Pantech’s first Android phone on AT&T launched almost a year ago, running 2.2 Froyo – which was already six months out of date at the time. Today Pantech introduced a Gingerbread update for the QWERTY phone, making several people who had probably given up hope of ever seeing a newer version of Android very happy. Well, moderately happy, anyway – it’s not Ice Cream Sandwich after all. The standard bugfixes are present, along with a few new features. 

These include support for SIP VOIP, native video chat in Gtalk, and a download manager. Naturally the user interface has been updated with Gingerbread elements, but Pantech is still insisting upon its own Android skin. Interestingly, Pantech isn’t sending out the update over the air as usual, but is sending it out via a PC update application. This is becoming something of a trend – Sony’s decided that all of its promised Android updates will need a computer to apply them.

The Crossover’s 600mhz processor and 512MB of RAM should be enough to run Gingerbread, just don’t expect it to be a seped demon. But depending on how well the software’s implemented, slightly better performance can certainly be hoped for. Oh, and if you’re waiting for Ice Cream Sandwich… don’t. Froyo was the last frozen treat this little guy’s ever going to see.

[device id=1646] [via PhoneDog]