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Sony Cellphones Technology

Sony Says Its Xperia Smartphones Are Still 'Very Important' (9to5google.com) 26

Posted by BeauHD from the you-sure-about-that dept.
Despite dwindling global market share, retreat from key regions like Europe, and halting in-house production, Sony insists its Xperia smartphone line remains "very important" to its business. 9to5Google reports: During Sony's latest financial results presentation this week, Sony CFO Lin Tao addressed the state of its Xperia smartphone brand, saying that Xperia is part of "a very important business for us" as reported by CNET Japan (translated). Tao said that "communication technology is a very important technology that Sony has cultivated for a long time. We also want to continue to value our smartphone business." Though adding that "communication technology is used in areas other than smartphones."

Sony Says Its Xperia Smartphones Are Still 'Very Important' More | Reply

Sony Says Its Xperia Smartphones Are Still 'Very Important'

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  • I mean seriously, how important can they be if they don't even bother releasing them in the USA or Europe....

  • Great hardware. Close to zero support. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by julian67 ( 1022593 ) on Thursday August 07, 2025 @08:05PM (#65574128)

    Great hardware. But almost zero support. I used to use Xperia phones. I loved them. Genuinely excellent design. Metal cases, fingerprint scanner on power button exactly where your thumb falls, nice performance, very good cameras and photo apps. Brilliant, fast, accurate GPS. But they are not even supported through two Android versions. They claim support for 2 versions and then don't do it, so in fact you get maybe 18 months support and can then just fuck off. This for phones which cost a lot! If they supported them like Samsung (2 full upgrades and 5+ years of patches even on phones which cost very little) I would still buy Sony. But they don't. That's why my current phone is a Samsung, not a Sony.

    • I was seriously considering an Xperia and have been following it through different revisions, but ultimately, it's Google's promise of long term support and upgrades that makes me choose Pixel. I went from a Pixel 3a to a Pixel 6 (which still has another year of support). I will probably be moving on to a Pixel 9 next year which should come with at least 7 years of support.

    • Metal cases, fingerprint scanner on power button exactly where your thumb falls, nice performance, very good cameras and photo apps. Brilliant, fast, accurate GPS. But they are not even supported through two Android versions. They claim support for 2 versions and then don't do it,

      Agreed. I had SEMC Xperia Play, came with gingerbread. They promised ICS and then never delivered. They did release a beta but it broke controller support (Xperia Play had a slide-out controller and came with a playstation game running in an emulator, and you could buy a few more titles.) The community got the controller working in ICS, but unreliably.

      I learned my lesson in just one step and never bought another Sony device of any kind again, not even a receiver, those lying fucks. Byeeeee!

    • Support windows are definitely a big concern, but I was under the impression that Sony was one of the best third-party manufacturers in this regard, no?

      I'm currently on an Xperia 5 IV. It did get the 2 major updates from Android 12 to 14 and, as of now, I'm still getting monthly firmware updates, after almost 3 year.

      • My phones were from the II & III series so maybe they have improved their support. On one phone I had they promised 2 full upgrades, only supplied one, and stopped even security updates. That's when I switched to Samsung even though I liked the Sony phones better. I recently got a full upgrade on my Samsung A52s 5G, a phone released in 2021. I think that was its third full version upgrade.

  • I have been using Sony phones exclusively for over a decade and a half, since they were Sony Ericsson even.

    The flagship phones are good quality, rugged, water proof, and have excellent cameras.
    I used to buy them used, so I pay a fraction of the new price.

    But that came to an end earlier this year when I could not locate used ones at reasonable prices.

    So I went with a Motorola Edge 2024 that was provided free by my carrier (Fido in Canada, a subsidiary of Rogers). It is as good as a Sony. The camera is decent

  • The Compacts were great (Score:4, Informative)

    by greytree ( 7124971 ) on Friday August 08, 2025 @12:05AM (#65574424)
    The Compacts were great.
    Small but high-spec phones for people who don't want a massive, fragile phablet.

    Sony stopped making Compacts.

    Fuck Sony.
    • Not just Sony. Now the smallest Android is a Samsung S-series or a Sony Xperia 10 (the latter is narrower but taller).
      • It was a clear problem, but it was being solved by the brilliant Mr Migicovsky:

        "Pebble founder: it’s your ‘last chance’ to make a small Android phone happen"
        https://www.theverge.com/23125959/pebble-founder-eric-migicovsky-small-android-phone-quest-iphone-mini

        Except the stupid wanker got bored with that project and gave up on that "Last chance". Thanks, Mr Migicovsky.

        Is there really no-one out there with the brains - and drive - to act
        • He had his priorities wrong - at least for my preferences. World-class camera and a flagship soc are the two areas I am willing to comprise for compact size, in order to get minijack audio and better battery capacity and autonomy.
  • I switched from my good old Samsung Galaxy Note 9 to a Sony Xperia 1 VI in November. So far, so good. Except for the lack of stylus: no used very often, but so much nice to have.

    When I say "good old", that's modulo the #GSOD feature of course [youtube.com]. So long, Samsung, you got too comfortable sh*ting on clients.

    If Sony does the same, the next one (in many years I hope) will be a capable mode from a Chinese brand.

  • ... allowing sideloading and installing a completely open source boot process and OS. I don't know if that still is the case but a few years back Xperia phones where the last ones that allowed for this sort of thing. A good thing IMHO and worth supporting.

    • If you can buy one in your country. I also genuinly loved the Xperia range but they stopped selling locally after my XZ2.

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