A first impression of Ice Cream Sandwich

[Joelist]

I just got Ice Cream Sandwich flashed to my phone (HTC Rezound) yesterday.

Overall, nice OS. It is a bit smoother than the one I had before (Gingerbread) and handles some things differently. One thing I like is you can set it to automatically shift from LTE to WiFi if it detects a free hotspot in range that has good reception. This will be a boon to people whose wireless data plans are metered. Speed seems good as well and no sign of overheating or such.

IIRC Overmind and Bluce are also Android-ers. Have either of you gotten Ice Cream Sandwich on your devices yet (it is Android 4.0)?

 

[Overmind One]

I just got Ice Cream Sandwich flashed to my phone (HTC Rezound) yesterday.

Overall, nice OS. It is a bit smoother than the one I had before (Gingerbread) and handles some things differently. One thing I like is you can set it to automatically shift from LTE to WiFi if it detects a free hotspot in range that has good reception. This will be a boon to people whose wireless data plans are metered. Speed seems good as well and no sign of overheating or such.

IIRC Overmind and Bluce are also Android-ers. Have either of you gotten Ice Cream Sandwich on your devices yet (it is Android 4.0)?

Yes, I have been running the Taboonay ICS rom on my Acer Iconia A500 for about two months, and I do like it better than Honeycomb. I like the way the Settings page is now set up. My phone, however, is still running Gingerbread and the ICS update will be coming from Sprint in a couple of months. I did not flash my phone because I need my other business apps to work flawlessly...cant take a chance they wont. But my tablet is my Android development platform. Im glad to know it will be worth the wait! Is your phone rooted yet? I have to have root access at all times.

 

[Joelist]

One of the beauties of the HTC phones is that in a lot of cases the ICS ROMs are distributed as RUUs; so no rooting is needed to install them.

 

[Overmind One]

One of the beauties of the HTC phones is that in a lot of cases the ICS ROMs are distributed as RUUs; so no rooting is needed to install them.

Very cool...but rooting is required for many of the things I do with my phone and tablet. I use Clockwork Mod (root) to manage my ROMS.

 

[Joelist]

XDA has a bunch of Ice Cream Sandwich ROMs you can use. I would imagine you'll want one that is as close to unskinned as possible, so one of their AOSP ROMs for your phone should be good...:tennis:

 

[Overmind One]

XDA has a bunch of Ice Cream Sandwich ROMs you can use. I would imagine you'll want one that is as close to unskinned as possible, so one of their AOSP ROMs for your phone should be good...:tennis:

Yeah, I get most everything Android from there and Android Central. The Taboonay ICS rom is very stock. You have to downgrade to EL.29 first then upgrade to the rooted Taboonay rom to put it on the Aceri Iconia. My phone is rooted but I dont want to mess with the stock Sprint rom until after their official ICS comes out.

 

[Bluce Ree]

I just had an Ice Cream Sandwich. It was quite refreshing in this damn heat.

 

[Joelist]

So you're on Android Central too Overmind? I post there as well as here - same username.

 

[Overmind One]

So you're on Android Central too Overmind? I post there as well as here - same username.

I am Pygmalion2008 most everywhere but here. I do more reading than posting over there.

 

[Overmind One]

I just had an Ice Cream Sandwich. It was quite refreshing in this damn heat.

Milk AND sugar and CARBS!

 

[Bluce Ree]

Speaking of ICS, I'm on the fence about getting my hands on the new Galaxy S3. All handsets are built using the same components but the units will be fragmented across all US mobile carriers with the radios crippled through firmware so they can't be used across networks and T-Mobile's unit will have no LTE because of incompatibility with its AWS frequency band.

 

[Joelist]

Time to get off of T-Mobile then. AT&T has first class LTE capable Androids as do Verizon and Sprint.

 

[Overmind One]

Speaking of ICS, I'm on the fence about getting my hands on the new Galaxy S3. All handsets are built using the same components but the units will be fragmented across all US mobile carriers with the radios crippled through firmware so they can't be used across networks and T-Mobile's unit will have no LTE because of incompatibility with its AWS frequency band.

I managed to get my hands on one at Best Buy. It is a very impressive phone, and I already have the Epic 4G Touch which is a variation of the Galaxy II. I like the design of the Touch better than the new Galaxy S III but the S III has a larger screen and the specs are significantly improved. With 32GB built in storage and a 64GB mini SD card, we are talking 96GB total storage. Also it has a 2100mAh battery and much longer talk time. But the cameras (both front and rear facing) are unchanged. Also, the new Galaxy S III has a quad core processor. Is sll this enough to make me consider upgrading so soon? I dont think so. But my tablet is going to be upgraded for sure. I dont use my phone as my primary data device except to use it as a hotspot for my laptop or my tablet.

I want that Samsung Note!

COMPARISON: Galaxy II Epic 4G Touch vs Galaxy III: http://www.phonearena.com/phones/compare/Samsung-Galaxy-S-III,Samsung-Epic-4G-Touch/phones/6330,5537

 

[Bluce Ree]

Time to get off of T-Mobile then. AT&T has first class LTE capable Androids as do Verizon and Sprint.

AT&T has random throttling. Verizon has very clearly spelled out how and when they will apply throttling. T-Mobile is the only one with a prepaid all-you-can-eat plan @ $50 and for $10 extra I have unlimited calling to several countries, including Canada. I refuse to go on monthly post-pay with any of these carriers, which negates any possibility of accidental and/or disputable overcharges.

 

[Bluce Ree]

I managed to get my hands on one at Best Buy. It is a very impressive phone, and I already have the Epic 4G Touch which is a variation of the Galaxy II. I like the design of the Touch better than the new Galaxy S III but the S III has a larger screen and the specs are significantly improved. With 32GB built in storage and a 64GB mini SD card, we are talking 96GB total storage. Also it has a 2100mAh battery and much longer talk time. But the cameras (both front and rear facing) are unchanged. Also, the new Galaxy S III has a quad core processor. Is sll this enough to make me consider upgrading so soon? I dont think so. But my tablet is going to be upgraded for sure. I dont use my phone as my primary data device except to use it as a hotspot for my laptop or my tablet.

I want that Samsung Note!

COMPARISON: Galaxy II Epic 4G Touch vs Galaxy III: http://www.phonearena.com/phones/compare/Samsung-Galaxy-S-III,Samsung-Epic-4G-Touch/phones/6330,5537

The US version has a Qualcom Snapdragon dual-core processor. Only the international version comes with the quad-core because of incompatibilities with LTE, although this seems to have been resolved because Korea is getting LTE on their quad-core version.

 

[Overmind One]

The US version has a Qualcom Snapdragon dual-core processor. Only the international version comes with the quad-core because of incompatibilities with LTE, although this seems to have been resolved because Korea is getting LTE on their quad-core version.

That alone takes away most of my incentive to upgrade to it. The S III has a 4.8" screen, but I have a 4.5" so that is not enough different. I do like the ability to use a 64GB card, cause my Epic 4G Touch only allows 32GB expansion.

 

[Joelist]

Don't let the number of cores fool you. The S4 Snapdragon (Krait) is VERY powerful. It is on a much smaller (28nm versus 40nm) die than Tegra 3 and is both cooler and more power efficient. Also it has the LTE radio on that same 28nm die so we finally get LTE speeds without the monster power consumption. Plus when it ships with the Adreno 300 (which I think the GS3 does) the GPU power will be in the same class as an XBOX 360 or PS3.

Anandtech did a deep dive into Krait which was interesting:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5559/...mance-preview-msm8960-adreno-225-benchmarks/1

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5563/qualcomms-snapdragon-s4-krait-vs-nvidias-tegra-3/1

In a phone, Krait is proving faster and less power hungry than Tegra 3 (which surprised many).

 

[Backstep]

I'm still waiting and holding my breath for WIMAX (turning blue)

 

[Bluce Ree]

Don't let the number of cores fool you. The S4 Snapdragon (Krait) is VERY powerful. It is on a much smaller (28nm versus 40nm) die than Tegra 3 and is both cooler and more power efficient. Also it has the LTE radio on that same 28nm die so we finally get LTE speeds without the monster power consumption. Plus when it ships with the Adreno 300 (which I think the GS3 does) the GPU power will be in the same class as an XBOX 360 or PS3.

Anandtech did a deep dive into Krait which was interesting:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5559/...mance-preview-msm8960-adreno-225-benchmarks/1

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5563/qualcomms-snapdragon-s4-krait-vs-nvidias-tegra-3/1

In a phone, Krait is proving faster and less power hungry than Tegra 3 (which surprised many).

The "faster" statement is a bit misleading. They show that the Snapdragon performs faster than the Tegra 3 in single or lightly threaded apps. One-to-one core comparison between the two may prove that Snapdragon has some advantage but the number of cores *is* an important factor in this case because the individual cores in each processor are not all that far apart in real world performance, which is one reason why the Tegra 3 will ultimately have the performance advantage due to the sheer number of cores.

I've read article after article written by tech heads who are trying to sugar coat the disadvantage of having an inferior processor in the North American model. In the end, it's really nothing more than settling, accepting and making the most of the garbage we're being served so Samsung could meet deployment deadlines before the S3 becomes obsolete in 3 months. The choice to use Snapdragon in North America is, as you pointed out, because of the LTE radio. In Korea, however, an LTE model is being released with the Tegra 3 processor and I'm very interested to see how that will go.

In our current reality, having the LTE on the same die isn't going to bring us Earth-shattering speed differences. It'll be much like HSPA+ vs LTE, where the speed advantage, for now, is negligible at best in real world applications.

What really drives me nuts, though, is how the American wireless carriers fragment the hardware market with firmware crippled features and frequency bands. Why they can't just be like the rest of the world and allow phones to work across networks is beyond me. Especially now, when most phones are built with both CDMA and GSM (all bands) radios in the same unit, it's just frustrating.

 

[Bluce Ree]

I'm still waiting and holding my breath for WIMAX (turning blue)

http://www.clear.com/

I have this service and I love it.