Offical ICS For The ZTE Blade?

[Guest Sami Beck]

Google said all gingerbread devices should be capable of ICS, is there any news/opinions everyone has about whether we will see a ICS zte update?

[Guest jeddy1]

Google said all gingerbread devices should be capable of ICS, is there any news/opinions everyone has about whether we will see a ICS zte update?

maybe in summer of 2012 :D

they just released (2.3.5 official) (not exactly just btw :) )

[Guest dirlan2001]

Google said all gingerbread devices should be capable of ICS, is there any news/opinions everyone has about whether we will see a ICS zte update?

Blade is (was) a FroYo ... I wouldn't hold my breath waiting :D

[Guest Amphoras]

Blade is (was) a FroYo ... I wouldn't hold my breath waiting :D

It was originally Eclair, but there have been Gingerbread updates for it, so we might still get an ICS one.

[Guest fallenangel32]

Google said all gingerbread devices should be capable of ICS, is there any news/opinions everyone has about whether we will see a ICS zte update?

blade never get an official 2.3 update,so i think that is never going to get an official update. only cm9(?) and custom ics rom

but if zte release an ics update for libra can be easily ported to blade

[Guest flshg]

blade never get an official 2.3 update,so i think that is never going to get an official update. only cm9(?) and custom ics rom

but if zte release an ics update for libra can be easily ported to blade

Didn't sweden and malaysia get official 2.3.5 updates? (libra)

[Guest targetbsp]

blade never get an official 2.3 update,so i think that is never going to get an official update. only cm9(?) and custom ics rom

but if zte release an ics update for libra can be easily ported to blade

There are lots of official GB updates for the Blade in various countries.

[Guest fallenangel32]

Didn't sweden and malaysia get official 2.3.5 updates? (libra)

libra not blade.and dont tell is the same phone,yes same but not excacly the same

did you get an official update in your blade?no

i want an update for blade and i m sure that it will be one but not official

and who cares about official?custom and ported rom are JUST FINE

[Guest Sami Beck]

So a Libra update may be on the cards?

[Guest KonstaT]

libra not blade.and dont tell is the same phone,yes same but not excacly the same

did you get an official update in your blade?no

i want an update for blade and i m sure that it will be one but not official

and who cares about official?custom and ported rom are JUST FINE

You are wrong. Blade = Libra. You still haven't noticed that you are writing to 'ZTE Blade / Libra ROMs & ROM customisation' forum? ;)

Only the casing is different. There are plenty of hardware differences in Blades manufactured at different times. Original Orange San Franciscos came with OLED screen and 3,2mpix camera. My Blade is a TFT version with 5mpix camera. Some newer Libras have different camera sensor. Also some of the newer chinese V880s have that very same camera sensor. V880 is also a Blade but with only 256mb of memory. It can be a bit confusing...

The latest update that we had was for ZTE Blades in Sweden. Phones sold by Comviq/Tele2 are Blades, not Libras (not that it would matter anyway), so we have plenty of official updates (still not sure if Swedish/Malysian were leaked though). Afaik the only official gingerbread update you can download from ZTE website is the Moldovan one.

In case of Ice Cream Sandwich it would make huge difference to have an official update. Device manufacturers have access to device drivers that are not open sourced. Current graphics drivers that we have are not compatible with ICS. Main improvement in ICS would be to have proper hardware acceleration, which heavily relies on GPU. Google dropped support for Nexus One and no other manufacturer has annonced that they will release ICS for device with Adreno 200 graphics.

I highly doubt that Blade will ever receive official ICS update.

[Guest davidnintendo]

I heard that the main problem with hardware acceleration is not Adreno drivers but the kernel version. Android 4.0 requires Linux 3.0 kernel and anything working with a lower kernel is probably going to fail on something, including hardware acceleration. The problem is that modifying a kernel to an speciphic device is not easy. There are teams working on 3.0 kernels for some devices with a Qualcomm chipset but only on higher chipsets than the Blade has, and I don't believe they will work on the Blade chipset until they finished what they are doing, and even then they may not do it, so either we have an official update, which I highly doubt, or someone releases a 3.0 kernel for the Blade chipset or we will probably never get a fully working Android 4.0 ROM.

[Guest hedgepigdaniel]

Yeah, I can't say I'm optimistic about an official ICS update. It wouldn't make much sense - at this point ZTE probably would like us to buy a new phone rather than breathing even more life into this old, cheap one that has been through three official OS versions.

[Guest jeddy1]

libra not blade.and dont tell is the same phone,yes same but not excacly the same

did you get an official update in your blade?no

i want an update for blade and i m sure that it will be one but not official

and who cares about official?custom and ported rom are JUST FINE

who cares about the official update ?? well there are many people just so u know

tell me something then ,if zte wouldnt release even one official update (2.2. , 2.3.) and there wouldn´t be google sources where do u think you would be now with ur blade ? i guess to android 2.1 still

official updates dont hurt btw

if u want another example then i will give u . lets say you have installed a custom rom ! but there are non official rom anywhere .your blade have/gets a hardware problem ,then what are u going to do ?throw 150 euros(bec thats the cost of a blade there ;) ?

+1 to KonstaT

[Guest fallenangel32]

i m just saying that dont expect an official ics update...

ant that custom roms sometimes are better than official

and as one said zte and every company want us to buy a new phone not update,upgrade because they loosing money

it would-be better an official update,but i m not hopping for that

[Guest jeddy1]

If you would say this from the begin it would be better!!

[Guest Davidoff59]

I highly doubt that Zte would have sold so many phones other than thanks to communities like this. I had never heard of Zte before the blade was recommended to me.

So I then had a choice.

Buy a phone after a recommendation from a stranger on a website, from a company I had never heard of.

Or do a bit of research, and come across sites like this that gave honest unbiased reviews; from actual people that had bought the phone.

I researched and bought my first Android phone.

Upgrading roms came later.

So while Zte undoubtedly want us to upgrade, they have a lot to be thankful for, for sites like this who helped build their customer base.

I also won't be upgrading phones to get Ics if the port doesn't work, I will stick with what I have.

Think of the environment Zte, support those that supported you and work on ICS for the more than capable blade. Be one of the first companies to realise that its not all about making money, and that customers matter. Follow on support will earn you repeat custom, corporate greed will not. Realise that it wasn't an Orange marketing campaign that made me buy the phone, but word of mouth did along with sites like this.

Despite having a 3 network Zte dongle for 2 years, Zte was not a name that stuck in my head.

If you read this Zte Sean_Jacko, please pass it on to Zte.

[Guest Amphoras]

i m just saying that dont expect an official ics update...

ant that custom roms sometimes are better than official

and as one said zte and every company want us to buy a new phone not update,upgrade because they loosing money

it would-be better an official update,but i m not hopping for that

Practically every single custom rom for the Blade other than CM7 is based on an official ZTE rom. If we didn't get those official roms, then we wouldn't have most of the custom roms either.

[Guest unrandomsam]

It was originally Eclair, but there have been Gingerbread updates for it, so we might still get an ICS one.

Qualcomm has not even completed the armv6 ICS support yet.

I think the carriers want people to stop using the blade due to its ease of unlocking.

[Guest unrandomsam]

Practically every single custom rom for the Blade other than CM7 is based on an official ZTE rom. If we didn't get those official roms, then we wouldn't have most of the custom roms either.

True but the fact is the ZTE roms are nearly all a very minimally changed version of QAEP. There is more of an incentive to actually finish a QAEP build if there is a lack of official rom's. (Also there is not much point if you need to use the CM7 hacks (GPSSHIM etc)).

Its far easier than you might think to get something mostly working.

[Guest daaneel]

They're still selling Blade's right now because of the fact you can easily upgrade it to gingerbread.

If you could easily upgrade it to ICS, I'm sure they'll be set for another year or so of good sales on this device which means more money for ZTE (definitely if they'll progressively make them even cheaper). Why would they change a winning team?

Sure, hardware wise it's getting to be an old timer fast, so it's logical they'll try to find a more up-to-date replacement for their best selling phone. But still I don't see how upgrading the Blade would mean losing money. I'm a recent Blade buyer and only did so because of the many 2.3 roms available. Widely available 4.0 roms would only mean more people buying the blade which means more money for ZTE!

Is my logic faulty?

(I don't have a clue to whether or not an actual update is likely or not though, mind you!)

[Guest KonstaT]

I heard that the main problem with hardware acceleration is not Adreno drivers but the kernel version. Android 4.0 requires Linux 3.0 kernel and anything working with a lower kernel is probably going to fail on something, including hardware acceleration.

Not exactly my area of expertise, but there is more to it other than just kernel version.

Sony Ericsson still uses ancient 2.6.32 kernel in official ICS alpha they released. I think Nexus S also had fully working hardware acceleration with 2.6.35 kernel before they received their official update to ICS 4.0.3 and 3.0.8 kernel. Also official Motorola Xoom in AOSP has 2.6.39 kernel. Different devices with different chipsets, but still... I do agree that it would be great to have 3.0 kernel for our Blades as well.

I was just saying that device manufacturers have better access to device drivers etc. In case of Adreno 200 drivers it's more up to Qualcomm what they decide to do though.

Edited December 20, 2011 by KonstaT

[Guest talpenn]

Though it has been noted before, just to confirm, Blade has official 2.3.5 updates available on ZTE site:

Japan http://wwwen.zte.com.cn/endata/mobile/Japan/Japan_SoftWare/201108/P020110801567347906563.zip (Blade smart phone T card upgrade package for Japan.zip)

Malaysia http://wwwen.zte.com.cn/endata/mobile/malaysia/Malaysia_SoftWare/201108/P020110801564680088985.zip (Blade smart phone T card upgrade package for Malaysia.zip)

Didn't bother to look for more, if you have free time, go ahead: http://wwwen.zte.com.cn/endata/mobile/#europe

just my 2 cents: if anything is available for download on official manufacturers site, I deem it as "officially released" (just not for every region/provider)

[Guest KonstaT]

Though it has been noted before, just to confirm, Blade has official 2.3.5 updates available on ZTE site:

Japan http://wwwen.zte.com.cn/endata/mobile/Japan/Japan_SoftWare/201108/P020110801567347906563.zip (Blade smart phone T card upgrade package for Japan.zip)

Malaysia http://wwwen.zte.com.cn/endata/mobile/malaysia/Malaysia_SoftWare/201108/P020110801564680088985.zip (Blade smart phone T card upgrade package for Malaysia.zip)

Didn't bother to look for more, if you have free time, go ahead: http://wwwen.zte.com.cn/endata/mobile/#europe

just my 2 cents: if anything is available for download on official manufacturers site, I deem it as "officially released" (just not for every region/provider)

Have actually downloaded these or installed them? Because neither of them is gingerbread. If they were, it would have been noted before.

Both of these are actually older than the Moldovan update, which was the first and is still afaik the only gingerbread update available for download from ZTE website.