Sony’s Open Device Program was a response for Sony Xperia users who wanted a more “stock” feel for their device’s software. You can’t go more stock than AOSP (Android Open Source Program), so Sony is letting users flash an AOSP build to their Xperia devices that are part of the program. Of course, this program started and became famous in the time of the Xperia Z devices. Now you can add the Sony Xperia XZs to this list.
The Sony Xperia XZs was announced early this year and was finally out to market just this month. The smartphone is an upgrade from the Xperia XZ – having the same 5.2-inch FullHD Triluminos LCD display, powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, but this time with 4GB RAM instead of 3GB. Putting AOSP on this phone will start with unlocking the bootloader, and Sony has instructions for you on that part.
Then you need to build your own AOSP build by a little coding and downloading the binaries for your device. For the Xperia XZs, it’s based on Android 7.1 Nougat. Suffice it to say, you need to somehow know what you’re doing if you want to attempt this, but the process is totally safe if you know how to do it right. Sony has a build guide for you as well.
The only device missing from the list of open devices for Sony is the new Xperia XZ Premium, powered by the latest Snapdragon 835. We hope it will turn up in the list soon as well.
SOURCE: Sony
