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Sony has confirmed that the Xperia 10 VI will not receive the Android 17 update it was promised when the phone launched in June 2024. The company attributed the decision to limitations in the device’s storage configuration, which it said would prevent an adequate Android 17 experience. The phone shipped with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage — the same configuration found in the newer Xperia 10 VIII, which is slated to receive updates through Android 20. Sony apologized on its UK support site but offered no compensation. Security updates will continue until mid-2028 as originally promised. The company said the issue is specific to the Xperia 10 VI and does not affect other Xperia models.
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Sony is walking back a software commitment it made when the Xperia 10 VI launched in June 2024, telling owners that the midrange phone will not receive the Android 17 update it was originally promised.
According to a notice on the company’s UK support site, a “detailed technical assessment” found that “limitations related to the device’s storage configuration” mean the Xperia 10 VI “does not support an Android 17 upgrade experience that we consider adequate.” Sony said it has “decided not to make this upgrade available” and apologized that the move “falls short of our original announcement.”
The device debuted with Android 14 and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset, and Sony had pledged three major OS updates — a roadmap that would have included this year’s Android 17 release. The phone was sold exclusively with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of flash storage.
That storage argument has drawn scrutiny. The current Xperia 10 VIII ships with the same memory and storage configuration, yet Sony says that model is slated to receive updates through Android 20. While the company may be pointing to storage speed rather than capacity, that distinction is unlikely to meaningfully change the Android 17 experience on the older device.
Sony emphasized that the issue stems specifically from the Xperia 10 VI’s technical specifications and does not affect update commitments for other Xperia smartphones. The company also confirmed that the originally promised four years of security patches remain intact, meaning the phone should continue receiving vulnerability fixes until mid-2028.
What Sony did not offer is any form of compensation — such as a discounted upgrade to a newer Xperia model that will receive software support for a longer period. The support page apology stands alone.
The Verge noted that because the technical requirements of future Android versions are not yet known, it is difficult to accept Sony’s assurance that other Xperia models will be unaffected given this reversal.
