We’ve just seen the Android 4.0.3 update for the generic (unbranded / carrier-free) Samsung Galaxy S II get pushed to Samsung Kies. So if you’re willing to get your update on, download Kies (if you haven’t already) and connected your device and start the download process.
Source: @SamKiesUpdates.
Argh, Kies is for Windows… that’s enough to put me off Samsung devices :-(.
I’m sorry to say kies is a P.O.S, bricked my sgs2 becausethe upgrade froze and had to disconnect, thank heavens to Odin.
Bricked mine with the FOTA download from Vodafone. In the process of downloading the ROM and Odin now… Hopefully my Odin experience will be as positive as yours…
I have a Mobicity SGS2. Updated it a few days ago when it came available. Have to say im extremely diassapointed. Battery doesnt even last a day and i have the 2000mhz samsung battery. Phone hangs all the time. Freezes and locks up and resets itself. Lags alot when doing simple things like messaging and surfing. alp touch screen is less responsive too… Thought the update would hold me over to the SGS 3 was released but the phone is absolutely terrible now…… 🙁
Apart from having to reenter my email settings, and all my home menu icons… everything else went perfectly.
Things do seem a bit “faster” and nothing to glaring stands out as bad. Still getting used to a few things, but the data usage and task manager are really nice.
I bought my Samsung Galaxy s2 from Kogan and am not seeing any update…
Same problem with Kogan galaxy S2. Try wifi and Kies but the phone says no update available 🙁
The GS2 came with touchwiz so to the guys who expected the update to be like vanilla ICS and completely different, keep dreaming. Shoud have gotten the Galaxy nexus. GS3 will be the same and probally “underwhelming too”.
Woooooooohooooooooooo FINALLY got the update been waiting sooo long with Virging mobile australia and connected to kies and its there!! downloading firmware now… 25%
how did you get it working via kies? I connect to Kies and i’m getting “gt-i9000 does not support initialising” and it tells me my G2 cannot be upgraded via Kies, despite being latest version of Kies and unmodified phone straight from Virgin Mobile Aus. 🙁
I had the same problem and resolved it as follows … when I plugged in the phone (with Kies open) a pop-up box came up asking if I wanted to perform a certain action (and whether I wanted to perform this action every time the device was connected). Normally I shut this pop-up, but when I told it to Open File Manager (and I left File Manager open in the background) the Kies upgrade then worked ok. Hope this helps
As per the other posters here, I found the ICS update disappointing. I mean, I can understand why Samsung have made it look more or less the same as the Gingerbread firmware (they don’t want to confuse people), after seeing a S2 running ‘proper’ ICS, the Samsung Touchwiz version of it isn’t great.
Does anyone know of any easy way to disable Touchwiz on an S2 that has just been updated via Kies to ICS?
You might like a third party launcher app?
My Kies always says my S2 does not support updating. No matter what I try, always have the same message. Anyone else have the same problem?
If you are on a mac, kies won’t upgrade.
Took me many calls to optus & samsung to find that out..
Updated my generic UK S2 (csc CPW) from Kogan using Kies without a hitch. Phone is faster, especially the boot. Nicer fonts. Best of all, it’s much faster to latch onto and use public WiFi hotspots. Went from 2.3.4 to 4.0.3. All existing apps still work, although I had to redo my screens of favorites.
Mine is still saying latest firmware.
PDA:KI4 / PHONE:KI1 / CSC:KE1 (COA)
Is it because my phone is an overseas version? I bought it online before it was released here
I cant see the firmware upgrade for my phone, its unlocked and the firmware version is:
PDA:KJ2 /PHONE:KI4/CSC:KJ1(XEF)is it the firmware which is getting upgraded????
Can someone please check and tell me.
Thanks
I just did the update, seems nice. Gonna try use nova launcher. As for performance, seems a bit more but i’ll get to some more benchmarking. Quadrant i got 3.4-.3.5k on 2.3.6 and now 4-4.2 on 4.0.3
When will they release the OTA update? I don’t feel like using Kies… :/
I actually got mine as an OTA update last week. Although I bought mine thru mobicity so no network guff to worry about.
Is anyone else having issues with battery use since installing ICS on GS2? Like others I agree the upgrade is a little disappointing but that is due to Samsungs TouchWiz. My battery life since upgrade tho is woeful. I’m using 40-50% on standby in as little as 4hrs with gps, wifi, and bluetooth all turned off.
I can’t speak from direct experience for your phone, but head on over to xda forums and search for the issue. XDA really helped me iron out all the problems with my phones
That’s what happened to the Nexus S so i haven’t updated my phone just yet… Still wondering if it’s worth it or not
As a Nexus S owner who had the early 4.0.3 rev – I observed battery life degradation, but tracked it down to some misbehaving apps. Removing unused apps and a few app updates that came in later and I was good as gold. I don’t think the issue is inherent in ICS, but some apps don’t play nice yet.
In this case you having to wait will have reduced the number of apps that don’t already have fixes ;-p
ditch touchwhiz and download nova launcher (paid) or apex launcher (free). ICS is great. It is very very quick. Not sure what touchwhiz on the GS2 does to hamper performance… but it sounds like it does a little. All of these experiences sound very different to mine. Sadly, 4.0.3 (if correct) is already outdated. So glad i have a GNex – flashed yakju images and am 100% worldwide completely up to date. Not a single bug in sight, or anything I can complain about. It is sad that when the GS3 drops so will samsung’s support for your device.
Is performance any better? Or worse than GB?
Had a look at a coworker’s GSII running 4.0 and was thoroughly underwhelmed. The look and feel of the TouchWiz apps is essentially still Gingerbread, the cool 4.0 widgets are missing and it didn’t feel any faster than my previous generation Nexus S.
Everyone is always saying how overwhelmed or underwhelmed they are. Why can’t anyone just be whelmed anymore?
So it’s not just me! I was so excited to download ICS today, and it just doesn’t FEEL any different to how it was before. If I have my Launcher loaded, then what’s the point?
I’d really like for Vodafone to pull their thumbs out of their asses and release their firmware already.