Connect with us

Mobile

Sprint’s First 4G LTE Phone Beats HTC ThunderBolt to Ice Cream Sandwich

Published

on

The Sprint LG Viper 4G LTE, the carrier’s first 4G LTE smartphone, will start to receive its Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update today which means that it will be getting its upgrade before the HTC ThunderBolt, Verizon’s first 4G LTE smartphone which has been stuck on Android 2.3 Gingerbread for more than a year.

In a posting on its website, Sprint revealed the Ice Cream Sandwich roll out for the LG Viper 4G LTE which was the first smartphone launched for its 4G LTE network, just ahead of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

Sprint says that the update might be rolling out in stages and those that are checking for the update may not find anything. Instead, owners of the LG Viper 4G LTE should remain patient and wait for the software to arrive.

Read: HTC ThunderBolt Ice Cream Sandwich Update Still Missing Nearly Two Months Later.

lg-viper-4g

The LG Viper 4G LTE has beaten the HTC ThunderBolt to ICS.

Once the update does arrive, there should be a prompt that asks users to download and install the update. And once the software does install, users of the device will find a device that is much improved.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is a huge improvement over Android 2.3 Gingerbread bringing a host of improvements and features to the table. They include the new user interface, the improved lock screen, Face Unlock, resizable widgets, a better camera app and a better browser to name a few. Overall, it’s a huge upgrade over Android 2.3 Gingerbread and will be well worth the wait.

The arrival of this update means that Sprint was able to beat Verizon to the punch, upgrading its first 4G LTE smartphone before Verizon could update its first 4G LTE smartphone, the HTC ThunderBolt.

Read: HTC ThunderBolt Update Coming by Thanksgiving?

The HTC ThunderBolt, which arrived in March of 2011, and has been toiling on Android 2.3 Gingerbread since September of 2011. HTC and Verizon promised an Ice Cream Sandwich update for the device back in August but so far, the companies have yet to roll anything out leaving owners of the smartphone fuming and looking for answers.

Verizon is known for its extremely tough update standards and its devices are often beaten to the punch by its competitors because of them.

8 Comments

8 Comments

  1. Brett

    11/01/2012 at 3:14 pm

    I am still stuck with the HTC thunderbolt. It’s the biggest pile of crap phone I’ve ever owned. I have been screwed too much by Verizon, I will not be buying a subsidized phone from them ever again. I would rather go to craigslist or buy it from Best Buy or eBay

  2. SchmittyJ

    11/01/2012 at 10:08 pm

    Son.of.a.bitch.

    Thanks again, VZW…. can’t drop this contract fast enough.

  3. icrf

    11/02/2012 at 8:12 am

    I’m curious, if Verizon has such strict update standards, why did my Thunderbolt randomly reboot for the first six months I owned it, and why does it, today, intermittently lose the cellular data connection?

  4. HTC Hater

    11/02/2012 at 12:32 pm

    If you are a frustrated Thunderbolt owner waiting for the ICS update, I suggest logging a complaint with the better business bureau. The more people who complain the louder the message will be heard. You can do it from this link

    https://www.bbb.org/western-washington/business-reviews/telephone-equipment-and-systems-dealers/h-t-c-america-in-bellevue-wa-22070136

  5. icrf

    11/02/2012 at 1:49 pm

    It’s frustrating for end users, but I don’t feel “wronged” somehow to formally lodge a complaint somewhere. It just means I won’t be looking at HTC phones when I’m upgrading early next year, which in my head is how proper capitalism works.

    For as consumable an item as cell phones have become, I don’t know why manufacturers aren’t coddling their customers more. Treat people well, they’ll come back. Carriers have gotten everyone in the habit of two year upgrade cycles, so it’s going to happen. This is a device most people carry with them all the time and use every day. Though I don’t like Apple’s closed ecosystem, I absolutely have to give them props for a focus on hardware polish and software updates.

  6. CLR

    11/05/2012 at 9:35 am

    I love my thunderbolt, just wish the mobile data would stop turning itself off and on constantly. Makes it impossible to use the expensive data package I was forced to buy. Now yesterday my sounds are randomly not working.

  7. Steven

    11/14/2012 at 5:00 pm

    Thank you for being the only person to keep reporting on this. As a TB owner, I greatly appreciate it.

  8. Justin

    11/15/2012 at 7:54 am

    I love my TB. The only complaint I have is 4G will turn off randomly, more frequently with the Facebook app. Nut installed the leaked ICS and it’s amazing. I rolled back to Gingerbread eventually though because wifi, video camera, and netflix hasn’t been figured out yet on it but it is definitely a better OS and I can’t wait until it’s all working.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.