[Tutorial] Install ICS Beta ROM on Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY

Some months ago Sony Ericsson had committed to bring Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) to a selected range of phones in the upcoming 3-4 months (precisely between the end of March & start of April). In February, Ericsson had released ICS Beta ROMs for Xperia Arc S, Ray & Neo V.

Now Sony Ericsson has released the ICS Beta ROM for one of it’s most popular Xperia models i.e. the Xperia PLAY. We have seen that the gaming smartphone has had an edge over other Xperia models when it comes to app releases and minor os updates.

Before the tutorial starts, I would like to emphasis again that this version of Ice Cream Sandwich for Xperia PLAY is Beta and not a stable final version. Sony Ericsson has released it now so that developers can test it out properly and give a reasonable feedback. The bug fixes will be seen in the final stable version.

So if you don’t know much about unlocking, rooting and changing ROMs then please don’t try it. This ICS Beta ROM will void your operator warranty (as it involves unlocking of your phone).

Install Ice Cream Sandwich Beta ROM on Xperia PLAY

1. First of all go to Settings > About Phone > Software update and check whether you are on the latest stable Android version for Xperia PLAY. The build number should be 4.0.2.A.0.42.
2. Now go to this official unlocker page and follow all the instructions correctly in order to unlock your phone. Don’t look at the number of steps in that page and close the tab (yes, 16 looks a lot).
3. Once you are done with the steps mentioned in the first page click continue and request for the unlock code (in page 2). Only then you’ll be able to install the ICS Beta ROM.
4. Head over to this page; read the instructions, accept it and download the Xperia PLAY Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Beta ROM (Size: 127 MB, .zip file).
5. The real installation process starts now. Extract the zip file to your Android Fastboot directory (Example: android-sdk\fastboot\play-ics).
6. Navigate to the android-sdk\fastboot directory using the command prompt. Use only the drive letter (like E:) to change the drive and cd key to change the directory. So if you are in C:\ then in command prompt you should enter ‘E:’ and then ‘cd android-sdk\fastboot\play-ics’.
7. Once you are in the play-ics fastboot directory use these three commands to flash the ROM.
   

   fastboot flash boot ..\fastboot\play-ics\boot.img
   fastboot flash userdata ..\fastboot\play-ics\userdata.img
   fastboot flash system ..\fastboot\play-ics\system.img

8. Just reboot your phone to complete the installation process. Have some patience when it starts again, normally takes a good couple of minutes after an update.

That’s that. Again let me reiterate that unless you know or have done the installation of ROMs previously don’t take a risk.

What’s not there in this ICS Beta ROM

When you are about to test such Beta ROMs you must expect some important features to be absent. Likewise, Xperia PLAY’s ICS ROM also leaves out some of the key features like:

• Google Mobile Services (GMS) viz – GMail, Google Maps, Face lock and other Google related apps.
• Modem.
• Wi-Fi.
• Bluetooth.

I hope this tutorial helped you in upgrading to Android 4.0 ICS on your Xperia PLAY device. Drop a comment if you face any problem during the installation process. Even though I don’t have an Xperia PLAY I will try to find the solution to your problem(s).

Source: Sony Ericsson Developers blog.

Do you think the release date of Ice Cream Sandwich for Xperia 2011 phones is nearing ?