ICS straight out of the box??? And help with 'Contacts'/'People'

[Guest cashmerecardi]

I've just received my new Huawei Ascend G300 directly from Vodafone. Today I network unlocked it (now using GiffGaff) and hooked it up to my home wifi. I haven't done anything else - haven't even imported contacts.

I've just had a look at the Android version showing in Settings: About phone and it's saying Android version: 4.0.3

WHAT???!!

How can this be? Is this phone being shipped with ICS as standard now? Has it automatically updated itself without me noticing?

I'm really confused, and I could have sworn it said version 3.2 [Edit: I mean 2.3 - thanks Kyan31 for pointing this out] when I first received the phone (pre-unlock) on Tuesday.

So my questions are:

- have I definitely got 4.0.3? How can I tell?

- if so, how did it get onto my phone?

On a different topic - how do I manage my contacts? Contrary to the instruction booklet that came with the phone, there is no 'Contacts' and no option to 'Manage contacts'. Instead of 'Contacts' I have 'People'. Is this a Vodafone crapware thing?

THANKS

Edited March 29, 2013 by cashmerecardi

[Guest fr0do]

Gingerbread looks totally different to ICS. The way you check is the way you did it. Surely you would have noticed.

I think phones are now shipping with ICS, yes. You would have had to OK the update and the phone would have rebooted taking a little time over that.

'People' is the android app that manages your contacts.

Edited March 29, 2013 by fr0do

[Guest Combat Gerbil]

Bought my G300's (mine and wifes) a couple of months ago, they are shipped with ICS as standard.. in fact I am surprised to find people still getting "new" G300's with GB still...

[Guest kyan31]

ICS and GB look nothing alike. That's how you tell if you have it. Also, there is no such android version at 3.2. For our G300, there is only 2.3.6 (GB) and 4.0.3 (ICS) excluding custom roms.

[Guest kyan31]

Gingerbread 2.3.6

ICS 4.0.3

3.2

I think that's honeycomb, but that's for tablets only.

[Guest cashmerecardi]

Thank you Fr0do, Combat Gerbil and Kyan31 (kyan31 - sorry I meant v2.3 not v3.2 - I have edited my original post).

Can you guys have a look at the images below please and tell me what you think this is?

I *guess* I must have ICS (even though all the phone specs on the webpage where I bought it, and in the packaging, say GB). But with the Huawei and Vodofone skin(s?), and with only having seen Jelly Bean on my Nexus 7 and Ginger Bread on my husband's Xperia, I am unable to identify this OS version on sight. Sorry the images are a bit dark, I forgot to turn up the phone brightness.

Default home screen

Multiple home screen view, with option to add home screens

Locked screen with top bar that scrolls to music player

Android version in 'About Phone' (you can see it is saying version 4.0.3)

Developer options including option to have CPU usage overlay (which I gather is an ICS feature?)

Edited March 29, 2013 by cashmerecardi

[Guest fr0do]

Yes that's definitely ICS

I also see Huawei weather for ICS, and Huawei's Potter Unlock lock screen replacement. Huawei Music, Huawei toggles.

That's the default Huawei 'Home' launcher too. Looks like you have the set.

Nothing Vodafone so far.

Edited March 29, 2013 by fr0do

[Guest cashmerecardi]

Thanks Fr0do!

How weird that it's not being marketed as having ICS... Good news for me though I guess, although I want to get rid of the Vodafone stuff so I guess I'll have to flash a whole new ROM anyway (when i get the courage).

[Guest kyan31]

You must be new to android as its easily identified as ICS, just look at the status bar for one clue :)

And then look at the menus etc.

Edited March 29, 2013 by kyan31

[Guest hugocard]

Thanks Fr0do!

How weird that it's not being marketed as having ICS... Good news for me though I guess, although I want to get rid of the Vodafone stuff so I guess I'll have to flash a whole new ROM anyway (when i get the courage).

One friend of mine also bought a g300 and it came with ICS. Thats like.... bad. just flash it to a stock ICS based or to cm rom and it will be a much better phone. the risk isnt that high xD

[Guest fr0do]

There are a lot of improvements in stock+, but you could get away with just rooting, installing clockwork recovery and then flashing Paul's kernel. Daz and the gang did an amazing job of speeding this phone up.

[Guest cashmerecardi]

Thanks all, and especially Fr0do.

On the question of Kernel vs the whole RoM - Presumably flashing a kernel only will "just" improve performance? Is that right? Great, but I'd ideally like pure android without any of the Huawei stuff, and definitely no Vodafone logo on start-up and the other Vodafone stuff. I'm thinking of following this guide - http://huaweig300.com/huawei-g300-install-a-custom-jelly-bean-ics-rom-from-scratch/ - what do you think?

And please can you recommend a nice, stable, vanilla ICS ROM ideally with the performance benefits of Paul's kernel?

kyan31 - I'm on my third Android device, returning to Android after a regrettable sojourn with Windows Mobile, and I have a Nexus 7, but I'm as new as new can be to doing anything custom to a phone. My husband flashed a ROM to my old San Francisco, no idea how he did it, unable to persuade him to repeat on my Huawei as he CBA - I don't even know what version of Android I had before! However I was a programmer in a brief previous life so I am cautiously hopeful I can do it. We'll see.

[Guest fr0do]

You should be fine with that. I've never used it myself. You're on baseband 2030.

I'd recommend stock+. It's the latest version of ICS from Huawei with all of the rubbish removed and the essential tweaks added. You don't need to do anything else, like install gapps (Google apps package) or a custom kernel, as they're all included already.

Best of luck!

[Guest george109]

Good Guide for flashing http://huaweig300.com/huawei-g300-install-a-custom-jelly-bean-ics-rom-from-scratch/

[Guest cashmerecardi]

I did it! Now running Stock+.

Just wanted to say a big thanks to all you guys for helping me out and giving me the confidence to go for it. I'm really happy with the ROM, although can see how this (er) flashing business could get addictive ;)

[Guest george109]

That's fine, you soon get over the flashing addiction, (well I did anyway! :P) after I broke all my apps on an update to CM10.1 R3 from R2. Thank goodness I made a nandroid before doing the OTA update :)