Samsung Galaxy Nexus vs Droid Charge | Samsung Droid Charge vs Galaxy Nexus Speed, Performance and Features | Full Specs Compared
Samsung and Google unveiled their first Ice Cream Sandwich Phone, the Galaxy Nexus (aka Nexus Prime or Droid Prime) at their Ice Cream Sandwich event in Hong Kong today (19 October 2011). Galaxy Nexus by Samsung is Google’s premium phone to give the pure Google experience. The Galaxy Nexus has 4G LTE and HSPA+ variants. But you have to wait till November 2011 to get the Ice Cream Sandwich experience. Droid charge is an Android smart phone by Samsung for Verizon Wireless, which was officially announced in January 2011, and is available in the market since May 2011 for $300, on contract. Following is a review on the similarities and differences of the two devices.
Galaxy Nexus
Galaxy Nexus is the latest Android smart phone released by Samsung. This device is designed for Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Galaxy Nexus was officially announced on 18 October 2011. It will be available to users from November 2011. Galaxy Nexus is launched in collaboration of Google and Samsung. The device is designed to deliver a pure Google experience, and the device will receive updates on software as soon as it is available.
Galaxy Nexus 5.33” tall and 2.67” wide and the device remains 0.35” thick. These dimensions are related to a quite large phone in comparison to the current smart phone market standards. It is important to note that Galaxy Nexus is quite thin. (IPhone 4 and 4S is also 0.37” thick). Bigger dimensions of Galaxy Nexus will make the device appear even thinner. It is also important to note that for above dimensions Galaxy Nexus weighs reasonably less. The Hyper-skin backing on the battery cover will make a firm grip on the phone and will make it slip resistant. Galaxy Nexus has a 4.65” Super AMOLED screen with 1280X720 pixels resolution. Galaxy Nexus is the first phone with a 4.65” high definition display. The screen real estate will be appreciated by many Android fans and the display quality and high resolution is quite promising. Galaxy Nexus is complete with sensors such as accelerometer for UI auto rotate, compass, gyro sensor, light sensor, Proximity and barometer. In terms of connectivity, Galaxy nexus supports 3G and GPRS speeds. An LTE variant of the device will be available based on the region. Galaxy Nexus is complete with WI-Fi, Bluetooth, USB support and it is NFC enabled.
Galaxy Nexus is powered by a 1.2 GHz Dual Core Processor. According to the official press release, the device includes 1 GB worth RAM and internal storage is available in 16 GB and 32 GB. The processing power, memory and storage are in par with the high-end smart phone specifications in the current market and they will enable a responsive and an efficient Android experience to users of Galaxy Nexus. The availability of the micro-SD card slot in order to expand the storage is not yet clear.
Galaxy Nexus comes with Android 4.0 and it is not customized in any way. This is the first time users get to have a look at Galaxy Nexus. The much talked about new feature on Galaxy Nexus is screen unlock facility. The device is now capable of recognizing the shape of the users face to unlock the device. The UI is re designed for a better experience. According to the official press release the multi tasking, notifications and web browsing is enhanced in Galaxy Nexus. With the screen quality and display size available on Galaxy Nexus, one can anticipate a unique browsing experience combined with the impressive processing capacity. Galaxy Nexus comes with NFC support as well. The device is available with many google services such as Android Market, Gmail™, and Google Maps™ 5.0 with 3D maps, Navigation, Google Earth™, Movie Studio, YouTube™, Google Calendar™, and Google+. The home screen and phone application has gone through re design and has acquired a new look under Android 4.0. Android 4.0 ( Ice cream Sandwich) also includes a new people Application allowing users to browse friends and other contacts, their photographs and status updates from multiple social networking platforms.
Galaxy Nexus has a 5-mega pixel rear-facing camera with LED flash. The rear-facing camera has zero shutter lag reducing the time between the time the picture is taken and the time the picture is actually shot. The camera also has additional features such as panoramic view, auto focus, silly faces and background replacement. The rear-facing camera is capable of HD video recording at 1080 P. The front facing camera is 1.3 mega pixels and is capable of rendering good quality video for video conferencing. The camera specifications on Galaxy Nexus fall under middle range specifications and will deliver satisfactory photo and video quality.
The multimedia support on Galaxy nexus is also note worthy. The device is capable of HD video playback with 1080 P at 30 frames per second. By default, Galaxy Nexus has video codec for MPEG4, H.263 and H.264 formats. The HD video playback quality on Galaxy Nexus coupled with the impressive display will deliver a superior movie watching experience on a smart phone. Galaxy Nexus includes MP3, AAC, AAC+ and eAAC+ audio codec formats. The device also includes a 3.5 mm audio jack.
With a standard Li-on 1750 mAh battery, the device will get by a normal working day with calling, messaging, email, and browsing with ease. The most important fact with Galaxy Nexus is the availability of updates on Android as soon as it is released. A user with a Galaxy Nexus will be the first to receive these updates as Galaxy Nexus is a pure Android experience.
Samsung Droid Charge
Droid charge is an Android smart phone by Samsung. The device is also known as Samsung SCH-i520, Samsung Inspiration, Samsung 4G LTE, and Samsung Stealth V. Droid charge was officially announced on January 2011, and is available with Verizon Wireless since May 2011.
Droid charge stands 5.11” tall and its 0.47” thick. This smart phone is available in black with a black plastic chassis and 4 buttons in front of the phone. The phone weighs 143 g. Droid charge comes with a 4.3” Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touch screen with 480 x 800 resolution. Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate and touch-sensitive controls are available with Droid Charge.
The Droid Charge runs on a 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor (Hummingbird Chipset). The device has 512 MB RAM and comes with a micro SD card slot for storage, and it can be extended up to 32 GB. Droid Charge has micro USB support. In terms of connectivity, the device supports LTE connectivity up to 15 Mbps. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth is also available on this device.
Droid Charge includes an 8 MP rear facing camera with autofocus, LED flash, Geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection. Video recording is also available with the rear facing camera. A 1.3 mega pixel front facing camera is also available with Droid Charge, which will enable video conferencing.
Droid Charge doesn’t have the availability of FM radio; however, the device includes a MP3/MP4 player, inbuilt speakers and 3.5 mm audio jack.
Droid Charge is powered by Android 2.2. Applications for the device can be downloaded from Android Market. It can be noted that a large number of applications comes installed with Droid Charge. These applications cannot be uninstalled. While they may not take much storage from the device, it will give a cluttered feeling. Droid Charge is pre loaded with the usual Google Applications, YouTube, Calendar, Picasa integration, Flash support and image and video editor. The user interface is customized using the TouchWiz 3.0 by Samsung.
Overall, Droid Charge is not at the very high end smart phone category according to smart phone standards of today. But for the specifications given the device gives good performance and comes with really good battery life. Droid Charge has a single 1,600mAh battery, which is generous for a smart phone.
Samsung introducing Galaxy Nexus (Pure Google Experience)