Ice Cream Sandwich: who’s going to be updated? Our prediction

Of all the smartphones out there, not all will be updated to the new Android version. Here which we think will receive it.

So Google has officially launched the new Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and we have listed all the news the new mobile OS is going to introduce. If the Galaxy Nexus will be the only smartphone to have it officially before the holidays, all manufacturers are already at work to bring ICS to the existing and upcoming devices, but with very few exceptions they haven’t said which smartphones will be upgraded in the next months. So here is our prediction, keep reading to see if your smartphone in in our list or not.

We started listing all Android smartphones from the main six manufacturer, and divided them into three groups: the high-end smartphones are those with a dual-core processor or with a single-core clocked at a frequency higher than 1GHz; the mid-range smartphone are those with a single-core processor clocked between 800MHz and 1GHz; the low-end smartphones are those with slower processors and/or inferior specifications. With a few exceptions, we may expect firmware updates to be available for the high-end category and for some of the mid-range ones, while we believe there’s no chance to have low-end smartphones to get some Ice Cream Sandwich flavor.

HTC:
We are confident we will see Ice Cream Sandwich on all high-end smartphone by our favorite Taiwanese manufacturer, so if you own or plan to buy a EVO 3D, a Sensation, Sensation XE, Sensation XL expect something in the first months of 2012. Incredible S, Desire S, Rhyme should be updated too, and probably also the Desire HD will be included in the list. Owners of the Desire Z may probably stay with Gingerbread, while we think probabilities to see ICS on the Desire, Salsa, ChaCha, Wildfire S and Explorer are practically null.
Android 4.0 should definitely reach also the not-yet-announced Rezound, together with the Amaze 4G, Raider 4G and EVO Design 4G, all devices for the American market. The myTouch 4G Slide has too much T-Mobile customization, so we doubt the carrier will release an upgrade.

Samsung:
Speaking of the most important Korean manufacturer, we can be pretty sure to see Ice Cream Sandwich on the Galaxy Note and on all variants of the Galaxy S II, as well as on the new Galaxy R and Galaxy W. It’s unlikely that the old Galaxy S and all other Galaxy smartphones (ACE, Gio, Next, Y, Y Pro, M Pro, Q) will be updated, while American users of the Captivate Glide and Stratosphere may still hope.

LG:
Arriving to the other Korean company, we are not as confident as we have been with the previous two. In fact customers who bought the Optimus 2X, Optimus 3D and Optimus Black are still struggling to have their smartphones updated to Gingerbread, so we doubt there will be any further release for them. Similarly, there won’t be any update for the rest of Optimus’ line-up, so the Hub, Net, and Pro will stay with Gingerbread.
LG has also a few devices only for the Korean or American market: among these the Optimus LTE seems designed for Android 4.0 so should receive it in the next months, and the company may consider upgrading also the Optimus Ex and Q2; for the same reasons we explained above though, we doubt to see T-Mobile update the myTouch, myTouch Q and DoublePlay.

Motorola:
The freshly acquired company has already announced officially that the upcoming RAZR will be updated, and we think that being under Google wings will bring firmware upgrades also to powerful devices as the Photon 4G, Bionic 4G, Droid 3 and Atrix 2. But we think that all other global products won’t receive the new OS, including the Atrix that still runs Froyo out of the USA, Pro+, Droid 2 and Defy+.

Sony Ericsson:
Good news for customers of the Nippo-Swedish joint venture: the company in fact has already announced that their 2011 Android smartphones will be updated in the next months. However we believe that some of them don’t fulfill the requirements to run the latest Android version, so we doubt that the Xperia Mini, Mini Pro, Active and Live with Walkman will really be updated. On the other hand we are confident to taste the Ice Cream Sandwich on the Xperia Arc S, Arc, Play, Neo V, Neo, Pro and Ray.

Huawei:
The Chinese giant has recently stated their intention to fight to be among the top smartphone manufacturers in the next years, and while they have been so far more known for low-cost devices branded by mobile phone carriers, their latest Honor seems a very good device and we are pretty sure it will be updated. We are also confident to see more high-end devices to enhance their portfolio soon.