Updated my Xperia Sola to ICS today afternoon. Below are my observations.
What I liked:
1. The new interface is good. Nice refresh with notifications and task manager. Most of the enhancements are of ICS.
2. Walkman player has a slightly changed UI but I didn't notice anything to be excited about. But The inclusion of visualisations is good though it is a bit slow now. The player could have been better with good use of touch controls instead of going through the menu button every time.
3. Battery Percentage in the notification bar.
4. Merging of similar apps (Clock - Alarm - Stopwatch - Timer). The look and feel of alarms is changed and looks good. Previously, tapping on the time above would show a clock display mode which also had the slideshow of pictures which is removed in ICS update. Now, tapping on the clock takes us to the time and date settings. Somehow I liked the look of the older clock display. The clock mode is activated by a separate button at the bottom (portrait) top right (landscape). Now, the wallpaper is shown in the background and the font of the clock is very thin which does not go well with all wallpapers. There is no slideshow option now.
5. Calendar, Mail etc are changed from black theme to white theme.
6. Movies app shows good DVD cover like icons of videos. (Still doesn't play avi files)
7. Chrome is installed by default.
8. I don't understand why Sony keeps including pregnency apps with every firmware update 
9. The response of the light sensor seems to have decreased. But the flickering of the screen still exists.
10. The music output from the earphones has improved. But I am now getting the crackling sound for some songs when played through the loud speaker. I believe this is a software issue as I didn't have this issue before in Gingerbread. Some users have complained about this before in GB too. Now, I'm getting the crackling only in xLoud mode.
11. Inclusion of glove mode is good. Note that you have to switch on the glove mode from Settings > Display, then lock the phone and unlock with your glove on. Then only the glove mode works. You can also use the floating touch in this mode.
12. Wifi works good for me.
13. Ability to change the volume on screen, once activated through the hard keys.
Issues not addressed:
1. I feel that the network though not dropping, but is inconsistent.
2. The crackling sound in xLoud mode. (though this is new for me, it has been complained before)
3. The keyboard long press doesn't show the current key. Eg, If I long press 'e' by mistake while typing, the other phonetics are shown and not the normal 'e'. This is sometimes annoying as I would have to select one of the wrong character, then backspace it and then type the normal 'e'.
4. Touch screen issue while chargin seems ok for me. Someone please confirm.
5. Battery life seemed to decrease too quick but I have had wifi and was exploring all the options. Might get better once the mobile is being used.
6. Need to confirm about the earpiece volume.
7. The brightness widget still has only two settings (full or low). No medium level.
8. Only 5 homescreens allowed (could have been 7).
New issues
1. The power saver app is gone and I guess the Extended Power saver replaced it. But there are no options to configure what services are required to be turned off to save the power. Looked like a down step from the Power saver app. We had the customisability before and also an option to turn off wifi when the screen is off. This would be uncomfortable when we think that an app is being downloaded when the screen is off.
2. The OS appeared to be laggy and unresponsive at first. After I rebooted 1-2 times with soft reset (power + volume down until I feel 3 vibrations), the OS seemed smooth..
3. I have had some issues with calls like the ringtone was not audible and nothing was on the screen except the vibration and notification LED. I had experimented 2-3 times and after a restart, it was ok. Need to experiment while listening to music
4. Dead Trigger game shows black buildings at the mission selection screen and the screen operates in floating touch mode. (even with glove mode off). The game too picks up response from the floating touch and is causing trouble. When I quit and say OK in the dialog box, the buildings are returning to their usual detail. Can someone please confirm this behaviour? Even Temple run also does not respond erractic to the swipes.
Also the lock screen now has either slide to lock / pattern lock / pin / password. we cannot have the option to open camera directly when we have pattern or pin security enabled. 
Atleast they could have included different patterns for different applications.
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