We have some good news today for owners of the Sony Xperia T aka LT30p smartphone, especially those who enjoy customizing their devices. The CM10.1 RC5 ROM based on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean is now available for the Xperia T, and we have all of the details ahead.

This ROM comes from respected custom firmware maker CyanogenMod, but we stress that this is not official Jelly Bean firmware from Sony. Therefore we would urge users not to install this ROM unless you are confident that you know what you are doing. If you do proceed then this latest RC5 custom firmware should give your device improved performance and reliability, and these CyanogenMod RC builds are usually stable. However, it is still in development and so there could be minor bugs and issues although we would expect fixes for any of these with further ROM developments.

There are certain pre-requisites you will need, and these include backing up your data while it’s also worth backing up your internal memory content to an external SD card. You should always ensure that your device has at least 80% power before you begin to avoid bricking it if it turns off during installation. As well as this, if the USB Debugging mode is disabled then you should turn it on, and it’s important to know that this information is only for the Xperia T LT30p that is carrier unlocked and also has an unlocked bootloader.

Before we go any further we will add that at Phones Review we can never recommend the use of custom ROMs, but we do appreciate that many of our readers enjoy this aspect of owning an Android device. Nevertheless, if you do choose to proceed then you do so at your own risk and it is your own responsibility if anything goes amiss. Please note that this ROM is only for the Sony Xperia T (LT30p) and is not suitable for other devices.

If you are ready to proceed you will need Xperia T LT30p drivers installed on your PC. You can then download the CM10.1 RC5 ROM for Xperia T LT30p as well as Google Apps /Gapps from Droid Firmwares here. Before you proceed we urge you to read through the full pre-requisites as well as tips and installation instructions at the Droid Firmwares link above.

We think this Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean-based ROM will interest plenty of Sony Xperia T owners, and if you do choose to use it then we’d be interested to hear if everything went smoothly and what you think of the results? Send us your comments to let us know, and share your experience of the ROM with other readers.