Samsung’s slate of Android smartphones and tablets are getting updated to Android 2.3.
The update is targeted for most of the company’s Galaxy S line of phones as well as all versions of the Galaxy Tab. This is welcome news especially to smartphone users, who had to wait an unnecessarily long time for the previous Android 2.2 update, making the Galaxy S phones among the very last to receive that update.
Android 2.3 – also referred to as “Gingerbread,” is not a huge update like 2.2 was, but it does increase performance by reducing CPU consumption, adds support for enhanced 3D graphics, and improves the user interface.
To date, only a small sampling of Android devices have been upgraded to Gingerbread, because it is not seen as a significant update. However, most new Android phones are shipping with Gingerbread pre-installed.
On the tablet side of things, the 2.3 update is welcome, but for this market the de facto operating system is becoming Android 3.0, also known as “Honeycomb.” 3.0 is an optimized version of the mobile OS for tablets, and as such anyone with a first-generation Galaxy Tab, even though it is poised for an upgrade, will still be behind the rest of the curve. A new slate of Galaxy Tab products is coming out soon, and those will be powered by Honeycomb, not Gingerbread.
The 2.3 update will begin rolling out to the devices later this month in parts of the world.
