The newest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is no ordinary OS update. Instead, it's a revamp of the platform that brings a whole host of new features, apart from unifying the smartphone and tablet versions of the software.
To cover the entirety of the changes will involve drowning in the details -- there's too many to reasonably run down. For the purposes of this review, we'll focus on the larger-scale changes.
Transformed Visuals
Ice Cream Sandwich brings a whole new look and feel to the platform -- one that's more elegant and sophisticated. Almost every screen has been redesigned, combining some elements from Honeycomb with a reworked aesthetic. From the home screen to the menu lists to the folder appearance to the new notifications pull-down, it's just an overall more attractive, less cutesy interface.
Camera
Panorama is now a built-in mode in Android and it works really smoothly (at least, on the Galaxy Nexus). The joint photo and video gallery is also redesigned to cram in more thumbnails in each screen. Plus, Google finally decided to invest in really good photo editing tools, which are built right into the gallery.
Contacts
The Contacts app has been overhauled for the better. The layout, for instance, makes photos more prominent, with more customizations available for each person (you can send all of a contact's calls to voice mail, for instance). Scrolling through your contacts also feels less cluttered. You can also start a text, email or call by simply tapping on a photo from any native communications app.
We love the more spacious reading space, as well as the way contacts' email addresses and photos pop up. When composing emails, you can drag and drop highlighted items easily across the form, bypassing the whole cut-and-paste hoop. We like the new word correction feature, which feels more like a proper word processor than previous versions. Oh yeah, the new onscreen keyboard is very generous.
Facial Unlocking
The new security option allows you to unlock the phone by holding it up to your face for a few seconds. If it recognizes you, then you get access to the phone. If it fails, you can type in the PIN or trace a pattern on the screen, both of which are more secure than the facial thing (a high-res life-size photo could unlock it, as some bloggers have shown).
Other Notables
There are many more new features on Ice Cream Sandwich, including Android Beam (which transfers data from one phone to another over NFC), a heavily-improved browser, visual voice mail, and a whole host of sleek little things.









