I have multiplel Bravias with Sonos Beams. I understand the frustration, but there isn't really that much difference. I run Plex, YouTube TV, and Netflix. I moved mine over to 8.0 before it was recalled. The home screen is better, but not that different.

It's not like a phone where there are huge leaps in features from version to version.

I buy Sony TV's because I prefer the picture quality over the competition. Yesterday I ordered a Sony 65" X900F knowing full well that the Android TV experience is going to be complete garbage, just like it has been on my Sony 55" X850D.

As someone else mentioned, you can update the OS with a USB drive. But even with the latest Android OS my X850D still has a bloat-filled, laggy interface. Using ADB commands to clean it up has helped but it still lags.

I gave up on the Android TV experience over a year ago. My solution is to plug in an Xbox One X and use it with ( THIS ) remote. The combo of the Xbox and that remote makes the Xbox a fabulous media center. The Xbox houses all of my streaming apps (Hulu Live, HBO, Netflix, Amazon prime Video etc.) and has a very snappy/intuitive interface. And with the Xbox setup using HDMI ARC for TV and my surround sound, powering the Xbox on with the remote turns the TV/surround sound on and gives me full audio control over the surround sound. Turning the Xbox off with one click shuts everything else down as well.

With the above setup I haven't even seen the Android TV experience in over a year and honestly forget it's there.

With that said, you can accomplish essentially the same thing with the nVidia Shield, if you prefer that over Xbox. Just keep in mind that there is no Hulu Live app for Android TV, so if you use that for your live TV streaming (like I do), the nVidia Shield won't be a good solution for you.

Apparently the USA update is temporarily suspended https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/articles/00204736

Android 7.0 is very solid. I would have no problem with using it on any smart TV. The latest is not always the greatest.

I have the 800D from 2016. The OS was good and fine but it never felt very responsive. I got a Nvidia Shield to pair with it. Light-years better than the responsiveness of the TV. I wish TVs would invest in better CPUs to run them.

Yeah yeah Amazon, that still have FireTV running Android 5.1...

The old, now obsolete MediaTek chipset with a really weak GPU found in most Sony Smart TV's really is a pathetic excuse to base any Operating System on, especially in 2019. Sony then loads up the Android OS with crap like SAMBA that further slows down everything.

It's not until you look at the new Sony Master Series and other new 2019 models that contain a far more modern MediaTek 5893 chipset which includes a powerful new generation ARM Mali-G71 GPU - that you start getting decent Android TV Oreo performance.

You can download the firmware (online) on your cpu and put on a USB thumb drive. Plug that into the tv and will update

I'd be less concerned about the Android version and more about security patching. Android version is an indication of security patching, and a good one, but perhaps not the ultimate measure.

Remember that RHEL 7.6, the current version, is using a patched 3.10 kernel from 2013 :D.

Keep the TV, buy an Nvidia Shield, problem solved

Please install AIDA64 from the PlayStore on the TV and let us know what Mediatek chipset your TV has

The latest and greatest is no good if it doesn't work properly which is what Sony are struggling with. I'm sure it will get it eventually.

​

My new TV is also on Android 7, it's annoying but it has a fantastic picture and lets face it once you are in an app, that is all you see.

Steer clear of Sony TVs completely. They are a bloated laggy mess, the remote is god awful and you dont get any security updates. Also 1 year warranty on a TV is pretty bad in 2019.

​

https://lifehacker.com/how-to-stop-your-smart-tv-from-tracking-you-1827401614?IR=T

​

Just dont use Sonys android OS, get a shield or a even a mibox for a better experience.

Buy the TV because it's a good TV, not because it has a specific OS. There's external devices for that that'll be 100x better and more upgradeable.

Android TV running on any Smart TV is the biggest incentive to buy a NVIDIA Shield I have seen ! ...

Unless you need DolbyVision and Dolby Atmos from Netflix... and 4K HDR YouTube.

I disabled the updates on my Shield and still run Android 7. I can't be bothered to even update to 8 as everything works they way I want it and the old UI is much better.

The common "just buy any TV you want and add an external box which will run 100x better" advice does not always hold true. While perfomance is certainly going to be better, what people are forgetting is that these TVs have far superior upscalers to any external box. This is especially applicable to nvidia Shield which looks like ass on anything other than 4K content on a 4K TV. 1080p and 720p content just looks sad on my Shield vs my Sony TV.

TIL people care about the os of a TV. Just get a shield and use the TV as monitor. TV performance sucks. And if you keep your TV for 10 years it'll get outdated eventually anyways. Or do you replace it like your phone?

Don’t care what the manufacturer is, all built in apps I’ve used are junk. They are display devices and nothing more. I use a Shield, my wife an Apple TV and a LG UHD for the discs.

Months come and go and Sony do nothing to fix the Android crap. The best they can do is to buy the Samsung firmware in order to make the Bravia the best Smart TV in the market. Unfortunately Samsung's screen is not good at all. I lost two while in warranty. Then I put the TV in the garbage bin.

All Android devices ship with old versions of Android, including smartphones, except those made by Google. This is the way of life in the Android ecosystem. It sucks, but I hate Apple even more, so...

I'm planning on getting the X950G, another 2019 model. But not for Android TV. I'm confused by some of the posts here because no one really believes that Android TV is the best smart TV OS, right? Roku is much better, and they pay a lot more attention to their product. Google is infamous for not paying attention to its products and for canceling them, so I think there's a decent chance that Google will abandon Android TV at some point.

I'm only getting it because the Sony has IMAX Enhanced Mode and Netflix Calibrated Mode (separate from Netflix Recommended), and because it has a better picture quality than the TCLs, which sometimes have banding problems.

TV makers are the last people to expect savvy software updates from. Those companies aren't organized or aligned in such a way that they'd pay a lot of attention to things like the third-party OS on their TVs or enthusiast concerns. I work in the software industry so I feel you, and I hate that my Galaxy phones don't get major Android versions until maybe a year or more after their release. Samsung announced that my Galaxy S7 is never receiving another major update after it got 8.0 (not even 8.1). This is the crap we Android users are used to.

I'll make the most of Android TV. It's better than a stick in the eye, and I already use Android phones anyway. I think it's also better than Samsung's Smart TV platform, which is apparently based on Tizen. We own a Samsung and the OS is terrible, it's slow, and it doesn't even use most of the screen. The Android TV screenshots I've seen tell me that it's way better. Ideally, Sony would have used Roku, or even Fire TV, which I think gets a lot more developers and app updates than Android TV even though they're both Android really. Android TV isn't on a lot of developers' radar, probably because it has little market share. So it's not surprising that Sony lets it languish.

I still have a Sony VAIO laptop. Sony screwed up the Windows 10 compatibility, then they abandoned their PC business altogether...