Sony Updates the Xperia Z3 Plus, Z4 Tablet & Z5 Family

Users of Sony's Xperia Z4 tablet, Z3 Plus, Z5 Premium, or Z5 Compact are in for a pleasant surprise as the company is rolling out a fresh update to those devices right now. Before anybody gets too excited, this update doesn't appear to include too many new features and definitely isn't a firmware upgrade to the latest version of Android itself – though Android 8.0 Oreo is available to users of some Sony devices in some regions already. What it does bring with it is a bump to the build number and some bug fixes. That includes at least one major improvement on the security side of things. It is worth pointing out, as always, that firmware rollouts take some time to complete – up to several weeks in some cases – so users shouldn't be too concerned if it hasn't hit their device just yet.

With regard to the update itself, users will notice that they are, as mentioned above, still on Android Nougat (OS version 7.1.1). However, the build number should be moved up to 32.4.A.1.54. That's not a huge step forward from the previous build number, 32.4.A.0.160, indicating that there is probably not a whole lot included in the update itself. In fact, it appears to primarily serve the purpose of delivering Android's September security patch and not much else. That's not really a bad thing since that patch represents the first that the devices have received since the June patch earlier this year. Moreover, September's update is reportedly supposed to bring a fix with it for the BlueBorne exploit though there hasn't been any word as to whether that is true for these devices and some manufacturers are patching that bug through different updates entirely. Unfortunately, with consideration for the ages of the above-listed devices, this could very well be the final update to hit them. There's also no word as to whether or not this update fixes the overheating problems users of the devices have been reporting since Android Nougat was first rolled out.

Whatever the case, the September security patch should include fixes for several other system-level vulnerabilities found in Android – including fixes implemented within the several patches that have been released by Google between June and September's respective patches. That should mean a much more secure experience for users, at a minimum.

Source: Sony Updates the Xperia Z3 Plus, Z4 Tablet & Z5 Family