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Three releases ICS update for Sony Xperia S

You can upgrade your Xperia S to Android Ice Cream Sandwich now, if you're on Three.

Joe Svetlik Reporter
Joe has been writing about consumer tech for nearly seven years now, but his liking for all things shiny goes back to the Gameboy he received aged eight (and that he still plays on at family gatherings, much to the annoyance of his parents). His pride and joy is an Infocus projector, whose 80-inch picture elevates movie nights to a whole new level.
Joe Svetlik
2 min read

If you have a Sony Xperia S on the Three network, you can update it to Android Ice Cream Sandwich right now. You wouldn't know it just to look at your phone though, as there's no push notification alerting you to the fact.

Instead, you'll have to plug your phone into your computer to download the update. How very 2005.

Anyone with a SIM-free Xperia S has been able to snaffle the update since last week.

Installing Ice Cream Sandwich on the S gives it a host of new features. The usual suspects like Face Unlock and the ability to group apps in folders are present and correct, along with a new application bundle from Sony. Walkman is an updated music player that lets you share tracks on social networks. Album is a new gallery app for viewing your snaps, and Movies simplifies playing back films on your handset, as well as bringing together their posters to use like cover art.

Making the jump to Ice Cream Sandwich will also bring a new lock screen, resizable home screen widgets, and a recent apps view. It'll even let you throttle your data usage, to make sure you don't rack up a huge bill.

The Xperia S totes an impressive HD screen, with high-grade audio quality and a decent camera. It's pretty chunky though, which could turn off the skinny jeans crowd. There's no word on whether it'll get the jump to Android Jelly Bean, but if it does it'll join the Samsung Galaxy S2, Motorola Xoom, and Galaxy Nexus.

Google has promised to reduce the fragmentary nature of Android updates, which would be a very good thing indeed, seeing as Jelly Bean is just around the corner and most of us are still stuck without Ice Cream Sandwich. Sort it out, Google.

What do you think of the Xperia S? And have you updated to ICS yet? Let know what you make of it on our Facebook page, or in the comments below.