Sony isn’t exactly known for speedy Android OS updates, but the company has now completely canceled an Android 17 update for one of its Xperia phones.
In a notice on its website, Sony says that it will not provide an Android 17 update to the Xperia 10 VI despite initially promising “three Android OS upgrades” for the device.
Sony announced the Xperia 10 VI in 2024 as an upper-mid-range device. It has a Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage, with Android 14 having been pre-installed at launch. Android 17 was the last promised update even though it wasn’t included in the initial roadmap Sony posted in September.
The company says that Xperia 10 VI “does not support an Android 17 upgrade experience that we consider adequate” due to a “limitation” related to the phone’s storage. The exact reason isn’t entirely clear, but Sony says security updates will continue on as promised, and that other Xperia devices due to get Android 17 will no be affected.
Sony explains:
We announced at launch that the Xperia 10 VI would receive three Android OS upgrades. However, after a detailed technical assessment, we determined that due to limitations related to the device’s storage configuration, the Xperia 10 VI does not support an Android 17 upgrade experience that we consider adequate. Accordingly, we have decided not to make this upgrade available. We recognise that this falls short of our original announcement, and we wish to apologise for this change.
On the other hand, our security update commitment remains unchanged. Sony will continue to provide security updates for four years from the product’s launch date, as previously communicated.
This issue is specific to Xperia 10 VI’s technical specifications and will not impact other Xperia models.
It’s certainly an odd situation, and one that we don’t often see. While it’s not uncommon for Android phones to not be promised as many updates as they should recieve, it’s rare for a promised software update to be canceled outright.
More on Android 17:
- Here’s the full list of OnePlus devices getting Android 17, but it’s not OxygenOS
- Oppo confirms list of devices getting its Android 17 update, rollout starts this month
- Samsung has updated these Galaxy devices to Android 17
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