Is your Android Phone ready for Ice Cream Sandwich v4.0?
The next-generation of Android – Ice Cream Sandwich has been released but the question that remains unanswered is whether this new version is compatible with all Android phones out there. Well, theoretically, all the phones which currently have Android v2.3 Gingerbread installed can work with this new version but there is a possibility that your phone might not be able to make the most of ICS because of improper hardware configuration.
There are several new features in Android v4.0 ICS which might create some fuss in older Android phones:-
Hardware Accelerated Graphics
By this time, you’d have heard only of dedicated graphics (or GPU) which enhances the graphics processing of your Smartphone but ICS uses your phone’s hardware to enhance visual performance. If you thought that your phone’s graphics performance can’t get better, just by upgrading it to ICS would notably improve its visual performance.
Virtual Buttons Only
Android Smartphones which are currently available in market have 4 basic navigation buttons; some phones have virtual capacitive touch buttons while some use physical keys. ICS has virtual buttons which can be customized, so, if you are going to port ICS onto a device that already has physical keys, you’d have 4 operating physical keys and customizable touch buttons.
By the way, this would decrease the size of touchscreen available for operating. Samsung Galaxy Nexus Prime, which is the flagship ICS phone from Google has a huge 4.65-inch touchscreen display, it maybe because of this only.
Zero Shutter Lag-time
Android phones available in market either have a physical camera shutter (which I personally prefer using) or virtual shutter button built inside the camera app. Well, basically, ICS offers zero shutter lag time which means that your photos get clicked the very instant you hit the shutter key.
If your phone doesn’t have a physical shutter button, you wouldn’t have any problem with ICS but if you have physical shutter key, there might be a lag time in capturing photos (it is basically depends on the hardware of your phone).
Samsung Galaxy S2 has a shutter key built-in the camera app and also it has superb hardware, it would definitely work brilliant with Android v4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
Face-recognition Unlock Option
This is an awesome feature if you want to keep people away from your confidential data. Although, password apps work fine but this is the next-generation of Smartphone data security. Anyways, if your Android phone has a front-facing camera, this feature won’t bug you.
Conclusion
As of now, it is not very clear which old Cell Phones would be compatible with ICS. Not many manufacturers have revealed the list of handsets for which they would release ICS updates. The best you can do right now is either to enjoy what you have and wait for official announcements from your phone’s manufacturer.
By the way, Android v4.0 ICS would be available very soon but I won’t recommend you to upgrade instantly, it might not be very stable and may make your phone non-responsive. It is better to wait for an official update.
