Sony pulls off yet another relatively early Android 11 update

by Adrian Diaconescu

Jan 20, 2021, 7:49 AM

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Sony pulls off yet another relatively early Android 11 update

Despite Google's best efforts over the years, we can't say the age-old Android fragmentation problem has gotten much better of late. The newest version of the world's most popular mobile operating system, for instance, was delivered to the Pixel handset family in its stable form more than four months ago, failing to expand to a large number of non-Google devices in the meantime.

Of course, the blame falls primarily on the shoulders of all those other smartphone manufacturers that continue to need outrageous amounts of time to "optimize" and roll out their own over-the-air goodie packs. Of the overall disappointing group of Android handset vendors, Samsung undoubtedly managed to rise above the pack in the last few months, arguably followed by Sony.

Compared to the largest global mobile phone maker, Sony got off to a relatively late Android 11 start, sending the major new OS promotion to the early 2020-released Xperia 1 II a little over a month back. But then the first-gen Xperia 1 and 5 followed suit surprisingly quickly, and now multiple Redditors with Xperia 5 II units in their possession are reporting their big day has also arrived.

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Granted, it's odd to see the company's latest high-end device score this upgrade after three older models, but apart from Samsung, no other (non-Google) OEM can currently boast a grand total of four official Android 11 deliveries.

Some companies, including one that led the Android 10 charge more than a year ago, have yet to bring a single smartphone up to date, making Sony's software support efforts that much more impressive... this time around.

Sony Xperia 5 II owners, of course, should know that their update is not live around the world at the time of this writing, which could however change in a simple matter of days. Tipping the scales at only 700MB or so, this is not very different from what Google itself has delivered to its in-house Pixel devices all those months ago, which is clearly the key to a successful early rollout.

Unlike its predecessor, the Snapdragon 865-powered second-gen Xperia 5 is naturally still available in the US, but just like so many Sony phones released in the last few years, its $950 list price is pretty hard to swallow.

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Sony pulls off yet another relatively early Android 11 update

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