Android 4.1 ported to the ancient HTC HD2

Google is keen on announcing new versions of Android, but the OEMs that make the devices are apparently not so big on actually updating phones. The deployment rate of Android 4.0 just crept above 10%, but now Android 4.1 Jelly Bean has been announced. Many users end up flashing unofficial ROMs onto devices, and there is one phone that continues to get update love long after it was disavowed by the maker. HTC’s HD2 is still chugging along, and now it has its first port of Android 4.1.

The HTC HD2 was released way back in 2009, and it ran Windows Mobile 6.5 with HTC’s Sense UI layer. The phone’s guts were actually very advanced for the time — it was really overkill for Window Mobile. The HD2 was sporting a 1GHz Snapdragon SoC, which would power the Google HTC Nexus One a few months later. The HD2 was also packing 576MB of RAM and a 4.3-inch 800 x 480 LCD multitouch screen.

It would take months for HTC to get that same kind of hardware into an Android phone, which ended up being the Evo 4G on Sprint. While the HD2 was slim and light, the Evo ended up much thicker and clunky because of the WiMAX radio.

The Jelly Bean port is just the latest in a long line of Android releases for the device. Though it is only has 512MB of ROM, modders so love the device that Android releases are always trimmed down to run on it with the aid of SD storage. The Jelly Bean port is in its early stages, so there are a few kinks to work out.

Users report that video playback, the camera, and USB mass storage aren’t working. Google Now is also very crash prone. Still, it’s impressive that the community has kept this device alive for so long. This is truly the phone that will not die.