996 Pro). The latest chipset includes a Qualcomm Kryo quad-core CPU with a clock speed of 2.4GHz. Qualcomm’s latest chip has faster speeds (a 10% performance over the 820) and improved power savings.

Qualcomm says that the Snapdragon 821 will not replace the Snapdragon 820, but will sit alongside it. Qualcomm expects to see devices shipping with the Snapdragon 821 during the second half of 2016, whether we will see this in a Sony Xperia device remains to be seen.

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Xperia X receives first price cut in United States, just days after launch

Sony Mobile has cut the price of the Xperia X by $50 in the United States just 10 days after launch. The handset launched on 26 June for $549.99, but you can now pick it up for $499.99 across a number of retailers including Amazon.com, Best Buy and B&H. Sony has been criticised for the high pricing of the Xperia X, so the price cut does not come as a surprise. It will be interesting to see whether we see similar cuts in other markets too.

Thanks Patrick!

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Xperia X Performance in camera shootout against OnePlus 3, Galaxy S7 and iPhone 6s

If you want to get an idea of how Sony’s new flagship, the Xperia X Performance, performs against its biggest rivals on the camera front, then check out some comparison shots below. They come courtesy of Manila Shaker, who has compared the Xperia X Performance against the Samsung Galaxy S7, OnePlus 3 and Apple iPhone 6s.

The cameras of each phone were compared against various conditions such as normal daylight, macro, dynamic range, night shots and front-facing pictures. The Xperia X Performance holds up pretty well according to the team at Manila Shaker, picking up their best pick alongside the Galaxy S7. Hit the source link for the full range of comparison shots, but you can check a few crop comparisons below.

Via Manila Shaker.

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Xperia X owners – How happy are you with the handset?

The Sony Xperia X has been out for a number of weeks now, so we wanted to ask new owners of their initial impressions. Has it lived up to your expectations? If so, what do you love about the handset – is it the vibrant display, design or camera? If there are parts that are not up to scratch, let us know what has disappointed. Maybe it is poor battery life, or equally, maybe you’re not actually happy with the camera. Either way, let us hear your honest views below.

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Xperia Concept release adds landscape mode and darker brightness setting (MOB30G.Z1.3616)

We’re a bit late on this, but thought it was worth a quick post anyway. Sony started to roll a new update for Concept for Android Marshmallow, moving it to build number MOB30G.Z1.3616. The key new features in this update is the addition of landscape mode in the Home launcher and brightness setting that now goes even darker. The update should be with all of those on Concept firmware – you can go to Settings > About phone to download the new firmware.

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Sony Mobile to “defocus” on India and USA

Sony Corporation recently held an investor day, which took place in Tokyo, Japan. The investor day provided an opportunity for Sony management to update the markets across all segment areas of its business. As always, we were mainly focused on Sony’s plans for its smartphone business and we came away with some interesting titbits.

We have known for a while that Sony’s product strategy revolves around the premium smartphone segment. One slide below highlights the opportunity, showing that there are very few competitors in the premium segment ($250+) versus the entry/mid-tier segments.

However, what hasn’t been made clear up until now is that Sony Mobile also has a regional strategy. Sony did say previously that it was refocusing on certain geographies, but never made it clear exactly which regions it would target. Sony has now confirmed that it expects to defocus on select regions – it explicitly says it expects its businesses in India, USA, China and Brazil to shrink.

Part of the reason for this is that Sony expects FY15-17 CAGR smartphone growth from India, China, Brazil, Indonesia to be just 0.3%. This compares to Sony’s estimate last year of +8.1%, showing just how much expectations have changed in a year.

Sony will instead look to focus its growth on East Asia (including Japan), Europe and the Middle East. Sony expects to ‘preserve’ its Latin American business and other Asia Pacific regions. You can check out the rest of the slides below, although we don’t learn too much else that we didn’t already know.

So if you are a Xperia fan from one of the regions that Sony plans to ‘defocus’ on, how does this news make you feel? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

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