The Sony flagship Z-series didn't really get the Z4 successor that it thought it would, but it is possible that the company might give its users a new big thing with the Sony Xperia Z5. There is even rumors of two other models like the Xperia Z5 + (Plus) as well as the possibility of an Xperia Z5 compact. As for older versions like the Xperia Z3, the Xperia Z2, many users are wondering when they will receive their 5.1.1 Lollipop update to their version of Android, not to mention the possibility of a upgrading to Android M (also known as Android 6.0 or just plain Marshmallow).
It doesn't look like Sony has any plans of stopping its OmniBalance design philosophy, and there are also fingerprint sensors on its power button. iDigitalTimes reports on a recent leak that Sony is working on the Sony Xperia Z5 as well as other models of it like the Xperia Z5 Compact and possibly an Xperia Z5 +. To validate these rumors, model numbers E6833, E6853, and E6883 have recently surfaced for the Xperia Z5 smartphones from a Sony user agent profile.
So far, the rumored features for the Xperia Z5 (the basic model) include a 5.5 inch Full HD display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chip, 3GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage as well as a 20.7 Megapixel camera on the rear and an 8 Megapixel camera on the front. This is different from prior reports that stated the Z5 would have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chip, 4 GB of RAM and a 21 Megapixel camera in addition to a 4,500 mAh battery. There are many rumors that point to a fingerprint reader, but there doesn't seem to be any report on the screen sizes of the Z5 + or Z5 Compact as yet.
According to Android Authority, Sony has a big press conference that is scheduled for September 2nd at IFA 2015 in Berlin. This is probably going to be the place where Sony will announce its new flagship phones, the Z5, the Z5 +, and the Z5 Compact.
As for older models from the Xperia Z series, many of them aren't even updated to the current version of Lollipop as yet. The question is when will the older versions of the Xperia Z series, like the Z3 and Z2 be getting their Android updates to the latest version, 5.1.1?
Well, according to the International Business Times, the answer to that question should be soon. The firmware is live for the Z3, Z3 Compact, as well of the Z2, but only in regions including three Austria and Vodafone subscribers in the UK and Spain.
So why hasn't 5.1.1 come to the United States? In one word, Stagefright. Stagefright being the Android media playback service that can unpack and play multimedia messages, and there is a vulnerability that could allow hackers to get media privileges of your device when processing an MMS, without any need of end-user action. Sony has received patches from Google in order to address the issue of Stagefright and making them available through carrier networks within the software maintenance updates.
Of course, it is possible that the Sony Xperia series might skip Android 5.1.1 and go straight to Android M. This is probably the case of the LG G series of smartphones. However, a lot of users are wondering when they will be getting Marshmallow. According to Neurogadget, Sony did post on its website the models that will be at least attempting to run that the operating system.
- Xperia Z3 Plus
- Xperia Z4 Tablet / Wi-Fi
- Xperia Z3
- Xperia Z3 Compact
- Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact
- Xperia Z2, Xperia Z2 Tablet
- Xperia Z1
- Xperia Z1 Compact
- Xperia Z Ultra
- Xperia Z
- Xperia ZL
- Xperia Tablet Z.
Unfortunately, no official release date for Marshmallow has been announced for the Sony Xperia series.
