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Sony is having a hard time in the smartphone business amidst declining sales and shrinking market share, but its users are likely more distressed right now. Many existing Sony users found that the recent Android 10 update broke their 2018 flagships almost universally, with no official communication from the company. In what appears to be a widespread issue, the affected Xperia XZ3 and XZ2 owners rallied on community platforms like Reddit complaining about a long list of bugs, including terrible RAM management, high battery consumption, app fails, and a generally sluggish UI.
Sony promised to update quite a few of its Xperia devices to Android 10 "early 2020 onwards," and as it turns out, the company is staying true to its word. The Xperia XZ3, XZ2, XZ2 Premium, and XZ2 Compact are currently receiving the latest Android version.
Sony details Android 10 update timeline for its Xperia phones
More devices are to pick up Android 10, but some older devices will hit the dust.
December
Sony may not be doing so well in the smartphone business, likely due in part to how pricey its devices are. As we typically see with the Xperia line as time goes on, there's another sale on the XZ2 Premium over on Amazon. You can score yours for $599.99, $300 off the quite high MSRP.Luckily, the XZ2 Premium is no slouch. It packs top-of-the-line specs for 2018: a 5.8" 4K LCD, a Snapdragon 845, 6GB of RAM, 64GB of storage plus a microSD slot, 19MP+12MP rear cameras, and a large 3,540mAh battery.The last deal we saw for this phone was $50 more back in February, so it's safe to say we'll start seeing the price drop more and more, especially as retailers try to clear out stock. Buy link is below, and only the black model is on sale.Buy: Amazon
The Xperia XZ2 Premium debuted with an MSRP of $1,000. Predictably, that hasn't worked out well for Sony. Luckily, as any phone tends to do after some time, the price has dropped to a much more palatable 9.99, which is $350 less than the launch price and $250 under current MSRP, from Amazon, B&H, and Focus Camera.In terms of specifications, the XZ2 Premium is about as stacked as they come. It sports a 5.8" 4K LCD, a Snapdragon 845, 6GB of RAM, 64GB of storage with microSD expansion, a 19MP + 12MP rear camera setup, a 13MP front-facing camera, and a 3,540mAh battery. Other features include IP65/68 water and dust resistance, a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, and 9W fast wireless charging.A primary complaint in our review was cost; at $1,000, the XZ2 Premium just couldn't compete with similarly-priced phones. This new $649.99 price is much less shocking. The deal is available from Amazon (it's $1 cheaper at $648.99 there), B&H, and Focus Camera. Hit the links below to pick one up.Buy: Amazon, B&H, Focus Camera
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Back in August, Sony announced that the XZ2 family, XZ1 family, and XZ Premium would be receiving their Android 9 Pie updates in November. Last month, the XZ2 and XZ2 Compact received their OTAs ahead of schedule. Now, the XZ Premium, XZ1, and XZ1 Compact are getting theirs.
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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.
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- Just days after updating its ARCore support list with this batch, Google's added one more to the club: the affordable new Pocophone F1. We've appended it to the list above.
ARCore's list of supported devices was just updated earlier this month, but with the introductions of so many new Android devices, a second revision for the month of August was required. Samsung's latest and greatest, the Galaxy Note9 and Galaxy Tab S4, are present, as are all three members of the Xperia XZ2 line and the Nokia 6.1 Plus.
Every week, I examine somewhere in the neighborhood of a hundred app updates while looking for changes. The most interesting things turn into APK Teardowns or Download posts. Many of the remaining updates are unremarkable, amounting to a few bug fixes, routine updates to libraries, or even just pixel-level adjustments to layouts and images. However, there are usually a few updates that land somewhere in between. I don't want to spam readers with dozens of short posts, but I hate to ignore things that people might want to know about, so I'm going to wrap up the leftovers for a little weekend reading and call it Update Notes.
There was a time not that many years ago when Sony was trusted implicitly by consumers all over the world. You knew if you bought a Sony product, you were getting the best, and people were willing to pay more for that peace of mind. However, Sony has struggled to find its place in today's hyper-competitive world, particularly when it comes to smartphones. Sony makes phones that are good in some ways, but the issues often outweigh the strengths. Through it all, the price is still consistently higher than competing devices.And that brings us to the Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium, which is the most "Sony" Sony phone I've ever used. It's absolutely jam-packed with impressive hardware and has a price tag to reflect that. However, many of the features that are supposed to make this device stand out simply don't matter, and phones that cost half as much do a lot of things better. With the clunky design and dated UI, I have trouble taking this phone seriously at $1,000.
Sony's newest flagship device, the Xperia XZ2 Premium, was announced back in February. It has all the features you'd expect from a high-end 2018 smartphone, like a Snapdragon 845 processor, 6GB RAM, 64GB of storage (with microSD expansion), IP65/68 water resistance, and more. The updated design, with curved glass and a rear fingerprint sensor, was highly anticipated.Pre-orders went live nearly two months ago, and now it's officially on sale. You can buy one from Amazon or Best Buy for the insanely high price of $999.99. That's quite a lot of money for any smartphone, let alone one that doesn't work on CDMA networks and lacks a headphone jack.
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- Just as promised, the Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium is now available for pre-order. Well, it is at Amazon, at least, but so far Best Buy seems to have forgotten that it was supposed to be taking XZ2P pre-orders, as well.
The 4K display-equipped Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium was announced back in April, but it's taken over two months for US availability info to surface. We'd expected it to be expensive, but Sony is asking as near as makes no difference $1,000 for this thing. Unless you really want that ultra high-res display, this is going to be a hard sell.For your $999.99, you're getting a 5.8" 4K HDR LCD, a Snapdragon 845, 6GB of RAM, 64GB of storage with microSD expansion, a 19MP + 13MP "Motion Eye Dual" rear camera setup, a 13MP selfie cam, and a 3,540mAh battery. It also comes with IP65/68 water resistance, Qi wireless charging, and Android 8.0 Oreo. Unfortunately, all that is stuffed in a not-particularly-attractive, rather thick shell weighing in at a lofty 236g.Pre-orders for the XZ2 Premium open on July 9th. In the US, Amazon and Best Buy will offer it. But for whatever reason, only Amazon is giving away a free pair of Sony's Xperia Ear Duo wireless headphones (valued at 9.99) with pre-orders. The phone will officially go on sale on July 30th, but let's be real: nobody's going to buy this thing until the price inevitably starts freefalling.
Just a few weeks after launching its Android P testing program for Xperia XZ2 devices, Sony has made the second beta available to download. It's available over-the-air for those already running Android P Beta 1, and it comes with a whole bunch of big fixes.
Sony has officially announced the Xperia XZ2 Premium, the top dog in the XZ2 range. Last year's XZ Premium was best known for its 4K display, and the XZ2 Premium builds upon that by offering HDR certification, top-notch processing power, a "Motion Eye Dual" camera setup, Qi wireless charging, and more.