With talk of new Sony Xperias coming in 2015, those of us with 2014 smartphones are always looking for good support for our devices. Sony previously made a commitment to support smartphones up 18 months after launch. In that time, for devices other than flagships, Sony seems to give most phones one major jump in Android version and several smaller updates around that.

Xperia M2 owners appear to be due an update soon – version 18.3.1.C.1.13. The current version running is 18.3.1.C.0.21/2, which is Android 4.4 KitKat.

Medium-sized updates can include some new features, changes to the user interface, and the usual bug fixes and updated apps. Recently, with the Walkman app, Sony has started pushing out Google’s Material Design interface.

What does Sony have planned for us?

Update –

Some of these images will differ to the M2 (non-Aqua), as this is the Aqua update flashed to the M2. For example, this theme “Air” seems to be available only on the M2.

Click to enlarge.

Sony has updated the M2 page showing this update and say the update is now live:

Update using PC Companion for Windows or Bridge for Mac.

According to a Vodafone employee, this is what the update includes:

Here’s what’s coming up on the new build version radar:

Where is the update available?

This is now available for select networks/carriers:

M2 single-SIM (18.3.1.C.1.13) in:

(D2306, Americas) – none showing yet

(D2305, ) – none showing yet

(D2303 Most of world) – Spain, France, Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Croatia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Ireland, Macedonia, Greece, Slovakia, Poland, Singapore, Scandanavia, Baltic, Algeria, Boznia & Herzegovina, Portugal, Croatia, Malaysia, Philippines, UK

M2 Aqua (18.3.1.C.1.13) in:

(D2403, most of world) Philippines, Switzerland, Brazil, MENA Arabic, Spain, Netherlands, Greece, UK, Hungary, Germany, Czech Republic, Ireland, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Baltic, Nordic, Brazil, Russia, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Algeria, South Africa,

(D2406, Americas) – Canada, Peru, US, Chile

M2 Dual (18.3.1.B.1.8)

On Feb 3 this version was registered so that update should also be coming soon. It will very likely be identical to the M2 single-SIM update.

Currently available in :

(D2302) Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Russia, Malaysia, India, Ukraine, Indonesia, Australia, Hong Kong, Greece, Singapore, US, Thailand, Portugal

What’s in this update?

Sony has not said yet, and it could be as much as a few weeks before we find out.

We could make some good guesses, though. The .1 update near the end is a reasonable jump in build version. Changes will be noticeable. The thing is, it’s already running 4.4.4. So, what next? Most likely, it’s Sony design changes, app updates, bug fixes and some new features. The 2013 Xperia M made a similar jump (view here) after it made the jump from 4.1 to 4.3. These were the types of changes involved.

The Xperia T3 was recently updated with these changes, which may also be in this update:

For a jump to a whole new version of Android, we would need a bigger jump in numerals at the start of the build, which doesn’t show here, so it’s very unlikely to be 5.0 Lollipop.

Again, Sony has not said what this is yet and it’s unlikely available just yet – we’ll update when more countries get it. In the meantime, looking at recent Sony updates, our bet is on this type of update.

 

Discuss:

Is your M2 running well? Any bugs?