Sony has terminated Xperia Beta development

While Sony’s Xperia line of phones may not be making much money (quite the opposite, in fact), the Japanese manufacturer has been one of the few OEMs around the world to cater to the cravings of its more hardcore fans: The Xperia Beta program began in an effort to allow users who wanted the latest and greatest Android version to receive it months ahead of the official roll-out, and in the process said users were a kind of de facto guinea pig for bug bashing and glitch catching.

As all good things inevitably do however, the program is now finished. Sony has confirmed the termination, which makes the final firmware build number 23.5.A.1.238.

According to Sony, “in the coming weeks” there will be a new official firmware update that will be pushed to all Xperia Z2 and Xperia Z3 owners. All those users who participated in the Beta program will be automatically updated.

It is not yet known if the Japanese conglomerate will be initiating a similar software solution for users eager to get their phones on Android Nougat, which is Google is expected to deploy in October. Given the massive lead time OEMs typically required to get devices updated – if the process occurs at all – it’s conceivable Sony might bring forth another beta, but at this point it’s anyone’s guess.

Were you one of the Xperia Beta users? Are you happy to see the program end, or sad it won’t be continuing? Leave a comment below, and if you’re considering upgrading that current Xperia model, be sure to check out our reviews of the Xperia X and Xperia X Performance.