Android 10 for Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact : Features and Release Date

Android 10 for Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact : Features and Release Date

The Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact are the last year flagships from Sony and runs on Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box. Later, the flagships got the Android 9 Pie update. The Android 10 update is the next major update for these devices.

Google released the Android 10 update officially on September 3rd and rolledout for Pixel series devices on the same day. Later, Essential and One Plus started the rollout for their flagships.

Earlier, the Search giant released the first Beta of Android 10 Q on March 13th for Pixel devices. Later, the third beta came in May at I/O 2019 for various flagships along with Pixel series. In Sony flagships, Xperia XZ3 received the third beta. Google announced prior to the release of Android 10 officially, there is no codename for the update, to remove unnecessary confusion. So we won’t see any codenames for future android releases too.

Android 10 Release for Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact :

Previously, Google released the Android 9 update on August 6th and nearly after 67 days Sony began the rollout of Pie with Xperia XZ2, on October 12th. So, we hoped this time Sony would rollout the update sooner because of Project Treble.

However, Sony announced through a blog post that the flagships otherthan Xperia 1 and 5 will receive the update in early-2020. So there is a long time to wait for Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact users.

The Japanese tech giant begins the Android 10 rollout for its 2019 flagships on December 6th. So we expect the next phase of rollout will include the XZ3 flagship and XZ2 Premium and Xperia 10. After that, the rollout will hit Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact devices, most likely in early-February 2020. Carrier locked Xperia XZ2 device owners may have to wait until late-Q1 of 2020 to taste the latest android update.

Update on 21/1/2020 :

The Android 10 update causes some problems in a handful of Xperia XZ2 and XZ3 series devices, according to a discussion on Reddit. The users reported that after the update, fingerprint sensor reception in their devices falls down and unable to unlock the device from lock screen or while in sleep. Sony is yet to provide solution to the problem, but it might be fixed in the next patch updates.

Some XZ3 and XZ2 users reported that the alarm clock stopped working after updating Android 10. Other reported problems include excess battery drain, no face-unlock feature, Wi-Fi connectivity problems. According to tech experts, most of these problems can be fixed by doing a factory reset and the remaining have to be fixed by Sony only.

Update on 6/1/2020 :

The Japanese tech giant begins the rollout of Android 10 for Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 compact devices in Northern and Central Europe, the Baltics, Russia, and unlocked US devices. The XZ2 series owners in other regions may soon join the rollout. According to reports, the update doesn’t contain updated launcher with Full gesture navigation.

Users can check for updates manually by going into Settings > System > System updates and also by using Xperia Companion desktop app. Share your thoughts on the update in the comments below.

Update on 16/11/2019 :

The Japanese Tech giant announced the rollout schedule of Android 10 officially through a blog post. The Xperia 1 and 5 are the first Sony flagships to receive the update and the rollout is scheduled for December 2019.

The Xperia XZ2 Compact along with XZ2 and XZ3 will get the update in early 2020, according the post. Carrier locked variants may take more time to get the update. Most likely, the rollout for unlocked XZ2 and XZ Compact may begin in late-February or early-March 2020. Carrier locked variants may receive in Q2 of 2020.

Android 10 : New Features and Refinements

The tenth anniversary edition of Android comes with many elegant and awesome features. Some of the key features of Android 10 include tightened Location sharing, app permissions, native Dark theme, native support for 5G and desktop mode, Bubble multitasking, Focus mode and Parental controls for Digital well being and so on.

The last beta came with final system behaviours, fixes for some glitches in dark theme and redesigned Quick settings. Now we will digg into the key features of Android 10.

Android 10 Dark mode

Dark theme is one of the most requested features and now Google released the full system-wide dark theme. Google released partial dark mode for Quick Settings and some elements with the Android 9 update. Now with Android 10, Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact users can experience system-wide dark theme along with dark themed Google apps.

Dark mode not only reduce eye strain but also decrease battery consumption and improve battery life. Android 10 automatically applies dark theme for any third-party apps or enables the app’s native dark mode designed by developer. So users don’t need to enable dark mode again in third-party apps.

Full Gesture navigation with Back sensitivity

Gesture navigation was introduced in 2018 with the Android Pie update and now the Search giant refined it further in Android 10. Google reduced the home button size to a small bar which appears at the bottom of the screen, so that users can enjoy more screen real estate while watching YouTube and browsing Web.

Users can customize Gesture navigation in the Settings menu and even adjust back gesture sensitivity. Tapping on thr gear icon against the Gesture navigation option, a slider for back sensitivity appears. High back sensitivity conflicts with other gestures using at the edge of display. More refinements to Gesture navigation will come in upcoming android updates.

Focus mode and Parental controls

Last year, Google released the Digital Wellbeing feature along with the Android Pie update. Now Android 10 is coming with refined Digital wellbeing with Focus mode and Parental controls. Parental controls feature helps to restrict phone usage by children. Users can set screen on time, app usage time and lock some apps for their children.

Focus mode another great addition for Digital Wellbeing which helps to limit distractions while working on improtant things on Android phone. Notifications from selected apps won’t appear till user turnsoff the focus mode throught the created shortcut or Quick Settings toggle.

Battery Saver Schedule

The update comes with many AI-powered refinements to improve user experience and Battery Saver Schedule is one of them. By using the Schedule option, Xperia XZ2 users can improve the Battery life of their devices.

The XZ2 users need to dig into Settings > Battery > Battery Saver > Battery Saver Schedule to enable the Schedule option after installing the update. Then, set option for Based on Your routine to hand-over the control to AI. The feature will analyse the usage and charging patterns and it will enable the saver automatically without interrupting the user.

Smart Reply

The smart replies in Android 10 is an awesome feature to improve user experience. The feature shows some quick replies and action bubbles under the message text in notifications, so that user can give a quick reply or launch the app with a single tap only.

The feature works in this way : when a user gets a message containing address of a location, an option to launch the Maps app will appear beneath the message text in the notification. So the user just tap on the action bubble to navigate to that address. As Smart replies feature utilize on-device machine learning, they give better suggestions with time, based on user’s behaviour.

The feature comes enabled by default in the Android 10 update, so users don’t have to enable manually again. Smart replies work with all messaging apps like Signal, Facebook, Whatsapp and not only Google apps. More improvements to Smart replies feature may come in future android updates.

Bubbles for Multi-tasking

In Android 7.0, 8.0 and 9, Google brought many remarkable multi-tasking features like Splitscreen, Picture in Picture mode etc. The Android 10 update came with another feature called Bubbles to take multi-tasking experience to next level. Using the Bubbles feature users can reply to messages in Social media apps directly from home screen without even launching the app. So Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact users can browse web or watch videos while replying to messages in Bubbles. The feature works similar to Facebook’s Chat heads feature.

Native Support for 5G

The latest Android update comes with native support for 5G networks which are spreading rapidly in the US and other parts of the World. The update contain specific optimizations to reduce app latency and app web view enhancements to work better with 5G networks. However, as XZ2 series don’t support 5G, there might be no significant improvements of App Web view.

Support for Desktop Mode

The Android 10 update is coming with native desktop mode, so that Xperia XZ2 users can use their devices similar desktop PCs by connecting to Monitors or TVs. However, the feature is experimental in Android 10 and may get refined in future updates.

By using Desktop mode with third party launchers, users can multi-task in a better way and App experience also becomes improved, consequently productivity will be improved.

Support for TLS 1.3

The latest iteration of Android came with native support for TLS 1.3 protocol. The TLS 1.3 protocol is an improvement to the TLS 1.2 protocol which is very popular now. Most of the web browsers and apps access over HTTPS using TLS 1.2 only. Recently, Chrome and Firefox for Android updated with support for TLS 1.3 and now with Android 10 all third-party apps should also support the protocol.

With TLS 1.3, users will experience lower latency compared to its predecessor because of zero roundtrip time and other refinements. The security is more tightened in TLS 1.3, so Xperia XZ2 users don’t have to bother about privacy while doing online transactions or browsing web.