HTC Desire - Android 2.3

[Tywais]

I regularly check my Desire to see if the Gingerbread release is available as was promised. Bad news, it has been canceled even though XDA developers have rooted versions available.

Techradar - no 2.3 update

Our engineering teams have been working hard for the past few months to find a way to bring Gingerbread to the HTC Desire without compromising the HTC Sense experience you’ve come to expect from our phones. However, we’re sorry to announce that we’ve been forced to accept there isn’t enough memory to allow us both to bring Gingerbread and keep the HTC Sense experience on the HTC Desire. We’re sincerely sorry for the disappointment that this news may bring to some of you.

Eurodroid

[Yme]

This is incredible but hardly surprising. Better to root your phone and install the Cyanogen mod and forget about the Sense UI

[lomatopo]

Which features in 2.3 are required? Other than a Gingerbread keyboard, which can be added to 2.2, I haven't found any that are really useful?

The HTC Desire seems to have been under-equipped with internal memory from the get-go, the new version, HTC Desire S, looks to have addressed that issue, and the localized version here supports 850/1900/2100 3G as well.

I've yet to find a decent 2.3 custom ROM, including CM7; they all (I've flashed ~ 4 different ROMs) seem to have issues, which you don't find out about until later. Issues I've encountered: no WiFi, cannot hang up calls, no incoming calls, crappy GPS, bad 3G, poor battery performance, no BT, no Google apps, and about a dozen more. Yes, I know CM7 has nightly builds but I'd rather use my phone than spend a lot of time QAing software. Just one-person's opinion.

[Tywais]

Yes, I know CM7 has nightly builds but I'd rather use my phone than spend a lot of time QAing software. Just one-person's opinion.

I agree with your sentiment and have no plans to root the phone. Suspect you are right that 2.3 would not bring any significant features that I could use except my understanding a performance boost. Since mine does everything I need ++ guess I won't miss the upgrade. Would like to have 850/900/2100 3G though and may look at the Samsung Galaxy S2 down the road.

Posted this mostly for those who were waiting for the upgrade and no need to waste time looking anymore.

[lomatopo]

OT, but rooting is much different than flashing. I'd almost universally recommend that an Android phone be rooted, it can always be un-rooted for any warranty-related issues, as this gives you a higher-level of access to the phone's file system. Additionally this would allow you to apply any of the various lag-fixes which would greatly improve response/performance. All of these activities are not considered 'flashing'.

Custom ROMs are OK as long as you are comfortable with the source, developer and known bugs. I am running a stable 2.2.1 custom ROM as 2.3 really doesn't have any usable/required features, and all of the custom ROMs for my platform are still flawed. Samsung/AT&T only recently leaked a 2.3 build for my platform, and developers are still working on custom ROMs based on this leak. Most are still in Beta form. Custom ROMs based on other 2.3 builds are still buggy, unreliable and feature-less, IME.

[Phil Conners]

That information was from June. Later updates said they were going to get around the memory problem by cutting out some of the standard installed apps (which you can install through market anyway, never understood why they would use rom memory on that).

Update: 16.06.11

To resolve Desire's memory issue and enable the upgrade to Gingerbread, we will cut select apps from the release. Look for status updates starting next week. We apologize for any confusion.

Update: 24.06.11

A quick update on this, we're planning to release the rollout timeframe for the new Gingerbread ROM for Desire (GSM) early next week. Thanks for your patience.

Update: 30.06.11

Hi all- We're excited to share that we are testing our build of Gingerbread for HTC Desire and will start doing quality assurance for it this week. When we have an update on availability we'll post another announcement. Thanks for your patience.

Check out the dedicated HTC Desire FB page

Not that I care. Installed Oxygen-ROM months ago and don't intend to ever return to HTC/Sense.

Also the limited memory in the Desire is easily fixed with Alpharev. This reconfigures the internal memory from the stock 147M to 332M, I think by freeing some of the space previously allocated to Sense.

[FarangBuddha]

What is the benefit of the G-B upgrade if using the Desire with stock Sense install?

[Tywais]

What is the benefit of the G-B upgrade if using the Desire with stock Sense install?

A considerable number of new features were introduced in Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), that include new UI themes, redesigned keyboards, new copy and paste functionality, improved power management, better application management, new download manager, NFC (Near Field Communication), support for VoIP/SIP calls, new Camera application for accessing multiple cameras and supports extra large screens.

More info here