We wanted to wish all of our readers a wonderful and restful break over Christmas and New Year. Those interested in Xperia smartphones seem to be a smaller and smaller crowd each year, but we'll still keep kicking around for those that still love Sony's offerings, and wants to keep abreast of key news.

Sony is now rolling out December 2020 security patches to a number of its premium models including the Xperia 5 II, Xperia 1 and Xperia 5. The Xperia 5 II is seeing an update mainly to version 58.0.A.28.51, although there is another build version (58.0.A.28.60) that has been released in Asia. Both have December 2020 security patches.

Sony has commenced the Android 11 rollout for its flagship Xperia 1 II device. It has only launched on the Taiwanese variant so far (XQ-AT52), but it signals a wider regional release is likely imminent. The OTA update is 933.9MB in size and moves the build number from 58.0.A.3.224 to version 58.1.A.0.921, keeping the November 2020 Android security patch from the earlier firmware.

Sony has confirmed that its Android 11 firmware rollout will start from December 2020. The first phone to get the update will be the Xperia 1 II, this year's current flagship. Sony has also confirmed that the Xperia 1 II will be updated at the same time to support slow motion video recordings in 4K HDR at 120 fps (frames per second).

Sony updated the Xperia 5 II (Mark 2) recently to add November 2020 Android security patches moving the build version to 58.0.A.28.25. We saw this build hit some of the Asian SKU's a while back, and is now hitting some of the European models.

This week, we’re adding 14 new mobile camera hardware scores, from Sony phones that cost $1199 down to $160 for the Oppo A33 (2020) as we need to cover all price points if we are to help as many people as possible navigate the maze of camera options.

But first, a few words about our mobile camera HardWare benchmark called Uber HW Camera, since it is how we estimate how powerful these camera systems are and rank them.

Sony is pushing out the November 2020 Android security patch for its flagship Xperia 1 II (Mark 2). The new update arrives with build number 58.0.A.3.224 in the form of a 108.6MB OTA update. As usual, frustratingly there is no changelog so we cannot say definitively if there are other changes. If you've updated please let know your impressions below.

If you were to ask Sony Xperia fans to pick one iconic colour that has adorned their smartphone stable over the last decade, there is a good chance that Purple would be high up on that list. We've not seen the colour used in more recent Xperia phones, but the good news is that it will make a return in its latest Xperia 5 II. The bad news is that the Purple Xperia 5 II is exclusive to NTT docomo in Japan.

Sony has released firmware updates for a few of its 2020 smartphones. The recently released Xperia 5 II has been updated to build number 58.0.A.22.21, which adds October 2020 Android security patches. In addition, its budget Xperia L4 has seen an update to 57.0.A.2.258, which also adds October 2020 patches.

Sony has released its fiscal second quarter results for FY2020, which includes the performance for the three months ending 30 September 2020. Sony shipped 600,000 smartphones during this quarter, and the good news is that this is the same number of phones shipped at this point last year. Whilst in the context of other manufacturers this might be faint praise, it's great to see Sony stem the declines we've seen quarter after quarter for the last three years at least.

Sony has released new firmware for a number of devices which adds the October 2020 Android security patches. The 2020 handsets that have been updated include the Xperia 1 II through build number 58.0.A.3.194 and the Xperia 10 II with build number 59.0.A.8.33. There does not appear to be any other big changes to these handsets, outside of the update in security patch.

The Sony Xperia 5 II has only just started hitting customers hands, and the smartphone has already been disassembled. The video below shows the handset being torn down step-by-step, and makes you appreciate the clean engineering design that goes into its manufacture, particularly given the slim and relatively compact design.

Sony is set to launch a new colour option for the Xperia 1 II (Mark 2) called ‘Mirror Lake Green' next week in Taiwan. The handset will also get a RAM boost as well, moving from 8GB to 12GB. Other specs remain the same including 256GB of UFS storage. There's no details on pricing, but all is expected to be unveiled on 20 October 2020.

The Xperia 5 II has now started to ship in some regions, with some lucky customers already receiving units. Browsing through the r/SonyXperia subreddit highlights a variety of owners who have received their Xperia 5 II over the last few days (see some links below).