Samsung’s Galaxy Note, despite being a ridiculous product on paper, has ended up in the hands of over 5 million people. It began shipping in October 2011 with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which coincidentally was the same month that Google unveiled Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Besides having a gorgeous new user interface, ICS was also snappier and ran on both smartphones and tablets. Here we are, seven months later, and the Galaxy Note still doesn’t have ICS … at least not officially. According to Android Central, AT&T had a Galaxy Note at their press event at CTIA running ICS, but they weren’t able to gather any additional information regarding timing. Just like the ICS update to the Samsung Galaxy S II, the user interface on that particular Note remained the same even though it running a newer version of Android. That might upset some of you, but deal with it, it’s just a theme.
Last month Samsung released a video demoing some of the things that they’ll be adding to the Note when the ship ICS during this quarter, but they haven’t made an announcement regarding when the update would be pushed out. Forgetting about that software update for a second, the bigger question is now that the Samsung Galaxy S III is out, and the Galaxy Note is over half a year old, does that mean that we’ll be seeing the Galaxy Note II at some point over the coming months? This writer has gone on and on, shamelessly bashing the Note for being a freak of nature, but several days with the product was enough to change his mind.
Should you buy the Note that’s already out on the market or wait for the inevitable second generation model? That’s a tough one to answer. If you don’t need the Note’s stylus, then go ahead and buy the $400 Galaxy Nexus. If you need the stylus and are running an old and busted smartphone, then get a Note. If your smartphone is less than a year old and you want a Note, then just wait for the new one.