We got a question from the Holiday Gift Guide asking when Ice Cream Sandwich will be coming to the Galaxy S II. I answered maybe next year – and turns out I was right. Samsung has now confirmed that it will bring the update to users next year, in addition to users who have the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet.
Ice Cream Sandwich, also known as Android 4.0, will also be made available to the Galaxy S II LTE version, Galaxy Note, Galaxy R, and the Galaxy Tab 8.9, 7.7 and 7.0 Plus range of tablets. The upgrade for the Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note will come out in Q1 2012, with the others soon to be announced.
Ice Cream Sandwich unifies the two versions of Android which had been in parallel development – 3.0 for tablets and 2.x for phones. It brings a similar design to Honeycomb, but also more adaptable for mobile screens. It also includes improved multitasking, NFC support and a new feature called “Face Unlock”, where you can unlock it with your face.
The Galaxy Nexus phone is the first phone to support it, and will most likely be the only one to not have a custom interface.