These ARE the Droids you are looking for...

[aBenjamin]

Hey folks... 

Does anyone have a pulse on any android devices running ICS coming out soon? Or is that a ways away? 

[Entropy512]

Many flagship devices internationally should start seeing updates in the next month or two.

The Nexus line has it now, of course (and that's it at the moment - the Nexus and 2-3 tablets)

AT&T has close derivatives of many manufacturer's flagships, but don't expect official updates until 2013.  (See AT&T's track record with the Captivate - the I9000 received Gingerbread in early Spring 2011, the Captivate didn't get it until January 2013 despite being 95%+ identical.)

Expect AT&T to be releasing new Gingerbread phones well into 2012, just like they were still introducing phones with Froyo in mid-2011.

Other North American carriers are, sadly, not much better.

[jii]

As far as tablets go, we'll more than likely be seeing more of them running ICS by the end of Q3 to try to put up a fight with the Asus TF Prime. Phones...unlock > flash. Easy as pie ;p

[Entropy512]

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jii wrote:

As far as tablets go, we'll more than likely be seeing more of them running ICS by the end of Q3 to try to put up a fight with the Asus TF Prime. Phones...unlock > flash. Easy as pie ;p

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Tablets, since many are wifi-only devices, tend not to be subject to carrier mangling (and thus, carrier delays).

ICS for all of Samsung's current tablet lineup is expected to be this month.  (That's for tablets not sold by a North American carrier.)

[aBenjamin]

There's rumor of an ICS update for the moto atrix soon...i'd imagine newer devices will be sporting ICS after that goes out... no? Seems silly to have older devices running the latest version of the OS and newer ones are still living in the stone age.

[Entropy512]

Doesn't make sense, but nothing about AT&T's update policies (except to screw over their users) makes sense.

Keep in mind that just because ICS shows on international devices doesn't mean AT&T devices will see it soon.  AT&T is notorious for massive delays in deploying major OS updates, and also doing an abysmal job with even maintenance updates.

Look at their history with the SGH-I777:

UCKH7 had two bugs, one minor that could be worked around (lockscreen bug) and one major one that was easy to fix for anyone with root (Misbehaving AP Mobile widget - just nuke it)

UCKK6 (the OTA that rolled out in December) fixed the two above bugs - but completely broke everything else.  Numerous wifi incompatibilities, they didn't test Bluetooth HID at all (or they would've noticed it was completely broken), wifi packet filters don't enable when the screen is off (leads to battery drain on some wifi networks), and the wifi chip randomly goes nuts and fires wakeup interrupts at 1 Hz (leads to massive battery drain when wifi is enabled at random, even when not connected).

A few of the UCKK6 bugs were also present in one Samsung international build, XWKK5, although the last of them (the worst) seemed to happen less often.  However, all of those bugs disappeared in Samsung's international XWKL1 build - released internationally BEFORE AT&T even rolled out UCKK6 to customers in December 2011.

It is now March 2012, and the latest official firmware is still the completely broken UCKK6 build.  The SGH-I777 is an amazing phone with great hardware and, if you're willing to void the warranty, great software too.  However, on AT&T, the device is completely broken in any official configuration.  It's ridiculous that the only way to have a properly working device is to void your warranty!

(I have an SGH-I777, and I love it - but that's because I'm running the international XWLA4 base.)

[FlexViking]

My almost 2 year old Samsung Captivate is running a custom ICS 4.0.3 ROM.  I have no regrets.  Works perfectly as far as I can tell.

It was kind of scary the first time because I was afraid of bricking it or having a malfunctioning phone, but it's not that hard.  The real beauty of it the custom ROM is that it runs SOOOOOO much better thant the stock 2.1 or 2.2 crap that AT&T or Samsing gives you.  I can't say anything about 2.3 because I got tired of waiting for AT&T to get off their &@$ and so installed 4.0.3 on my phone BEFORE AT&T even released 2.3 to their PAYING customers ...

[JFizDaWiz]

Yeah ICS is beautiful. Running it on my international model Galaxy Note. I can't ever go back to gingerbread

[FlexViking]

How is that Galaxy Note?

I swore I would never buy another Samsung after my Captivate experience ...

1.  Returned 2 devices that would automatically shut off even with plenty of juice.
2.  The whole GPS failure
3.  LATE LATE LATE firmware updates (I am not sure who to place more blame on, AT&T or Samsung)

[Entropy512]

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FlexViking wrote:

How is that Galaxy Note?

I swore I would never buy another Samsung after my Captivate experience ...

1.  Returned 2 devices that would automatically shut off even with plenty of juice.
2.  The whole GPS failure
3.  LATE LATE LATE firmware updates (I am not sure who to place more blame on, AT&T or Samsung)

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AT&T without any doubt for #3 - Captivate Gingerbread was delayed on the order of 9 months compared to I9000 Gingerbread, despite the fact that the developer community had I9000 firmware running on the Captivate within a month or two of I9000 Gingerbread getting released, if not earlier.

The GT-I9100 (Galaxy S II) is, I believe, the second non-Nexus phone to see Android 4.0 - despite this, I would expect we'll see AT&T to get it officially in early 2013 (reference Captivate getting GB in 2012), when I'll have the I9100 release running within a few days of when Samsung complies with the GPL and releases source code for the I9100 ICS release.

On a similar note - the I9100 and I777 are excellent hardware, and I9100 firmware (even for Gingerbread) is excellent with a few exceptions.  Contrast to the two official I777 firmware releases, both of which have had horrible deficiencies - the first one had a data-eating widget as part of AT&T's bloatware, the second of which has major power management regressions that Samsung had already fixed on the I9100 by the time AT&T pushed the broken I777 update out.

For more detail:

I9100 XWKK5 and I777 UCKK6 builds were built in late November and were both broken.  AT&T didn't push out UCKK6 to customers in mid-December and has not pushed out a new build since then - while Samsung had already fixed the problems with XWKK5/UCKK6 in early December with I9100 XWKL1.

GPS was a problem on all GalaxyS devices - but nearly all phones from around this time had pretty poor GPS.  The Galaxy S II has a rock solid GPS chip (SiRF Star IV) that's on par with the STM Cartesio in my Garmin Oregon.

The International Galaxy Note (GT-N7000) is, based on all reports, a rock solid device - on par with the I9100 quality-wise.  Satellite location in the N7000 is, based on reports I've heard, even better than the I9100 - it's dual-mode GPS AND GLONASS simultaneously, giving better accuracy than many standalone GPS receivers (I've heard it may even beat the MTK3329 GPS chipset, which until recently was one of the best ones out there.)  None of this, of course, applies to the AT&T version of the Note, which has NOTHING in common with the international device except the name and S-Pen support.

[aBenjamin]

I got to play with a Note recently.... LOVE IT. I'm reluctant to be any android devices at the moment though, because you never know which ones will be updates, and which ones will be left in the stone age. I was going to wait for a pre-loaded ICS droid, but that doesnt look like it's happening soon

[aBenjamin]

Looks like we'll be seeing the HTC One X on AT&T fairly soon. (running Android 4.0 ICS)  

Woo hoo! 

[ToledoJAB]

I just found out that SONY started to roll out ICS to its 2011 devices(XPERIA PLAY for at&t).  Also the 2012 line -up of NXT phones will have gingerbread at launch and upgrade after 2011 versions.  So the 2011 phones will have ICS before the 2012 phones do.

[appsdirect]

The update to Android 4.0 Ice Scream Sandwich for SGH-i777 is now available at Samsung website.
This update is available through Windows and Mac computers using the Samsung Kies software application only. This update will not be made available over-the-air.

Go to http://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/SGH-I777 to get the latest Kies software. You can get more details about the upgrade from the FAQ page: http://www.samsung.com/us/support/SupportOwnersFAQPopup.do?faq_id=FAQ00047325&fm_seq=51324

Enjoy!

For other Samsung devices you can check this page: http://www.samsung.com/us/support/SupportOwnersFAQPopup.do?faq_id=FAQ00046726&fm_seq=49755#%29 to get an idea what devices are in the list for ICS upgrade in the future.