Galaxy Note Premium Suite

Galaxy Note Premium Suite (Ice Cream Sandwich)

(Thanks to my Twitter buddy for pointing this out)

(cr Engadget) 

So obviously, I tried to download when I heard about it on Thursday.

The update failed to detect my phone for no reason. Tried the next day and it worked.

Played around it for a few days already.

(cr: Samsung Mobile)

The good

Cleaner and modern font - Roboto.

Click and hold the menu button brings you the recents menu. Where you can find the list of programs you used recently.

Keeping track of mobile data usage is also a breeze here. Just set the limits and refresh date and you are set.

Face unlock. This update brings face unlock to the phone.

Played with it the whole day, seems like my face isn't very good for recognition. It could recognise me around 7-8/10 times I tried. I turned it off in the end cos it is a waste of time if the recognition fails and I have to use PIN. Nevertheless, a step forward.

Voice recognition is better in ICS, which is available as an input method to get the words into the 5" screen. They moved the keyboard selection option to the notifications area.

The not so good

I was looking for faster access to the camera, phone etc like on the HTC One V.

Samsung bundled Touchwiz instead of the stock launcher. 

Other things:

Samsung apps

Proprietary apps like Samsung's S Note, S Memo is given a boost in this update.

One good thing about S Note is that you can sync it to Evernote or Google Docs.

Chrome Beta

(cr: TheChromeSource)

One of the push factors for me to upgrade to ICS is due to the availability of Chrome Beta on ICS.

All my bookmarks can be synced and accessed on the go.

The transition is smooth from one tab to another.

What I think?

The update is recommended from the usability point of view. Even though there isn't much visible improvements on the Touchwiz launcher, it is worth the trouble due to the OS version (ICS) upgrades. 

I believe that Samsung focused on the development and upgrade of their proprietary apps such as S Note and S Memo as the selling point for this ICS Galaxy Note update.

Anyway, these are just my opinions. Usability will defer for each person and the features differ by region.