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3.##, aka Honeycomb was designed and rolled out to Tablets only.
If you go to BB and pay full price you will get at least one of the 2 latest versions which are:
ICE CREAM SANDWICH (4.0)
and JELLY BEAN (4.1).
You want a phone with JELLY BEAN.
All the current generation Samsung, Motorola and LG Phones should have Jelly Bean.
I have a 2 year old Motorola Droid Bionic that was shipped with Gingerbread (version 3.x). I was able to upgrade it to Ice Cream Sandwich several moths ago, and recently updated to 4.1/Jellybean. No rooting was needed; the updates downloaded and installed automatically.
You might find a few older phones on the shelves at Best Buy and similar stores that have Ice Cream Sandwich, but you should be able to update these phones to Jelly Bean without any hassle (and with rooting the phone and voiding the warranty.)
I have a 2 year old Motorola Droid Bionic that was shipped with Gingerbread (version 3.x). I was able to upgrade it to Ice Cream Sandwich several moths ago, and recently updated to 4.1/Jellybean. No rooting was needed; the updates downloaded and installed automatically.
The only reason that these updates were available was because Motorola and Verizon created the updates and pushed them (Bionic owner here as well).
Most phones that age won't ever get these updates, and it requires both the handset manufacturer and the carrier to build and push the updates.
The Bionic was sold as a high end phone with a lot of high end accessories, and with a promise that it would get ICS. It was soon overshadowed by the various RAZR versions and forgotten. Motorola got a lot of backlash from this, and eventually admitted that they had done a poor job of supporting the phone, and made an effort to get it updated.
I got an HTC Inspire phone a year ago since it was free. This phone was first released in Feb. 2011. That's why I have an older Android.
If you go to BestBuy and pay full price for the latest phones, will they have the latest Android versions??
It will all depend on which phone you get. The Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One both come with Android 4.2.2, the latest build. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus and well as the Nexus 4 both have Android 4.2.2. as well. In older to assure yourself of always getting the latest versions of Android, I suggest you buy a Nexus device. Most manufacturers take their time rolling out the latest updates to their phones, and then you have to deal with the carriers as well. Rumor has it that Google is going to release an updated version of the Nexus 4 that includes 32GB of internal memory and it will be equipped with LTE radios. So if you're in the market for a phone, you may want to wait a few weeks and see what happens. That of course is assuming you want to go the Nexus route.
The only reason that these updates were available was because Motorola and Verizon created the updates and pushed them (Bionic owner here as well).
Most phones that age won't ever get these updates, and it requires both the handset manufacturer and the carrier to build and push the updates.
The Bionic was sold as a high end phone with a lot of high end accessories, and with a promise that it would get ICS. It was soon overshadowed by the various RAZR versions and forgotten. Motorola got a lot of backlash from this, and eventually admitted that they had done a poor job of supporting the phone, and made an effort to get it updated.
Don't forget that Motorola did a complete redesign of the handset. It was announced, and shown, at MWC in 2011(in February of that year) and then phone did not end up being released until early September I believe. Motorola does not have the best track record in the last couple of years with supporting devices. Especially when you consider they released the Droid Razr a couple of months after the Bionic and even Verizon pushed the Razr hard, and even pushed back the launch of the Galaxy Nexus because of it.
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