According to new rumours, Sony could finally be moving away from the limited software support it provides to its Xperia smartphones. Allegedly, up to five years of updates could be coming to the Xperia 1 VI, Xperia 5 VI and Xperia 10 VI when they launch later this year.
That would be nice because their current 2 years of support is pitiful. It was on the dot too. no support for my 5 ii at all after exactly 2 years after launch…
Charging port is beginning to get a bit loose too already.
I got the 1ii. It’s still rock solid (maybe the battery life is a bit hurt, but everything else is going flawless) but yes, the 2 year software support is simply ridiculous.
I ended installing LineageOS - can’t say it’s better to keep going with Android 11 or going custom ROM for every case, but I don’t regret it.
That ‘it’s still rock solid’ is the main reason my previous phone was a Sony (Z1) and decided to got another one from them - their hardware quality is just superb. Used my Z1 for seven years and it worked great all the time - until shit happened and fate decided I had to get another one.
My battery is at 70% (according to accubattery) after only charging to 80% for its entire lifespan except for monthly health checks. Extremely dissapointing that it has such a low quality battery. That coupled with the fact that it drains almost 2-3% per hour sitting unused on a desk in WiFi makes it a quite shit battery compared to most other phones I’ve come across besides the HTC10 with its battery drain bug. And you better hope you aren’t in low cell signal area because the Xperias with pump out their battery trying to get a signal forever.
By comparison, my girlfriend’s Samsung drains about 0.4% per hour, can go literally a full day in low cell signal areas, and only has to charge every 2 days if she doesn’t use it much. I have to top up 20% or so by late afternoon to get through the day without dropping to 5%. The trade off is the better camera on the 5ii.
The Xperias are above average flagship phones, pretty much all of the critical things for longevity they messed up. Battery cycles, software support, and charging port mating cycles. Which I guess makes sense given they want you buying new ones since their target audience is small.
Funny you say that… I’m getting better battery life out of my Xperia (10 V) than I’ve had from any phone since the flip phone days. My typical moderate SoT, no-gaming use only takes me from 80-50% most days. I’ve forgotten to charge it overnight several times and it was fine the next day, although I did dip into the single-digits by late evening a couple times on day 2 from 80%.
Oh wow! If I leave my 5ii on overnight at 50%, it will be at 20% by morning when I was asleep. But the 10 has a much less power hungry processor, so that definitely plays a role.
I feel like relying on custom ROM support is such a gamble with current Xperia devices. They’re so niche and so expensive that there just isn’t the level of community interest required to guarantee that you’ll get support later in its life.