Sooo.... thoughts on ics?

[bosshog85]

I have had Ics on my DROID 4 since Monday and overall I've been pleased with it. There's a lot of good things that changed and a couple I don't like.

You can now take screen shots with your phone! Press and hold power button+ volume down key.

Lock screen I really like especially with the shortcuts to SMS and phone and theres also the option for the face unlock.

Silky smooth transitions compared to the lag I was getting on gingerbread to the home screen.

The option to go from vibrate to silent via volume rocker is back!

The music sound quality has improved: sounds fuller and louder.

Long click brings your running apps and just a dandy swipe kills them.

On the other hand...

Not a fan of the SMS looks... I preferred the way "bubble" look better

I've experienced a reduction in battery life... I'm hoping it's just because of the new software and it'll increase within the week

Overall well done Motorola!

[reybie]

The one thing I was looking forward to is the removal of the slide lock when a pattern is used.

[tcrews]

Much better handling of 4G/3G trade-offs.....also just better 4G connectivity.
Quicker/smoother UI and overall performance.
Increased battery life.
Better picture quality from the camera.

I have zero complaints. Also suggest a Factory Reset after upgrading from a 2.x.x OS to a 4.x.x OS as the people with the most issues are those that haven't started with a clean system. That's a big OS jump for an "in place upgrade".

[bosshog85]

Much better handling of 4G/3G trade-offs.....also just better 4G connectivity.
Quicker/smoother UI and overall performance.
Increased battery life.
Better picture quality from the camera.

I have zero complaints. Also suggest a Factory Reset after upgrading from a 2.x.x OS to a 4.x.x OS as the people with the most issues are those that haven't started with a clean system. That's a big OS jump for an "in place upgrade".

I agree completely. Luckily I didn't have to factory reset when I made the upgrade so I haven't had issues other people are describing.

[MistaMean]

Man, this ICS is buttery smooth and I don't need no stinking launcher for my home screen. Fact, ICS is faster than GB, lots of new and wonderful features to learn these next few weeks. One of the biggest pluses for me is no more Bluetooth audio skipping, listening to music, especially Pandora is now a joy, its clear, loud and no skipping, yay! Multiple options on the lock screen, screen shot feature, and the notifications window is very nice. I rooted using the Razor's Edge exploit so I could use Wi-Fi tether for root users, but it wouldn't work, so I'm using FoxFi and it works but not as well in my opinion. My 3G/4G (Augusta, GA) is working just as good if not better than it was with GB.

Now, I don't like losing flash and I'm trying different browsers to see if they still have working flash support, no luck yet, Dolphin and Firefox freeze and locks up too frequently. Battery life for me, its OK, but really too early to tell, I'm not using any Smart Actions, plus I'm using the phone more because it feels new. That's it for now and I hope everyone gets this very tasty ICS soon before it melts.

[Syko]

You can now take screen shots with your phone! Press and hold power button+ volume down key.

For some reason, I can't get mine to work.

Lock screen I really like especially with the shortcuts to SMS and phone and theres also the option for the face unlock.

Just before the ICS update, I started using the Quick Launch app which has the 4 way short cuts but with some added features. So I really haven't fussed with the stock lock screen all that much. However, I did try the face unlock but it worked maybe 75% of the time. Also, I use the unlock to camera quite often and the face unlock just puts you on your home screen.

Silky smooth transitions compared to the lag I was getting on gingerbread to the home screen.

Agreed! Sooo much better!

The option to go from vibrate to silent via volume rocker is back!

Didn't even notice that till you mentioned it. Cool!

The music sound quality has improved: sounds fuller and louder.

I noticed something that I don't remember seeing on GB. If you go to Settings/Sound/Speaker/Equalizer....mine was set to "Bass Punch". I don't remember ever having this option in the past. Maybe that's the reason for the fuller sound?

Long click brings your running apps and just a dandy swipe kills them.

Agreed! I really like this feature.

On the other hand...

Not a fan of the SMS looks... I preferred the way "bubble" look better

Been using Handcent so my texting windows remained the same.

I've experienced a reduction in battery life... I'm hoping it's just because of the new software and it'll increase within the week

I have had significantly better battery life. After 16 hours of moderate use yesterday, I had only dropped 40%! Now I did take tcrews advice and fastbooted to stock, then did the factory reset once ICS was installed as well as doing the tedious task of downloading every app from the play store rather than reinstalling from T-backup. Doing all this has also fixed my random rebooting issues I was having prior to the ICS release.

I'll add that I really like that fact that my contact groups from my google contacts are now visible.

Something I am frustrated with is merging contacts. Used to be so much simpler...now you have to select a contact/menu/edit/menu/join/select contact to join. Kind of a pain.

[DJSam]

This phone is really a good one. My brother has a Droid 4 and he has updated ICS recently and now I feel it is better than my Atrix HD. I was searching for more updates/news about this and found some in motoask. Personally I like phones with keyboard but sometimes it gives a lot of troubles.

[cs3]

Please tell me that theres a way to disable to disable the factory "swipe to unlock" screen??
If you set up a pattern lock or PIN why the hell would you want (or need) to swipe to "unlock" the main screen just to type in your secret code?
Seems utterly ridiculous

[reybie]

Please tell me that theres a way to disable to disable the factory "swipe to unlock" screen??
If you set up a pattern lock or PIN why the hell would you want (or need) to swipe to "unlock" the main screen just to type in your secret code?
Seems utterly ridiculous

This is one of the things I hated about the previous OS version which seems to be fixed on this new one. Have you tested it? I have a pattern and that's all I get, no more slide to unlock.

[cs3]

This is one of the things I hated about the previous OS version which seems to be fixed on this new one. Have you tested it? I have a pattern and that's all I get, no more slide to unlock.

Havent tested yet becasue i havent been updated to ICS. Still on GB and ive always hated that swipe to unlock cannot be disabled. such a stupid oversight.