The long list of Android ports for various mobile phones out there continues with an Android 2.2 Froyo solution for the high-end HTC Desire. The Taiwanese handset vendo HTC Corporation already announced plans to upgrade the device to the latest Android operating system flavor out there, but it seems that some enthusiasts weren’t willing to wait for the official update to arrive, and took the matter into their own hands………
The Android 2.2 Froyo port for the HTC Desire was brought into the wild by the guys over at xda-developers, and is said to be one of the greatest ports, as it runs pretty well on the device. The HTC Sense solution is also present in the package, as well as the camera upgrade that enables the device handle 720p video recordings, and which was reported on a while ago. All in all, the unofficial update for HTC Desire seems to work as nice as an official solution would do.
No patience to wait until Q3 for an official Froyo build? Fret not, dear Desire owners, as udK_dev has managed to push out a near-perfect Android 2.2 port that’s working spectacularly well so far. As you’d expect, HTC’s Sense overlay is indeed baked in, and while there are still a few quirks here and there, users seem to be generally pleased with how it’s going.
We earlier reported that android 2.2 Froyo update to HTC Desire would land within 2 weeks as confirmed though an email sent from HTC technical support on June 19. If we calculate, it comes out to be before July 4.
If you cannot wait for an official 2.2 update then you may install hacked android 2.2 FroYo on HTC Desire developed by Developer richardtrip over at XDA. The hacked android 2.2 HTC Desire ROM contains Rooted Froyo ported to desire, Kernel 2.6.29 OCUV, CFQ scheduler, audio mod and 8 MB ram hack. Download hacked DeFroST 0.3 Desire FroYo Full ROM.
Desire which is very similar to Google’s Nexus One smartphone (not for sale in SA), beats Apple’s handset.Running Android 2.1, and compatible with the upcoming 2.2, the Desire has a bright, 3,7-inch, 480×800 multi-touch display, 5-megapixel camera and, perhaps most importantly, a super-fast, 1GHz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm. It ships with a 4GB microSD card in the box, though cards of up to 32GB are supported.
Despite the Desire’s large screen, the battery life is not too bad. Even with moderately heavy use, I was able to get through a day without having to search for a charger. That’s better than the iPhone’s notoriously bad battery life, but not much.
If you do not want to port hacked android 2.2 ROM on your HTC Desire device, then make sure to wait until Q3 of this year as HTC could be officially rolling out an Android 2.2 update by that time.
Better still, the camera has been upgraded to handle 720p video recording, so there’s that. Hit the source link for the how-to, but make sure you set aside a few hours first. Or maybe just one.
Resources :gadgetsdna.com,engadget.com
Don’t upgrade your HTC Desire to Android 2.2. My phone constantly dropped called whether on 3G or 2G. T-Mobile admitted there is a problem with the Radio ROM in Android 2.2 on HTC Desire that causes this. Only fix is to downgrade to 2.1, which is happening to my phone at the moment at T-Mobile’s repair centre. No idea if other phone are affected.