Anyone who bought an Xperia 10 VI hoping for Android 17 will have to come to terms with it: Sony has said the phone will not receive that update. The model, unveiled in 2024, launched with a promise of three operating system upgrades. It will get fewer.
What Sony said
The announcement came through a support notice, not a press release. According to Sony, the storage configuration of the Xperia 10 VI does not allow it to offer an update experience the company considers adequate. It does not explain what the exact technical limit is, or what type of storage the phone uses.
Sony also acknowledges that the decision contradicts what it promised: in essence, it does not honour the original announcement. The company has apologised.
What is still guaranteed
The cancellation only concerns the Android version. Security updates remain guaranteed for four years from launch, as originally announced. Android 16 is therefore the last major release planned for this model, which will keep receiving monthly patches for a while.
Sony also stresses that the case is limited to this phone. The other Xperia models scheduled for Android 17 are unchanged, including the Xperia 10 VII. The Xperia 1 VIII, the flagship, has been getting it since September.
The phone’s specs
Under the hood, the Xperia 10 VI has a Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 processor with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage; it shipped with Android 14. It is not a cheap or niche phone: its hardware is in line with that of many rivals that have meanwhile already received Android 17 or will do so.
The signs were already there. The 10 VI did not appear in the update roadmap Sony published in September, nor in the list of eligible models released when Android 17 started rolling out on the Xperia 1 VIII. At the time many read its absence as a delay; it was a withdrawal.
What to do if you have an Xperia 10 VI
The phone does not become unusable: it keeps working on Android 16 and keeps receiving security patches until the four years are up. If your priority is the new features in Android 17, the choice is between staying put and changing model. Those who use their phone for everyday things will notice little, at least as long as apps and services remain compatible with the installed version.
A practical tip for anyone weighing up a purchase: before choosing an Android phone, check not only the years of updates a manufacturer claims, but also how it has honoured its promises on previous models. Support promises are a selling point, and this case shows that in practice they are not binding.
What we think
It is a rare episode: manufacturers usually postpone, or quietly drop a model from a list without saying so. Sony at least admitted the problem and apologised, and that deserves credit. The fact remains that two years after launch a phone is being left behind despite a written promise, with a vague technical explanation.
The precedent weighs most on the mid-range, where long support is often the reason people pick one model over another. If a storage limit was foreseeable, it should have been factored in before announcing three updates; if it wasn’t, that says something about planning. Either way, buyers who paid for the phone end up with less than they were told.
The comparison with other brands is not flattering to Sony: these days Samsung is rolling out One UI 9 with Android 17 even to phones three years old, as we report in our article on One UI 9 on the Galaxy S24. Even owners of an older phone that has already reached the end of the road, such as the Pixel 6, have been given a clear timetable, as we explain in the end of updates for the Pixel 6. Software support is now a line in the spec sheet like the screen or the battery, and it should be treated with the same seriousness.
Written by the SpazioiTech newsroom with the help of AI tools, from facts verified across at least two independent outlets, and checked before publication. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
Translated from the Italian original. Read in Italian
