Sony's first Android 11 update is officially underway
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You've probably grown tired of hearing about Sony's inability to regain its long-lost mobile industry relevance once every few months, but while it's typically very hard to commend the quality/price ratio of the company's Xperia handsets, there is one thing that tends to earn our praise a couple of times a year.
We're talking about software updates, which are generally delivered pretty fast to Sony's best Android smartphones. Case in point, the Xperia 1 II (pronounced One Mark Two) is reportedly receiving the newest version of Google's crazy popular OS as we speak, at least in Taiwan, making good on a promise from a couple of weeks ago.
Commercially released back in May in select international markets and finally expanded stateside at the end of July, the Snapdragon 865 powerhouse should follow a similar timeline as far as this update is concerned, which means US-based users might need to wait anywhere between a few days and... a few months to join the Android 11 club.
Of course, unless something goes seriously wrong in Asia or Europe, we don't see any reason why Sony couldn't spread the love around the world by Christmas. After all, the company's Android skin is, well, pretty much nonexistent, which explains why the goodie pack currently rolling out over-the-air tips the scales at under 1GB.
In comparison, Samsung's Android 11-based One UI 3.0 updates for US carrier-specific Galaxy S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra models, for instance, weigh in at well over 2 gigs a pop. By the way, the Xperia 1 II is not officially sold on any major US wireless service providers, further helping Sony keep its bloatware to a minimum.
That's not to say the OS promotion is minor or unimportant, mind you, with a whole slew of performance improvements, various tweaks to pre-installed apps and features, and November security patches heading your way relatively soon... depending on where you live.
Unfortunately, the phone remains prohibitively priced stateside, fetching $102 less than its absurd $1,200 MSRP at the time of this writing on Amazon. Fortunately, Sony plans to bring OTA Android 11 updates to the cheaper Xperia 5 II, Xperia 10 II, and even the OG Xperia 1 and Xperia 5 before long.
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