Xperia Play no longer slated for ICS upgrade

posted by Charlene S. / May 24, 2012, 6:05 PM

Xperia Play no longer slated for ICS upgrade

Sony has really been making a valiant effort to get all of its Android powered devices up to speed with Ice Cream Sandwich. Just the other day, it promised that all Sony Tablets would see the upgrade by the end of May. It looks like one popular Sony smartphone may have been left in the dust.

Sadly, even though the Xperia Play was previously mentioned by the electronics giant as one of the devices that would see an update, it has gone missing from the Sony Mobile Android 4.0 upgrade page.

Sandwichless

Unfortunately there is no official word as to why the Xperia Play has suddenly been dropped from the ICS schedule. In fact, the last we heard was back in March when an Ice Cream Sandwich beta version for rooted Plays was released. At that time Sony Mobile said it was looking into "how the gaming experience works on ICS,” and was hoping to solicit feedback on game compatibility and resulting bugs.

It’s not clear if that test did not go well, but lets just hope that Sony Mobile is working out some kinks and that Xperia Play owners might one day still get their scoop of Ice Cream Sandwich.

source: Sony via XperiaGamer

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PhoneArena Rating:

8.5

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User Rating:

9.3

Based on 6 Reviews

Display 4.0" 480 x 854 pixels

Camera 5 MP

Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon S2, Single core, 1000 MHz

Storage 0.4 GB + microSDHC

Battery 1500 mAh(6.41h 3G talk time)

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21 Comments

1. biophone

Posts: 1994; Member since: Jun 15, 2011

Ice cream sandwich nazi?

posted on May 24, 2012, 6:29 PM 5

2. theBankRobber

Posts: 682; Member since: Sep 22, 2011

Talk about a let down, after the leaked ICS from it might have been unstable. Who knows.

posted on May 24, 2012, 7:35 PM 1

3. JcHnd

Posts: 283; Member since: Apr 30, 2012

Damn, and I was about to buy one... maybe they'll just release a new version of this one... I think I'll just wait...

posted on May 24, 2012, 7:37 PM 2

4. cepcamba

Posts: 717; Member since: Feb 27, 2012

A dual core version with 1 gb ram, >=4" screen, >=2000mAh battery would be a D-E-L-I-G-H-T ! :p

posted on May 24, 2012, 8:22 PM 4

6. JcHnd

Posts: 283; Member since: Apr 30, 2012

I know... that's what I was thinking!

posted on May 24, 2012, 8:44 PM 2

5. RaKithAPeiRiZ

Posts: 1488; Member since: Dec 29, 2011

If this is out...so will the Arc

posted on May 24, 2012, 8:36 PM 1

15. XiphiasGladius

Posts: 813; Member since: Aug 21, 2011

The Arc? Yeah right. Remember the Arc S already got ICS. But if that's the case they'd be beyond stupid (Imbecile). . .

posted on May 25, 2012, 7:38 AM 0

21. romeo1

Posts: 818; Member since: Jan 06, 2012

It's not that crazy as the arc is the slowest of the bunch. but i think they will include the arc because it isn't made for gaming. But the play is made for gaming so the gaming experience must be good.

posted on May 26, 2012, 8:01 AM 0

7. zeljonsu

Posts: 22; Member since: May 24, 2012

In terms of hardware of the 2011 Xperia phones, they have very similar hardware specs. The Xperia neo V's specs are almost similar to the Xperia PLAY yet the neo V gets ICS. :)

posted on May 24, 2012, 9:12 PM 2

13. thelegend6657 unregistered

Gamepad giving problems

posted on May 25, 2012, 1:39 AM 0

8. InspectorGadget80 unregistered

Aint that a SON OF A B....

posted on May 24, 2012, 9:13 PM 1

9. bobfreking55

Posts: 866; Member since: Jul 15, 2011

okay, I will now sell my Xperia.

posted on May 25, 2012, 12:01 AM 0

12. thelegend6657 unregistered

Why do you even buy one in the 1st place ? Their ui pre ics and pre xperia s is ugly everything is themed with that ugly blue wallpaper

posted on May 25, 2012, 1:39 AM 0

20. InspectorGadget80 unregistered

The only thing thats ugly is your typing skills and spelling

posted on May 25, 2012, 11:14 PM 0

10. kartik4u98

Posts: 511; Member since: May 19, 2012

what is the meaning of the picture in article

posted on May 25, 2012, 1:03 AM 0

16. Ric1511

Posts: 26; Member since: Dec 28, 2011

You would have to be a Seinfeld fan to know.

posted on May 25, 2012, 9:22 AM 1

19. EclipseGSX

Posts: 1777; Member since: Oct 18, 2011

Not even a fan just involved in society and not under a rock

posted on May 25, 2012, 10:19 AM 0

11. microsoftnokiawin

Posts: 1268; Member since: Mar 30, 2012

teh Xperia play sucked anyway 3 month after purchase the screen got so laggy and constant freezing

posted on May 25, 2012, 1:16 AM 0

14. fongy

Posts: 41; Member since: Feb 09, 2010

I had a GS2 for almost a year, and going on to envirofone, they were offering more money trade-in for it than the cost of an unlocked Xpera Play! So because handsets this year have been a bit underwhelming, I thought "always wanted one - why not give it a go for 6 months until my contract runs out..." So that's what I did! I have to say, gaming is second to none, my emulators work an absolute treat... playing some of those oldies, wow! the commodore 64 one in particular... BUT Woeful amount of storage, having to move things to SD, and running out of space all the time is a nightmare, the screen is impossible to see in the sunlight and generally it just feels like a year-old phone (slow), I didn't think I'd miss the radio as much as I do as well.... even though I didn't use it that much... To be fair, I'm not surprised they couldn't get ICS working with it... to be honest I suspect it'd do more damage than good...and at least they've been honest about trying to get it to work... At least knowing this now I can root it and get rid of all the sh1tware and rubbish games and have a lot more storage now (which will probably make it run a bit faster) Win/win? It'll only mean my next phone will feel like another OS! I tell you though, I'll be ready to drop this for a faster phone in December... one of the new Nexus ones perhaps? HOWEVER I'm more impressed with Sony's overlay and little Facebook integration things than Sammy's (having had a Galaxy 1 and 2) so if anything the Play has given me a nice insight into how Sony is coming along in the Android race... definitely not the best specced phones, but a really good user experience... (fingers crossed for the Hayabusa / Mint) :O/

posted on May 25, 2012, 3:09 AM 1

17. Ric1511

Posts: 26; Member since: Dec 28, 2011

I agree with everything you just said. The gaming is amazing! I love having a solid library of PSX, N64, SNES etc titles in my pocket, but the phone is really starting to show it's age, and the specs were never amazing to begin with. I'll keep it as a nice work toy though. :)

posted on May 25, 2012, 9:31 AM 0

18. snowgator

Posts: 3621; Member since: Jan 19, 2011

My son has nothing but enjoyed his Play (on AT&T), but he is in no way a phone tech type. He downloads his games, uses the text and phone, and basically still has it set up like I did for him when he got it for Christmas. Honestly, more support in games would be welcome than ICS for him. A new Sony Play with better specs would be the bomb....