Sony Xperia P firmware upgrade released

Posted on 10 Jan 2013 at 10:33, by Gareth Halfacree

Sony has released a software update for its Xperia P Android-powered smartphone, but an upgrade to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is sadly not on the cards.

According to Sony fan site XperiaBlog, the update is designed for all Sony smartphones with the NovaThor U8500 processor including the Xperia U, Xperia Sola and Xperia Go - but, thus far, is only being released for the Xperia P.

Sony has yet to release details of what changes are contained in the firmware update, which is available over-the-air to Xperia P handsets now, but there's one thing it certainly doesn't bring: an upgrade to the latest release of Google's Android operating system. With Xperia P users anxious to upgrade from Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich to the more feature-packed and high-performance Android 4.1 Jelly Bean - or, better still, the cutting-edge Android 4.2 release currently only available to users of Google's own-brand Nexus hardware - an upgrade that doesn't bring an operating system refresh with it will be a disappointment.

Sony is unlikely to be upgrading the firmware for nothing, however, and the update almost certainly brings bug fixes and improvements to the underlying platform even if the user-facing portion of the Android operating system remains unchanged. Users won't have too long to wait to receive Jelly Bean on their handsets, either, with Sony having previously committed to upgrading the Xperia P by March 2013 along with other selected Xperia handsets.