Select Windows Mobile HTC smartphones “hacked” to run Android 2.1
February 24, 2010 | by Chris Smith
Have an old HTC Tilt, Polaris, Niki, or Vogue laying around collecting dust because you can’t stand using Windows Mobile? Well, according to the XDA Developers forum you may be able to get a little more life out of your old device by hacking it to run the latest version of Android.
This forum post at XDA forums outlines how to install Android 2.1 (yes, 2.1 even before the DROID gets it) on the four mentioned HTC devices. Before this full ROM release, users could have run Android alongside WinMo with a tool called HaRET but this release completely erases the Windows Mobile install from the device and replaces it with Android 2.1. Pretty awesome. So awesome that I may have to get one of these older HTCs to tinker with.
XDA forum member slm4996 says that most everything works on the phone except for Bluetooth and the camera, which of course are some huge missing features. But knowing XDA and their pervasiveness, we will see these features added in the near future.
This story shows me once again how important Android is to the mobile OS space. The idea of taking older phones and using a free, powerful OS to breath new life into them is the promise of open source software like Android. If you have one of these HTCs and are brave enough to check out what this hack is all about visit the XDA forum at your own risk.
Via [MobileMagazine] Source [XDA Forums]
I am running one of the openEclair based versions of 2.1 on an AT&T Tilt. it's awesome, much better than WinMo, but also not fully stable. it's the best release we have seen yet for these phones and I am trying to make a go of using it full time. Different people report different problems and mine are numerous but it's still a pleasure to use.
That's awesome. I wish that one of the devices this worked on was a Verizon handset so I could give it a try!
I believe Verizon's XV6900 (HTC Vogue) should work. Less than $75 used on eBay.
Thanks for telling me that, Michael. Now I may be out another 75 bucks
does anybody think this will work on htc hd?
I just wanted to say thanks for the article. I did not build this rom, I only fixed the wifi and some other bugs. Many many developers have worked very hard to get this were it is today. Please read the first post for credits.
Thanks for the clarification and thanks for the hard work.
Its an amazing feat that the XDA developers have accomplished to get android running as stable as it is. However, Android is a processor dog (thanks to java) . Most of these devices run at 600mhz max, with usually only 128mb of ram. I can’t imagine the android experience will compare to what you would get with a nexus one or the new HTC desire. Although I have only dual booted wm6.5 and android (not installed the rom version), wm6.5 (and even wm6.1) runs faster than android on these devices; assuming you are running a clean Winmo rom and not the stock one. When it is ported to HD2 and other devices, we might be able to get excited. A dual-booting HD2 will be a very powerful device; leveraging the power of winmo (office mobile/skyfire/etc.) and the ui/apps/games of android.