14 DAY TRIAL // In recent days, Sony Sweden revealed the “Concept for Android” program which invites a select number of Sony Xperia Z3 owners living in Sweden to test out an experimental version of Android 5.1 that looks quite similar to stock but comes enriched with popular Sony features.
Yesterday a bunch of screenshots showing Sony’s approach on things surfaced and we noticed that the company kept things in the pure Android sphere, making the Xperia Z3 models involved in the program look very much like Nexus devices. Still, Sony’s own applications, like the Album, Camera or Calculator, haven’t been removed from the equation and are there to fulfill their purposes.
There is just one big caveat to “Concept for Android” - Sony is allowing only 500 testers who are living in Sweden to experiment with this vanilla-scented Android version. A wider rollout is expected to happen at some point, probably after the program comes to an end on September 13.
Sony's “Concept for Android” now available for all
Luckily, thanks to the folks at the xda-developers forum, you won’t have to wait that long to be able to check out for yourself how “Concept for Android” feels like. User Jozninek has identified a way to repackage Sony’s new Android concept into a ROM and is now offering it for download on the above mentioned forum.
So if you are curious to see what Sony is cooking up, you might as well go ahead, download the ROM, and try to flash it on your own device.
More than that, you don’t need to unlock your bootloader or root the device. Users just need to download the provided .FTF file and flash it using the Androxyde Flashtool.
If you’d like to try it out, you should know Jozinek’s post has detailed instructions on how to go about things. Still, the developer does note that some features might be missing from the bundle, like for instance Stamina Mode, Screen Recording or Xperia themes. But if you’re fine without these features, you can go ahead an experiment with Sony’s stock-looking Android version. Enjoy!
