Samsung Galaxy Nexus Unleashed: Can it Take on iPhone 4S?

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the latest Samsung and Google flagship smartphone likely to be released in November in the United Kingdom, was unveiled in Hong Kong on Wednesday. The handset's original Oct. 11 launch date was delayed in memory of Apple Inc.'s recently deceased co-founder Steve Jobs.

Google and Samsung revealed the specifications and features of the new smartphone at its unveiling.

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus will be the first device to run the new version of Google's Android operating system, Ice Cream Sandwich, and it will be Google's third foray into the mobile market, following the HTC built Nexus One and the Samsung Nexus S.

However, Google and Samsung can't ignore the the biggest rival and threat Android smartphones face - iPhone 4S.

Apple sold more than 4 million iPhone 4S, the latest generation iPhone, in the first three days after the release day, more than doubling the 1.7 million record set by iPhone 4 by last year.

The iPhone 4S, which was released on Oct 14, features iOS 5, 1 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9, 8-MP camera and the voice assistant Siri.

Facing such an intense competition, can the Galaxy Nexus take on iPhone 4S?

Let's have a look at the specs and features of the Galaxy Nexus and the iPhone 4S, and you can judge which device is better.

1. OS: Ice Cream Sandwich/iOS5

The launch of Google's new Android Ice Cream Sandwich, a dual-core 1.2 GHz Ti OMAP 4460 processor, will be the biggest Android launch since the first version, as its flexible OS makes the Nexus Prime's screen size oddly fitting.

You can expect to see from the operating system a unified and more polish user interface, a high definition display with things like a new font and the elimination of hardware buttons.

The Ice Cream Sandwich also offers some new and neat features, facial recognition to unlock phones, the ability to share data through near field communications (NFC) with Android Beam, updated notifications, improved multitasking, a better keyboard, resizable widgets and tighter integration with Google+.

Apple released iOS 5 just in time one week before the Ice Cream Sandwich arrived.

The iOS 5 comes with 200 new features including Siri, improved notifications system, news stand and iMessage, which has been integrated into the SMS/MMS application used originally on the iPhone models.

The iOS 5 also feature new applications, such as the Reminders app and Newsstand, an application resembling Folders, and iBooks.

2. Processor

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus has a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM with 16 or 32GB internal storage.

The processor is found in the Galaxy S II and is a little faster than the 1GHz chip found in the Nexus S.

The Apple A5 Processor runs on the iPhone 4S, contains a rendition of a chip based upon the dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore CPU with NEON SIMD accelerator and a dual core PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU, which is a package on package system-on-a-chip designed by Apple and manufactured by Samsung to replace the Apple A4.

Apple stated that the CPU is twice as powerful and the GPU up to seven times as powerful as the Apple A4. The A5 package contains 512 MB of low-power DDR2 RAM clocked at 533 MHz.

3. Screen

Samsung has released the appearance of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus from the side. The distinctive feature, gently curved profile make it looks neat and more natural to hold.

The screen of Samsung Galaxy Nexus is superb 4.65-inch, and has a 720x1280 resolution.

The iPhone 4S has a 960 x 640 resolution retina display, with a 3.5-inch Multi-Touch screen.

4. Size and Weight

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is 8.94mm thick, slimmer than 10.88mm of the Nexus S, unlike the iPhone 4S which is 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3 mm, no thinner or lighter than its predecessor the iPhone 4.

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is 135g in weight, 11g heavier than the Nexus S, while the iPhone 4S is 140 g.

5. Camera

When it comes to cameras, some people believe the Samsung Galaxy Nexus will have an 8 megapixel camera, while the camera remains at 5MP. However, it has been improved and can shoot up to 1080p video.

The iPhone 4S has the 8 megapixels camera with LED flash and face detection.

6. Battery

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus has a 1750mAh battery.

The battery of the iPhone 4S is 5.3 Whr--0.05 more than the iPhone 4, offers an extra hour of talk time over the iPhone 4. It has a continuous talk time of 8 hrs on 3G, up to 14 hrs on 2G (GSM network) and up to 200 hrs on standby.

7. Network and Bluetooth

The Galaxy Nexus and the iPhone 4S both have Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, while sprint's network of the iPhone 4S have been complained of slow data speeds since the iPhone 4S launch. It's said that Sprint's data speeds to be down 300-500-kilobytes per second on both the iPhone 4S and Android models, and the company promised to monitor the feedback from customers and will investigate and resolve any issues that may arise.

The Galaxy Nexus has Bluetooth 3.0, while the iPhone 4S has Bluetooth 4.0.

In addition, there are a new voice navigation system Siri exclusive to the iPhone 4S. Siri, as an intelligent assistant, allows users perform tasks by simply speaking to the phone, and has become the biggest selling points of iPhone 4S.

There is a feature called Quick Response in Galaxy Nexus that the iPhone 4S doesn't. With the feature, users can set automatically response to incoming calls with a text when you can't answer the phone in meetings and movie screenings.