Current Available Phones that might get ICS

BionicRasher

Hey all,
Wondering what phones might get Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade when it comes out. That is what phones currently available (or ones that will be available this side of Christmas) in Ireland might get an OTA upgrade to ICS
I dont want to know if it can be installed through a ROM but only Official update. I believe that ICS will run on some current phones but what ones?

So criteria is

• Available Phones in Ireland
• Not Rooted
• OTA or Official Update

Also will ICS be a big jump for Android - are there going to be lots of nice things for us to see and use?

iwo

tui0hcg wrote: »

Hey all,
Wondering what phones might get Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade when it comes out. That is what phones currently available (or ones that will be available this side of Christmas) in Ireland might get an OTA upgrade to ICS
I dont want to know if it can be installed through a ROM but only Official update. I believe that ICS will run on some current phones but what ones?

So criteria is

• Available Phones in Ireland
• Not Rooted
• OTA or Official Update

Also will ICS be a big jump for Android - are there going to be lots of nice things for us to see and use?

I hope that sensation will be supported...

seanybiker

Hopefully evo3d anyways.

BionicRasher

Anyone know if there are minimum hardware specs?

chrislad

Sensation with be getting a release in Q3 according to HTC. I assume the Galaxy S 2 will get it, but I'd put money on HTC releasing it first.

biebiebie

Nexus S
Nexus One (?)

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

blahound

Doesn't Google have an agreement with manufacturers that all phones get available Android updates for the first year after release? (at least capable ones)

I thought they did anyway.

C-Shore

Short Answer: Nexus S

Medium Answer: Nexus Prime (or whatever it will be called) will probably be out before Christmas, so if you're looking to buy then at least wait until the October/November announcement for dates on availability of the phone.

Long Answer: There's no guarantee on the Nexus Prime before Christmas, but the idea is that the phone will be available for the Christmas rush, so if some carrier in Ireland doesn't sell it, I'd be very surprised. Well, not really surprised, carriers here are typically woeful in getting new phones in a reasonable time frame.
If it's not released through a carrier before Christmas, I'm fairly sure you will get it sim free this side of Christmas. If you're into that.

As far as other phones are concerned, I wouldn't bother getting them on the basis that they will get ICS.
Some people might not agree, but I honestly think that by the time any phone you buy now gets updated to ICS, you could be asking the same question in a few months you are in the OP, about Jelly Bean (if that's the name), as the next version will be over the horizon.

If you're more about the software, wait for the announcement.
If you're more into hardware, just pick the phone you like now and wait patiently for the upgrade. My guess is March before an SGS II or a Sensation will be upgraded.
June for anything Sony Erricsson!
I know there is the agreement between OEM's and Google for 18 months of upgrades for 2011 phones, but there's no time frame specified, and it's up to carriers as well; the agreement is only with US carriers

As far as features in ICS are concerned, it's all rumour at this stage (there were those screen shots a while ago, but they just seem way off).. but the most referred to rumoured features are the following:

• It will actually be open source!
• Change to the holographic UI like in 3.0
• Removal of the need for 4 android buttons on phone (same as 3.0) and the dynamic action bar instead
• The status bar will possibly move as well (from top to bottom), but it'd make more sense to leave it at the top and put the action bar at the bottom, but then that means that either tablets or phones will swap around. And since phones are more existent in the market, it could be tablets that change; less people to confuse with a change to the status bar.
• Most likely a card view of running apps for multitasking (same as 3.0 and much needed)
• Talk of ICS "unifying tablets and phones", no real reports as to how this is going to happen exactly, but I would guess it's through the fragments API. Even though it was introduced in the 3.0 SDK, this will probably be what is going to play a big part in the talk of 4.0 unifying Android etc. And surely other API's that help apps scale, fragments aren't much use for games!
  
• Then there's the camera with face/voice tracking
• Facial recognition as well
• The view aspect looks cool, but not sure of much use for it
• The video here has it in more detail
  
  
• Other less substantiated rumours:
• Proper multi-core support
• Hardware acceleration

I think that's it!

Oh, not sure on hardware requirements! Lowest specs in 2011 seem to have started at 1ghz single core and RAM usually at >512mb.

The HTC Magic stopped at 2.2 and it had 288mb RAM.

Oh oh, and the Music Player with the streaming will probably be included too!

subway

i remember waiting on donut for my hero.
i wouldnt buy any android phone on the promis of an OTA update.
between google releasing it, OEM customising it and network shipping it, you will be out of contract on any phone you buy today before it gets an OTA release in ireland(imo)

i just buy for the best of the current gen, phones are moving so fast now it will be a few more cycles before you can realistically start future proofing

BionicRasher

I will be waiting for the Nexus Prime or whatever its going to be called before I purchase as I believe that the stock Android is the way to go.
I presume that will come with ICS

My OP was really around a question a friend had asked as he is about to jump from his walled Apple orchard in to the wonderful world of open source Android. He really wondered if he should be buying a top of the range phone (such as SGS II or Sensation) if it was going to have an outdated OS in a few months - now he gets all the 'you will never keep up with the tech as there is always something new' but he is not keen to shell out on an expensive phone if he is getting an old iteration of the OS
So I was really wondering if I could suggest a decent phone that's currently on the market that will get ICS

Thanks for all the wonderful replies so far

Atomic Pineapple

It's a shame that they are making it fully open source, letting people like HTC ruin vanilla Android with their "Sense" drivel is a pet hate of mine, along with having to implement bug fixes that are introduced on different models by different manufacturers because they fail to follow the compatibility directive.

C-Shore

tui0hcg wrote: »

I will be waiting for the Nexus Prime or whatever its going to be called before I purchase as I believe that the stock Android is the way to go.
I presume that will come with ICS

My OP was really around a question a friend had asked as he is about to jump from his walled Apple orchard in to the wonderful world of open source Android. He really wondered if he should be buying a top of the range phone (such as SGS II or Sensation) if it was going to have an outdated OS in a few months - now he gets all the 'you will never keep up with the tech as there is always something new' but he is not keen to shell out on an expensive phone if he is getting an old iteration of the OS
So I was really wondering if I could suggest a decent phone that's currently on the market that will get ICS

Thanks for all the wonderful replies so far

Yep, it will definitely ship with ICS. That's the way Nexus phones work.

Ah I see what you mean, so he's more concerned about the software. In that case, he should avoid anything by any manufacturer really, unless it has the word Nexus in the name it will be, by my reckoning/experience, at least 3 months behind the release, that's optimistic as well.

As subway said previously, Google release the code, the manufacturer then has to add in all of their stuff to previously released phones (in between developing new phones) then it's either made available as a download, or they pass it on to the carrier to push out as an OTA update, and if that's the case, the carrier usually has to approve it and add in their crap as well.

That's one of the main reasons why if you're buying Android, you should avoid OEM's who customise the phones, Samsung being the worst, I'll explain it a bit below.

draffodx wrote: »

It's a shame that they are making it fully open source, letting people like HTC ruin vanilla Android with their "Sense" drivel is a pet hate of mine, along with having to implement bug fixes that are introduced on different models by different manufacturers because they fail to follow the compatibility directive.

I can't agree more.

The reason why I think that stock/vanilla is the only way to go is because OEM customisations undermine the entire idea of an open source OS.

The idea with Android is that you buy an open canvas, and modify it the way you want, so that it suits you.
This creates a market for developers to offer those customisations through applications, it allows consumers to edit the platform as they like and everyone benefits from the idea of open source.

Then OEM's like Samsung, HTC and Motorola come along and try to create their own brand identity through the software.
It's so frustrating to see this happening; they are taking an open platform and trying to prevent consumers from benefiting from this openness, by putting as much stuff as possible into it, so that the smartphone is now a feature phone that does everything for you and you don't need to customise it or find applications in the market.

Then they actually tried to lock consumers out from getting root access to the OS, ridiculous!
If OEM's want to do this, build your own OS, don't make an open smartphone a feature phone!
So many smartphones are wasted on people who aren't even aware of their phones capabilities. But I suppose it's probably just as profitable to sell smartphones to those who don't need them, as it is to sell them a basic call and text phone; although for a lot of people the hardware in the phone is overkill as well.

There's ways Google could sort all of this, but it's worthy of it's own thread.