By Manikandan Raman: Subscribe to Manikandan's RSS feed
December 24, 2011 8:38 AM EST
This year saw Android smartphones grow by leaps and bounds and Google Inc. release the latest version of its Operating System - Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich - in the latter half of the year.
The exponential growth of the Android OS is evident from the Twitter statement of Andy Rubin, the Senior Vice President of Mobile at Google. According to Rubin, there are now over 700,000 Android devices activated every day. Earlier in June, Rubin, who oversees the development of the Android software, said there were over 500,000 activations.
The Android operating system is well supported by a strong ecosystem comprising the Android Market, on which the actual total number of applications leapt to over 500,000 in September 2011, according to mobile research firm Research2Guidance. The number, though marginally less than Apple's App Store - which houses 600,000, is a strong number.
Following are our top 10 Android smartphones of 2011: Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Samsung Galaxy S2, HTC Vivid, LG Nitro HD, HTC Rezound, Motorola Droid Razr, HTC Evo 3D, Motorola Droid Bionic, HTC Inspire 4G and Motorola Atrix 2.
Samsung Galaxy Nexus:
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Ever since it was released on Verizon's network, on Dec. 15, the much-awaited Galaxy Nexus has topped the smartphone charts and received positive reviews from experts.
The Galaxy Nexus, which features Google's Ice Cream Sandwich, was also known as Samsung Google Nexus Prime, Samsung Google Galaxy Nexus I9250, Samsung Google Nexus 3 and Samsung Google Nexus 4G.
The Ice Cream Sandwich is a combination of Gingerbread and Honeycomb in one unit that includes, among other features, widgets in a new tab, a customizable launcher, Gmail with offline search and a two-line preview and a new action bar at the bottom. The software also has better voice integration, improved copy and paste functions and a new tabbed Web browser that allows up to 16 tabs.
The Galaxy Nexus comes with dual-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A9 CPU, TI OMAP 4460 chipset, 4.65-inch high-definition Super AMOLED display, 1GB of RAM, 16 or 32GB of internal memory, Near Field Communication (NFC), 4G LTE support, a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera with 1080p video capture and 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera for video calls. On the flip side, the phone doesn't come with expandable memory and does not support Google Wallet.
Verizon Wireless sells the Galaxy Nexus for $299.99 on a two-year contract.
Samsung Galaxy S2:
The Galaxy S2 is one of Samsung's best-selling smartphones and proof of that fact is that it does not lag behind on the specifications front. Both the T-Mobile and Sprint versions of the device have 4.52-inch display screens, whereas the AT&T version retains the 4.3-inch screen of the versions sold worldwide.
The Galaxy S2, in general, comes with a 4.3-inch WVGA SUPER AMOLED Plus display with resolution of 800 x 480 pixels at 217 ppi, 1.2GHz dual-core chip and 1GB RAM. It also features an 8 megapixel camera with flash and can record HD video in 1080p. The phone also has a front-facing 2 megapixel camera for video chat.
The Galaxy S2, currently running on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, is expected to get an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade in early 2012.
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