Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 To Get Official Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread

By Chris Davies

Sony Ericsson has changed its mind on XPERIA X10 updates, and announced that it will indeed be releasing Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread for the smartphone. According to the company’s official blog, while Sony Ericsson did say back in January that the X10 would remain on Android 2.1, strong customer demand has prompted them to prepare a final Gingerbread release for the smartphone.

The update is scheduled for release sometime in late Q2 or early Q3 this year, though initially only for generic X10 versions. Carrier-modified X10′s may get Gingerbread after a delay, or may not get it at all. Similarly, the XPERIA X10 mini and X10 mini pro will definitely not be getting Gingerbread, and will remain on Eclair.

While Sony Ericsson says the Android 2.3.3 update was developed alongside Gingerbread for its 2011 model range, there will be some differences on the X10 :

• 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. **