Galaxy s2

[Canker_Canison]

Samsung have released ICS through Kies. Amazing to think that's the first time I've ever managed to get my phone to work with kies.

Samfirmware.com also have 4.0.3 listed for Odin.

@ Lainie & Skegsagypsy

If you're happy with the way your phone is working, don't upgrade yet. Sit back & wait for reviews &/or problems people post here.
Now I'm not putting samsung in the same boat as apple, but when apple released the Iphone 4 o/s for everyone it caused a lot of problems with older phones.

I know what I'm doing when I update firmware. But I'm not jumping on the ICS release just yet. My phone is working fine as it is, why change something that works & I'm happy with.

[happy_highlander]

Samsung have released ICS through Kies. Amazing to think that's the first time I've ever managed to get my phone to work with kies.

Samfirmware.com also have 4.0.3 listed for Odin.

@ Lainie & Skegsagypsy

If you're happy with the way your phone is working, don't upgrade yet. Sit back & wait for reviews &/or problems people post here.
Now I'm not putting samsung in the same boat as apple, but when apple released the Iphone 4 o/s for everyone it caused a lot of problems with older phones.

I know what I'm doing when I update firmware. But I'm not jumping on the ICS release just yet. My phone is working fine as it is, why change something that works & I'm happy with.

I agree 100% if it's the look of ics you like install another launcher with the ics theme (i.e "go launcher ex" is one of my favorites) that way you still have a stable rom and don't have to run the kies gauntlet to install what is being reported as still a very buggy stock rom for some people...Even the custom versons which are usually much more refined are still throwing up the odd problem

[skegsagypsy]

I have connected through Kies as I stated above reading around various forums it seems that maybe there is a problem between Kies and the GT-19100P which is my phone!

[tshirtman]

OK, I upgraded to ICS earlier today and have had a good few hours to have a play, and I can say, there aint a massive difference,
everything is noticeably quicker, face recognition unlocker, a new lock symbol on lock screen, new volume slider, a few new things on settings, you can clear notifications on drop down curtain one by one with a right to left swipe,

the best things are, the new task manager, there is no task manager tab anymore, instead you give a long hold to the home button, that will bring up a list of most recently used apps, which you can clear with a swipe to the left, and an option to go to task manager, and when you clear the RAM there is no longer a wait for tabs to reappear when you go back to home screen,

and the camera is much quicker, no more having to touch screen to focus, it's a proper click and shoot now, and the panoramic mode finally works properly,

it's smooth, all apps I've tried work fine, boot up time takes about 10 seconds longer, upgrade took about 10 minutes in total with no problems,
and get this, I did a quadrant bench test before and after upgrade, before - 3216, after - 3939,

the battery drained rapidly which I expected, so I'll let it go completely dead, then fully charge with phone turned off to recalibrate battery,

all in all, I'm happy I upgraded, but I'm not blown away, it's just slightly better (except for camera, that's much better), and it's not full of bloatware.
I hope this gives people a better idea whether to upgrade or not.

edit
a couple of things to add, the drop down notifications bar now works while the screen is locked, you also have an option to restart phone instead of having to turn it off and on,
and my BBC iplayer app wouldn't work at first but once I updated adobe flash player to 11.1, it worked fine.

[tshirtman]

quick update

After recalibrating the battery it now seems better than before the upgrade.

[Canker_Canison]

Ok, last night I updated to ICS..... Think I was bored.

Flash time was just under 4mins with Odin, about another 4-5mins before it had finished first installation.

First impressions are not good. The keyboard has been changed & I'm not liking the new layout. It took me about 20mins to turn swype on, previously it was done directly from the keyboard...not hidden away in the settings menu.

The PIN lock screen has also changed... the OK button is now on the opposite side. I now have to think about what I'm doing when unlocking the phone... I don't like to think.

The settings menu has also changed making it harder to find things I use a lot. Maybe I'm just nit picking, but it's annoying when you can't find what you want straight away.

Major annoyance.... Sat Track/heavens-above app is not available for my device, yet it was fine with Gingerbread. I used that app a lot.... NOT HAPPY.

The contcts list has a new layout that I'm finding very hard to like. The GB layout had a small pic in the corner... not huge pixilated image at the top of each persons page. The fav list is now just images, not a standard list.

Also didn't like being forced to accept OTA updates. Just hope they can be cancelled before they start.

This also seems to be very greedy on system memory. GB was running at an average of 300MB - 350MB, ICS wants to run between 400MB - 500MB with about 24 apps being killed off with every press of the Memory Clear button.

The better points are few. The camera is better, the phone is faster. That's about it.
Maybe I'm stuck in my ways & don't like change for changes sake. But I'll not be bragging to friends that I now have ICS on my phone, it's just not worth mentioning.

[happy_highlander]

Have you put the stock ics on or did you try a tweaked deodex rom with minimal changes to the look of it. If it's stock I think I'll leave the missus on gb. Cheers

[Canker_Canison]

It's the generic release 4.0.3, I've not used any custom ROMs on this phone yet.

I've spent several hours trying to get everything as I like it. With ringtones setup, apps downloaded again (minus a few) & my screens in some kind of order.

It is quicker, but if I had played with an S2 with ICS installed prior to flashing.... I wouldn't of done it.

I've not got it working with kies yet, so still missing calender entries & all my notes.

But given time I might start to forgive it. Only time will tell

[happy_highlander]

Why don't you just root it then use the deodexed version if the stock which will keep your root access that way you can use titanium to back up all your settings and data, after all as soon as you flash with odin instead of kies the custom flash counter increases and the warranty is void anyway, whether you flash a stock rom or custom. The advantage is that you can then flash from zip files from inside cwm and it will stop the counter increasing once rooted. Most stock roms have been released as cwm compatible files very soon after official release. That way there is no messing about putting back all your ringtones and wall paper, it's just a case of hitting the restore apps and data or data only and that's job done the whole is back to just the way you like it in under 30 seconds. It's a godsend for us serial flashers.

[Canker_Canison]

I'm not in the habit of flashing my own phones. Might think of rooting at a later date, it's just never really appealed to me.

[Canker_Canison]

I've solved the memory hunger problem with ICS.

It was driving me mad with over 600MB being used with very little use.

Went hunting for apps to kill off. Started by switching from Live to standard wallpaper, that helped a little.
Uninstalled a few live wallpapers I won't be using till later in the year.

Then I found one of the thorns in my side.... Google+

I never use social networking, so I disabled it (can't uninstall built in apps). Memory usage dropped from nearly 500MB down to a shade over 300MB.

Happy days are here again. Now I might be able to play more than 3 games of Worms without it halting due to low memory.

[catramro1]

it,s online now.otherwise check sammobile,com

[skegsagypsy]

Son upgraded his firmware to ICS and his battery life has deteriorated badly, I'll be giving it a miss on my own Galaxy!