Galaxy Note ICS upgrade - TouchWiz or CyanogenMod

Galaxy Note running CyanogenMod

We finally saw what Samsung are going to offer up for their high-end SmartPhones when it comes to Android 4.0 (ICS), last week when they send out the update for Galaxy S II. Even though I’m disappointed I can’t say that I blame them for the way they have gone about incorporating TouchWiz on to ICS. It gives the millions of Galaxy S II users an ICS upgrade without changing the experience they had before. Only a small group of hardcore Android users are going to care, and they are rooting the Galaxy S II and loading CyanogenMod CM9 on it anyway.

As a Galaxy Note user I look at the Galaxy S II ICS update and hope that Samsung are going to stick with what they have say so many times already. The Galaxy Note is not a phone and not a tablet. Personally I don’t like the ‘phablet’ name, but if Samsung is serious about the Galaxy Note being something new, I hope that is reflected in the ICS update coming in just a few weeks. ICS have both a mobile and a tablet mode build in, one could hope that Samsung would take this upgrade just that one step further. If Samsung ends up letting me down on the ICS update, and my money is on that they will, I’m going to be looking hard at what the CyanogenMod team is going to do for the Galaxy Note. I have been using the CM7 version on a HTC Desire and a Release Candidate CM9 on a LG Optimus 2X. Both bring out the absolute best in the two phones, and gives them both new life. I know that CyanogenMod are working on as CM9 port for the Galaxy Note, but it’s still in Alpha, and that got me thinking about what I would really like from ICS on the Galaxy Note.

Back when Android 4 was released I wrote about it, and I had this comment,

“… I had expected that a phone running Android 4, would have behaved a lot more like Honeycomb when used in landscape mode.”

I truly believe that the Galaxy Note have the potential to be the crossover device that bridge the gap between phones and tablets. With ICS the software now support the hardware in a way that makes it even more possible. I would love to be able to use the Galaxy Note as a real tablet when I had that need, and I it would be nice if apps optimized for tablets recognized the Galaxy Note as such.

CyanogenMod team, if you by any chance happen to read this, here is what I hope to get in CM9 for Galaxy Note. Full support for the S-pen in all apps. A custom setting that enables ICS tablet mode, then the Galaxy Note is in landscape mode. Support for external keyboards with selectable language layout. Full support of MHL output for connection of an external monitor. If this happens, either from Samsung or the CyanogenMod team, the Galaxy Note will be the perfect computing companion. A phone then used in one hand, a tablet when used with two hands, and a PC when docked a home or in the office.