Xperia 1 Android 10 adds a new video aspect ratio & removes face unlock, Xperia L2 December patch is out

Sony Xperia smartphones are limited and not your usual find in every global market like the Samsungs and Huaweis of this world. The Japanese company sells its phones in select Asian and European markets and at times brings some of them to the U.S.

The lack of carrier partnerships in the latter market has pushed Xperia phones further down the pecking order on many people’s lists of preferred phones. Still, this hasn’t stopped Sony from shipping some of its latest offerings, the Xperia 1 and Xperia 5, into the U.S. market.

Both phones are flagships powered by the Snapdragon 855 chipset, so one would expect top-level stuff from them. Part of that is timely software updates, something Sony has delivered on with a recent Android 10 OTA update to both Xperia 1 and Xperia 5 handsets.

In the case of the former, users are now reporting that Sony has included a new 1:1 (1080×1080) video aspect ratio. This feature has been there for owners of the newer Xperia 5 since the days of Android 9 Pie.

Xperia 1 owners who rely on Sony’s News Suite app to catch up on the latest happenings around their world are also reporting that the app now has a redesigned UI with navigation buttons now appearing at the bottom for easy access.

This is particularly good considering the Xperia 1 has a massive 6.5-inch 21:9 display screen housed in a frame that measures 167mm tall. Having the buttons elsewhere other than the bottom would make navigation quite strenuous.

While at it, Sony has also reportedly removed the support for face unlock on the Xperia 1, leaving users with fingerprint scanning as the only biometric authentication option. But it seems someone is more than impressed about this move.

Just FYI if you’ve been using the crappy android face unlock to offset the crappy fingerprint reader on the Xperia 1/5 like I have, it’s been removed in the latest version of Android.
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Whether Sony will bring back this feature in a future update is only privy to the Japanese company.

Elsewhere, the latest December security patch is rolling out to the budget Xperia L2 as software version 49.0.A.6.102, up from version 49.0.A.6.96 that arrived with the September patch.

The update is rolling out over the air, so stay patient as you wait for your turn, which could take days to come. The story is the same for the Xperia 1 Android 10 update, which is still fresh and it’s likely that some units haven’t received it yet.

NOTE: For more Sony-related stuff, check out this section. We also have more Android 10-related coverage here.

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