First look of Ice Cream Sandwich on Motorola devices

One thing you’ll definitely notice is the absence of Motoblur, the custom overlay that, we’re sure, won’t be missed by many. Motorola’s homegrown UI overlay has been less intrusive on some of its newer devices, but the Blur-less path that Moto is taking with the ICS implementation will undoubtedly please Android purists. We may have to thank Motorola’s new owner for this.

Nevertheless, there’s still some light skinning to be found, in the form of a wide variety of new buttons and icons.

Here are some of the things that the ICS upgrade will bring to your Moto device. The upgraded homescreen will have four icons, plus the Apps button which will sit on the tray. The new lockscreen now allows users to swipe to unlock directly to apps like camera, messaging, phone, or just the homescreen. You’ll also get direct access to music controls from the lockscreen when music is playing.

The upgraded camera software will give Motorola owners a feature that many high-end smartphones are now touting – the ability to take snapshots while recording video. You’ll have to tinker with the camera’s settings a bit, but at least the feature is there. Speaking of which, you can now access the settings from the new notification window and dismiss individual notifications simply by swiping left or right. Then there’s the standard ICS fare, like Face Unlock, folder creation, data usage tracking, and loads more.

Check out the videos below to catch the action yourself, but be warned that some of them are in Japanese. Are you pleased with what you’re seeing so far?

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