Aside from the great advantage of the said program allowing Xperia X Performance phones to test drive Android Nougat, it will also bridge communications between the device’s developers and users.
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Yes, you can now sign up to beta test Sony’s first build of Android 7.0 Nougat for its flagship smartphone. Previously, the Beta Program was only available to the Xperia Z3, Z5 and other Z ranges.
At the moment, it looks like the new Xperia Beta Program is only available to the Xperia X Performance, the best-specced phone in Sony’s new Xperia X series. But now, it is going to be initially released on the Xperia X Performance before being rolled out to other Xperia X handsets. There are only limited slots, so they are advised to act quickly.
Furthermore, the Xperia Beta Program app is only available to download in certain regions. Sony says that only Xperia X Performance owners in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Iceland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Netherlands are eligible.
GSM Arena warned phone owners who will be joining the beta test that the beta software typically contains many bugs that could cause smartphones to manifest odd behavior. You’ll be one of the first to try out the early version of the update on your new device, so this might be as good a chance as any. Last year, Sony released another beta program for Android 6.0 Marshmallow, but only for Xperia Z3 and Zperia Z3 Compact handsets in its portfolio. Sony has not commented on whether they plan to expand the beta’s reach.
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Sony’s latest flagship boasts a 5-inch 1080p display, a 23-megapixel camera, Snapdragon 820 processor, 3GB of RAM and dual front-facing speakers. It is also believed to be taller and wider than the Xperia X Performance but will be slightly thinner.
