Although Samsung is not expected to release Android Ice Cream Sandwich earlier than next year you can still have a taste of this ROM on your Galaxy S II device. Samsung has released an early beta version of the system for internal tests but the ROM somehow managed to get itself out of the testers’ lab and into the real world.
The ROM was uploaded by an XDA developers forum member who calls himself tfn. He reports the system to have some serious bugs that make it undesired among people who want to use it as a daily ROM. All the basic functions, like calling or texting work, but users have reported apps that force close and some lags in the system. Also, the fact Samsung (un)surprisingly decided to use TouchWiz UI for his phone is a bit of a drawback as it doesn’t really let users see the advantages of the newest OS from Google. Users blame Samsung for removing the “awesome widget – app transition” and report the RIL instability. Also, the system by default doesn’t use Hardware acceleration and in order to do that the user needs to got o Developer Options and check “Force GPU Rendering”.
Well, as the name suggests this is an early release of the system, most probably not even authorised to be used by end users and so such bugs should be expected. However, if you want a taste of ICS on a Galaxy S II, head over to the link below and download the system. Good luck.
Ice Cream Sandwich firmware for SGSII
Password: samfirmware.com
