Sony Xperia 1 VI, Xperia 5 VI and Xperia 10 VI all rumoured to gain improved software support over predecessors

Sony's flagship smartphones are competitive in many areas, particularly the camera flexibility of last year's Xperia 1 V. Likewise, Sony Xperia smartphones are some of the only smartphones with dedicated camera shutter buttons, among other differentiating factors from the likes of the Galaxy S24 Ultra (curr. $1,149.99 on Amazon). However, software support remains lacking across all Sony Xperia smartphones even after last year's releases.

For context, Android OEMs like Google and Samsung have moved to match or outpromise Apple, which typically provides six years of software updates to iPhones and iPads. By contrast, Sony has stuck with providing a mere two major Android OS updates. Thus, software support for the Xperia 1 IV and Xperia 5 IV have already received their final OS updates, despite being fewer than two years old. According to new rumours, Sony could will finally rectify this shortcoming with its 2024 releases.

Hence, the Xperia 1 VI, Xperia 5 VI, Xperia 10 VI and even a rumoured Xperia 3 series handset should receive longer software support than their predecessors. Specifically, Sony is said to be adopting five years of software updates. Unfortunately, it remains to be seen whether this is five years of OS upgrades or five years of security patch updates. Either way, switching to the latter should correspond with an improvement to at least three OS upgrades, an amount that the European Commission has been pushing for over 18 months.