First Impressions: Google Galaxy Nexus

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

I just came from the briefing on the Google Galaxy Nexus, the first Android smartphone in the market with the new and unified Ice Cream Sandwich OS from Google. Exclusive to Bell and Virgin Mobile in Canada until Q1 2012, the device will start shipping early December.  Here are our first impressions.

I've bought and owned both the-HTC made Nexus One and Samsung's Google Nexus S as my personal devices, which were the 'hero' smartphones that exemplified what an Android device should be. In terms of specs and unadulterated Android experience, these two smartphones were months ahead in features and functionality. 

Today, we spent some time with the Nexus Galaxy during a 30 minute briefing and here is our rundown of impressions.

• I was told that Samsung and Google collaborated on this from the start and that it was designed from the ground up for Ice Cream Sandwich (Android OS 4.0)
• It is much like a larger but slimmed down Google Nexus S, similar contoured shape but much more refined and it is light. As Samsung's Director, Wireless Product Realization Vlastimir Lalovik said, "it weighs as much as a Kit Kat."
• The device is mostly plastic although the rear is finished with a grippier design so it isn't as slippery as the Nexus S. That being said, our first impression is that HTC's Raider and Amaze smartphones and even Motorola's Droid RAZR feel more substantial because of the integrated materials. Again, nothing too different from many of the previous and current Samsung smartphones. Still, it feels very well put together but we would definitely get a case for it.
• 16GB capacity and no expansion for microSD which is unfortunate for such a multimedia savvy device but all the Nexus Samsung phones were not expandable. Seriously though Google, would it kill you to put a microSD slot in these things?
• There is deep integration with Google+ and the web browsing experience has also been substantially made faster.
• It loads pages quickly and the pinch to zoom experience is instantaneous, one of the best we've experienced, very responsive and rendering and resizing of complex webpages (with animated banners and videos was fast)
• The  4.65" high-definition sAMOLED display is stunning and not sickeningly saturated like earlier AMOLED screens. Lalovik told us it has been optimized for text and for reading plus it should be better for viewing outdoors. This has an edge-to-edge 720p screen high-definition playback capability, great for video details.
• The NFC capability as well as the software has been updated for bumping info back and forth.
• The 5 megapixel camera is quite good, fast to deploy and the zero shutter lag works as advertised, almost as fast as the iPhone 4S. The sweep panorama feature stitches sequential photos really fast, faster than Photosynth on iOS 5. Now, the fact that is a 5 megapixel camera on a flagship device where older devices have an 8 megapixel camera might be an issue for some, but good photos aren't about megapixels per se...we look forward to testing this camera overall.
• Ice Cream Sandwich has been optimized to take advantage of the 1.2GHz dual core processor which might result not only in noticeably faster performance all around but also improved battery life and system management.
• We liked that the Galaxy Nexus has no dedicated home, back and menu buttons, these are now soft buttons that are part of the screen and adjust depending on the orientation.
• Accessories include car docks as well as a multimedia dock for playing back video or music.
• Overall, the Galaxy Nexus is like a spiffed up Galaxy S II without the TouchWiz and with a more contoured and swooping design.

Stay tuned for more updates during the week.