More and more owners of Android smartphones are wondering when and if they will receive the Android 2.3 Gingerbread update to their Android 2.2 Froyo running devices. But what do they actually hope to achieve by this update to Android 2.3 Gingerbread? Maybe they hope the new version will bring better battery life, or support for better games, or how about that new keyboard we have all been hearing about so often? This is a head to head confrontation, an Android 2.2 Vs 2.3 match.

Let’s find out what the new update has in store for us. We are going to speak about their history, unique features, hardware requirements, improvements and after that, draw a final conclusion.

1. History

Android 2.2 Froyo was released in May 2010 and even though that seems like a long time ago in the fast evolving world of smartphones it remained competitive. With a nice user interface and new feature to improve the previous Android 2.1 Éclair it quickly grew into one of the most appreciated mobile operating systems. Currently, the market share graph below shows us that Android 2.2 Froyo is responsible for powering half of the number of Android smartphones currently on the market.

Android Versions

While we must recognize Froyo’s part in the general success of the Android mobile platform the time for an update has finally come. And the update comes in a tasty form of a small little Gingerbread man. Android 2.3 Gingerbread was officially released on the 6th of December 2010. Even though it’s been well over a month from then the only smartphone to run it is the Google Nexus S.


Because of the limited supply and distribution Android 2.3 has yet to gain a place in the market share battle. With all this in mind it is worth saying that this is the version of the future and numerous mobile handset manufacturers have announced that their next dual core cutting edge smartphones will most likely be running Android 2.3 Gingerbread when they arrive.
  
2. Features

As most of us already know Android 2.2 brought us many cool new features over the previous version like dedicated shortcuts on the home screen for the phone, applications launcher, and the browser. Along these changes a couple other made Froyo so popular, like the ability to move applications to external storage and the portable mobile hot-spot feature along with the general 2-5x performance boost. Android 2.2 Gingerbread also brought the world a new camera interface and a new gallery (see the pictures below).

Android 2.2 Gallery & Camera vs Gingerbread Camera

All the improvements Froyo brought along were received with a warm welcome but Gingerbread will make them obsolete. Android 2.3 brings forth some great new UI themes, a substantially improved touchscreen keyboard in both landscape and portrait mode, new copy and paste functionality, improved power management which means much better battery life (take that Froyo), better application management, new download manager, NFC (Near Field Communication), support for VoIP/SIP calls, new Camera application for accessing multiple cameras and support for ever larger screens.

Android Gingerbread vs Froyo Homescreens and Menus

The new keyboard has a picture below and it’s worth mentioning that the new home screen features a dedicated application manager button. But this is not everything, the new Gingerbread “man” also came with a new market application, a new version of the Google Maps which support 3d view and storing maps offline and a new orange effect when you scroll to the end of a list throughout the OS. Although the updated applications can be installed on Android 2.2 Froyo they work best with the new version of the OS.

Froyo Keyboard vs Gingerbread Keyboard

Speaking of applications, the new iteration of Google’s mobile OS increases the maximum size of the applications from the market to 50 MB (bigger, better games) and brings some new APIs to help with the future generations of games. And what better display to see the games than the newly supported ones up to 10 inches with a resolution of up to 1280 x 800 pixels. Just image your mobile device had a resolution to make even Apple’s Retina Display feel outdated.

The user interface was also updated in Android 2.3 Gingerbread with new icons and new menus. Although they are not as colorful as the ones before them they do make the OS feel more mature and more professional.

Settings Menu Gingerbread

 Android 2.3 adds API support for several new sensor types, including gyroscope, rotation vector, linear acceleration, gravity, and barometer sensors. Applications can use the new sensors in combination with any other sensors available on the device, to track three-dimensional device motion and orientation change with high precision and accuracy. Just imagine a game could use readings from a gyroscope and accelerometer on the device to recognize complex user gestures and motions, such as tilt, spin, thrust, and slice.
These upgrades could well be the face of the new mobile gaming industry with 3D gestures on top of it.
Another missing feature from Android 2.2 Froyo has found its way in Gingerbread: the equalizer. The new audio effects API adds equalization, bass boost, headphone virtualization (widened soundstage), and reverb to audio tracks and sounds.


Remember the inability to use the front camera on the Android 2.2 running devices? Well this has been fixed too with the help of the new Camera API that allows applications to access any cameras that are available on a device, including a front-facing camera. Applications can query the platform for the number of cameras on the device and their types and characteristics, then open the camera needed. For example, a video chat application might want to access a front-facing camera that offers lower-resolution, while a photo application might prefer a back-facing camera that offers higher-resolution.


All of these improvements Android 2.3 Gingerbread has brought would be useless without the performance boost of the new OS that, much like Froyo, brings 2-5x speed raises throughout the OS.

3. Hardware

Although we can’t speak of any hardware improvements for a mobile OS we can tell you that the new Gingerbread will power the new generation of smartphones. Along the software improvements we will get dual core processors, 1GB of RAM memory and new graphic chips to power the most demanding applications. The new year we have just entered brings new hopes of even higher resolution displays, faster hardware and more energy efficient smartphones to help you make it through the week with a single charge.

Some of the new phones to feature Gingerbread are the Motorola Atrix, the successor to the widely popular Galaxy S which is yet to be unveiled and the new generation of Sony Ericsson smartphones including the revolutionary PSP smartphone.

4. Final Words

After all the fuss and all the debate about the new version of Android it is safe to say that it shows the way to the future. Gingerbread may not be a revolution but it is the perfect evolution for Froyo in all areas so we just hope all our Android running smartphones will get a taste of the new update as soon as possible.

Here's a comparison Video by the folks at Pocketnow of the software on the Nexus One with the Nexus S. One runs on Froyo and the other on Gingerbread.