How often do you hear this? Sony has started to roll out Ice Cream Sandwich to the Xperia P ahead of schedule, beating its own date of August 19th.

According to a post on the Sony Mobile blog, the upgrade process is beginning today and continuing globally "over the next few weeks", so if you're an Xperia P owner, keep an eye out for any upgrade notifications on your phone. When ICS is ready for your device, you will be alerted, but Sony says that some users may have to use their PC Companion software to perform the update.

Some of the cool features and functionality you can look forward to include:

  • New ways to experience your media with new media applications – “WALKMAN”, “Album” and “Movies”
  • Extended standby mode, increasing standby time by up to four times (depending on user-profile and data consumption)
  • Lock screen with improved functionality
  • Resizable widgets for improved personalization
  • Improved control of your mobile data consumption
  • Recent Apps button for a clear overview of your applications

The post also says that there will be another update for other Xperia phones "shortly", listing the Xperia U, Xperia sola and Xperia go. Hopefully the rollout will happen sooner rather than later, now that Ice Cream Sandwich has landed on the Xperia P.

Source: Sony Xperia Product Blog