With Android launching its new application Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, most people who have older model mobile phones are wondering whether the application will be compatible with their phones. As per Gabe Cohen of Google, the Ice Cream Sandwich is supposed to work on any 2.3 device. The fact is that there is some dissimilarity in the hardware that the Ice Cream Sandwich and the Gingerbread run on, and you should be aware of the difference to know whether it will work on an older model. The major differences are:

Hardware Graphic Acceleration
Though many phones that run on Gingerbread do not have Hardware Graphic Acceleration, the matter can be set right as the Android SDK will take care of it. This means that people who want to benefit from this can utilize the new framework. This application can be run on phones that do not have high configurations, though it may not be as fast as when using the Ice Cream Sandwich hardware accelerated code.

User Interface without buttons
Usually all smartphones run on the Android OS have 4 main buttons namely the menu, home, back and search buttons. In some pho0nes the buttons are there for you to see and use, while in some they are capacitive, however they are quite certainly permanently there. This is not the case with tee Galaxy Nexus. In them the physical buttons are not there Instead there are virtual buttons that can be changed, hidden lit up or even be replaced to house the orientation of the phone. In the older phones the soft buttons bar will be added to the lower part of the display screen, either on top of or to the side of the old physical buttons. The buttons that were already there will still carry on their functions in spite of the fact that they are outdated.

The Zero Shutter-Lag Camera
The zero shutter-lag feature allows you to take pictures even as you click the shutter button. The camera comprises of two sections the actual camera hardware and the application. It is the application part that permits you to take pictures with just a click. The point is that the hardware part should be able to keep abreast of click and this is what varies from one smartphone to another. So even if your mobile phone is an older model if the hardware can keep up with the software in it.

The Facial recognition Screen unlocker
If the mobile phone you have has a front facing camera there are possibilities that the this new screen unlocker will also function on your mobile phone.

The barometer and NFC
Like the Nexus S which was the first mobile phone run on Android, a T-Mobile G2 will also run well on Android, though it may not have NFC features as the mobile does not have the NFC hardware. In the same way the Ice Cream Sandwich should run well without barometers. The only point is that they will not be able to get barometric pressure readings.

Screen Resolution
The Ice Cream Sandwich is created especially for the 16:9. 1280 x 720 screen. This resolution is not seen on any other Android smartphones. The fact is that today's android smartphones have different resolutions and the makers probably hoped that via the screen size the elements of the new user-interface will get acclimatized to the screen size without much hassles.

The points mentioned above should probably answer people's doubts whether the Ice Cream Sandwich will be compatible with the older model mobile phones.