The Samsung Galaxy Nexus and all Google Android phones are the cheaper mass-market alternative to the premium Apple iPhone, but that hasn’t stopped Google from trying to make a handset experience to match Apple’s admired smartphone. Visit Group test: what's the best Android phone?
It does so with Nexus, a name awarded to its flagship Android smartphones. These aim to cram in as many bleeding-edge features from the platform as possible. The Galaxy Nexus is the third such model. See also Samsung Galaxy S2 review and Samsung Galaxy Ace review.
Google pinched the Nexus name from the generation of rogue replicant/android characters in the cult sci-fi film Blade Runner. It no longer numbers its Nexus products as was suggested by the original Nexus One; if it had, a sixth iteration could be incurring even more ire from the estate of late author Philip K Dick. Go toSamsung Galaxy S3 release date, specs and rumour round-up.
The Nexus product sets out to be a shining beacon for the best that Android has to offer. Google is said to work closely with the handset manufacturer to give a virgin Android installation, without the added bloat that many Android phones routinely pack from network operators and hardware manufacturers. See also Samsung Galaxy Note review.
Nexus phones should also offer a better level of hardware-software integration than is sometimes found from the Android platform.
This is the second time that Google has worked with Samsung, the favoured and best-selling Android partner. This time the name is a clear nod to the Samsung Galaxy phones, and in particular the Galaxy SII, a close cousin of the Galaxy Nexus.
In the same way that Google elected to use the previous Nexus S as a launchpad for the then-latest Android 2.3 (‘Gingerbread’) operating system, so this time the Galaxy Nexus is the first outing for Google’s new Android 4.0 (‘Ice Cream Sandwich’).
As the premium model to showcase Android, it is pitched in the market against the Apple iPhone 4S, and cannot escape comparisons with the leading smartphone.
Galaxy Nexus Handset
There’s no mistaking that the Galaxy Nexus is a large handset. It dwarfs the iPhone 4S and its 3.5in screen, and is even larger than the Galaxy SII’s 4.3in display.
The 4.65in Super AMOLED screen has similarly richly saturated colours. But note that this hi-res 720 x 1280 capacitive screen is using older Super OLED rather than the newer Super AMOLED Plus technology employed by the Galaxy SII.
These OLED technology screens are quite impressive to look at, with incredible contrast ratios that make punchy images. As with other OLED screens we’ve seen, colours are rich to the point of cloying, with reds in particular looking quite surreal. When viewing photographs on the Glaxy Nexus, for instance, skintones tend toward the sunburnt.
With a just-HD resolution of 1280 x 720 on the table on the large 4.65in screen, we have a pixel density of 316ppi. That’s lower than the iPhone 4 and 4S’ 326ppi, but still enough to give a ‘retina’-like resolution that does not betray individual pixels to the naked eye.
A large screen is always welcome as a way to navigate the interface and watch video on a modern smartphone. But it also makes day-to-day use more tiresome, when it reaches the point that you can no longer control the phone with one hand.
With any smartphone – up to around 3.5-4in screen in our experience – we can reach any touchable element with our thumb while holding the phone in one hand. Go beyond that size, and phone operation becomes a two-handed operation, just like in the bad old days of stylus input.
For a lady’s smaller hand, the problem is even more apparent. The Galaxy Nexus essentially mandates two hands for most routine operations, more like a mini tablet than a phone.
Unlike smartphones that feature at least one hardware button on the front screen, the Galaxy Nexus only has soft keys.
The Home key is still in the middle position, with Back to the left. To the right of Home is an overlapping square icon, which brings up an overview of all open app pages on the screen. It’s a handy way to quickly jump between different application spaces.
Galaxy Nexus Build
Construction of the Galaxy Nexus follows Samsung’s penchant for creaky plastics, although that clip-on backplate does mean you can open the phone and easily access the battery and SIM card. There’s no MicroSD card slot, so you are entirely constrained by the onboard 16GB flash storage. The 32GB version is not officially sold in the UK.
And a spare battery will be a useful asset on a phone that struggles to last a full day of moderate use. In our tests, its 6.48Wh battery let it survive 25 hours between charges, inclusive of an 8 hour overnight stretch of standby/sleeping. When the iPhone 4S lasts over 48 hours in the same use patterns, this is clearly a performance setback, if not untypical for many Android phones.
Most of that power was unsurprisingly being sapped by the screen. The option in Android to set screen brightness automatically was not terribly useful on the Galaxy Nexus, as it set the display just too dark to read easily in normal daylight.
At 139g, the Galaxy Nexus weighs about the same as an iPhone 4S (140g). It is considerably larger, standing 135mm tall and 68mm wide. There’s a slight curvature toward the bottom, with even the screen curling in around the mouthpiece end. The thickness varies across its length, from 7.2mm at its thinnest at top, to 11.7mm maximum. In the middle, it’s exactly 9.4mm, coincidentally the same as the uniform thickness of an iPhone 4S.
Galaxy Nexus Processors
As is common with other modern smartphones the Galaxy Nexus uses an ARM Cortex-A9 dual-core processor – in this case a 1.2GHz Texas Instruments OMAP 4460. This is backed up with a PowerVR SGX540 graphics engine, the same as used in the two-year old original Galaxy S, for instance.
By way of comparison, Apple’s iPad 2 and iPhone 4S use dual-core PowerVR SGX543MP2 graphics. Independent benchmark tests, such as those by AnandTech, have shown that the latter graphics processor is around three times faster than that fitted to the Galaxy Nexus.
In real use, we found the interface to be slightly jerkier than even a Galaxy SII. Whether that’s due to problems with Android 4.0 or the weaker graphics sub-system is hard to call.
Galaxy Nexus Connectivity
The latest iteration of Google Android 4 did not arrive without problems on the Galaxy Nexus handset. Initial reported problems centred on defective audio (with volume spontaneously muting) and cellular reception (poor signal and dropped calls).
Our sample came with Android 4.0.2, and we were offered and applied an OTA update to 4.0.3 during the test period. We didn’t experience any of these early problems, but did note that cellular reception of the phone is far from great. In one test, we found that the Galaxy Nexus was unable to keep a 3G data connection at our benchmark City Thameslink train station stop. There is no local relay here, although an iPhone 4S can maintain its 3G connectivity at the same position.
Some overseas versions of the Galaxy Nexus include an LTE modem, although this is patently wasted in territories that are nowhere close to rolling out ‘4G’ mobile broadband, such as the UK and most of Europe.
As it stands for Britons, the HSDPA modem gives reasonable mobile data speed, if well short of the leading models.
In a controlled test over the Three network, we recorded average download and upload speeds by repeating and recording many tests through speedtest.net. An iPhone 4S was used for reference, which gave us results of 2.5 Mbps upload and 8.9 Mbps download.
The Galaxy Nexus in the same location and timeframe averaged 2.4 Mbps upload and 5.9 Mbps download. This is inline with performance we’ve seen on the Galaxy SII. In other words, in the key download test, the iPhone 4S is 50% faster in 3G data performance.
In real-world tests, we averaged 16 secs load time for the www.pcadvisor.co.uk website, and 5 secs for the mobile version of the site. On the iPhone 4S, these pages loaded in 7 secs and 2 secs respectively.
Galaxy Nexus Camera
Two cameras are fitted to the Galaxy Nexus, a 5Mp rear-facer with LED flash and a 1.2Mp for video calling. The main camera is also specified for 1920 x 1080p video. Don’t be put off by the sub-standard specification of 5Mp when other phones have 8Mp cameras – more important is the quality of the optics and the sensor.
We put the Galaxy Nexus against the iPhone 4S, where we saw quite decent low-light performance from the Galaxy. There was still plenty of noise visible in indoor images though, and detail was obscured by some obvious noise-reduction processing. Shot-to-shot time was quite brisk.
More troubling was the colour balance. Even viewed on a PC monitor rather than the Galaxy Nexus’ over-saturated screen, pictures had unnatural colouring and poorer handling of gradients. We couldn’t deny that the iPhone 4S takes visibly superior photographs; more detail in backgrounds, better depth perspective, conspicuously sharper and more natural overall.
Galaxy Nexus Interface
Development of Flash for mobile devices has now been officially dropped by Adobe, although Flash capability is often marketed as a unique feature not available to iOS devices.
Long-standing lipsync issues with Flash were not apparent in the short time that Flash content could be seen to work on the Galaxy Nexus; but we consistently found that Adobe Flash was crashing the Google browser. In short, the Galaxy Nexus could not play many YouTube videos without quitting or freezing. If you’re relying on Flash on your mobile, the Galaxy Nexus stands as an example of why it was a lost cause that forced even Adobe to give up.
An extra feature that Samsung has built into the Nexus is NFC, for near-field communication uses. This is still very much a proof-of-concept addition as there is little practical use for this feature today.
Galaxy Nexus Support
The Galaxy Nexus, like other Samsung phones, needs Windows in order make a connection to a PC; Samsung does not support Mac or Linux.
More development in NFC features may be found in future OS revisions and third-party apps. Since this phone is running a Google-blessed build of Android, future updates may appear more promptly than Samsung’s own; by way of example, Android 4.0 was released in October 2011, and as of Feb 2012, Samsung owners are still waiting for an update for their Galaxy phones and tablets.
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Comments
SilverRook said: because it sounds like opinion rather than expertise which it more than likely is
SilverRook said: Could you be a little more condescending please
Sam Boycott said: Nexus has WIFI problems my phone does not get connected to any WIFI network I have talked to the network providers also but they have refused any issues from their end Ultimately i had to deposit my handset at the service center they repaired it but now again the same problem has existed i cannot use the wifi its very embarrassing
Sam Boycott said: Samsung is always been very worst with its phone designs cheap plastic body and the confusing UI Iphone is nothing different than a samsung galaxy phone the difference is about the price even samsung can sell its products at higher margin Its a great rumor made for iphone that it is thebest best phone and has no issues in it also it supports many apps But the matter of fact is that iphone are subject to generic hardware issues and software bugs the sound quality is also not good in the iphonesIphone and samsung phone are one and the same After revealing lot many problems by millions of users worldwide in iphones teh era for iphone has ended up a big example of it is the failure of iphoen 4s in many european nations and Asian nations well India is a very big example with hit iphone 4s sales very hardNot biased but every new phone released comes with something new into a smartphone catagory and for now the same condition applies for LumiaNokia Lumia 800 is the latest and the most superior phone with experienceIt has got many tings to do and also million of free apps even the paid apps cost just 50-00 INR or 1-2 Iphone and samsung phones do have free apps but are limited and the prices of the paid apps are also very higherso there is no reason to hate a Lumia for today
Dr. S. Cooper said: Whilst I agree that the rather sweeping opening statement reads as if it came from the pen of JeremyClarkson a good proportion of my friends do fall into the categories of have an iPhone dont want have an iPhone because of the overlyexpensive iPhone tariffs or dont have an iPhone or any other smart phone because they want aphone for making phone calls so in my circle of friends at least it would seem to becloseto the truth althoughcertainly not gospel However apart from that generalisation everything else in this review appears very thorough unbiased andconclusive and that is exactly what I want from a review All-in-all a rarelyI really dont like reviews that gloss over thefacts and side-step around the weak points If the battery life isnt as good the signal reception isnt asgood web surfing isnt as quick and so on then how can the Nexus not be inferior at least in theserespects The camera isnt as good although the reviewer stressed that more mega-pixels does not automatically equal better photos it appears he had an open mind something my experience of cameras in phones or otherwise leads me to agree withPerhaps some of these readers would rather the reviewer didnt get stuck into the nitty-gritty of the reviewavoided side-by-side comparison and instead rambled on in vague terms about what it does quite wellbecause it does appear to do quite a lotquitewellHowever for me I only want one phone so Id like to know which is best therefore when any new phonecomes out Id like to read a detailed and direct comparison against the reference standard not someblousy re-writing of a PR companys output I noticed the reviewer didnt mention the Nexus getting very hot applications crashing etc which other readers have added but these extra factsdont sway me towards it eitherFinally to quote another reader It is now completely accepted in the techonology world that Android isan equal if not superior contender to the iPhone and certainly not 2nd fiddle sounds exactly like the kind of sweeping statement that that particular reader was complaining about
Dragon Queen said: I agree with the reviewer that if one is to buy a phone based on its build quality then it would never be Nexus I wouldnt buy it even for my 18-months old as a toyIt is also true that people buy Samsung smartphones because they are cheaper than iPhone Friend of mine bought one for that reason After about two months she phoned asking if I still have my old iPhone 3G handset and if I would like to sell it to her Now she knows why she paid less She hates her Samsung and wants a smartphone she can use and actually enjoy it 0158339e0cadaf421425238bb86fea42disqus- where is all that hatred coming fromvicky - camera quality Pictures taken with this phone are terrible Ive seen them - yes girls do play with tech-toys too
Phil Levy said: This Apple fanboy speak is simply so dated now and show such a lack of awareness of the current situation - there are many users of iPhone that have now switched to Android for its increased functionality choice of hardware and basic freedom to customise and do what you want with it It happens to often be cheaper but this is absolutely not what drives many users to adopt it It is now completely accepted in the techonology world that Android is an equal if not superior contender to the iPhone and certainly not 2nd fiddle Look how with every IOS update an Android features get incorporated like drop down notifications - ironic especially in the light of all Apples lawsuits at the moment I have an Android device at present although my wife and daughter have iPhones - we are all happy with our choices Personally I have spent enough time playing with both systems side by side to know what I think is superior
Hansy said: good features but often it get switched off
Phil Levy said: This review and reviewer have totally removed any credibilty that this site had for me Android is a credible alternative to iPhone and although each has its strengths and weaknesses it is simply incorrect to say either trails the other by anything other than a small margin all down to personal preference The rhetoric of generalisation in supposedly credible reviews
Andrew Harrison said: Hi KieranThanks for your comments Choice is good a point I certainly appreciate And for powerful reasons of personal principle I can truly understand how someone can choose to pass over the products or services of a given company Perhaps they hold that company in contempt for its particular morals and business practices Perhaps they dont want to be seen to follow a crowd Maybe theyre rooting for the underdog the David rather than the Goliath All valid reasons to avoid the beaten pathIn my experience through talking with colleagues and friends who have or are thinking of getting a smartphone many but not all would like an Apple iPhone They tell me they start looking at the iPhone understanding its the market leader in quality and ease of use but some then decide they would rather not pay the premium over a comparable Android phone which lists exactly the same featuresThis is especially true from what Ive heard for people locked into long contracts with UK telcos When time comes up for renewal many subscribers have been offered an upgrade from featurephone to smartphone and thatll be an Android handset almost every timeWhen they ask about maybe making that an iPhone instead the price per month suddenly becomes less attractive so they go with what they see as the better-value option Its a great deal all those features but for several crucial quid less each monthAndroid as a platform is some years behind iOS in quality and sophistication but is catching up fast By comparing the best that Apple can make today iPhone 4S with the very best taken from the choice of every other Google OEM company Nexus my review should illustrate what I discoveredNamely that you would not choose the Google phone if your criteria were based on any of build quality software stability performance in real-world speed smoothness of operation usability through decent battery life Other critera are available for a buying judgement but I believe those are some of the key pointsGoogle phones serve very well for people who dont mind their phone to be almost as good as the original multi-touch smartphone Theyre good enough for these less discriminating customers Human nature always makes us appreciate free things or things that perceived to be as good as the market leader but cost us a less to buy Google phones are also very compelling I can understand for people that like to tinker and install apps outside of a single point of delivery The semi-open source nature of Android appeals to many developers and hackersBut set against that enthusiast audience Androids huge market share is made up mostly from people who just want what they see as a bargain a phone that can surf the net and play games and give them Facebook updates A phone they think or have been told is every bit as good as an iPhone But is cheaper to buy on a monthly subscription plan than an iPhoneSo while I would never say that all Android phone owners are driven by value I would suggest that the non-technical populace cannot turn down the chance to save some valuable cash when it comes to getting a new phone They cannot turn down what they see as a bargain And thats why Google Android phones have become the de facto cheaper mass-market alternative to the premium iPhone
Kieran Sampson said: With your opening comment The Samsung Galaxy Nexus and all Google Android phones are the cheaper mass-market alternative to the premiumApple iPhone Are you implying that people only use Android because its cheaper Or that Android is simply designed for those that cant afford Apple products Does it notoccurto you that some people actually prefer using Android products and would continue to do so even if Apple products were less expensive Do you not understand that a world outside the Apple ecosystem is desirable to many people for several different reasons other than moneyUnderstand Im not actually calling this a particularly biased review because with regards to the phone itself most of it I agree with but implying that that Android is only for those that cant afford Apple IS biassed and if I might say quite unprofessionalDoes Andrew Harrison believe that more expensive automaticallyequalsbetter
Ny_yanks_win said: Galaxy Nexus trails the iPhone 4S in every area by some marginnot saying the Nexus is better or the iPhone is better as everyone has there needs and depending on those needs you may choose your phone accordinglyhowever that statement cant be further from the truth4g vs 3g
vicky said: IT is a great phone display camera quality size except it has application crashes uses alot of battery and gets hot fast i blame the product samsung but otherwise the design of the phone is amazing if apple had this product itd be great
Matt Egan said: That would be IDG Manish the worlds largest technology media company What specifically troubles you about our reviewers expertise
Manish Garg said: Has this review been written by an expert Really Which fool company has hired such a fool expert reviewer