Samsung Galaxy Nexus vs HTC Rhyme | HTC Rhyme 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. But you have to wait until November 2011 to get your hands on Galaxy Nexus for the Ice Cream Sandwich experience. The Galaxy Nexus has 4G LTE and HSPA+ variants. HTC Rhyme is one of the latest Android smart phones announced by HTC. HTC Rhyme was officially announced in early September 2011. The device was released in some parts of the world in October. This Android phone comes with many accessories and it’s marketed by HTC with the tag line, “Accessories to fit your life”. HTC Rhyme is available $200 only, on contract.
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.
HTC Rhyme
HTC Rhyme is one of the latest Android smart phones announced by HTC. HTC Rhyme was officially announced in early September 2011. The device was released in some parts of the world in October. This Android phone comes with many accessories and it’s marketed by HTC with the tag line, “Accessories to fit your life”. In addition, it is a very colorful and attractive device, and sure to attract the women.
HTC Rhyme is 4.68” tall, 2.39” wide. With a thickness of just 0.43”, HTC Rhyme will appear portable and slim in the hands of any user. With battery, the device weighs only 130g. Among the other devices announced during the same time, HTC Rhyme is smaller and light weight. HTC Rhyme is complete with a 3.7-inch super LCD capacitive touch screen with 480 x 800 resolution. The screen resolution is average for the current smart phone market, but the Super LCD display should suffice for the quality output. The HTC Rhyme comes with Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate, Proximity sensor for auto turn-off, a digital compass and a light sensor. The user interface on HTC Rhyme is customized with HTC Sense 3.5.
HTC Rhyme is powered by a 1GHz Scorpion processor with an Adreno 205 GPU. The processing power and the hardware configuration for graphics manipulation remain sufficient for an Android smart phone with multi tasking capability. It will be a suitable phone to improve life style and add accessories, but maybe not the device for heavy gaming, video watching etc. HTC Rhyme includes 768 MB RAM and 4 GB internal storage. The device ships with an 8 GB micro SD card. However, storage can be extended up to 32 GB with the help of a micro SD card. In terms of connectivity, the device supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G connectivity as well as micro-USB.
HTC Rhyme is complete with a 5 mega pixel rear facing camera with auto focus and LED flash. The camera has features such as geo-tagging, as well. The rear-facing camera is also capable of capturing video at 720P. The front facing camera is a VGA camera allowing video conferencing. A common feature in the HTC camera of many devices released/announced with HTC Rhyme is the instant capture. The feature is available with HTC Rhyme, as well. The lag between pressing the button to take the picture and the time the picture is taken is reduced by instant capture.
HTC Rhyme has considerably decent multimedia support. The supported audio playback formats are .aac, .amr, .ogg, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .wav and .wma, while supported audio recording formats are .amr, .m4a and .aac. HTC Rhyme supports video playback formats such as .3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .wmv (Windows Media Video 9), .avi (MP4 ASP and MP3) and .xvid (MP4 ASP and MP3), while video recording formats such as .3gp and .mp4 are also supported. HTC Rhyme also has Stereo FM radio with RDS. The device ships with a stylish headset, as well (wired). The 3.7” super LCD display will allow users to have a go at a movie when they have some time in hand.
HTC Rhyme is powered by Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). The user interface is customized with the latest version of HTC Sense for smart phones, HTC Sense 3.5. The clock widget has been given a new look, and the layouts have been slightly modified. Friend feed will allow users to be up to date about their friends over multiple social networking sites. When receiving a call, users will be able to see the caller’s latest status, or if it is his/her birthday, it will be displayed, as well. More applications for HTC Rhyme can be downloaded from Android marketplace and many other 3rd party android markets. The browsing experience is also pleasant in HTC Rhyme with pinch to zoom, smooth video playback, flash support and multi window browsing.
HTC Rhyme has a 1600mAh battery, and there for users can expect a continuous talk time over 6 hours easily. HTC Rhyme has a cool accessory called the “Charm Indicator” which can be plugged into the headphone jack of the device and which will blink when a call is received. The idea is to enable the user to find the phone inside a bag easily.
Samsung introducing Galaxy Nexus (Pure Google Experience)
HTC Rhyme – First look