Android 6.0 coming to Sony TVs

by Sohrab Osati | Mar 7, 2017 | 3 comments
Sohrab Osati

Sony_TV_Android_TVWhile Sony Mobile has gotten better about timely Android updates, Sony’s TV division is still lagging. Having arrived all the way back in December in the US, Android 6.0 is starting to go live in Europe for 2015 and 2016 TVs. Though Sony has yet to confirm it, 2017 models will ship with the latest OS that has some big changes and visual refinements that should dramatically improve the overall experience. Here is Rasmus Larsen from flatpanelshd:

 Google says that Android TV 6.0 includes mostly bug, performance, and security fixes to bring the TVs up to speed. However, it also includes new features such as external USB storage, improved search, a new “design concept”, interface tweaks, a “child mode”, a new audio volume bar, and more.

Furthermore, you can control which apps are allowed to push content to the recommendations row. The other rows (apps and games) can be re-organized. We have included a changelog at the bottom. 

TVs eligible for the update include:

2015 Sony BRAVIA TVs

  • X94C
  • X93C
  • X91C
  • X90C
  • S85C
  • S80C
  • X85C
  • X83C
  • X81C
  • X80C
  • W95C
  • W87C
  • W85C
  • W80C
  • W75C

2016 Sony BRAVIA TVs

  • X94D (XD94)
  • X93D (XD93)
  • X85D (XD85)
  • S85D (SD85)
  • W9xxD
  • W8xxD

As for what the new OS brings, it’s varied and all over the place but they include enhancements like:

  • New design concept is introduced to screen design such as background image
  • We moved the volume adjusting bar to the bottom left of the screen and made the picture easy to see
  • You can move the downloaded games and apps to a USB memory device or HDD as an extended memory

to name a few. Some might seem minor but I’d recommend checking out the full details as provided by flatpanelshd and you’ll see how something like the volume bar changing actually makes a big visual difference. As I mentioned, the update should already be live for those living in the US and more recently has gone live for those in Europe – though Sony appears to have pulled the OTA update as some have experienced issues with it. Still, Sony advises that those with the update already installed shouldn’t have a problem and anybody downloading the update to a USB should also be clear of any bugs.