Ice Cream Sandwich on Samsung Galaxy SII

I recently updated my Samsung Galaxy SII to Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich. I had been waiting ever since it was announced last October (2011) to be released for my phone. My carrier, Vodafone, had been testing the update for many weeks and I was nearly at the point of giving up when they finally pushed it out to their users. I updated via Samsung Kies (i.e. downloaded the full update on PC) on the day the update was released (1st of May, 2012) and the process went without a hitch.

My homescreen

New ICS features that are seen in the SGSII version include:

Unlock

• New unlock screens including
• Face Unlock - works alright and cool to show-off but not really practical.
• New pattern unlock display - Same functionality but with different look. Still my choice of unlock method.

Pattern unlock

 Display

• Re-formatted settings menu - Items included in sub-headings and some re-organisation
• New font - Looks good.
• Display in general looks cleaner and sharper
• List menus of words instead of grid menu of icons - Don't like this at all. I was very used to the locations of icon buttons in the menus and this new list format has really annoyed me. A backwards step in my opinion.
• Top bar icons condensed
• Vibration/sound icons take up less room (Only one shown at once) - Happy about!
• Wifi icon now has upload/download indicators - Handy addition
• New network strength icon is more angular - Looks ugly I think

Settings menu

Connectivity

• Updated USB connectivity (MTP mode) - No need to "Safely remove" and allows synching with software such as music with MusicBee

Browser

• Browser
• New tab system - Slower and harder to use
• List menu instead of icon menu - Don't like at all as said above. This is especially annoying in the browser for changing tabs and other shortcuts
• Disable apps feature - Only works with some apps but a nice addition

New browser menu.

Old browser menu. Much better! [Image source]

Apps

• Data usage meter - Very useful but not solely if you have un-metered usage on some sites/apps (e.g. social media). Records only data usage (i.e. not wi-fi)
• New Gmail app
• Looks better
• Buttons are all icons (like web Gmail) which results in some trial and error trying to work out what they do

Data usage main graph

Data usage by Internet (browser)

General changes

• Swipe away notifications - Excellent addition that was needed.
• New multi-tasking menu - Looks good and okay functionality.
• "Slide" gestures replaced with "radial" gestures - No different really
• "Share via" function in gallery has been cut down - Can be partly solved by "marking" the picture before sharing.
• Screenshot buttons changed (From lock + menu to lock + volume down)
• Icons in the top bar are mostly greyscale instead of colour - Colour looked better I think!
• Consensus is that it reduces battery life - I have maybe experienced a slight drop.
• Smoother transitions between screens
• Contacts shortcut from phone app removed - makes it hard to find contacts if you haven't got the Contacts shortcut in your launcher

Multi-tasking screen

Alarm screen (pre-gesture)

Alarm screen (mid-gesture)

Overall, the update has definitely improved the user interface of the phone although I feel as though it was a little rushed. Some minor functions no longer work such as turning the phone onto it's face to stop it ringing out loud. While minor, it's little things like these that can set one phone apart from the rest. I think Samsung's TouchWiz interface either already had a lot of the new functionality built in or a lot of new features have been disabled. Some of the new ICS features that weren't included in the SGSII update are:

• Drag one icon on top of another to create a folder
• New camera app (Although the Samsung default app was already excellent)
• Resizable widgets
• New basic lock screen e.g. unlock straight to camera
• People app (Contacts app instead)

I am still waiting for Google to release an updated Gallery app. I feel like the current one is ugly, slow and doesn't fit in with the look of the rest of the OS- TouchWiz or not.

I'll be keeping a close eye on the CyanogenMod website and Google+ page for them to announce a stable release of CM9 (Ice Cream Sandwich) for my SGSII. I am very keen to try out a more vanilla Android ROM than the TouchWiz heavy interfaces that Samsung push out although I will miss a few of the handy stock apps such as Kies Air and Tasks. Having said that, I'm sure I'll be able to find very similar apps on the Play store to replace them.