Samsung has begun the OTA roll-out of Android 4.0 for the Galaxy Note, finally delivering Ice Cream Sandwich to the company’s eager phablet fans. The near-320mb upgrade, spotted first Note owner Devin Balentina, brings with it not only the performance improvements of ICS, but Samsung’s Premium Suite of new apps for the handset.

There’s an upgraded version of S Note, with improved digital note-taking tools, as well as a new S Memo widget for the homescreen. There are more details in Samsung’s overview video, below.

Samsung Premium Suite overview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvH6vbhOs6Y

Ice Cream Sandwich’s most obvious changes – to the UI – have been masked, however, with the latest version of Samsung’s TouchWiz interface. That should help preserve some consistency of experience for users, but we can’t help but wish Samsung had pared TouchWiz back somewhat and revealed the cool, crisp Roboto loveliness of native 4.0.

According to SammyHub, German Note owners can also access the new firmware by plugging their handset into the desktop Kies app. Let us know if you’re seeing the OTA notification in the comments!

[via SlashGear]

56 COMMENTS

  5. Updating right now in Australia using Kies from a Note i brought in Hong Kong (but with German language as default.)

  12. Heyy, im in Canada but my phone is from Poland i unlocked it already. How can i update it? Its not letting me update.. help??? pls and thank you. 

  16. I just updated my phone from UK stock Gingerbread ROM 2.3.6 to ICS 4.0.3 using the official german download available from SAMMOBILE and it is working like and absolute dream. It took no more than 10 minutes with odin V1.87. And I have a version of Android on my phone that Kies recognises as well. Very pleased

  17. I want to buy a Note, but am I correct in thinking there’s an updated version imminent or is it the same phone with these downloaded updates – ICE and Premium Suite?

  20. BE AWARE !

    After
    upgrading to 4.0.3 via Kies (I have a German version) I encountered severe
    Internet connection problems. The download speed is ridiculously low and, what
    is even worse, the graph looks like a saw (very unstable). The rest works fine,
    but I did not find any SIGNIFICANT benefits compared to 2.3.6. Taking into
    account the above Internet problem, I would not recommend being in a hurry with
    the upgrade. Personally, I would even downgrade to the perfectly stable 2.3.6,
    if I could.

    • You should restore to factory defaults by backup of everything with desktop Kies app and volume up+center home button+power off for a while until you boot to android recovery mode than restore all with desktop Kies app.
      You can downgrade too by flashing a Rom from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1424997 yet you might void warranty or damage it if not done the right way… resetting to factory defaults will not damage your internal USB or SD card data…and not considered tampering like flashing ROMs

  24. After reading this I plugged my GT-N7000 excited to get the new update and… nothing it says I have the news version 2.3.6 and Software Update has the same effect maybe Israel or Cellcom are last in line….

  34. I got OTA notification, but I press Cancel to get WiFi first for the update, then I try update via Kies, not succeed, theres no update for this firmware 🙁 (Indonesia)

  35. received an update notification in Phuket (Thailand). It took about 20 min trough WIFI. The UI has changed a bit but not like wow. I still can’t see the big modifications and can’t find the face recognition to unlock the phone. The phone does feel more snappy and the email layout looks great. Need some more time to find out the changes. 

  38. I live just outside of Toronto, Canada, and I just received my Note today from Amazon. It’s a German edition that I picked up unlocked with no service provider. It was Gingerbread when I got it, but within a few minutes of getting it set up and going (I put in my T-Mobile SIM that I use when traveling in the USA), I got the OTA ICS notification and the update came down and installed. All is good!

  40. I couldn’t update OTA. I’m with Vodafone, and I was checking OTA for an update for ages. Plugged it into Kies, and it found ICS…So far so good 🙂

  43. just updated my note to ice cream sandwich and it is a disaster.
    every 2 mins the phone say “unfourtunatly the keyboard is not working”.
    i even did a factory restore and the problem is still not fixed.
    from india. 🙁

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