If a ROM is your thing then this Ice Cream Sandwich ZTE Skate update might be just the thing for you. It’s a nice upgrade from what the ZTE Skate was originally running in 2.3 Gingerbread. The 2.3 Gingerbread will go down as one of the best ROMs for Android to date, but it is now starting to show its age. One of the best things about sitting back on an old classical ROM is that when it finally does start aging a little too much, you can shift up to the next greatest ROM of its time with an update. The Ice Cream Sandwich ZTE update is a prime example of that.

Please note that this is a custom ROM and not an official firmware update. Because of this, there is no warranty on the device after you choose to install the Android 4.0 update. As with all tutorials please make sure you back up your device before you begin and proceed at your own risk. Mobicuppa will not take responsibility for any loss of data or damage which may occur to your device during the guide.

Before You Begin:

  • Check out the ZTE website and make sure you have all of the updated drivers before you start this.
  • You want to have the standard 80% battery life left on the device to make sure you get through the procedure without any hiccups.
  • Make sure you have the USB cable that came with the device because it will need to be connected to the PC.
  • You will also need the ZTE microSD card to do this update.
  • You need to have ClockworkMod installed.

Update ZTE Skate to Android 4.0 with ColdFusionX

Step 1. Visit this thread and download the required ColdFusionX ROM and the GAPP and save them to the desktop for easy access.

 Step 2. Connect the ZTE Skate to the PC with the USB cable supplied.

Step 3. Grab the files you downloaded from the desktop and transfer them to the MicroSD card.

Step 4. Boot the ZTE Skate into ClockworkMod and enter recovery mode. Make sure you back up your device here if you haven’t already in case something goes wrong.

Step 5. From inside ClockworkMod recovery now clear your cache. Do this by navigating to date/factory reset and wipe cache.

Step 6. Now flash the ROM by choosing “choose zip from SD card”. Inside here you want to grab the file that you transferred over to the SD Card earlier.

Step 7. Wipe the data once again and reboot the device out of recovery mode. It should now boot up as the new ColdfusionX ROM. Important: Wait for 5 minutes here in the new ROM. Now reboot into recovery mode again.

Step 8. Flash the gapps zip file and then reboot out of recovery mode again.

Step 9. Let it sit for another 5 minutes. The 5 minutes theory is just a guide to let the system stabilize. It doesn’t have to be exactly 5 minutes by the clock.

That’s all there is to it! The ZTE Skate V960 should now have the Android 4.0 update installed thanks to the ColdfusionX custom ROM. Please note: if you want wifi tethering from here you will need to install the barnicle from here.