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Today Prestigio publicly announced the release of ICS for the MultiPad 5080 range of Android tablets, although it was actually posted on their site two days ago. The MultiPad 5080 is a re-badged budget end tablet and the fact that Prestigio have seen fit to support it to ICS level is really worth applauding. So many Android consumers who purchased top end tablets & handsets not too long ago are still waiting for their own slice of official ICS goodness, many from market leaders and multi-national manufacturers, making Pretigio’s commitment to the end user all the more welcome.

The ROM itself is a stock affair, with the launcher being the only difference I can find. That said it’s not as though they have replaced the launcher with a fancy TouchWiz type experience, but rather they have played with the source code for their own needs, so think more Nova than custom UI. The version is 4.0.3 so there is still room for future updates, and having had the tablet for a few months I can tell you that Prestigio are no slouches at putting new versions out. The upgrade procedure is a simple and quick affair although I would recommend that you backup any data you have on the internal SD. Full instructions and Windows drivers are included in the download and once you have them installed it is a simple app that carries out the update for you.

In the few hours I have used the ROM I have found two small issues. Firstly, and most annoyingly, there are a few market apps that show as not being compatible, most noticeably the official Twitter app, so installing from an external source is your only option. The second issue while less annoying is a little more alarming, if you wake the tablet from being in a deep idle state, you have to turn off Wifi and re-enable to get a connection. It’s not a major hassle, but you would really expect it to have been picked up during testing. Now the pluses, well it’s ICS so instantly your tablet looks so much better, it also seems to run faster. I’ve not benchmarked, but the way the tablet performs tasks and feels in the hand really is noticeably different. Previously I used the tablet for reading, Kindle, Google Currents and other similar apps, but I can actually see me using it more now; gone is the sluggish behaviour when I have too many tasks running at one time. With full GAPPS and only a couple of OEM added apps the ROM is pretty sleek or sparse depending on your point of view, but remember you do have full market access unlike some budget tablets. From what I can tell at this stage, battery life is also showing as being pretty decent and depending on use you should get most of a day out of it.

Now is the really good news, the ROM has already been rooted and as an added bonus those apps which showed as non-compatible before will now install. The rooted version also has some app adjustments with the removal of the Prestigio-added apps being most noticeable.

The official Prestigio download can be found here :-

http://yf.value4it.com/Service_Files/TabletPC/PMP5080B-BRU/PMP5080B_2.0.0_20120401.zip

The rooted ROM is downloadable from here :-

http://www.androidiani.com/forum/modding-mediacom-smartpad-810c/130659-rom-prestigio-2-0-0-ics-4-0-3-a.html

(This ROM will probably update at a fast rate to begin with, so I have linked to the original thread)