The much anticipated Google/Samsung event was live streamed tonight at www.youtube.com/android. A lot of rumors have grown around the event and not learning anything from the iPhone 4S, speculation continued right up to before it aired.
The event officially unveiled two things: The Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Android 4.0, code-named Ice Cream Sandwich.
Samsung is now the number 1 manufacturer of Android smartphones. They continue their success from the Galaxy S, Nexus S, and Galaxy SII with the Galaxy Nexus. Samsung wanted to tout four areas of this phone. The final one is Android 4.0 and another post will follow to highlight the best of the new features in Ice Cream Sandwich. The other three areas include speed, screen, and design.
Speed
The Galaxy Nexus includes LTE and HSPA+ versions based on the market where they’re sold. By utilizing the fast and expanding-coverage of the LTE and HSPA+ market, the Galaxy Nexus is able to have the fastest network available.
To pair with the speed of the network, the phone contains a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor for controlling more apps, videos, graphics, and everything else mobile is demanding.
Screen
The screen is a 16:9 ration HD widescreen Super AMOLED display. It offers the highest contrast ratio at 100,000:1 and has a .01 ms response time to present video without motion blur or afterburn image. It’s energy efficient despite its large size of a 4.65″ display (diagonal, of course). With that size, it achieves a 1280×720 resolution.
Design
The phone has a soft and curved design for ergonomics. It’s thin at 8.94 mm. The bezel around the display is also thin at 4.29mm, which allows it to have the large screen size without increasing the phone size comparatively. The phone is built with a soft texture on the back side with its hyperskin.
It has a buttonless design and a more naturally integrated notification LED.
The hardware is impressive with a 5MP camera with zero shutter lag. It can also capture full HD 1080p videos. It has a barometer sensor built-in and NFC. It contains a Pogo Pin for quick docking. It also supports Wi-Fi Direct.
The phone will be shipping in November in the US, Europe, and Asia. But as the event was in Hong Kong, they specifically didn’t name any names and almost as a pacifist move said “They listened to consumer demand” to find their markets. The presentation didn’t speak specifically to the phones and the websites don’t say. When you search Samsung’s website for ‘galaxy nexus’, it returns with “Galaxy Nexus Sign up to get the latest on the Galaxy Nexus from Verizon.” Not what I was hoping to hear but we’ll see how long the exclusivity lasts or what other phones will follow.