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When it comes to Android software updates, Sony hasn’t been the fastest manufacturer to update their devices this time around. While not many devices outside of the Nexus lineup actually have Android 5.1.1 which is Google’s latest version of Lollipop to date, there are a few which have been shifted to the newer software build. Sony however, isn’t one of them. Not on a grand scale at least. A handful of Sony devices had been confirmed to get the update to Android 5.0 Lollipop, and currently the Xperia Z3, Xperia Z2, and a few others are working with Android 5.0.2. This of course excludes the T-Mobile model of the Xperia Z3 as it’s still stuck on Android Kit Kat, although the software is in development and will hopefully be rolling out soon.
Sony could be moving a little quicker now though that more than a couple of devices in the Xperia family have Lollipop installed, as a recent video has shown up on YouTube of a Sony Xperia Z3 model number D6603 running on Android 5.1.1. This particular model number is the unlocked version of the handset which wasn’t tied to carriers and was distributed out to various regions, and in the video you can see a couple of key changes that highlight what users of the Xperia Z3 and other Xperia family devices which will end up getting the 5.1.1 update can expect when the software hits.
The most notable change is the animations which happen after the user touches certain quick settings toggles. If you watch closely you’ll notice that upon touching the toggles for Bluetooth and WiFi to bring up the settings menus for both of those connection types, there is a new more lively animation which happens during the open and close actions. You might also notice that when opening up the settings menus for Bluetooth and WiFi that there is now a little arrow which denotes the extra menu. Upon pressing to open this up instead of exiting out to the actual settings menu, it merely opens up a new page of the quick settings panel which is not currently the case with Android 5.0.2 on the Xperia Z3. There are also some more animations for the actual quick settings toggles themselves when turning things on or off too. It also appears that some of the icons for the different menus inside of settings have gotten swapped out, which by all accounts is pretty minor compared to the animations and such. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of new features involved, but just some nice touches and visual tweaks to give things a more polished look. Of course there is no way of knowing for sure until the updates start to roll out to other users and there is a changelog posted. As of the moment there hasn’t been any official word from Sony on this particular update so there is no word on when it might roll out to other users, but since this is on a D6603 model we can probably expect it to hit those with that model of the device before others.
https://youtu.be/l_LKW-kCtyY