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Samsung Galaxy Nexus coming soon - could this be the phone of 2011?

Engadget think it's quite possibly the best phone in the world on any platform.
Let's not beat around the bush. The Galaxy Nexus is definitely the best Android phone available today -- it's possibly even the best phone available today, period. Sure, it's not perfect -- we're disappointed that the camera doesn't deliver the same wow factor as the rest of the handset. It's an alright shooter, but it's just no match for the state-of-the-art. There's also room for improvement in terms of build and materials quality. Still, there's no denying the satisfying look and feel, the stunning display, the impressive performance, the excellent battery life -- the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts.

Ice Cream Sandwich is phenomenal -- it represents a giant leap forward for Android and brings a whole new level of style and substance to Google's mobile OS. Still, while the design is more refined and the user experience more polished, we're not sure it's intuitive enough for first-time users. At the core, it's clear that Android remains targeted squarely at tech-savvy, power-hungry folks like us. No matter -- the Galaxy Nexus is proof that we can have our Ice Cream Sandwich and eat it too.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/24/galaxy-nexus-hspa-review/
Click to expand...
 
And the screen?

The 4.65-inch HD Super AMOLED display (1280 x 720 pixels) is simply beyond par. Gorgeous doesn't even begin to describe this screen -- try amazing, jaw-dropping, mind-boggling. As we mentioned in our first impressions, fonts are crisp, colors are vibrant, blacks are deep and viewing angles are exceptional. Yes, the panel is similar to that of the Galaxy Note, which means it's PenTile, and yes, the HTC Rezound features a beautiful 4.3-inch 720p TFT display with a proper RGB matrix, but the writing's on the wall: Super AMOLED is brilliant, and it's only getting better.
Click to expand...
 
it's the increased screen resolution. It makes a small, but significant difference. Otherwise the screen seems just as bright, bold and beautiful as the one the S2
 
My mate in the pub has just shown me his Nexus. It is *lush*. Makes an iPhone look silly and the screen looks great - even compared to an S2.
 
Having established that the Galaxy Note is probably a bit too large for me, and that Im quite likely to get pissed off with versions of android that are pre-ICS due to occasional moments of non-smoothness, Im now leaning heavily towards getting the Nexus.
 
I should point out that my mate in the pub was a confirmed iPhone fan but after seeing the Nexus decided that it represented a much bigger upgrade from his 3GS than the 4S, largely to do with the screen size. Thus far, he's loving the phone.
 
elbows said:
Having established that the Galaxy Note is probably a bit too large for me, and that Im quite likely to get pissed off with versions of android that are pre-ICS due to occasional moments of non-smoothness, Im now leaning heavily towards getting the Nexus.
Click to expand...
The SII should still be an option, not quite as huge, more or less the same speed and getting ICS soon?
 
I picked one up yesterday. So far I'm absolutely loving it. It's so smooth, and feels faster and more fluid than even the SGSII. This is probably largely due to the OS, and expect the SGSII to feel just as good (not sure how it could possibly feel better) when it gets a slice of the Ice Cream Sandwich goodness. It’s the little details that really make ICS stand out, like built in spellchecking, the task switcher button with live preview, and the general ease of use. For instance, you now have a settings button in your notification bar, and a market button in your apps tray. This makes so much sense that you wonder why it wasn’t implemented years ago.

A lot of fuss has been made over the camera, with several tech blogs moaning that the sensor is ‘only’ 5mp. As we all know, this should really be more than enough if the quality of the rest of the components are up to scratch. If I hadn’t played with a SGSII, I think I’d be very happy with the camera on the Nexus, but the sad news is that it doesn’t compare in terms of colour, or clarity. The speed is mind blowing, reports of two pictures a second are accurate. However, if you snap this quickly then you’ll likely be out of focus, focusing takes substantially longer than half a second. Low light pictures are the one thing that really saves this camera, took a few last night and they are superb quality with minimal noise.

With ICS being so new, there are a couple of apps that don’t work properly, or aren’t available at all, such as a flash plug in, but I’d expect that this will be rectified with time. I’ve also experienced the volume drop issue, which should be fixed very soon. The only other negative in my mind is the layout of the power and volume buttons, which are on opposite sides of the device. This means that if I’m using the device one handed, I often accidently hit the power when trying to adjust the volume, and vice versa.

I’m reluctant to give any report on battery life when I’m yet to use it for a full day of normal use, but my first impressions are as to be expected from a modern smartphone. If it lasts eighteen hours of standard use I’ll be happy.
 
Bob_the_lost said:
The SII should still be an option, not quite as huge, more or less the same speed and getting ICS soon?
Click to expand...

Probably not getting ICS soon enough for me though. I can't wait any longer, this hideously old iPhone is doing my head in.

What are my chances of being able to find the nexus on the highstreet today? I guess I will find out later, I don't have that much hope.
 
Should I go for the Galaxy S2 or this? One paper the S2 looks better, in terms of spec, more storage, better camera and it won't be long until ICS is released for it?
 
Unless you need the extra storage options of the S2, or need an 8MP camera, then I'd probably get the Nexus. Maybe.

Sorry!

They're both great phones - the best money can buy IMO.
 
elbows said:
Probably not getting ICS soon enough for me though. I can't wait any longer, this hideously old iPhone is doing my head in.

What are my chances of being able to find the nexus on the highstreet today? I guess I will find out later, I don't have that much hope.
Click to expand...
I got mine from an O2 store, and I'm in Colchester. Reckon most stores have them.

It was a tenner more expensive than buying from Phones4U, because I had to buy £10 credit which I won;t use, but two Phones4U stores have told me they 'aren't allowed' to sell the device sim free, despite their facebook and twitter pages explicitly saying that all stores would be from launch day, so they can fuck off.
 
Couple of other points.

The screen is GORGEOUS. Easily the best I've seen on a phone. There were concerns because it's pentile Super AMOLED rather than Super AMOLED+, but they are completely unfounded. When you crank the brightness up to full, this thing is mind blowing. For me the resolution is on par with the iPhone 4S (in reality it's a couple of pixels per inch less, but this is not noticeable at all), but the colour reproduction, depth and overall size make it look so much better.

And a negative to balance that out, having no USB mass storage option does present me with a bit of an issue as a Mac user. It means I can't mount my device, but there is an easy work around with the Android File Transfer app for OS X. This does seem a fair bit slower than standard USB hosting, and limits your options.
 
It is a bit disappointing that they didn't have any microSD storage on this. tbh. It could've almost replaced my ipod if I'd put an extra 64gb on top of the 32gb internal.
 
cliche guevara said:
I got mine from an O2 store, and I'm in Colchester. Reckon most stores have them.

It was a tenner more expensive than buying from Phones4U, because I had to buy £10 credit which I won;t use, but two Phones4U stores have told me they 'aren't allowed' to sell the device sim free, despite their facebook and twitter pages explicitly saying that all stores would be from launch day, so they can fuck off.
Click to expand...

Ta very much for the info, I will go via town on the way home from work and see if I have any luck.
 
O2 didn't have one but phones4u did. Finally after more than a year I think my mobile quagmire is over.
 
After thirteen hours of moderate to heavy use (gaming, constant twitter, lots of browsing, 200mb download and a couple of hours of playing music) I'm still on 20% battery. Pretty happy with that, it will only get better as I stop playing with it every five minutes.
 
No major complaints so far, I like this phone a lot. If I could have waited much longer then I would guess the Galaxy S 3 is quite likely to be a better choice for many. I haven't tried 3D yet but I suspect the 3D graphics aren't the best that money can buy, but since I don't intend to use this device for gaming very much it won't bother me too much. I can't really compare ICS to previous android versions as I never really used Android before, but I think its safe to say it has come of age now. iOS devices remain the best choice for those looking to run music creation apps, by a long margin right now, and this would continue to put me off android tablets. Apple probably need to add some kind of widgets feature to iOS 6 in order to fully compete, but in most respects a wide range of users should find either platform meets their needs.
 
There's no denying that the iOS platform has the lead (for now) when it comes to super-glossy games, but it's daft that smartphone users are forced to play them on the comparatively tiny iPhone screen.
 
Its quite likely I would have stuck with Apple if they had gone for a larger screen this year. They got caught out by this trend. They are still taking a huge chunk of the total profits from the smartphone market though, so as long as they don't mess up with the iPhone 5 I think they will be ok.

Shortly I will discover what the Android development experience is like.
 
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