The last we heard from Samsung, it had nixed the “Value Pack” update it was planning for the original Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab, citing that adding the features to older phones sporting the TouchWiz interface simple wasn’t practical. It appears that at least some work on the update was completed, and the folks at SamMobile got their hands on an early ROM. The package was intended to placate angry customers who were upset that Samsung refused to upgrade the older phones to Ice Cream Sandwich, claiming incompatibility with TouchWiz.

So, what’s in the “I Can Certainly Believe It’s Not ICS” update? A series of UI tweaks meant to implement some of the advancements in Ice Cream Sandwich, while still fitting in with Samsung’s TouchWiz style. This includes a rudimentary face unlock, circular lockscreen in the ICS/Honeycomb style, the same photo editor that’s included in the Galaxy S II,and  some other small UI tweaks and basic improvements for speed and stability, most noticeable when switching from portrait to landscape. You can download the beta ROM (presumably only for the international version) at SamMobile.

While the majority of OG Galaxy S owners will likely be happy for any update at all, die-hard Android fans have already expressed their disgust at the update situation. Samsung’s insistence that the combination of Ice Cream Sandwich and TouchWiz is too much for the Galaxy S RAM/storage didn’t help – lots of them would prefer the company simply offer up a Nexus-style ROM free of OEM skins and apps. The sad fact is that even the Value Pack update is unlikely to see the light of day on any of the US versions of the Galaxy S, all of which would need individual carrier approval first.

[via SammyHub]

6 COMMENTS

  1. Just install the TeamHacksung/CM9 ICS ROM and don’t look back. I haven’t used an official ROM in about 1 1/2 years. The ICS ROM is by far the best one yet! I laugh when Samsung says the Galaxy S can’t do ICS.

    • They say this because they have to leave TouchWiz on the device. Couple that along with ICS, seems the galaxy s would lag like crazy. Samsung can’t just release a stock build of ICS for this phone because believe it or not, I’ve read comments in the interwebz that there are actually people out there who like TouchWiz and would be angry at samsung for removing it. Take an average user, they get use to touchwiz apps and they look and feel of the “themed OS” then you switch the whole look on them with a stock version of ICS, that would probably anger some people our there.! Your ICS ROM runs great on your phone because it is without touchwiz and is greatly optimized for you phone by excellent developers. So people, stop blaming Samsung, it was you’re decision to by the phone and you knew what you were getting into.

      • You don’t know what your talking about.  Touchwiz is a framework theme, it adds nothing in terms of core system functionality.  Most people either don’t know the difference, or think touchwiz is ‘acceptable’ compared to other framework mods.

        It is not peoples fault for expecting the phone they purchased to be upgraded by the manufacturer in a timely manner, even if that means dropping the manufacturers perfunctory branding choices, especially if the manufacturer doesn’t make statements one way or the other till they say ‘no’ for bs reasons.

  2. Doesn’t address the fact that ICS runs significantly smoother than Gingerbread; so they’re screwing the users on performance because they can’t add their crappy theme.

  3. I’m happy i left Samsung.
    I’ve been using Onecosmics ICS SGS for about a month now and its closest you’ll come to the complete ICS experience. Its blazing fast and even on RC4 almost everything works well.

    And now you have option to try either Onecosmics ICS ROM or Hacksungs ICS ROM. so i think no more Samsung for me anymore. 

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