Handsets

Sony officially begins rolling out Android 5.0 Lollipop to the Xperia Z3 and Z3 Compact

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Lollipop

Sony has announced that two of their best phones from 2014 is now receiving Android 5.0 Lollipop. We’re referring to the Sony Xperia Z3 and Sony Xperia Z3 Compact. The upgrade is headed out to Baltic and Nordic countries first, but Sony promises that expansions will reach more regions a couple of weeks after.

They also mention that other products in the extensive Z lineup will also be getting their upgrades some point after that. Remember that they’ve promised to bring the upgrade to every single device in the Xperia Z family, so you don’t have to wonder whether your older device is on the roadmap.

Here are the changes Sony decided to highlight for those of you eager to upgrade:

  • Fresh, streamlined looks – based on Google’s material design, but retaining our minimalistic approach to interface and application design
  • New look notifications and lock screen – with fully customizable settings, so you only get the information you really need
  • Multi user profiles and guest mode – making it easy for family and friends to use your device, or the creation of dual environments for work and play…
  • Android for Work – not only are business-ready Xperia smartphones and tablets unique devices for work – with waterproof form factors, great battery life and productivity features – they will now also be part of the Android for Work ecosystem
  • Better storage control and customisation – with the option to easily move applications from internal memory to SD card – giving you more control over your content, particularly useful for devices with slightly less space

Of course, it’s worth noting that specific rollout schedules depend on carrier and market, so if you’re not seeing the upgrade immediately you’ll have to wait for your wireless provider to put a bit more pep into their step. Let us know how things are if you are lucky enough to pull it down today!

[via Sony]

Quentyn Kennemer
The "Google Phone" sounded too awesome to pass up, so I bought a G1. The rest is history. And yes, I know my name isn't Wilson.

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21 Comments

  1. It all sounds good. I’m particularly looking forward to the Material Design back, home, and menu buttons. Those Sony ones look pretty cheesy. And it will be nice to have a better lock screen.

    1. I got rid of them straight away with a Lollipop theme. Yeah I hated the Sony ones!

  2. welcome to the waiting room for 5.1 ;) ooorr 5.1.1, sincerely, Nexus 6

  3. This reminds me of the regional roll-out Motorola has been doing with their Lollipop upgrades. Moto G’s started receiving updates in December and some retail units STILL do not have a 5.0 release.

  4. yay!
    took them long enough.
    Sad times when getting the new OS-Version > quarter of a year after release is something positive.

    1. I know. Owning a Nexus 10 and later NVIDIA Shield Tablet has really spoiled me.

  5. As long as T-Mobile continues bringing/approving the update quickly, I’ll be very happy!

  6. Have they fixed the memory leaks in 5.0x? I’ll be waiting this one out for a few months after the mess they Lollipop made of the N5.

    1. I installed Cyanogenmod 12’s latest nightly a few days ago and it works quite well. I did have to re-root and I did a full wipe but Titanium helped a lot. It’s quite neat and no really major bugs (although I can’t actually start a new text that doesn’t already exist). That might be because of something I did wrong restoring a backup, though. No actual silent mode is kinda silly but I can live with it.

      1. The problem I had with official 5.0x on the N5 was memory leaks – which manifested itself as the launcher being killed when using something like the camera, but only after the phone had been running a day or two.

        1. I’d heard about the memory leaks but I’d hoped that Cyanogenmod had ironed them out. It was also one of the reasons why I didn’t want to use stock Lollipop.

          When you say the launcher being killed do you mean that it doesn’t want to do anything in said launcher or what happens?

  7. Hope it fixes the connectivity… My WiFi and LTE/3G are noticeably unstable… Others have reported this issue..otherwise, my Z3 is beast!!!!

    I will do a full factory wipe when the lollipop update is ready..people say that doing a factory reset fixes most issues with connectivity.. I’m just not ready to do it especially when there’s an update right around the corner…T-Mobile Z3

    I hope its 5.0.2 at least…

    1. I had to get rid of my Z3. Tried it for 2 weeks and WiFi and LTE was so bad it would drain my battery. I could not get through the day. My Moto X 2nd gen even did better on battery! HA. So Sony sent me a replacement that did the same thing, then I just got my money back. Loved the phone and camera but could not take the poor reception. I really wish they would redesign it though. It really felt big compared to other phones with the same size screen.

      1. I wasn’t aware of the Z3 having such major issues. Good thing I didn’t buy one in November and risk having those issues come up.

        1. Every new phone has risks..that just technology for ya..yes the Z3 is a great phone…I’m not giving it up..I bought mines in January…. I’m patient

          1. Might make my next phone a Sony Xperia Compact or a Note 5. Really excited about the idea of the new Nexus that’ll probably be released in November. Really liking the idea of getting another Nexus after Nexus 5.

  8. Come on Z1S on tmo

    1. You might see that update in September… of 2016.

      1. Assuming T-Mobile doesn’t pull the update, like they kept doing with the Z1S’ KitKat updates. For most users, the fifth submission to carrier was the charm…

  9. No Z3v love. :-(

  10. At this point, I’d just rather them hold off until they have 5.1 ready.

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