HTC Desire HD update to Android 2.3 Gingerbread coming in early April

By Stuart Dredge on 30 March 2011, 12:21pm

The HTC Desire HD is one of the best Android smart phones we've reviewed in the last year, thanks to its massive screen and slinky HTC sense interface. The only problem: it's still stuck on the Android 2.2 Froyo OS. Not for long, though -- a Gingerbread update is on the way in April.

Well, it is in France at least. French mobile operator SFR has told customers that Android 2.3 is coming to the Desire HD sometime in the first half of April, Unwired View explains.

Good for them, you might think, but what does this mean for us Brits? We asked HTC, and were told there's no official comment for now beyond the company's previous statement that the Desire HD, Desire Z, Desire and Incredible S will all be getting Gingerbread during the second quarter of this year.

The Desire HD is still hugely desirable -- it's one of the best Android smart phones available, with a huge 4.3-inch screen at 480x800-pixel resolution that's fast and responsive. This is backed with a solid-feeling aluminium case and an 8-megapixel camera, as well as 14.4Mbps HSDPA and 802.11n Wi-Fi connectivity.

The addition of Android 2.3 will be welcome, even if it does come just ahead of Google pushing out Android 2.4 -- albeit with only minor improvements, to the extent that it's also known as Gingerbread. In February, we warned Desire HD users they could face a long wait for the 2.3 upgrade, as late as August or September. This is one case when we'll be glad if we're proved wrong.

Separately, SFR has also announced that the Motorola Defy will get updated to Android 2.2 Froyo (or Fro Yo, as it quirkily describes it) in the second half of April. When we reviewed the Defy last year, we were impressed by its toughness and sharp display, but the lack of Froyo made it feel a little dated.

Better late than never, eh? You might wonder why the phone isn't jumping straight to Gingerbread, but as an entry-level Android device with a slower processor, Froyo may well be as far as it goes down the Android upgrade path.

Comments 27

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parkaratkinson 30 March, 2011 12:50

IT'S GOOD NEWS AND i HOPE IT WILL BE USER FREINDLY AND ANDROID WILL BE EASY IN OPERETING HERE.

Nick Hide 30 March, 2011 13:22

ME TOO.

Anonymous 30 March, 2011 13:40

I'm not sure i'll notice any substantial benefit, given that the desire hd lacks a front facing camera or nfc.
I am however really hoping they fix the sms bug that has made me miss countless messages since the last update in mid december!
I question whether it actually fulfils its purpose as a phone for me atm! hah :(

weaz1981 30 March, 2011 15:05

i hear you on the sms comment!

also i would like it to stop telling me to link contacts that are already linked 3 times a day

vkvedam 30 March, 2011 19:46

Cool! I'm waiting...

Anonymous 30 March, 2011 21:52

I will wait a little bit to see if its release is immediately followed by articles like "HTC Desire HD fans FURIOUS over T-Mobile bloatware in 2.3 update". You know, the ones that follow everytime one of their phones get an Android update.

Anonymous 31 March, 2011 13:20

Its a nice phone but battery performance is hopeless

Anonymous 31 March, 2011 13:21

Its a nice phone but battery performance is hopeless

jeffjeffz 31 March, 2011 13:24

Its a good phone but battery is hopeless

Anonymous 6 April, 2011 09:39

My HTC DHD battery isn't "hopeless" at all and easily lasts me till the end of the day, if not lasting into the next day.

I'm looking forward to the update! I'm going to go sniff out what updates the gingerbread will bring!

Anonymous 6 April, 2011 19:42

Does anyone know how I can put the facebook chat application on my htc desire hd?

Anonymous 9 April, 2011 07:07

Do it by adding from widgets. It's not that great tho, you can't upload a comment directly from it and it only refreshes every 30 mins. I
I love the desire hd recently migrated from the iphone 3gs. Android is much more customizeable, particularly like the image gallery interface & camera

Anonymous 10 April, 2011 22:05

Battery is fine if you turn off mobile data and syncing, which is annoying for a smartphone. Or change sync frequency to hourly etc.

anonymous 11 April, 2011 14:52

I can't understand why people keep banging on about battery life I am a very heavy user and I get all day out of mine. Before the phone got delivered I brought a second battery as I got told it wouldn't last long I've used it twice only when I forgot to charge it at night but surly if it annoys that much just spend 15quid on a spare problem solved

anonymous 11 April, 2011 14:53

anonymous 11 April, 2011 15:01

The new update for the HTC Facebook app has fb chat on it now it work's very quick

Anonymous 13 April, 2011 14:23

Why do people make such a fuss over the battery life?
If you walked around all day with a laptop running on its battery, it wouldn't last half as long.. But you do all of the same tasks (internet, games etc).

Anonymous 13 April, 2011 19:22

go to settings, then to programs, then to development, then put a tick in usb debuging , battery is lasting over 15h playing games and useing phone as it should be speed is loads faster and can now tex without the delays phone is amazing now . found this little trick on the net and have sheard it with everyone i know not shor what it dose and cannot find out so if anyone knows let us all know

Anonymous 19 April, 2011 10:13

I have no idear what you lads are talking about. No sms bug for me. No sycn pproblems.
yes get a widget and turn off Bcgrnd Data when your not using it. Takes 3 seconds to reconnect
battery yes COULD do with being a 1500 but oits ok the way it is. The only problem I have is rooting the damn ting for custom roms (NO THIS IS NOT ILLEGAL) is painstakingy long. apart from that its all good. I just hope our carriers will realese gingerbred edition for us ASAP as i am already running several apps on froyo for ginger like better keyboard and stuff. Still DHD WONT get the sense 3.0 update. But who needs that when we have SPB SHELL 3d(Check this out) and open home ex.
ahem all paid for of course ahem ahem!!!!!!

Anonymous 19 April, 2011 10:17

annonymous on 14th april posted before this.
USB debugging is for developers you dink. Its so you can instal and debug apps from your pc using command line. (do you know what one of them is??) aaanyway yeah dont know how that made a difference.
What game are you playing for 15 hours anyway?
thats sad if you have 15 hours a day to sit on your DHD doing nowt all but play a game???

Anonymous 20 April, 2011 23:40

so even though i have the htc desire hd right now, i will still be able to upgrade it from 2.2 to 2.3 when the upgrade is finally released? this has been going across my mind for sometime

Anonymous 6 May, 2011 15:19

Today I've successfully upgraded my Desire HD to Android 2.3.3. Nice update with UI improvements.

Anonymous 17 May, 2011 09:28

2.3 Duly installed, phone not bricked - Result. Changes not overwhelming, but soem nice details there. Happy that the random crash bug seems to have gone in this update too

(DHD T-Mobile UK)

anonymous 17 May, 2011 10:13

Got my 2.3 update yesterday installed with no probs a few new bits like sound effects on the weather widget a new trends widget for Twitter (very nice like it a lot ) new quick settings tab in the drop down menu new look button at the bottom to open app screen witch now works in a different way in page type scrolling and 3 choicesat the bottom for apps favs and my downloaded apps.i
A few new look menus but most importantley a s**t load faster with no lag not sure about battery life as I never had a prob with that anyway but a few people have I would be interested 2.3 sorted out your problem with battery if there's anything I haven't found yet let me know.
It feels a bit like Xmas finding out what little surprises Google and HTC have given us

Anonymous 17 May, 2011 16:04

I have an Orange-branded DHD and received 2.3.3 today - worked first time, immediately improvements in the UI including better colour definition, smoother scrolling, and - at last - a proper memory usage map. Battery life not an issue to-date...