Samsung Galaxy Nexus

 

Samsung Galaxy Nexus

 

 

 

 

 

Specification

 

Platform: Android OS, v4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), upgradable to v4.0.4

RAM: 1GB

Processor: Dual-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A9

Dimensions: 135.5 x 67.9 x 8.9 mm

Weight: 135 g

Screen: Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors

            720 x 1280 pixels, 4.65 inches (~316 ppi pixel density)

Connectivity:
EDGE  ,	GPRS
Speed	(HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps)
WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot
Bluetooth	( v3.0 with A2DP),NFC,USB(micro USB v2.0)

Camera: 5 MP, 2592x1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash,1080p@30fps

Memory: 16 GB storage, 1 GB RAM(no microSD card slot)

Battery:  Standard battery, Li-Ion 1750 mAh

 

 

Design

 
Interview by Taylor Wimberly (founder of Android ) discussing the Design challenges and Breakthrough behind the Galaxy Nexus with the designers TaeJoong Kim and GiYoung Lee. The designers mentioned their journey with the Galaxy Nexus starting from the inspiration.

The inspiration for the Nexus came from an image of a magnolia petal floating in midair.  The goal was to capture the delicate beauty of the curve of a magnolia petal as it falls to the ground. As technology behind electronic devices progresses at an ever-faster rate, the design must continue to evolve to keep pace.

 

 

The Galaxy Nexus is being made from plastic, and having this characteristic bump on the bottom of its back side. It is pretty light for its size, but this doesn't make up for the fact that the handset doesn't have a classy feel when held.

 

 

 

 

Display

The Galaxy Nexus’ display is a 720p, 4.65” Super AMOLED display. This might sound amazing – the resolution and size are – but, because the display is pentile, it has its flaws. When I look at the display, there is discoloration in front of the content on the screen.

The Nexus has a 720p screen and, apart from some problems, it is fantastic for watching videos. The video watching experience does not seem to be affected by the pentile inaccuracies, only solid colour.

The lack of content. There is YouTube provides HD video and so does Google Play, but putting that aside that I’d say the options are limited. Most distributors simply don’t see mobile as a HD market yet .

The large screen also ensures a better web browsing experience and a larger, well laid out keyboard ensuring minimal error during typing.

It is easy to understand that the display on the iPhone 4S has the best display. Apple's Retina Display outshines the rest in terms of deep blacks, vibrant colors and an overall great experience.

Though Nexus' has an HD (720x1280) resolution screen, which offers more pixels compared to the iPhone 4S' 640x960 pixel resolution, but in reality, the pixel density on the iPhone 4S is slightly higher at 326 ppi, versus 316 on the Nexus.

 

Platform, UI 

 

The interface is exceptionally smooth and responsive. The only time there is a lag was when we ran a plethora of apps in the background and  a live wallpaper running as well.

Included in Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich. You can use the cards interface, reminiscent of WebOS, to quickly switch between applications. Setting aside the issues with the soft key, multitasking on the Galaxy Nexus is incredible.There is a massive leap in the method of using a mobile device; power is finally being shown through interaction with the software.

 

 

Camera 

 

The Galaxy Nexus have a 5-megapixel camera which is so speedy and thus scary. Though, some pics appeared blurry because it didn't seem like there was time for auto focus to kick in. Outdoor photos had good color saturation. Indoors, the LED flash often added a yellow-orange tinge to images.Aside the interface of the camera, the actual shots are surprisingly good considering the 5MP, now near entry level hardware. The quality is not as good as other phones’ cameras, for example the iPhone 4S, but when viewed on a computer the detail is there.

There are ton of editing tools, as auto-fix and cropping to a wide range of special effects and tweaks. The camera app is very easy to use and extremely fast. One of the main features of the device is the zero shutter lag. This means photos are taken almost instantly, then thrown into the beautiful gallery app. This makes it much easier to get those snaps out there.

 

 

Battery

 

The battery life of the device too was a surprise as the device managed to sustain throughout the day with a little above average use. Eight hours of calling was easily achieved with a full charge. Video playback of the Galaxy Nexus is decently right about in the middle with six hours of play.The Nexus would need to be charged every 31 hours for regular browsing, calling and video use. 

Keeping track of apps and the power they are using may seem fairly obvious, but there are other potential fixes for apparent bad battery life as well. Switching the phone over to Wi-Fi when available versus using 4G is another great battery saver.

 

 

Storage

 

It has 32GB of internal storage versus 16GB.When we gave our first impressions of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, we were a bit taken aback by the fact that USB mass storage wasn't supported on the device, leading us to believe that it was a flaw in Android 4.0. Android engineer Dan Morrill took to the 'net to sort out the confusion, explaining that Ice Cream Sandwich does indeed support the feature, but only on devices that offer removable storage cards.

 

 

 

Smile to Unlock

 

This device has a very cool way of unlocking that only exists on Android Ice Cream Sandwich phones. User have to just look at the phone to make it unlock. The front-facing camera uses face detection technology to detect if your face is present and, if it is, the phone unlocks: if not, the phone locks down and requests a predefined passcode before unlocking again.

Pros

 

Ice Cream Sandwich(ICS is a fantastic OS)

Future-proof as it is the Google phone

Fast multitasking

Dual core processor

Global phone that can work on any GSM/UMTS network in the world

Thin body, measuring less than 9.5mm/0.37inches (0.35 inches)

Very big display (4.65 inches)

Lightning Fast mobile data support (4G)

Extremely high pixel density screen, over 300ppi (316 ppi)

High-resolution display (720 x 1280 pixels)

Fast processor (1200 MHz),Lots of RAM (1024 MB RAM)

HDMI connector for TV-out (via microUSB)

Cons

 

Pentile screen

Ahead of content distributors 

ICS optimized apps will take some time to hit the market

The camera could have been better

Watch a review of it