Take a bite out of Ice Cream Sandwich or wait for the Jelly Bean?
We explore the pros and cons of updating to Ice Cream Sandwich or waiting a while for Jelly Bean
If you’re an Android user, or have even half an ear to the grapevine, you’ll have heard a lot of talk about Google’s newest release: the sweetly-named ‘Jelly Bean.’ But with recent news that the previous version of the operating system is available to only 10 percent of Android users, we’re looking at whether you should be planning to upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich once it’s offered, or just hold fast for Jelly Bean, which is touted as being the OS to unite all Android devices – much as ICS once was.
Let’s make it clear from the punt – Android 4.1 is not likely to make an appearance on most folks’ Android smartphone for at least six months. Meanwhile many OEMs are reaching the spit and polish phase of their Android 4.0 preparations, and updates are being prepped to roll-out.
So what do you do? Do you sit on a potentially outdated device, which could be vastly improved by a software update, even if it’s not to Jelly Bean? Or do you embrace the sweet relief of ICS, if only for six months until the next one rolls out?
Seems like a no-brainer to us. After all, if you resided in a shack and someone offered you a condo while your mansion was being finished would you say no, or would you pack as fast as your pudgy little fingers allowed and high-tail it out of there?
So, you’re able to upgrade, but what’s in it for you? Well, if you’re one of the unlucky loyal users whose device is too old to qualify for an update, you can skip this part. But if you get a notification telling you that you can have Ice Cream Sandwich, we reckon you’d be crazy not to.
Software updates aren’t just about aesthetics; there are important bug fixes within those updates that ensure your data can’t be stolen or malware installed via nefarious apps. Updates also ensure that you stay on-point with the latest apps to hit the Google Play store too. Put simply: Can you afford to be without your favorite apps if they are updated beyond your current version of the OS?
What’s more, the performance of your device could be greatly improved with a software update, from better allocation of RAM to improved battery life; taking a bite out of Ice Cream Sandwich could give your phone a virtual makeover and improve its usability tenfold. Upgrades can be expensive if it’s bleeding-edge you want, so increasing the potential lifespan of your device will benefit you in more ways than one.
It may seem like settling for second best, opting to upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich rather than waiting for Jelly Bean, but ICS is a great OS in its own right. It offers some truly impressive features, such as an improved user interface that is more customizable than ever, improved text input and spell-checking, better camera functionality, deeper Cloud integration and so much more. This is what you’re missing out on by waiting for Jelly Bean, and you’re wasting time and resources by not allowing yourself time to become used to these functions.
We don’t like to use, shall we say, shallow reasons to get you to upgrade your OS, but have you seen how pretty Ice Cream Sandwich is? Obviously, if you’re using a device with a proprietary UI overlay, such as Sense UI or TouchWiz UI, this won’t make a whole lot of difference to you, but anyone running a vanilla version of Android will immediately notice the difference because it is, quite simply, huge.
In all honesty, we cannot think of a single benefit in holding back on this. Sure, Jelly Bean is the latest and greatest, but unless you’re the proud owner of a Nexus-branded device, you’re going to be waiting a pretty long time for Jelly Bean to bounce into your life and you could be suffering with lag, bugs and other annoyances in the meantime.
In: Smartphone · Tagged with: Bean, bite, Cream, Jelly, Sandwich, Take, wait