Motorola Droid Razr will get Ice Cream Sandwich update in early 2012

Motorola must have felt a little left out yesterday when it launched its slick-looking Droid Razr smartphone because Samsung launched an even bigger phone with the newest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, later the same day. Not unexpectedly, Motorola said it has plans in place to update the Razr to Android 4.0 by early 2012.

Google launched Android Ice Cream Sandwich last night in Hong Kong alongside the much-anticipated Samsung Galaxy Nexus (formerly Nexus Prime). Ice Cream Sandwich ups the power of Android with a revamped interface and makes it possible for manufacturers to ditch hardware buttons under the screen in favor of touch buttons. Other major manufacturers with top-tier Android phones are likely looking for feasible ways to get Ice Cream Sandwich on their phones as soon as they can.

Motorola is no exception. Alain Mutricy, Motorola Mobility’s SVP of Portfolio and Product Management, reportedly told Pocket Lint that Motorola has plans to update the new Razr smartphone at the “start of 2012.”

The Motorola Razr looks like one heck of an Android phone and likely will be one the best Android-Gingerbread-based smartphones ever. It features a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED screen, dual-core 1.2-GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and 32GB of total internal storage. On back, there’s also an 8-megapixel camera capable of shooting 1080p video and on front there’s a 2-megapixel camera for video chat.

Those Razr specs are pretty notable, but it would be even more impressive to see the phone running on Ice Cream Sandwich. Motorola, which is in the process of being acquired by Google, might very well have the right contacts and partners to make this happen quickly.