The Xperia XZ3 flagship launched in August 2018, powered by Snpadragon 845 and pre-installed Android 9 Pie. The predecessor of XZ3 also powered by SD 845 and came with Android 8.0 Oreo. The XZ2 flagship received the Android 9 Pie update in October 2018.
The next big update for these flagships is Android 10 Q. The XZ3 flagship is included in Android Q Beta program and registered users already started getting the preview version of the tenth anniversary edition of Android.
Google released the third Beta cum Preview version of Android Q on May 7th at I/O 2019, with many improvements and new features over previous android versions. The fifth beta arrived with many bugfixes and refinements on June 5th and later the fifth Beta rolledout for Pixel flagships on July 10th with official SDK support. Before the final release, the Search giant released the last and sixth Beta on August 7th with final system behaviours. Finally, the tenth anniversary edition of Android arrived on September 3rd for Pixel devices and Essential Phone.
When will Android 10 hit XZ3 and XZ2 ?
Thanks to Project Treble, the Beta version is available for XZ3 users along with Pixel users without any delay. But the Beta is very buggy and not suitable as daily driver, according to XZ3 users. So we recommend XZ3 and XZ2 users to wait for stable rollout.
According to leaks, the Japanese tech giant already spin off the development of Android 10 for its flagships. But Xperia 1 may stand infront of XZ3 to receive the the update. So we expect the official rollout for XZ3 may begin in late-November 2019 and may spread to the US and Europe in early-December.
For Sony XZ2 users, the rollout is expected to begin in late-January, only for unlocked devices. The carrier locked editions of XZ2 might begin getting the update in February or March, 2020. Any thing more than this would be only speculation at this moment. We post the official rollout dates here, as soon as Sony has announced them.
Update on 21/11/2019 :
The Japanese tech giant revealed the roadmap of Android 10 for its devices and it is not so impressive. Only the Xperia 1 and Xperia 5 are scheduled to get the Android 10 update, this year. The update rollout is slated for the remaining flagships including the Xperia XZ3, XZ2 and XZ2 Compact in early-2020.
So the Xperia XZ3 and XZ2 users may get the update in Q1 of 2020, according to the latest official schedule. The update list doesn’t contain Xperia XZ1 and but Sony may include it in coming days. The Japanese tech giant really did a great job in rolling out of Android updates in the past years, but this year, it seems that Sony gets out of the track.
What’s new in Android 10 ?
Since, Android 10 is the tenth anniversary edition of the most popular mobile operating system, the Search Giant makes remarkable changes and brings many exciting new features. Full system-wide Dark theme for Android and apps is one of the most useful features in the update. User privacy options got more improved and parental controls added for Digital wellbeing.
System-wide Dark Theme
Dark theme is one of the most requested features of android. Now with the tenth anniversary update, Google brings the fully developed dark theme for android and also third-party apps. Using dark mode not reduce eyestrain during night time but also decrease battery drain.
To switch-on dark theme, users go to Settings>Display>Themes. Turning battery saver, automatically enables dark theme on Android 10. Timer can also be set for Battery saver, so there is no need to turnoff manually.
No Snoozing of Notifications
Google removed snoozing of notifications feature in Android Q, which was introduced in Android Oreo. However, new altermative comes up in the form of Notification settings for each app. Users can set in Interruptive mode in which notification sound appears or Gentle mode in which there is no notification sound.
Native support for Desktop mode
Desktop mode for Android is one of the innovative features arrived with the Android Q update. Till now, only Samsung Dex and some custom roms for flagship devices contain support for Desktop mode. Now native support has come with the tenth iteration of Android.
Because of desktop mode, flagship devices like Xperia XZ3 will work comparable to chrome books when connected to bigger display. Native Android Q without any launcher will feature only interface similar to smartphone. But some developers are working to develop launchers for Android Desktop mode. However, the desktop mode feature is still under development and present in the Developer options in Settings menu in the third beta. So the search giant may refine it in upcoming betas.
Full Gesture Navigation
The Android 10 update comes with new improved gestures over the gestures in Pie. Users can hide the navbar entirely with Full Gesture navigation gaining more screen real estate which improves user experience while watching videos and during multi-tasing using splitscreen feature.
If users don’t like the new navigation, then they can easily revert back to old navigation with 2-button style featuring Home and Back buttons like in Pie or 3-button style containing all Home,Back and Overview buttons like in Android Oreo. So Xperia XZ3 and XZ2 users will get a whole new navigation experience with Android 10. Users can adjust back gesture sensitivity by tapping on the gear icon against Gesture navigation option. High Back sensitivity interferes with other gestures at the edge of the screen.
Battery Saver Schedule
The Xperia XZ3 and XZ2 users can turn-on the Battery saver schedule feature powered by AI, after updating to Android 10. Google made many optimizations in Android to improve battery life in android devices. This time, the Search giant take the assistance of AI to save more battery juice.
The users can enable the feature by going into Settings > Battery > Battery Saver > Battery Saver Schedule and select Based on Your routine. Then, the user can forget totally about turning on and off the battery saver as the schedule itself manages it. The feature analyzes user’s usage behaviour and Charging patterns and automatically turns-on the saver at appropriate times.
Android 10 Security Features
The Android Q update comes with storage encryption feature which is a fundamental security feature. The feature usually requires cryptographic acceleration support for hardware but with Adiantum, which was announced back in February, Android Q requires no special hardware for storage encryption. So the new devices shipped with Android Q comes with storage encryption as a fundamental feature.
Not only storage encryption, the latest iteration of Android also supports TLS 1.3 protocol which is safer and faster than the earlier TLS 1.2. So users of Xperia XZ3 will be able to browse web and watch videos or shows with much secure TLS 1.3 protocol and websites also open faster because of zero roundtrip time of the protocol. More details about the security features of Android Q will be revealed soon.
Update on 7/12/2019 :
Sony delivers the Android 10 update for Xperia 1 and 5 users as it said earlier. The rollout started a few hours ago and currently the users in the US and Europe are getting the update, according to reports in Reddit. As the rollout proceeds in a phased manner, some users have to wait for some time to get the OTA update notification. Otherwise, they can use tools like XperFirm to flash the update manually.
The version number of this update is v55.1A.0.748 and also packs November month’s Security patch. The next devices to get the Android 10 update is Xperia XZ3, XZ2 and Xperia 10. So the stable rollout for these devices may begin some where in January 2020.
Update on 22/10/2019 :
Although Sony still hasn’t announced anything about the Android 10 rollout for its devices, a Japanese carrier, NTT DoCoMo revealed the list of Sony’s devices getting the update. The list contains Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact but notably Xperia XZ1 and XZ1 Compact are absent. But we hope the XZ1 series will be added later to the upgrade list, probably second phase.
The carrier didn’t reveal anything about the rollout dates, but we expect the Japanese tech giant will reveal full details about the Android 10 update in coming days.
Update on 20/9/2019 :
Google released the Android 10 official update on September 3rd and the rollout hits Pixel series devices on the same day. Along with Pixels, Essential Phone also received the update. OnePlus begins the beta program on the next day, while no word from Sony about the update. We are hearing leaks that the Japanese tech giant is currently developing the update and a preview is coming very soon for XZ2 and XZ3 flagships along with Xperia 1.
Prior to the rollout, Google posted that they dropped the naming scheme of desserts for android versions, so that the tenth anniversary version and upcoming updates will be called by version number only.
Albeit, the final update of Android 10 is very similar to the last beta, it contains some refinements like Charging port clean notifications, September month’s security patch and some under the hood features.
Update on 16/7/2019 :
Google pushedout the fifth Beta of Android Q for Pixel series devices on July 11th and Essential Phone receives the latest Beta on 14th. The build is very near to final system behaviours, according to Google and SDK is available for app developers. The Beta 5 is a minor one and includes no features like Facial authentication as leaked before. But it brings some refinements like new Gestures, screen pinning with Gestures, silent Lock screen notifications, new dark Boot animation for Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL devices, snoozing of notifications and so on.
On Beta 5, users are able to launch Google Assistant by simply swiping from edge of display to centre, so there is no need for dedicated Google Assistant button. Dark Boot animation is one good feature arrived with Beta 5, but it is exclusive for Pixel 3 only at this moment. The dark animation is very good AMOLED display devices. The sixth Beta is due to arrive in late-July or early-August.
Update on 24/6/2019 :The Search Giant released the fourth beta with finalized APIs and SDK for developers on 6th June. The rollout for Pixel devices began the same day but later halted due to bootloop issues. After fixing the issues, Google re-started the rollout of Beta 4 for Pixel series devices.
The Beta includes some minor fixes for dark theme, change in padlock postition on Lockscreen and other security fixes. The update includes Face Authentication section in the Settings menu, indicating native support for Face Unlock on Android. The next beta is due to come in early next month and the final beta may arrive in late-next month, according to the official roadmap.
We will update this article soon with more details about Android Q update for Xperia XZ2 and XZ3.
