Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Will Be Getting Android 2.3 Gingerbread

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Once upon a time Sony Ericsson announced that the Xperia X10 smartphone would not be receiving any updates past Android 2.1 Eclair. And well, it seems that story has been re-written and now has a happier ending. Yup, Sony Ericsson has announced plans to update the Xperia X10.

And perhaps a little better yet, the Xperia X10 is going to be upgraded to Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Or more specifically, Android 2.3.3. Except with that does come the wait, as of now the timeline is the rather generic sounding “end Q2 / early Q3.” But hey, at least Xperia X10 owners know that it is coming.

Otherwise, it seems the reasoning behind the update is because of the users — nice to see that the users word is not only being heard, but also being taken into consideration. But alas, the vocal users were not the sole reason behind the update news. In addition there is also mention that “the development of the software for our new 2011 range of Xperia phones gave us a solution that made it possible to deliver Gingerbread on Xperia X10.” So I guess X10 users can thank themselves for being vocal, as well as Sony Ericsson for making newer model phones.

With that, there are a few other catches to keep in mind for when this update arrives — first being — all your data will be lost during the update process. In other words, you will need to have a good backup before going from 2.1 to 2.3. A few other tidbits in terms of changes and/or limitations with 2.3 worth pointing out include;

• The current plan is that the XperiaTM X10 will get the Android standard Camera user interface and therefore features like e.g. face recognition, smile shutter etc will be lost.
• Moxier is replaced by the gingerbread native EAS functionality.
• Mediascape is being replaced by the media experience widgets and music player included in our new 2011 products.
• DRM keys for protected content on your phone will be lost in the upgrade process.
• The Sony Ericsson Backup and Restore client is not supported in the Gingerbread version and will therefore be lost.
• Support for bi-directional languages will be reduced compared to the latest version of the 2.1 version of the XperiaTM X10.

And lastly, the Gingerbread update is expected to be the end of the line for the Xperia X10. For those wondering about other Xperia branded handsets, at present there is “no such plans” for the Xperia X10 Mini, Mini Pro or Xperia X8.