After rolling out stable Android 11 to the Xperia 1 and Xperia 5 last week, Sony is now bringing the latest flavor of Android to its current compact flagship, the Xperia 5 II. As per Sony's official update schedule, the Japanese OEM was expected to release the stable Android 11 build for the "Mark 2" version of the Xperia 5 before the end of January. Sticking true to its promise, the company has now started rolling out the update in select regions.
The update carrying software version 58.1.A.1.178 is currently available for the European (XQ-AS52) and Asian (XQ-AS72) dual SIM variants of the phone in Russia and South East Asia, respectively. The SoftBank Japan-exclusive single SIM model (A002SO) has also joined the roster, albeit its Android 11 update is tagged as 58.1.D.0.331. As for what to expect from the new software, the updated firmware brings along many exciting features and improvements to the table that Google introduced in Android 11.
We should see the Android 11 OTA for the Xperia 5 II arriving in more countries over the coming days and weeks. While you may try to fiddle with the Xperia Companion utility to download the update for your phone, XDA community-developed tools like XperiFirm and Newflasher make it a lot easier to skip the waiting queue and download the new build directly from the company’s update server for manual flashing.
It is worth mentioning that the Xperia 5 II has yet to secure a position in Sony’s Open Devices Program, which means the aftermarket development community can't have access to the low-level software binaries required to compile a functional build of AOSP 11.0 with minimal effort. However, considering Sony's developer friendliness, we hope the company will soon release an updated kernel source and provide vanilla AOSP device configurations for this smartphone.