It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that Sony is now ending official software upgrades for several of its older Xperia models. But owners of some of these devices need not despair as there is some light at the end of their tunnel, though not coming from Sony itself.

The list of devices is quite a long one. So far it includes the Xperia arc S, Xperia S, Xperia SL, Xperia ion, Xperia acro S, Xperia go, Xperia P, Xperia J, Xperia miro, Xperia sola, Xperia tipo, and Xperia U. Some of these devices, like the Xperia U and Xperia P, were announced way back in early 2012 while others average at 18 months. They’ve had quite a good run as far as software updates go, with some even trekking three Android generations.

That’s not to say that Sony immediately abonded these devices. In August last year, the company rolled out Android 4.1 for the Xperia S, Xperia SL, and Xperia acro S, bringing those devices into the Jelly Bean age. Other have not been that lucky but nevertheless did receive some amount of updates. Sony has updated the official software support pages for these devices, so if you own any one of them, it might be a good idea to check how far Sony will be taking your smartphone in terms of upgrades.

But as mentioned, there is a way out, at least for some of these. That is if owners are willing to risk going through a flashing process. Some models, particularly the Xperia go, Xperia P, Xperia sola, and Xperia U just received an unofficial port of CyanogenMod 11 in November last year. While this is definitely not an officially supported route, either by Sony and even by CyanogenMod, this at least gives those devices a chance at a life with Android 4.4.

VIA: Xperia Blog