After the promising of an official Android Gingerbread update from Sprint that was promised by Sprint themselves on September 18th, 2011, and didn’t happen (and makes me feel like a tool for reporting a rumor that even infected Sprint’s customer service), I finally have gotten the truth from the source, Samsung Mobile, and the dudes at samfirmware.com. And it is that the last Froyo ROM update released over the air is the last that this phone will get. Officially.

The release on Sept. 18th turned out to be confusion across the board, as the new Samsung Galaxy S II is also nicknamed “Epic” on Sprint’s listings (why?  The original Epic was unique within the Galaxy S lineup as the only model with a physical keyboard, and the Galaxy S II is identical to other carrier’s phones in pretty much every way).  When I demanded to know when the update for the “Samsung Epic” was due out, there was no understanding that I was referring to the original Galaxy S and not the new phone which launched Sept. 16th. The initially produced batch was a mix between a prototype Gingerbread ROM and the official customized version, and the launch on the 18th was a patch for early produced Galaxy S II units who didn’t get patched in the factory. However, fellow Galaxy S Epic 4G owners, don’t panic, you can still update!  More after the break…

There were several unofficial official releases for Android 2.3 from Samsung, written specifically for Sprint’s model, but after all of the work Sprint opted to cancel the projected upgrade (build EH06) prior to release thanks to a mangling of phones during the 2.1 (Eclair) to 2.2 (Froyo) process thanks to no official user support for the changeover being made, and users getting frustrated that data seemed to have gotten lost (but was in fact still available on the Google cloud and a quick poke at 2.2′s settings set things right). Samsung, however, continued to work on what would never be released, finally with build EH17, and one way or another it made its way to samfirmware.com for the masses.

I opted to give it a shot, as there are features in Android Gingerbread which I felt were needed. First, as this is a true enclosed build, everything will be wiped, excluding contacts, calendar dates, and GMail as this is all hosted remotely over the Google cloud. There are a tremendous number of free programs on the Google Market that will allow you to back up apps, SMS Messages, and more, though the one thing that stinks is that if your apps don’t store their data on the microSD card or on the web, you will lose their configuration and have to reset them, so take your time in making your backups.

The included flash utility, Odin3, works very well on Windows XP, Vista (32/64) and 7 (32/64), so no custom computer rigs are needed. ROM load took under 3 minutes, and included a customized boot loader and modem driver as well.

Initially, this build of 2.3.4 is slow and picky, and I did get several unexpected reboots, but I likely can save you from these by telling you to go slow when reloading your apps from the backup. Reinstall only a few at a time, and immediately check the Android Market for an update, because in many cases a lot of these programs actually have two different versions between 2.2 and 2.3, and this is where the crashing was coming from. Updating will correct the version to the appropriate one for Android 2.3.4 and lock the phone down into stability.

Overall, EH17 has gotten complaints, but with a bit of patience I have found it to be very fast, provides a lot more memory to apps, doesn’t stutter, the GPS is far more responsive… essentially, it is very, very smooth, which is what this phone is capable of but has never before been properly done. I have even seen perhaps a 30-40% increase in battery life, which is my biggest complaint as I monitor 4 email addresses, 3 Twitter accounts, and 2 Facebook ID’s, so my poor phone never rests. However, its first full day running 2.3.4 saw no need to chase down a charger in the afternoon!

A manual changeover is a very geeky process, so if you are not comfortable digging in through Android settings and reconfiguring your apps and profiles, you may want to just stick with 2.2, or find an extra-geeky buddy to do the work with you.

Video courtesy of  qbking77 and the Android Creative Syndicate Team.  ROM courtesy of the ACSyndicate Team via samfirmware.com

Source: Samsung Mobile and samfirmware.com

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