The wait is finally over! Samsung’s Galaxy S II, arguably the hottest selling Android device of 2011, is now getting updated to Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version of Google’s mobile operating system. To put this into some perspective, Google announced and demoed ICS in October 2011. The Galaxy Nexus, the first ICS device, hit the market two months later. It’s now March. Niggles about release dates aside, if you’ve got a European unlocked and unbranded Galaxy S II then be patient, you’re going to get an update very shortly. What’s new? Well, we’re sad to say that Samsung has completely thrown out Google’s new gorgeous user interface and replaced it with TouchWiz. Your ICS running Galaxy S II is going to look and feel exactly like you’re Gingerbread running Galaxy S II, except for the multitasking UI. Hit and hold the home button and you’ll be presented with the same screen you’d expect to see on a Galaxy Nexus. Touch responsiveness has improved, so has the web browser, but other than that … nada. Sadly we don’t have a Galaxy S II in house to test this with, but the folks at Pocketnow have made a fantastic video walkthrough that we recommend you watch:
This brings up a serious question: What’s Samsung going to do with the Galaxy S III? That’s going to be their flagship device for 2012. We don’t know what exactly is going to make it special in terms of hardware specifications, the rumors are all over the place, but in terms of UI are we seriously going to be using the same version of TouchWiz that we’ve been seeing for well over a year now? If not, say the Galaxy S III is going to get a new version of TouchWiz, then will the Galaxy S II get that new version too?