Sony cuts Xperia 10 VI update support with flimsy justification

The Sony Xperia 10 VI launched in June 2024 with Android 14 and was supposed to receive three major Android updates. Just two years later, Sony is breaking this promise, stating on a support page that the originally planned update to Android 17 will not be released after all.

The reason is allegedly the Xperia 10 VI's insufficient storage configuration, which would prevent it from delivering an adequate user experience with Android 17. The smartphone was sold exclusively with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of flash storage. That this argument is tenuous at best is demonstrated not least by the fact that the current Xperia 10 VIII is sold with exactly the same memory and storage configuration, yet is even supposed to receive updates through Android 20.

While it is conceivable that Sony is referring to the speed of the storage, this should not have a significant impact on the Android 17 user experience. According to Sony, this issue arose specifically because of the Xperia 10 VI's technical specifications and has no impact on update support for other Xperia smartphones.

Sony apologizes on the support page for the shortened update support period but offers no prospect of compensation, such as a discounted upgrade to a newer Xperia model that will receive software updates for longer. At least the originally promised four years of security patches are to be maintained, meaning security vulnerabilities will continue to be patched until mid-2028.