Should You Upgrade To Android New Gingerbread 2.3?

Google released their newest Android platform this week, Version 2.3, which they have named Gingerbread. The update enhances the user experience by increasing speeds and improving power management and text input. Several other improvements come from Gingerbread as well. To get a full run-down, you can do a Google search for Android 2.3 Platform Highlights.

I went ahead and upgraded my Sprint EVO 4G to the new platform this week. After the update, I continued to use the standard ROM I had been using on the 2.2 platform and I did notice a bit of a difference in the processing speed when opening applications, and my text input was slightly less frustrating than I had remember it being since switching to the EVO. So, yes, the 2.3 does enhance what it claims to enhance.

Now for the negative. I went to a couple different Android forums to find the latest and greatest ROMs for the 2.3 platform. I tried out two different ROMs and had nothing but trouble with both of them. I only chose ROMs that I had used the previous versions of on the 2.2 platform, as I knew they could be trusted. I first tried the upgraded ROM version of Myn, which I had used for a couple months on 2.2 and became quite a fan of. The Myn ROM booted all the way up one time, then rebooted and got stuck in a boot cycle. I tried deleting the Zip file and re-installing, but I just ran into the same problem.

I then moved on to CyanogenMod7 (CM7). CM is a very neat ROM that includes a ton of user tweaks. You can personalize your phone in an amazing amount of ways using CM. CM7 is no different. It was fun to have on my phone, but it did not include any of the Google apps, including the Market (which is pretty much essential). I found a patch for this problem, but flashing the patch sent my device into another boot-cycle. Another issue I saw is that there is no way to get the camera to save pictures to your SD card. It would only save them to the phone's memory, which is not ideal.

I ended up moving back to my previous ROM version. I would say that if you want to move to the Gingerbread platform, go right ahead. But if your reason for updating is to get the newer, cooler ROMs, you should hold off for a month or two until the tech-geniuses of the mobile world are able to get all the bugs worked out. The ROMs are simply unstable, not because of bad development, but because it is simply still new and should be considered to be in Beta.

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