(Hands on) Sony’s Android™ concept initiative – M Edition

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An initiative by Sony Mobile to create a new software experience by putting the consumer at the center of the software development via this concept initiative.

 

In a somewhat pleasantly surprising announcement back in July, Sony announced that a closed beta would launch in Sweden. As the months rolled on, other countries were allowed to participate. We’re now nearly into December and we’ve been testing the concept software for a few weeks. The company have given us permission to write about the process and give our opinion on the software. As you’ll be aware, we’ve reviewed the entire Xperia Z series line of devices here at DroidHorizon. I’ve personally been a massive fan of the hardware put not so much the UI or all the included Sony bloat. I watched the Z series mature but the software didn’t really change much with it. The Concept Initiative starts from the ground up from Android 6.0 Marshmallow AOSP, slowly adding back features that users want or need to bring the best possible experience for consumers. We’ve been testing using the Sony Xperia Z3 unlocked version (Model Number D6603) here in the UK on Three network.

 

How To Join?

By now the best method to get in on the action is to use Sony´s Concept for Android from Google Play to sign up. Fill in all the details and make sure you meet the required criteria, if you’re an Xperia Z3 or Xperia Z3 Compact user in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, United Kingdom, Ireland or Germany.
Make sure you move quickly! As the initiative is limited to 10,000 places, users will be selected on a first come, first serve basis – successful applicants will be notified over the coming weeks.

 

How To Flash?

Installing concept software

Please take a few minutes to read this guide as some steps contain important information!

The concept software will initially have to be installed from a PC or a Mac. Later updates to the software will be sent to your Xperia phone “over the air” a few times per month. The tool used to change the software on your phone is Concept Installer.
Note: All your data will be lost when you use the Concept installer on your phone, so make sure to back up all data before installing the concept software. It is possible to migrate data to the concept software.

Concept Installer can flash (install) the concept software to approved Xperia devices. To flash your phone, follow the steps below.

1. Download and install Concept Installer on your PC/Mac from the link provided below.

PC executable:
https://www-support-downloads.sonymobile.com/Software%20Downloads/Concept%20Installer/Concept_Installer_Web_prod.exe
Mac:
https://www-support-downloads.sonymobile.com/Software%20Downloads/Concept%20Installer/Concept_Installer_Web_prod.dmg

2. Start Concept Installer. This might take some time.
3. Select the Install Concept Software tab
4. Make sure your phone is powered on
5. Connect your phone and wait for a while.
6. Press Install software. Please be patient, this will take time.
7. Enjoy your new software!

 

Over The Air updates usually happen once a week. Generally the user will need to have over 50% battery and be connected to WIFI. The release notes include what’s new in the version, latest at time of writing is 2157. You can set to install at a later time if you happen to need your phone. The process can take 5 minutes to download, install and reboot again so be warned. (If you’re familiar with custom ROMs you’ll already be very familiar with the steps. Everything is automatic via the stock recovery. We haven’t tested with custom recoveries like TWRP or if root sticks after every new version.)

Likely my most wanted added feature would be Layers RRO. Xperia Theme support was added a few versions before and every single theme available looks bloody awful. Although the stock UI is Nexus like with fantastic animations, Sony Xperia Home launcher still has some way to go to have me using it.

 

How To Give Feedback?

Once back up and running again, the beta feedback app pops survey questions to you about the experience of the new software and multiple different questions about new features that you may want added in the next version coming. This is your opportunity to get that killer feature that the manufacturers are missing! You should really join the Google Plus private community which you’ll be automatically be invited to. If you have issues or concerns there’s a very likely chance that the issue has been already reported there. Please read all the pinned articles and FAQs, be polite and interact, the developers are active and will read all the feedback.

Conclusion

We’ve certainly enjoyed testing and interacting with other users about the software. Sony are doing a fantastic job of including customers in decisions we didn’t have before. If enough users ask for something to be included, it will be. The lightweight approach to the UI is certainly something that I personally like. I’m not a massive fan of skinned Android, I just hope the Sony devs don’t keep adding the bloat back in gradually and we’ll be back to where we started again. Please remember, this is a beta. Things may be broken or missing. Features may be added to be taken away again. If you need a perfect working device, best avoid. We’ve used the concept exclusively for a few weeks without issue.

Chief Editor of DroidHorizon. I own a few different devices at the minute and enjoy writing reviews and sharing what I think is cool. You can often find me playing Playstation 4 or sprawled across the couch with headphones on (maybe with a nice beer or gin & tonic in-hand)

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