Sony Ericsson is planning to upgrade the Xperia X10 to Android 2.3 at the end of the second quarter or the beginning of the third quarter, the company said in a blog post on Friday.
The company has previously stated that it wasn’t going to upgrade the Xperia X10 beyond version 2.1, much to the dismay of users. But there has now been a change of plans, and the company will upgrade “generic trade versions” of the device, meaning those that haven’t been customized for an operator.
Owners of X10s that have been customized for an operator will have to keep their fingers crossed, some may not get the upgrade, the blog post said.
Android 2.3 will bring better performance and a new user interface. The final scope of the software is still a work in progress, according to Sony Ericsson. But the upgrade will also mean that some functionality will disappear. For example, the camera will get the standard user interface, rather than retain Sony Ericsson’s own, and features like face recognition and smile shutter will be lost, it said.
The X10 is Sony Ericsson’s first Android-based smartphone and started shipping about a year ago. It comes with a 4-inch screen and an 8-megapixel camera.
The news of the upgrade has been met with much jubilee: “WOW!!! What fantastic news! I don’t know whether I should hug my X10 or give [blogger] Rikard a kiss!” Candido wrote in a comment to the blog post.
However, not everyone is as happy. Owners of the Xperia X10 mini, mini pro and Xperia X8 will have to make do with version 2.1. There are no plans to upgrade those phones. Sony Ericsson has had to prioritize resources and decided to focus on upgrading the Xperia X10, the blog post said.
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