[Review] ICS on the Galaxy S II – the waiting game

I'm not one to sit patiently on the sidelines waiting for the official Samsung Galaxy SII ICS version to be rolled out. I've flashed a couple of ICS ROMs now, and at the moment on I'm running Resurrection Remix ICS. Make the break to see what I've noticed.

The Good

I love the new look of Gmail, the Tasks and how much more appealing the UI is.

Talking of Gmail, if you've got multiple Gmail accounts, you now have the option to set different ringtone notifications. Nice.

Google Talk finally allows you to switch between different accounts too. This functionality was available on the tablet but not on the phone. I've been waiting for this for a long time and very glad to see it's in ICS.

Of course some of the things I've noticed might be improvements made by the developer of the leaked ICS ROM I'm running. The Status bar includes a whole raft of options that weren't seen in Froyo or Gingerbread. I love having the Data showing close to the Wifi. This would be particularly handy if you had to watch your mobile data usage and wanted to switch it off often when out of range of Wifi. It's really convenient to pull down the notification drawer and press the Data toggle [This is definitely not stock ICS, and based on Samsung's previous notification toggles not likely to be theirs either, so almost certainly a custom ROM improvement - check out this weeks Apps of the Week recommendations if you want a way to do this on your current device, Ed].

The System options are laid out quite differently, and even though I regularly poke around in there, it took me a few minutes to get my head around the changes.

One of the really nice things is the ability to monitor your data use. The assumption seems to be that your carrier gives you a whopping (by NZ standards) data package since the starting point is 5gb. Adjustments are in increments of 1mb. When you've got a mere 500mb allowance each month this is a tedious and time consuming task of scrolling down 1mb at a time. In fact I gave up. There has to be a better way. Why can't you just enter a number? Ok, that last bit could have come under "The Bad" heading.

There's a couple of new launchers, Trebuchet (from CM9) and Nova. Both stack apps to make folders. That's really neat. And you can give the stack/folder a name. Mine here is called "Social". Plus you can stack on the dock too. I've got a direct contact in with the phone dialler.



When looking in the App Drawer you can easily access your widgets. This is handy if the long press on the home screen doesn't give you an option to add a widget – like Trebuchet launcher.

 

GPS works nicely. I don't have any trouble getting a lock within a few seconds. Though for some reason Endomondo takes its time but none of the other apps that rely on GPS do.

The Bad

More and more frequently as the days go by I'll select an app, like Gmail and it appears to load the screen and then it goes black. Or it loads the screen and I'll select something and the screen goes black.

Once I return to the home screen and head back to the offending application there's no problem. But this behaviour is becoming more frequent, and more annoying.

Restoring apps using Titanium Backup in earlier versions of the ROM I'm using was a real hit and miss affair. Thankfully v9 has resolved those problems. I'm making a point of it because it could be something faced in other leaked ROMs.

Going from Gingerbread to ICS means there are significant system changes so it's not at all recommended that you restore any system files. In fact some people would suggest that all applications be downloaded again rather than restoring the app and data [For myself I NEVER, EVER restore system settings - that often leads to issues post-flash - but ALWAYS restore app data, Ed].

Actually, there's not much bad at all, but what is on the list may be enough to put you off, or have you running back to a nandroid backup.

The ugly

The App drawer widgets show you every size and variation possible for an app. If you use apps like Jorte you have the option to say which sized widgets you want shown, but as for others like Minimalistic Text that have many shapes it adds to the number of widgets listed. And if you wanted to get to a widget that's further down the alphabet then it's cumbersome.

Occasionally Wifi will drop out. This has been a common complaint in the various XDA ICS threads. The version of REMiX I'm on is better than the earlier versions. It looks promising and really, in the week I've been running REMiXv8.6 and now v9, it's only bombed out on me the once. Earlier versions would disconnect me almost daily.

Google Chrome Beta is out. I side loaded it to my phone because of course the SGSII hasn't got an official ICS ROM so I couldn't download from the Market. While things looked promising at first, Chrome became unresponsive and would crash. When it was running, scrolling was jerky. I can't tell if this is Chrome or if it's the combination of leaked ROM and the beta Chrome. Others have said Chrome is fantastic but those comments have been from users of a Google Nexus or Transformer Prime device. Both devices have an official ICS ROM.

I don't like the Calendar. It's UI is ugly. I want my Gingerbread look back. But when you get down to the nitty gritty of an appointment, it's pretty nice.




Of course there are plenty of replacement Calendar apps, but the stock Gingerbread calendar was good enough for me, and I had used other calendar aps. The stock ICS Calendar is not to my liking.

Screenshots are now taken by holding the volume down and power buttons. But getting the timing right is tricky. The number of times I've ended up reducing the volume instead of taking a screen shot are about as many as I have been successful. Maybe I'm just uncoordinated [I don't think it's just you, find the same with the Galaxy Nexus although mostly sorted now, Ed].

Conclusion

As I mentioned at the beginning, I've tried a couple of different ICS ROMs. Why? Well they're not quite there yet. I switch between ICS and Gingerbread. I keep an eye on the latest tweaks made to the ICS ROM I was running and when there's enough improvements and fixes I give the latest version a crack.

I've been on the current version of the REMiX ROM now for a week but I'm about to flash back to my previous Gingerbread ROM. There's still things that are misbehaving and it's become annoying enough that I no longer want to put up with it. I'm not blaming the Dev. I think what's been achieved out there is great. But if you're starting off with something flawed (not yet finished) then it's pretty difficult to "fix" everything.

There's good work being done out there and it's worth trialling. And I'd encourage you to do so. But be mindful that ICS hasn't been officially released for the SGSII for good reason. It's not finished. It's got some problems that need addressing and it's not quite presentable enough to ship out.

Last words

All of this is subjective. What appeals to you is most likely to be quite different to me. What you read here are opinions based on my use and likes/dislikes.

Flashing a ROM isn't to be taken lightly, but it's also not difficult. So if you've got an hour free why not flash away and set up your phone how you like. Of course I'd recommend a nandroid backup so if you decide it's not stable enough for your everyday use yet you can revert back easily enough.

Of course ICS for the SGSII is coming, like it or not. But I think the majority will like it, like it a lot. It's a huge improvement to Gingerbread. Based on the number of tweets and interest out there in different forums most people are chomping at the bit and keen to see the update sooner rather than later.

ICS is a good update, a fine update. Not perfect, but then nothing ever is. That's what's great about the Development community. You'll likely find someone who will make tweaks to knock a few rough edges off and bring to your smartphone a better experience.

So that's it for my thoughts, what are yours? What great improvements have you spotted that I've not covered? Feel free to leave a comment.