HTC Desire with ICS Android 4 and Chrome Web Browser

Android 4.1 is out, it is a minor update over the 4.x branch but very few Android Smartphones can use it! Call it marketing or Planned Obsolescence (Obsolescenza programmata) but is possible that a 1ghz smarphone can't run last version of Chrome web browser without unofficial ROMs?

Here is an hands-on comparison between Android 4 webkit and Chrome browser. The operative system is a bit laggy (specially after enabling A2SD), but it is quite usable.

Here a test video with a couple of web browser benchmarks

In brief: Why Android 4 ICS on HTC Desire and why not.

Pro

• New OS, new features supported...
• ..specially in the Chrome web browser: websocket, gyroscope, fixed position elements, faster js rendering..

Contro

• Lagginess, specially if the sw is on external memory
• Battery consumptions, on android 2.3.7: 2/3 days, on android 4 ICS: 1 day
• No video camera (videos are extremely laggy)

Thanks to the XDA guys specially Sandvold and BCM Cyanogenmod 9 RC port. In the next post, again HTC Desire but with Android 2.3.7 and a surprise You may not know.