Stable Android 2.1 hacked onto Droid, speeds through those extra home screens

Staying warm out there? Got a cup of hot cocoa in hand? Good, because Mr. Greek35T over at AllDroid has a stable version of the (previously rough-around-the-edges) Android 2.1 ROM ready for all you Droid users to play around with. It's officially "super fast," and probably the best thing to happen this weekend outside of that wicked jump you built on the neighborhood sledding hill before you went and watched Avatar with all your old high school friends. Hit up the source link for the full install instructions, and there's a video of 2.1 in action after the break.

[Thanks, Brandon]

[Wes Steele Posted Dec 19th 2009 3:44PM]

pshhht. My G1 is just fine with my Android 1.6...... >:/

[yyandrew Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:31PM]

@Wes Steele poor little fella ....

[Grundyman Posted Dec 20th 2009 12:30AM]

@Wes Steele isnt this about the droid running the 2.1? besides i just got my droid a month ago , i have been with blackberries for years . after owning the droid , i picked up a friends g1 . and let me tell you , if they wanted to sale me on android with that phone , i would have stuck with the blackberry.

[JXCGunrunna Posted Dec 20th 2009 1:19AM]

@Wes Steele

Dont worry buddy, I know how you meant it. If T-Mo doesnt take care of you, We have friends over on XDA that will. :)

[Wes Steele Posted Dec 20th 2009 12:43PM]

@Grundyman You misunderstood the point of my comment. But ok.

@JXCGunrunna Very true :)

[Spensar Posted Dec 19th 2009 3:45PM]

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!

[angel12 Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:15PM]

@Spensar this is the same EXACT rom that was released on sholes.info a week ago... come on engadget you are killing us with your "research"

[yyandrew Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:32PM]

@angel12 better late than never? what about for those folks whose gadget blogs only comprise of engadget? how would they ever know? you selfish soul /sarcasm

[angel12 Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:50PM]

@yyandrew well Engadget is giving credit to Greekwhateverhisnameis, not to the original port. This has been the 2nd time engadget has done this with droid related info the past week

[hexoDAT64 Posted Dec 19th 2009 7:14PM]

@Spensar

This is great. I always suspected some of the slow stuff like homescreen scrolling on the home screen was just nonoptimized software. This looks way faster and it wasn't originally a build for the droid. Lookin good!

[SomePerson Posted Dec 19th 2009 3:49PM]

Exactly what makes the Nexus One better than the Droid aside from the OLED screen? I'd say they're in the same league, except the Nexus One has way more hype.

[TechCrunch Posted Dec 19th 2009 3:50PM]

@SomePerson the fact that it doesnt have a keyboard that seems to have been designed in absolute isolation. Who the fuck designed that horrible thing. They keys are also flat. I would much rather have a slimmer, lighter device then a average to poor physical keyboard.

[gonintendo Posted Dec 19th 2009 3:50PM]

@SomePerson snapdragon. amoled. made by htc (personal preference. I'd take an htc phone over a moto anyday)

[gonintendo Posted Dec 19th 2009 3:52PM]

@SomePerson And it's on tmobile. the droid isn't. not paying verizons crazy 3g prices.

[plbelanger Posted Dec 19th 2009 3:53PM]

@SomePerson snagdragon processor, OLED screen, not sure what else to be honest. Specs are still somewhat sparse. Oh yeah, it's NOT on Verizon :) GSM all the way.

[SomePerson Posted Dec 19th 2009 3:59PM]

@TechCrunch & gonintendo

True the keyboard may not be the best, but once you get used it to you seem to forget the frustrations.

Snap Dragon and OMAP3 are both cortex A8 based, so you shouldn't really notice anything mind blowingly superior when comparing SD to OMAP3. AMOLED, I'll let you get that one. But seeing how the Droid's screen, its still competitive with OLED. And its made by HTC? IMO, a brand making a phone should never be a plus nor negative. Buying phones with branding bias will only leave you in the same boat as Apple-Fans.

[lazaro Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:01PM]

@SomePerson snapdragon

[DestrictoEnse Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:02PM]

@SomePerson
Some person : The Nexus One is unlocked. Also, I'm pretty sure the Droid had more hype...

[barkerja Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:03PM]

@gonintendo I'd rather pay the "crazy prices" and get quality service + coverage than save a few bucks and get nominal service with hardly any 3G coverage. You get what you pay for in the digital/tech world my friend.

[SomePerson Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:09PM]

@DestrictoEnse Yes, I do realize that the Droid had plenty of hype. But when you put "Google Phone" behind Nexus One, everyone assumes this phone is the be all end all. And being unlocked is a plus, but so is the Milestone(although it won't work with at&t 3G bands so I can't use it). As I see it, this is still just a dev phone until it officially comes out. But the reason for my dislike for this phone is how people treat it as if its the ONLY good Android phone when there are plenty of others just as good, if not better.(X10, Droid, Acer Liquid, etc.).

[gonintendo Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:12PM]

@barkerja Tmo 3g is great where I live. I don't know what you're talking about. and all of that $$$ adds up when you don't have a well paying job.

[yyandrew Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:26PM]

@SomePerson it's got snapdragon. but other than that, I honestly prefer the Droid. sure if Google gave away Nexus Ones for free I'd snag one but I'm more than content with my Droid

[coolbho3000 Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:57PM]

@SomePerson Both Qualcomm Snapdragon (Nexus One) and the TI OMAP3 (Droid) platforms are based on a ARMv7 architecture. But the Snapdragon comes with a better GPU and a much higher clock speed (998MHz versus 550MHz).

[ethana2 Posted Dec 19th 2009 5:26PM]

"Aside from the OLED screen?"

While last unplugged for 2h 30m
Display 75%
========================

Do you really /need/ anything else?

[iCello Posted Dec 19th 2009 7:37PM]

@SomePerson Way better Snapdragon processor, 720p video recording on the camera, AMOLED screen, GSM.

[XChrisX Posted Dec 19th 2009 8:25PM]

@SomePerson You seem to be forgetting that when the droid was first announced everyone touted it as the end all be all of android devices when were several others that came before it. The nexus one is no different, other than it will be the first device completely designed by google.

[ai4281 Posted Dec 19th 2009 8:58PM]

@coolbho3000 Snapdragon has higher clock speed, but crappier GPU compared to OMAP3.
Basically, GPU-wise its Tegra > OMAP3 > Snapdragon. And CPU-wise its Snapdragon > OMAP3 > Tegra.

Also, AMOLED has worse outside visibility, though the colors are better and battery consumption is better compared to normal LCD screen.

I don't think Nexus One is going to be that much better than the Droid. And my personal choice goes to Motorola, cause I'm on my 4th HTC phone right now. HTC devices are teh suck!

My next phone's gonna be the Milestone when it comes to my carrier in January.

[Elranzer Posted Dec 20th 2009 12:29AM]

"And it's on tmobile. the droid isn't. not paying verizons crazy 3g prices."

Being on T-Mobile exclusively is actually a downgrade, not an upgrade.

[Grundyman Posted Dec 20th 2009 12:38AM]

@TechCrunch let me guess, you dont own the droid? if you owned it you would see that the keys arent bad at all. whats funny about all the dumb asses that own the phone talking about the phone having flat keys , dont realize that a virtual keyboard is the flatest thing you could type on, get your weight up , not your hate up

[TT Posted Dec 20th 2009 5:46AM]

@ai4281
You're right at the CPU part, but oh my god when will you people learn, the OMAP3 platform does not have a more powerful GPU than the Snapdragon platform.
Here's what the companies say about their own performance:
MSM7200 GPU (For reference): 2M Polygons/Sec
SGX530 (This is in the OMAP3 platform): 14M Polygons/Sec
Imageon Z430 (Snapdragon): 22M Polygons/Sec
SGX535+ (This is in the 3GS): 28M Polygons/Sec
PSP GPU: 33M Polygons/Sec
Tegra GPU: 40M Polygons/Sec

So even considering that the companies might lie about their own performance, the chances that the SGX530 GPU is faster than the one in the Snapdragon are pretty much none at all.
I'm fairly sure I've had to say it about a billion times on this site, I might do a Public Service Announcement, that'll save me a lot of time.

And in case you're wondering why the OMAP3 platform in say the Omnia HD can record and play 720p video while the Snapdragon can't (well, it can play some formats of 720p on raw CPU power), that's because Samsung put an encoder and decoder in there. (And it seems HTC is gonna do the same to the Snapdragon with their Bravo handset)

[Isandunk Posted Dec 19th 2009 3:57PM]

Common HTC... Hurry up porting Sense to 2.1!

[martynmcfarquhar Posted Dec 19th 2009 5:09PM]

@Isandunk

Ditto to that, I just really really hope the Hero gets another speed boost thanks to 2.1. The last ROM was ok, but I still had to turn to the ROM hackers out there to give me respectable speed. Maybe HTC can coax me back, but only if they do a good job and make Android run like it should!

[DestrictoEnse Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:01PM]

You think they'd be able to hack their digital camera in some way to make it actually focus correctly.

[thebomb Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:13PM]

@DestrictoEnse
it does focus correctly. That was fixed in 2.01

[DaHarder Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:15PM]

@DestrictoEnse

I'm not sure where you've been, but the DROID focus both quickly and accurately (during this date-cycle).

We'll see if 2.0.1 fixed the issue entirely, but my DROID is pretty 'spot on' as far a focusing goes.

[DestrictoEnse Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:17PM]

@thebomb
I meant the P&S camera being used to film the piece... informative as it was it's always frustrating to not be able to see the text on the screen.

[N900 Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:18PM]

@thebomb lolwut?

[N900 Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:19PM]

Emphasis on "digital camera".

[brandonscott Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:24PM]

@DestrictoEnse I'm the person that made the video, I apoligize for the quality. I always seem to lose my flip when I need to film something important. I am filming another video in HD tonight. You'll be able to find it on my channel http://www.youtube.com/user/brandonnscott or on twitter www.twitter.com/brandonscott

[DestrictoEnse Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:27PM]

@brandonscott
hey brandon, the camera was probably too close to the phone to focus, see if you can change the focus mode to macro :)

[DestrictoEnse Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:28PM]

@brandonscott and I hope you can demo the app-switcher cards!

[brandonscott Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:51PM]

@DestrictoEnse Alright I have redone the video and it's much better quality. The file size is also 10x bigger so it's gonna take a while to upload.

Cards are demoed along with the new gallery.

[MedioGringo Posted Dec 19th 2009 5:12PM]

@brandonscott is the media player any different or is it the same old ugly green and black? Is the contacts section any different?

[DestrictoEnse Posted Dec 19th 2009 5:20PM]

@brandonscott
Nice work (Y)

[brandonscott Posted Dec 19th 2009 5:46PM]

@DestrictoEnse Here's the new video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFTXCs56Iv8&feature=player_embedded

[DaHarder Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:02PM]

I'll be waiting for the official release, but this sure looks promising.

[spasewalkr Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:14PM]

ill upgrade the second all of the hardware functions correctly. he mentions in the video that gps doesnt work. thats kind of a dealbreaker. ive also heard reports that the keyboard backlight doesnt work either. anyone heard reports to the contrary, or better yet, fixes?

[angel12 Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:16PM]

@spasewalkr the creator of this port is working on both of these issues. Greek did not port it, he just stole someone else's work

[bart Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:17PM]

the only thing google phone is missing is dual 3g

[trm2124 Posted Dec 19th 2009 4:19PM]

Oh god I wish I were home, sledding and watching movies. Instead I'm just beginning my finals. Anyone else go to a college that gets out on the 23rd? It sucks.