The Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update for the Sony Xperia line of smartphones is available via a leak to those interested, even though the official release date is slated to be sometime this month. Sony had promised the 4.1 Jelly Bean update for its Xperia smartphone series including the Ion and S models in the month of April. However, the date has since been pushed back via an official announcement to anytime before the end of May. With a specific release date still eluding us even though when we are already midway into the month, the update though via an unofficial release is currently available. The Xperia S had earlier got the update and it seems its the Xperia Ion’s turn right now.

The entire credit should go to the fine folks at XDA-Developers who have made the update available on their forum though there is DoomLord in between who in turn has got the firmware ported for consumer grade devices. The update can only be made good use of by those who have an unblocked bootloader and will be able to install the 6.2.B.0.203 build which is what the XDA developers’ forum has made available. A note to consider is that this update would be very minimal as Sony is working on better upgrades to the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS. The present update would best be suited for those tech geeks who like to tinker with their device.

The leak however indicates the official update from Sony is due anytime soon. The update will bump the current Xperia Ion specs to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean from the current Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. However, it will require another update to usher in the Android Version 4.2 which is the most current iteration.

Sony so far has not mentioned if the update will be released beyond May so we do hope to see the goodness of Jelly Bean on several other Xperia devices such as the S, SL and Arco S besides of course the Ion.