U.S. Cellular's Samsung Galaxy S II gets Ice Cream Sandwich update

At one time, the Samsung Galaxy S II was described as the best Android smartphone ever made. That  title was eventually grabbed by its sequel, the Samsung Galaxy S III. Still, there are plenty of Samsung Galaxy S II users around and some are even using Gingerbread to drive their phone. A case in point, U.S. Cellular customers who are sporting the model. But it is going to feel like they have a brand new phone as the device gets updated to Android 4.0 starting Friday.

There is one little catch, and while it might seem intimidating to those who are not computer literate, it is not really that complicated. The update is not going out OTA which means you will need to connect your phone to your home computer using a USB cable. A complete set of directions can be found at the sourcelink, and when you're done your Samsung Galaxy S II will be running Android 4.0.4.

Among the new features will be Face Unlock which allows you to unlock the phone using nothing more than your face, updated icons in the pull-down Notifications screen, a more intuitive interface, and new pre-loaded apps like Slacker Radio and Google Play Movies and T.V. The update also offers improved text input and editing making it easier to copy and paste, and edit. New options support encryption in the phone and on a microSD card if you're using one.

source: Samsung, U.S.Cellular via AndroidCentral