Sony has started rolling out the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update for its 2012 flagship handset, the Xperia S. Sony had announced the Xperia S after Google released Ice Cream Sandwich, but Sony decided to release the handset with Gingerbread on-board rather than Ice Cream Sandwich.

Anyways, Sony has just started rolling out the update and it is only available in certain regions of the world. Depending on your region, the update can take quite a while to show up. So if you are not willing to wait and immediately want to install Ice Cream Sandwich on your Xperia S, follow the steps mentioned below.

Please make a data of your backup before proceeding with the steps mentioned below. Your handset warranty will not be void if you manually install the Ice Cream Sandwich update.

Step 1: Download the official generic firmware from here, and Flashtool from here. Extract the contents of the firmware inside a new folder on your desktop. Transfer the downloaded folder inside the ‘firwmare’ folder in the Flashtool folder.

Step 2: Now start Flashtool and click on the first icon at the top – the big lighting icon a.k.a Flash icon. Flashtool will now show you the Ice Cream Sandwich firmware, select it and click on Ok.

Step 3: Flashtool will now prompt you to switch off your phone and connect it to PC whilst pressing the back button on the device. Release the back button only after the plugin instruction page disappears. Once your handset is properly detected, Flashtool will start the flashing procedure.

When the firmware is flashed, unplug your Xperia S from your PC and power it on. The first boot might take some time so please be patient.

Image Credits – XDA