In the Android scene in the smartphone market, most of the Android-powered smartphone we see in the shelves are waiting for the update that will give them a taste of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the latest iteration of the Google mobile operating system. However, there are those who are still stuck in the Gingerbread generation and are still waiting to get cranked up to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
In the age of Jelly Bean and Ice Cream Sandwich, rarely do we see a device getting upgraded to get a taste of Android 2.3 Gingerbread. No offense meant but this news is more appropriate to have had its share of digital ink probably two years ago. However, this seems to be the case of the Motorola XPRT from Sprint – the carrier’s offering of a device with a BlackBerry-esque QWERTY keyboard.
For those still holding on to their Motorola XPRT handsets, today marks a momentous event for the device. Today, the Motorola XPRT will finally get out of the Froyo dark ages and get a taste of Android 2.3 Gingerbread. As it stands, Sprint is now rolling out the 4.5.1-110-kns-46 software update via OTA. With this in play, you just need to wait for the notification that will let you know of the update’s availability on your device. If getting stuck with Froyo for the longest time however made you lose your patience, you also have the option of manually checking for the update by going to Settings > About phone > System updates to get the update process rolling.
Aside from cranking up the Motorola XPRT to Android 2.3 Gingerbread, this latest update for the handset brings a bevy of bug fixes to the handset which is designed to improve its performance. These are as follows:
- Fix for the handset’s email user interface
- Fix for the handset’s Contact User interface
- UXD fix for the handset’s color background
- Improved EAS GAL (Global Address List) Search
- Improved EAS First Sync timing
- Fixed the Forward / Reply markers to an original email
- SMS fix when using the characters () in the body of SMS
This latest bump to Gingerbread however is the end of the line for the Motorola XPRT and a bump up to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is just too much to ask for at this point in time.
As for the Motorola XPRT, the handset’s components under the hood are already showing signs of aging. It has a Texas Instruments OMAP 3620-1000 chipset in its internals which brings to the handset a 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor to the device. Storage space on the handset is a measly 2GB though this can still be expanded using the microSD card slot of the device. Its display is a 3.1-inch TFT panel with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels while its camera department only brings one shooter to the tablet – a rear-facing 5MP shooter with video capture capabilities.
