Thursday, August 16, 2012

[Rant] Thanks HTC

Thanks for the update HTC. It made it much easier to decide whether I should buy a One XL. I am now the proud owner of a Galaxy Nexus. After using HTC devices since the Nexus One, I'm afraid to say its time to break-up. Loved my DHD for the past years - it shall now reside proudly on a plynth. Seeing how you have listened to your loyal fanbase recently, my next phones are definitely going to be Nexuses (unless Google decides to award you the contract, in which case, I shall stick with the other players in the market). Thanks for the ride though.

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My rant is about HTC not releasing an update to the all-so-good Desire HD after telling customers since early 2012 that the device would indeed be upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich or version 4.0 (ICS). http://blog.htc.com/2012/03/ics/

The fact remains that the device is capable of running ICS.  http://news.softpedia.com/news/HTC-Desire-HD-Gets-Android-4-0-4-ICS-Update-Unofficial-286715.shtml

So, if you are planning to buy an HTC phone; think again.  Although HTC used to be very attentive to customers, they have been very uncooperative on this matter even though a petition was sent through. They should atleast have made an ICS version available without their Sense UI or provide (power-) users with the option to choose whether they want to upgrade or not.

The minute I switched on my Galaxy Nexus, I was provided the option to upgrade to version 4.1 Jelly Bean of Android.  I could not be any happier about my decision to drop buying an HTC One XL; which is a great phone as per the reviews but with such support from HTC, the phone will be obsolete by the next update to Android. 

The Galaxy Nexus on the other hand will receive the next update of Android since even a Nexus S (predecessor to the Galaxy Nexus) obtained an upgrade to 4.1 (not just 4.0).  The Nexus S was released around the same time as the HTC Desire HD with the latter being more powerful specs-wise!!!

UPDATE:
18 Aug: XDA-devs have officially done what HTC could not! Hallelujah!

www.engadget.com/2012/08/17/custom-rom-brings-ics-to-desire-hd/