Galaxy Nexus, on Android Ice Cream Sandwich, examination [Video]

Category: Tech

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is one of a best smartphones on a marketplace and in my opinion, it’s a best all-around Android phone out there.

Just about all we could wish from a smartphone, a Galaxy Nexus has — and that’s a unequivocally good thing deliberation that a phone is offering in a U.S. for $299 on a two-year 4G LTE information devise from Verizon.

Hardware

The phone, that Google and Samsung teamed adult on to design, is only .37-inches thick, that is about a same density as Apple’s iPhone. Inside, a Galaxy Nexus is packaged with a 1.2-gigahertz dual-core processor, 1-gigabyte of RAM, 32-gigabytes of built-in storage and nearby margin communications technology.

On a outside, you’ll find a enormous 4.65-inch touchscreen, that might be a bit too vast for some. But, in use, a shade doesn’t feel as vast as it is interjection to a skinny bezel around a display.

The fortitude of that shade is an considerable 1,280-by-720 pixels, that is high adequate to be personal as high-definition. This provides a big, beautiful, splendid board on that to watch videos, crop websites and examination e-books.

The arrangement is one of a best I’ve seen on only about any smartphone. It’s a pentile display, that can lead to some pixelization from time to time, though a high fortitude of a shade allows for smoother images than I’ve seen on low-resolution pentile screens.

Battery life on a Galaxy Nexus is flattering good for a 4G phone with such a vast display. Over about a week and a half of testing, we frequently found that we could make it by an whole workday before we had to recharge a phone. Of course, a some-more we use a phone, a faster a battery life goes, and 3G phones still have improved battery life. But as distant as 4G phones go, a Galaxy Nexus is among a best I’ve used battery wise.

Phone calls were transparent and accepting on a Galaxy Nexus was also plain with Verizon’s 4G use being quick and abundant around Los Angeles during my testing.

Cameras

The Galaxy Nexus sports a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera above a display, that works good for video chatting in a Google+ Hangout or with other video job services. On a behind is a 5-megapixel camera that can fire adult to 1080p video, interconnected with an LED flash.

Video shot on a phone looks good, though in a behind camera’s still photos is where we found one of my few complaints with a Galaxy Nexus. By no means is 5-megapixels a diseased camera, though a sharpness and tone facsimile of photos we shot on a Galaxy Nexus wasn’t during a turn of 8-megapixel shooters I’ve seen on other tip handsets such as a iPhone, a Motorola Droid Bionic and Razr and a Samsung Galaxy S II.

One outrageous and on a Galaxy Nexus for still photos is a ability to take photos with roughly no shiver loiter during all. Snapping a pattern is scarcely immediate and while this formula in holding some becloud photos from time to time, it should also concede Galaxy Nexus owners to skip fewer moments with their phones than with many other handsets.

Design

The demeanour of a Galaxy Nexus is purify and simple. If you’ve seen a Galaxy S II, afterwards we won’t be too astounded style-wise with a Galaxy Nexus. It’s skinny and even has a slight strike during a bottom, housing a orator and microphone, only as a Galaxy S II does.

The front of a phone is thankfully abandoned of any Samsung, Google or Verizon logos, that is something I’d like to see from some-more smartphones. On a right side, toward a tip is a energy symbol that also wakes a phone or puts it to sleep. On a left is a volume rocker. A mini-USB pier for charging a phone is on a bottom, as is a headphone jack.

The whole of a device, solely for a screen, is lonesome in a dim gray cosmetic that offers an understated look. The behind of a Galaxy Nexus has a removable cosmetic cover, that conceals a SIM-card container and battery. Unfortunately, this row has a thin, groundless feel to it that is also suggestive of a Galaxy S II.

You won’t find any reward materials on a Galaxy Nexus as we might find on other opposition high-end handsets. But while a phone doesn’t feel luxurious, it’s still durable and well-built.

Android Ice Cream Sandwich

Though a hardware offering is strong by stream standards, a best partial of a Galaxy Nexus is positively a program — Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

The Galaxy Nexus is a initial device on a marketplace to run Ice Cream Sandwich, that is a biggest renovate of Android given a entrance in 2008. Ice Cream Sandwich is also a initial chronicle of Android designed to run on phones and tablets.

Ice Cream Sandwich feels like a branch indicate for Android. Sure it’s a many widely used mobile handling complement in a world, though Android has never felt as polished, easy to use, quick or fit as Apple’s iOS. It lacked a pattern cohesiveness seen in both iOS and Microsoft’s Windows Phone too.

Things now are a bit opposite interjection to Ice Cream Sandwich. Nearly all has been redesigned and given a new look. This is a initial chronicle of Android that we truly enjoyed regulating — any tap, touch, splash and swipe. And that can be attributed to a purify character and a fact that Ice Cream Sandwich is easier and easier to use than any Android before it.

Gone are a 4 earthy buttons built into a front of Android phones. In Ice Cream Sandwich, all a buttons used for a OS and apps are on-screen and can seem or disappear as needed. The OS creates use of 3 buttons instead of four: a behind button, to get we out of whatever you’re doing during a time; a home button, that takes we to your default home screen, and a new apps symbol for easy fit multitasking.

Hit a new apps button, and a mainstay of screenshots of new apps will uncover adult (similar to multitasking in Android Honeycomb, a prior chronicle of Android built privately for tablets). But now, shutting down an app regulating in a credentials is many easier to do. To tighten an app, only appropriate it to a right or left and it will uniformly hurl off shade and out of your queue.

In a pull-down presentation center, to drop a notification, only appropriate it left or right. If you’re in Ice Cream Sandwich’s Gmail app, reading an newer or comparison email requires a left or right appropriate as well. This steady gesticulate feels like one some-more instance of a new turn of observance brought to Android in Ice Cream Sandwich.

Other improvements embody a contacts app that pulls in hit information from Facebook, Twitter and Google+. For Google+ users, contacts can be noticed by circles of friends, co-workers or whatever groups we set up. The Google hunt bar now follows we as we appropriate opposite a 5 home screens of Android.

Virtual buttons stagger to opposite sides of a shade as we stagger a phone from mural to landscape orientation. And now, finally, Android has app folders — only pierce one app idol onto another to emanate a folder, it’s that simple.

A new rise designed for Ice Cream Sandwich called Roboto is used via a new OS, adding to a feeling that Android finally has an identifiable style, that it formerly lacked.

Google also built collection into Ice Cream Sandwich’s settings menu that fact how many information has been consumed by your phone toward a 2.0-gigabyte top Verizon puts on a users. You can also perspective how many information is used by any specific app and set a information use extent to keep from regulating so many information that overage charges shelve up.

Of course, there are some downsides as not all apps are optimized for Ice Cream Sandwich or a Galaxy Nexus’ outrageous shade and iOS still has a higher app selection.

Also, Ice Cream Sandwich offers users a choice of a “Face Unlock” underline that uses facial approval record to open a phone from a close screen. It works quick and is an choice to not locking a phone, or locking it with a passcode or gesture. But a phone doesn’t only commend tangible faces, it also recognizes picutures of faces. With Face Unlock incited on, we was means to clear a Galaxy Nexus with an iPhone displaying a print of myself — not accurately a many secure option.

The bottom line

Android Ice Cream Sandwich is but doubt a best chronicle of Android so far. When total with such illusory hardware, a tough not to collect a Galaxy Nexus as a best altogether Android phone on a market.