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Is ICS worth it ?

I was happy until i discovered the battery life which is now half what I was getting before. It seems to be quite a common problem associated with the wake time of the OS. Some have said that 4.04 fixes it but I guess I'll have to wait and see. For me there are few benefits other than the browser cos touchwiz makes it look and feel almost the same.

R.
 
I am also getting a warning about lost connectivity and the signal drops out when the signal isn't very strong. Would go back to GB if it was easy!
 
Hi - I was in exactly the same situation, should I? or not bother? I did it and upgraded (CPW firmware) to ICS 4.0.3 via Kies. I did back up everything as far as I could to my PC using Kies and Titanium Backup etc and went for it.

Everything went perfectly - only issues I have had so far are none of the existing video players I had would play an uncompressed .AVI file transfered from my SLR's SDHC card - downloaded Mobo Video Player Pro and it plays it perfect :) Then I have an issue with my WiFi - sometimes it doesn't connect and that means a router reset :( Very frustrating, I didn't have that problem before upgrading.

I have downloaded Chrome Beta as people say it's fab - I am still getting to grips with it.

I have yet to see any real advantages though but maybe we will see them with the development of apps to take advantage of ICS on the SGS2 :)
 
Thanks to all. I think I'll stick with GB as my phone is working fine and given ICS isn't a major change to GB just a few tweaks here and there I don't think it's worth the risk.

Thanks
 
Rheumatoid said:
I was happy until i discovered the battery life which is now half what I was getting before. It seems to be quite a common problem associated with the wake time of the OS. Some have said that 4.04 fixes it but I guess I'll have to wait and see. For me there are few benefits other than the browser cos touchwiz makes it look and feel almost the same.

R.
Click to expand...

Think I am sorting out the battery issues. Beautiful widgets weather widget was contributing to wake times as was GTalk that had logged on to one of my google accounts without being asked! Having disabled them I am now on 70% left after 11 hours which is getting back to pre ICS performance.
 
I got ICS on my unbranded SGS II yesterday. Initial impressions are that the phone apps run more smoothly and using the phone is a lot smoother and quicker now. Battery life seems to be a bit worse than before but i'll wait and see if it really is the case.
 
JR866Gooner said:
An example,

I select The exact same margin in both launchers when choosing a wallpaper! :confused:
Click to expand...

I have the same problem and I didn't manage to get it fix.
The image will stretch, even tho the images are far larger than screen size (2880x1200).
I figured out tho how it works, but not sure whether it's a feature or bug.

I don't know how to explain it... english limitations.... i'll try.

By default the NOVA Launcher uses scrollable wallpaper whether you use single column image, or 3 column scroll version.
If you allow NOVA to scroll, it works ok. If you disable the scroll, it still uses 3 column image, fill all the 3 columns but it simply holds it from scrolling.

If you select single column image, it will stretch it to 3 columns as if it was the only default option. Hence the zoomed in effect. So what I do now to have crispy wallpaper is I select large scroll version, just disable scroll in NOVA.

Does it make sense ?
 
I have my S2 on Orange (UK) and overall I'd have to say that the ICS update isn't really worth it. I do appreciate the new lock screen and I like the long-press-home task switcher, but overall the phone uses more battery power and performs more sluggishly than before.
I notice the difference mainly when opening emails and web pages, it takes 10-15 seconds to open an email instead of the instant view I got before. It also takes a further 5-10 seconds before I can scroll an email.
I find the performance gap in the browser not quite as marked, but it is still noticeable.
Bluetooth is (luckily) rock solid as it was before and I haven't noticed any difference in calls, wifi or game performance.

Overall, I wouldn't bother with the upgrade.
 
When we are discussing Ice Cream Sandwich, (ICS, Android 4.0.3), let us not forget that there are numerous versions of it. Stretching from the first, official, release in March with the release of LPQ, a real dogs breakfast IMHO, right through to the latest version, having gone round the alphabet, of LPG, see here, that I am currently using and is every bit as good as Gingerbread, if not better. I certainly would not consider going back to Gingerbread now.

Which version you have depends on your carrier, if your phone is carrier branded, as it is they that take whichever release from Samsung and add their, "bloatware", (app's, logos, screensavers, etc: ), to the firmware and return it to Samsung for release. Most carriers, who have released ICS, will now consider their, "duty", done and I would not expect too many updates, if at all, from carriers in future.

On the other hand, unbranded firmware, have in some instances received 2 or 3 updates from Samsung.

To see which version of ICS you are on... type in, *#1234# on your keypad and after, "PDA:", you will see the phone model, (i9100), followed by 5 letters/numbers, (6 if you have a G, M, P or T variant), and it is the last 3 that show your ICS version. Sometimes carriers will use their own numbering convention and you will need to Google this to see more about the firmware.
 
ICS sucks, ever since I upgraded my mic volume became terribly low and the vibrate function no longer works! The only thing I can do now is flash it with ODIN and revert back to gingerbread, problem is I am having difficulty locating a site where I can download a stock version of it...

Did not have these problems in GB, I was perfectly happy with my SGS2, why did I have to click on the update button?
 
Orange released an update to the original ICS upgrade a couple of weeks ago and it has solved all the problems I had with ICS. It's now lovely and smooth!
 
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