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Out with the old, in with the new: LineageOS cut support for Android 9 Pie earlier this year, and to make up for the loss, the open-source project has just released version 18.1 based on Android 11. It comes with official support for about 60 phones and tablets.
LineageOS 17.1 adds support for Galaxy S9, Xperia XA2 Plus, and more phones
The Android 10 custom ROM is now on even more devices
LineageOS is the most popular custom ROM in existence, boasting official support for dozens of devices. The first Android 10 builds arrived earlier this month, and Lineage has continued to add to the roster of supported phones since then. The last time we covered the LineageOS 17.1, builds for the Nexus 6 and first-gen Pixels had just arrived, and there are even more additions now.
Sony's Xperia XA2 family of devices got its first taste of Android 9 Pie in February, but it didn't go as planned. The update bricked some units. The phones would reboot to a screen showing black and white lines, becoming inoperable. The rollout was quickly halted. Sony has evidently worked out the kinks, though, as Pie is once again landing on XA2 phones.
TWRP, short for TeamWin Recovery Project, is the most popular custom recovery available for Android devices. It can flash ROMs, backup and restore your phone, and even repair Android installations. In the two months since we last covered TWRP, the project has added nine more phones to the roster of supported devices.
Sony began rolling out its long-awaited Android 9 Pie update for the Xperia XA2, XA2 Plus, and XA2 Ultra a couple of days ago, but only devices in Russia received it. That's probably because Sony discovered the update was bricking many devices, rendering them completely unusable.
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Google has rolled out Android Pie to Pixel devices, and Essential managed to get an update out on the same day. A few OEMs like Moto and HTC have offered some insight on what they're updating. Today, you can add Sony to the list. It says updates are coming to devices in XZ2, XZ1, and XA2 families. Some of them might be here sooner than you expect.
At the start of the year, Sony unveiled two new mid-range smartphones in the Xperia XA2 and XA2 Ultra. They offered familiar Sony stylings, with chunky bezels and squared off corners, but the Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 chips and rear fingerprint sensors represented a considerable improvement over their XA1 predecessors.