Best HTC Blog

According to various rumors, there will be two major Android smart phones from Taiwan based phone maker HTC during the coming holiday season.

First on the list is the less believable HTC Sabor. Considering the impressive specs on the handset, it is hard to believe that by the end of the year, HTC would be offering the market a smart phone with a 2GHz CPU and a touch scree display with 1080p HD resolution.

The specs are something out of a smart phone lover’s pipe dream and one that is unlikely to be technologically available in the given time frame –if it does exist, the battery life on the device would be cut extremely short as there are no power-efficient 2GHz CPUs available or in development.

Even Intel has announced that they would not be entering the smart phone industry until 2011, and they have made no claims that they would have a 2GHz CPU either.

The other smart phone is far more believable because of the proposed hardware specs and because it has already been leaked in images. The HTC Vision is a touch screen smart phone that comes with a slide out QWERTY keyboard, and a new high speed CPU clocked at 1.5 GHz. Many HTC Android fans have been hoping for a keyboard loaded device since the Motorola Milestone came out and HTC has yet to answer the call.

A physical keyboard is big deal because it allows users to type plenty of text faster than using a virtual onscreen keyboard. While the feature is not suited for all users, a vast majority of smart phone fans love keyboards –this partially explains why BlackBerry devices are still in demand.

According to rumors, the two handsets will most likely come packed with the new Android 3.0 Gingerbread OS.

Last Monday, HTC has released a new update intended for Hero units running Android 1.5 to upgrade to Android 2.1. Unfortunately, it seems that Orange, T-Mobile UK and Three’s HTC Hero toting customers will have to wait a little while longer to get their Android 2.1 upgrade.

This may be a big letdown for those who are expecting to have their ‘Droid update at the same time as those with unlocked units, but the mobile network operator has assured the press that this is for the benefit of concerned users. To ensure network stability and smooth operations all the way, tests are being conducted using the new update.

The new update is scheduled to be out around “mid to late July” for Three customers. HTC originally planned for all their phone operating system upgrades to happen before the end of the month, but it seems it is just not possible for subscribers.

Although no exact date was given, Three has stated that it would be more likely for the update to happen later instead of sooner.

T-Mobile UK has given a similar statement, saying that everyone will just have to wait for their official announcement. At this rate, a June 30 release date is an optimistic estimate. G2 (their HTC Hero) owners using their service will just have to be a little more patient.

Like the two operators, Orange has been equally vague, saying that the mobile phone upgrade will be live in the “very near future” although no release date estimates were given.

This is truly a big blow for HTC Hero owners, seeing as Google already released version 2.2 of the little green robot, but at least having a delayed update is better than none. Hopefully, network performance will not fail to impress once the update is officially released.