The original Samsung Galaxy Tab was quite left out from all the fun it’s little brothers were having. While SGT 10.1 and 8.9 run the latest Android tablet OS Honeycomb, the Galaxy Tab was still stuck on Android 2.2. Froyo was never designed to run on a tablet, but when the Galaxy Tab hit the market, it didn’t wait for a newer OS and rivaled Apple iPad for the first time.

Now it’s too late, or else everyone thinks so. The Galaxy Tab has lesser hardware capabilities as compared to the latest smartphones around, let alone tablets. It’s safe to call it a larger Galaxy S with a few tweaks, which has almost the same specs and got updated to Gingerbread a while ago. Yesterday, the Gingerbread update was officially announced to a few countries including Italy, if you’re in one of them, you can update your Tab through Samsung Kies easily.

As for those who aren’t that lucky enough and don’t want to wait, you can always “flash” the firmware in yourself. I did that, and I’m sorry to say that all your installed apps would have to go (like mine) unless the backup can save you: Settings>Privacy>Back up my data. We can say the update is worth it, but I feel very sorry for all those great apps and games I spent months installing.

Flashing Firmware 2.3.3 in

What you will need:
1: Main Firmware (227mb). Download here
2:PIT File: gt-p1000_mr_PIT
3: dbdata File: dbdata
4: Rooted Kernel here. (You have to register on the website to download this file)
6: Odin3 v1.7 Flashing Program: Odin3 v1.7

The Process

1: Extract all of the files and put them in one folder (for easy access).
Follow these instructions carefully, especially the Power Button Volume Up, Power Button Volume Down part. At the end, your device will be running Gingerbread 2.3.3 This process will take about 20 minutes, and is very easy.

At 10:05 of the video, you will have a choice of removing all data or not. I chose not to but all my apps showed errors and force-closed. You should wipe all data as the guy does in the video BUT back up first (See Above).

Note that if you choose NOT to wipe all data at 10:05, then the device will take longer to start up the language selection screen. I say again, this choice is no good as all my apps were as good as deleted.

Here’s the video:

Good Luck with the Flashing! You should have no problems at all even if you are new to the idea. You can visit our forums for questions or visit our Facebook page. As I said, there are a lot of improvements and additional apps in this update, so it’s a must have. Stay tuned for Gingerbread on GALAXY Tab overview!