Samsung has officially confirmed via its global blog that the long awaited Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update is now rolling out to Galaxy S II phones in Korea and Europe.
The first countries to get the update will be Samsung’s homeland of Korea, plus Hungary, Poland and Sweden today. The rest of Europe will follow in the coming days and weeks, with Samsung saying the rollout will be gradual.
With this confirmation coming from Samsung’s global blog, including a quote from its President of IT and Mobile Communications Division, we’re going to take this one as gospel. Fingers crossed Samsung doesn’t retract its statement this time, as it did last Friday when its Singapore division confirmed the update would land on March 10th.
“We expect that our customers will enjoy an enhanced experience with their GALAXY device through this upgrade. Samsung is committed to satisfying our customer needs”.
Samsung also confirmed that other devices in its Galaxy range will be updated to Android 4.0 in the coming weeks. Also receiving the update are the Galaxy Note phablet, Galaxy S II LTE plus the Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1 (first editions).
If you’ve got an older Samsung Android device, fear not, as Samsung still wants to make sure you’re staying up to date. Owners of the original Galaxy S, Galaxy S Super Clear LCD, Galaxy W, Galaxy S Plus and Galaxy Tab 7 will be getting an update to Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) from the end of this month.
To check for updates on your device, firstly connect it to a Wi-Fi network and ensure its charged to at least 75%, then perform the following actions:
Applications > Settings > About Phone > Software Update
You’ll also be able to update any of the aforementioned products via a PC or Mac using Samsung’s Kies 2.0 or Kies Mini respectively. Simply plug your device in using the supplied USB cable, load up Kies and hit the Software Update button to have it check for you.
As a final word of warning before you update, if you’re updating via Kies please make sure you have 60MB of free space, and if you’re doing it over the air and straight to the device, you’ll need at least 350MB of space. If you don’t have enough, you’ll need to delete applications, data and text messages to make room.
UPDATE: Samsung has confirmed to Gadget Helpline that the ICS update will land in the UK starting next week, as of March 19th. This is subject to network approval, so some may have a slightly longer wait.
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Source: SamsungTomorrow