Ultimate Ice Cream Sandwich Android 4.0 (ICS) Upgrade List!

October 29, 2011 Raju Rahman 3 Comments

I’m sure many of you have now seen Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) aka Android 4.0 running on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, some of you will probably be first in line to get the Galaxy Nexus on the release date. So, where does that leave everyone else, who just purchased a new device like the Galaxy S II or HTC Sensation?

It’s obvious that certain high end 2011 devices will most certainly get ICS but if you want to know whether or not your device is in that list, then, you’ll want to keep reading.

Although HTC is “excited” about ICS, they haven’t given us any solid information, and they seem to be undecided at the moment.

“We are excited about the latest update for Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, and are currently reviewing its features and functionality to determine our upgrade plans. Our goal for Android updates is to give every customer an improved user experience, which means balancing each phone’s unique hardware, HTC Sense experience and the Android kernel. While our goal is to upgrade as many of our recent devices as possible, we are committed to maintaining every phone’s performance and usability first. Please stay tuned for more updates on specific device upgrade plans.”

It would be a bad business decision for HTC to not upgrade their devices to ICS, so it’s easy to speculate that some of their devices will get the update. They haven’t shown any commitment to the new Android 4.0, nor did they give any specific time frame to the process. HTC phones are heavily customised with the UI overlay called “HTC Sense”, and I’m guessing from their statement that they’ll have to evaluate whether it’ll be easily possible to customise ICS with “Sense”. If and when they do decide to update, they’ll notify everyone and we’ll make sure we update this section.

UPDATE 07/11/2011

Well, as we speculated without much effort, they have just announced a list of “first wave” devices, that will be getting the update to ICS.

HTC made the following statement on their Facebook Page:

“HTC knows how excited our fans are to get their hands on Google’s latest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, so we’re thrilled today to announce the first wave of HTC phones that will receive upgrades: We can confirm the brand new HTC Vivid, on sale beginning today, is upgradeable to Ice Cream Sandwich.

Ice Cream Sandwich is coming in early 2012 to a variety of devices including the HTC Sensation, HTC Sensation XL and HTC Sensation XE, as well as the HTC Rezound*, HTC EVO 3D, HTC EVO Design 4G* and HTC Amaze 4G* through close integration with our carrier partners.

We’re continuing to assess our product portfolio, so stay tuned for more updates on device upgrades, timing and other details about HTC and Ice Cream Sandwich.

*US handsets”

Here’s the list just in case you weren’t bothered to read the whole statement:

HTC Sensation
HTC Sensation XL
HTC Sensation XE
HTC Rezound
HTC EVO 3D
HTC EVO Design 4G
HTC Amaze 4G

Of course, if your device isn’t on the list, don’t start smashing vases, HTC calls the above the list the “first wave” of devices, which hopefully means there will be second wave as well.

Acording to an Italian blog called Android.HD, Samsung has pretty much confirmed that their latest and greatest 2011 line of both tablets and phones will be getting an update. It’s pretty easy to guess what those are, but if you’re scratching your head, here’s the list:

Galaxy S II
Galaxy Note
Galaxy Tab 10.1
Galaxy Tab 8.9
Galaxy Tab 7.7
Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus

The only device missing from that list and launched last year, you’ve guessed it, the Samsung Nexus S will of course be getting ICS shortly after the Nexus Prime is launched. As for the devices in the list above, expect an update around the 2nd quarter of 2012.

Motorola hasn’t given us any schedule for the update yet, but they’ve been nice enough to tell us that the following 3 devices will get the ICS update for sure:

Xoom
RAZR
Bionic

They’ve also told us that 6 more of their devices will be updated, those devices haven’t yet been specified but Motorola have said that they will give us that information 6 weeks after ICS is published. We can give you a sort of educated guess as to which devices they’ll be, but to cut a long story short, if you’ve got a dual-core Motorola device, then your most likely in the shortlist.

Now we finally get to LG in the list, I’ll start of by saying that I’m quite disappointed with LG. They showed us that they were capable of making nice devices that people would actually want to buy, but they’ve killed what ever reputation they had with a response in a Facebook post that the LG Optimus 2x won’t be getting the update to ICS, and that’s the only statement we’ve had from them so far.

The LG Optimus 2x is definitely capable of running Android 4.0, much more so than the Sony Ericsson Xperia line of phones, so it’s a bit surprising and a big way to let their customers down. If you’ve got the 2x, looks like you’re going to have to live with Gingerbread, as for the LG Optimus 3D, that should be getting the update.

UPDATE 02/11/2011

LG has come out and said that the buzz around the Internet in regards to the LG Optimus 2x not being updated to Android 4.0 are all untrue and are just merely rumors. A recent post on their Facebook page states:

“LG firmly denies the rumors that claim LG will not be providing the Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) OS update for the LG Optimus 2X. These rumors are NOT true. LG is currently in the process of planning the ICS OS update for the LG Optimus 2X as well as other LG high-end smartphones. Detailed information on the ICS OS update schedule for specific models will be announced, once the ICS OS is publicly released by Google. Please stay tuned for more updates from LG.

Thank you very much.”

So there you go guys, looks like LG will Indeed be updating the 2x, let’s hope they stick to their words.

The SE Xperia X10 was a bit of a flop, when it was announced everyone was very excited but by the time it was actually released it was old news. It was running on Android 1.6 (Donut) and SE didn’t update promptly. Well, they’ve certainly learnt from that huge mistake, in a statement on their Dutch Facebook page they said:

“We are planning to upgrade our 2011 Xperia smartphone portfolio to the next Android platform, following Gingerbread 2.3.4. The official Sony Ericsson communication about software upgrades will always be what my international colleagues publish on our Blog:http://blogs.sonyericsson.com/“

So, since they didn’t specify exactly which devices other than saying their “2011 Xperia” line of phones, we can take a guess and say it’ll be their more capable 2011 phones such as the:

Xperia Arc
Xperia Arc S
Xperia Neo
Xperia Neo V
Xperia Play
Xperia Mini Pro

Keep in mind, the above devices are still only speculation as SE hasn’t officially stated any specific devices. The above list could and most likely will be updated as we get more solid information.

UPDATE 16/11/2011

Sony Ericsson has just re-confirmed on their official blog that all 2011 Xperia line of phones will get ICS, here’s their blog post:

“There have been a few questions here on the blog and in our support forums regarding our upgrade plans beyond Gingerbread. We can today confirm that we plan to upgrade the entire 2011 Xperia™ portfolio* to the next version of Android known as Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich. We are working on merging our current Xperia™ experience with the new features in Android 4.0. More detailed information regarding this upgrade, timing and global availability will be communicated in due course here on the blog.”

We’ve revieved information that the company, Meizu, will be updating both their M9 and MX variety of phones to Android 4.0 aka ICS.

The Meizu CEO, Jack Wong mentioned on their forums that some of their top end devices will get the update ICS.

We all know by now that Jack Wong loves breaking news on their forums, that’s where we heard the first rumors about the Meizu MX quad-core smartphone.

Jack Wong said that ICS will be delivered as soon as possible and he also mentioned the original release date for the MX, around December or so, is still on track.

Asus has confirmed that all their Eee Pads will get an ICS update, this includes the upcoming Transformer Prime, they haven’t given any dates yet but we’ll keep you updated.

“Are you waiting for Ice Cream Sandwich? Good news for ASUS customers. Google recently announced the latest update for Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, which brings some exciting new features and capabilities. At ASUS, we pride ourselves on delivering a great experience with our products, thanks to frequent updates that further enhance our products’ capabilities.We’re delighted to confirm support for Ice Cream Sandwich on the ASUS Eee Pad Family – our aim is to bring the latest Android update to the Eee Pad Series, but at this time we are unable to set a date for its release. Please stay tuned for more news on our Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade plans.”

The following Asus devices will get the update to ICS:

Eee Pad Transformer
Transformer Prime

As for the Eee Pad MeMO and the Eee Slate EP121, we aren’t too sure yet. I couldn’t find any information about their Android phones, regarding any updates but if you come across anything, please feel free to let me know in the comments section.

According to Tablet Online, the following devices from Acer will get an update around Janruary 2012:

Iconia Tab A500 and A501
Iconia Tab A100 and A101

This news is pretty good, too good (too be true?) to my eyes, so maybe you might want to take it with a pinch of salt. Yes, getting updated in Janruary 2012 is great, but it’ll take some hard work from Acer and if they pull it off, well, thumbs up to them.

That’s pretty much it for the list, we’ve given you some solid information and some speculation. Of course, anything could change at any time, we’ll keep this page updated so keep it bookmarked if you want. If there’s anything I missed or something you think I should add, leave a comment below. As for some of the devices I never mentioned, such as the original Nexus One, that like many other Android devices will not be getting an official update, but there will definitely be Custom ROMs around to fill that gap. Even the Optimus 2x will get an ICS update in a form of a custom ROM (I’m pretty sure), so no need to be too sad. As for those getting the Galaxy Nexus, you’ve obviously got nothing to worry about.