UK in slow lane as ICS rolls out to Galaxy S II users

Samsung has begun rolling out the Android 'Ice Cream Sandwich' 4.0 update to Galaxy S II owners, but most of the smartphone's users in the UK will probably have to wait a while to see their devices upgraded.

The Korean manufacturer made the announcement on Tuesday, saying Korea and European countries including Poland, Hungary and Sweden should see the update within the day. The update will reach the UK on Monday, but only for handsets that are not tied to an operator.

While owners of SIM-free Galaxy S II smartphones get their upgrades directly from Samsung, those who got their phone through an operator contract have to wait for their operator to customise ICS.

ZDNet UK has contacted all the major UK operators — Everything Everywhere, Vodafone, O2 and Three — and not one could say when it would roll out ICS to its Galaxy S II customers.

Meanwhile, Samsung also said in its announcement that ICS would "soon" be coming to more of its Android devices, including the Galaxy Note handset and Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1 tablets.

The company added that earlier Android 'Gingerbread' 2.3 devices, such as the Galaxy S, Galaxy Tab 7", Galaxy S Plus and Galaxy W, would get new firmware from the end of this month. The update will add features such as 'face unlock' and a photo editor.

UPDATE (5.50pm): O2 has just said that the update will come to its Galaxy S II phones in "mid-April".