HTC Amaze 4G vs. Samsung Galaxy Nexus: The 4G Battle Tightens

The HTC Amaze 4G, which was released in October for T-Mobile, is expected to face immense competition from the first Ice Cream Sandwich phone, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which was made available in November for Verizon Wireless.

The HTC smartphone, which has a 4.3-inch screen, comes with speeds of 42 Mbps over T-Mobile's network. The Amaze 4G, which is available in black and white, is priced at $299.99 with a 2-year T-Mobile contract.

The Amaze 4G, which runs on Google's Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread OS, has a dual-core 1.5 GHz Scorpion CPU, Adreno 220 GPU, 4.3-inch S-LCD capacitive display, 1GB of RAM and 16 GB of internal memory that can be expanded up to 32GB via a microSD card.

HTC has already confirmed the Amaze 4G will be getting Google Inc.'s latest smartphone operating system - the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich - in 2012. The HTC smartphone has an 8 megapixel dual-LED flash camera with 1080p video capture and a 2 megapixel front-facing camera for video chat.

On the other hand, the Galaxy Nexus marks the commencement of the Android 4.0 era. The Ice Cream Sandwich operating system is a combination of two previous incarnations - the smartphone Gingerbread OS and the tablet Honeycomb OS. The features of Ice Cream Sandwich includes widgets in a new tab, a customizable launcher, Gmail with offline search and a two-line preview, a new action bar at the bottom, better voice integration, improved copy-and-paste functions and a new tabbed Web browser that allows up to 16 tabs.

The Galaxy Nexus, which is the first Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone, was also known as the Samsung Google Nexus Prime, the Samsung Google Galaxy Nexus I9250, the Samsung Google Nexus 3, the Samsung Google Nexus 4G and the Samsung Nexus Prime 4G LTE.

It comes with a 4.65-inch high-definition Super AMOLED Contour display, dual-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A9 CPU, TI OMAP 4460 chipset, PowerVR SGX540 GPU, 1GB of RAM, 16 or 32GB of internal memory, Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, 4G LTE support, a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera with 1080p video capture and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera for video calls. On the flip side, the phone will not support Google Wallet.

Let's take a look at the specifications of both phones:

Display: The Amaze 4G sports a 4.3-inch Super-LCD capacitive touch-screen with qHD resolution of 960 x 540 pixels with about 256 pixels per inch (ppi) density. On the other hand, the Galaxy Nexus sports a 4.65-inch high-definition Super AMOLED Contour display that will give a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels and about 316 ppi pixel density with oleophobic coating protection.

Size: The Amaze 4G comes with 5.12 x 2.58 x 0.46 inches dimension and weighs 6.1 ounces. On the other hand, the Galaxy Nexus comes in 5.33 x 2.67 x 0.37 inches dimension and weighs 5.1 ounces.

Processor: The Amaze 4G packs a 1.5 GHz Scorpion dual-core processor, Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 chipset, Adreno 220 GPU with 1GB RAM. On the other hand, the Galaxy Nexus features dual-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A9 CPU, Texas Instruments OMAP 4460 chipset, PowerVR SGX540 GPU with 1GB RAM.

Camera: The Amaze 4G sports a rear-facing 8 megapixel dual-LED flash 3264x2448 pixels camera with 1080p HD video capture capability, while the Galaxy Nexus sports a 5 megapixel LED flash 2592x1936 pixels camera with 1080p video capture. The Nexus has an additional 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera for video calling while the Amaze 4G has a 2 megapixel camera for the same purpose.

Camera Features: The Amaze 4G has geo-tagging, touch-focus, face-detection, SmartShot, BurstShot, SweepShot and ClearShot technologies. On the other hand, the Galaxy Nexus has touch focus, geo-tagging, face detection, top notch low-light performance and zero shutter lag

3G/4G: Both smartphones come with HSDPA 21 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps and supports 4G LTE.

Operating System: The Amaze 4G has the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system with the promise of an upgrade to Google Inc.'s latest smartphone OS, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The Galaxy Nexus, however, comes preloaded with Android 4.0 OS. Android Head of Engineering Mike Claren announced the new OS - Ice Cream Sandwich - as Google's most ambitious release to date.

User Interface: The Amaze 4G uses HTC Sense 3.0 version User Interface. On the other hand, the Galaxy Nexus uses Google's own user interface that starts at the new home screen outfitted with a 360 degree Action Bar and fresh interactive widgets in an exciting holographic environment.

WLAN/Bluetooth/USB: Both smartphones have Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, NFC and microUSB 2.0 versions. The Amaze 4G has Bluetooth 3.0 version with A2DP and EDR, while the Galaxy Nexus has Bluetooth 3.0 version with A2DP, Wi-Fi dual-band and Wi-Fi hotspot.

Storage: The Amaze 4G has a fixed 16GB of internal storage, which is expandable via microSD card up to 32GB. However, the Galaxy Nexus has a fixed 16 / 32GB internal storage.

Battery: The Amaze 4G comes with a standard Li-ion 1730 mAh battery that gives up to 6 hours of talk time and up to 265 hours of standby. Galaxy Nexus, on the other hand, comes with a standard Li-ion 1750 mAh battery that gives more than 8 hours of talk time and 270 hours of standby on 3G networks.

Pricing: Amaze 4G is priced at $299.99 with a two-year T-Mobile contract while it is available at $199.99 in Best Buy and Amazon.com. The Galaxy Nexus is priced at $299.99 with a two-year Verizon Wireless contract.

Additional Features: Galaxy Nexus has accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer sensors, Assisted GPS, Adobe Flash, active noise cancellation with dedicated mic, TV-out (via MHL A/V link), MP4/H.264/H.263 player, MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3 player, Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, and Picasa integration.

On the other hand, Amaze 4G has accelerometer, proximity, compass sensors, stereo FM radio with RDS, SRS sound enhancement, assisted GPS, Adobe Flash, active noise cancellation with dedicated mic, TV-out (via MHL A/V link), SNS integration, Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Google Talk, Picasa integration, MP3/AAC+/WAV/WMA player, and MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player.

Editors' Rating: Both the smartphones scored 4 out of 5 stars in PCMag editors' rating. CNET has a score of 4.5 out of 5 stars for Galaxy Nexus, much better than 4 stars for Amaze 4G.

Editors' Review of Galaxy Nexus: As the first U.S. phone with Ice Cream Sandwich, Verizon's Samsung Galaxy Nexus takes a coveted, solitary step forward. However, once other premium handsets receive the updated Android OS, the Galaxy Nexus will lose some of its competitive edge, CNET says.

With Ice Cream Sandwich, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus for Verizon has the best software of any Android phone, but that doesn't make it the best phone there is, according to PCMag.

Editors' Review of Amaze 4G: The HTC Amaze 4G is a beautifully designed and fast Android smartphone, with some advanced camera features, but don't go ditching your point-and-shoot camera just yet, according to CNET.

The HTC Amaze 4G has a big beautiful screen, a great camera, and fast HSPA+ 42 speeds, making it a top choice for Android smartphones on T-Mobile, according to PCMag.