Spec shootout: Galaxy Nexus vs. Galaxy S II vs. iPhone 4S vs. HTC Sensation

Tim Schiesser

19 October 2011 - 03:22 Hot!

So Google has announced their latest smartphone in conjunction with Samsung, the Galaxy Nexus, which has some impressive specifications that cement it as a fantastic upcoming device. Still, there are some other smartphones on the market competing with the Galaxy Nexus, and below we have compiled a handy comparison table to help you make the right decision.

The top specs of each are highlighted in bold:

	Google Galaxy Nexus	Samsung Galaxy S II	Apple iPhone 4S	HTC Sensation
Network Connectivity	HSPA 850/900/1900/2100 GSM 850/900/1800/1900 LTE (some regions)	HSPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900	HSPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 CDMA2000 1xEV-DO CDMA 800 / 1900	HSPA 850 / 900 / 2100 GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
Display	4.65-inch 720x1280 HD Super AMOLED	4.3-inch 480x800 Super AMOLED Plus	3.5-inch 640 x 960 LED-backlit IPS	4.3-inch 540 x 960 S-LCD
Processor	TI OMAP 4460 chipset 1.2 GHz dual-core CPU	Exynos chipset 1.2 GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU	Apple A5 chipset 800 MHz dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU	Qualcomm MSM8260 Snapdragon (S3) chipset 1.2 GHz dual-core Scorpion CPU
Graphics	Unknown graphics	Mali-400MP	PowerVR SGX543MP2	Adreno 220
RAM	1 GB	1 GB	512 MB	768 MB
Storage	16 or 32 GB internal storage	16 or 32 GB internal storage	16 or 32 or 64 GB internal storage	1 GB internal storage with microSD expansion
Connectivity	WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n dual-band Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP A-GPS DLNA FM Radio	WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n dual band Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP A-GPS DLNA FM Radio	WiFi 802.11 b/g/n Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP A-GPS	WiFi 802.11 b/g/n Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP A-GPS DLNA FM Radio
Camera	5 MP rear camera with autofocus and LED flash 1.3 MP front camera 1080p video recording (rear)	8 MP rear camera with autofocus and LED flash 2 MP front camera 1080p video recording (rear)	8 MP rear camera with autofocus and LED flash VGA front camera 1080p video recording (rear)	8 MP rear camera with autofocus and dual-LED flash VGA front camera 1080p video recording (rear)
Sensors	Accelerometer Magnetometer Gyroscope Barometer Light sensor Proximity sensor Near-field communication (NFC)	Accelerometer Magnetometer Gyroscope Light sensor Proximity sensor Near-field communication (some models)	Accelerometer Magnetometer Gyroscope Light sensor Proximity sensor	Accelerometer Magnetometer Gyroscope Light sensor Proximity sensor
Battery	Li-ion 1,750 mAh	Li-ion 1,650 mAh	Li-Po 1,432 mAh	Li-ion 1,520 mAh
Launch OS	Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich"	Android 2.3 "Gingerbread" TouchWiz UI 4.0	iOS 5	Android 2.3 "Gingerbread" Sense UI 3.0
Launch Date	November 2011	May 2011	October 2011	June 2011
Size & Weight	8.94mm thin 135 g	8.5mm thin 116 g	9.3mm thin 140 g	11.3mm thin 148 g

44 Comments

Sensation has 1080p recording on the back btw

HoochieMamma said,

Sensation has 1080p recording on the back btw

Thanks, originally had the Sensation XL there before I realized it was even less powerful than the Sensation

Scorpus said,

Thanks, originally had the Sensation XL there before I realized it was even less powerful than the Sensation

The Sensation XE has better specs then the Sensation.
Better battery (1730mAh) and overclocked processor.

43 inches ? thats even bigger than microsoft surface

HTC Sensation?
Seriously?

Muhammad Farrukh said,

HTC Sensation?
Seriously?

Yeah, it would have made much more sense to use Motorola Razr in comparison. Or even HTC Titan.

Galaxy Nexus wins.

72Raisins said,

Galaxy Nexus wins.

but the iphone 4s is the only one that can get apps over the wifi's
/s

72Raisins said,

Galaxy Nexus wins.

Still doesn't explain the lags, I'm going to give up and just think it's a feature of Android from now on. I mean, c'mon! at this stage in the game??

flexkeyboard said,

Still doesn't explain the lags, I'm going to give up and just think it's a feature of Android from now on. I mean, c'mon! at this stage in the game??

Yes, Android has always been very laggy. Just the scrolling completely kills the experience, I'm not even talking about the rest …

PyX said,

Yes, Android has always been very laggy. Just the scrolling completely kills the experience, I'm not even talking about the rest …

WP7 wins for fluidity. No other mobile OS can touch it (not even iOS). It's not all about fluidity though...

flexkeyboard said,

Still doesn't explain the lags, I'm going to give up and just think it's a feature of Android from now on. I mean, c'mon! at this stage in the game??

Accelerated hardware. I wonder what that means? This is the forth revision of Android to enable accelerated hardware 3.0,3.1,3.2 & 4.0. Still doesn't explain your ignorance...

It looks like a pretty sweet phone. I think a guy I work with is going to get the Galaxy Nexus if it comes to Verizon.

That said, no mention of expected battery life?

Why's the S2 win on camera? 2mp video calls that no one uses? well ok. But I think its a draw then, if u factor in the 4S's superior optics rear optics. Its not just about the megapixels. Also isn't the S2 thicker than the iphone at its thickest point? The reason its claim as the thinnest smartphone was denied.

RobertH said,

its just a spec kick off .. and they are just going off of specs.. does not mean its better

RobertH said,

Why's the S2 win on camera? 2mp video calls that no one uses?

It's just comparing raw numbers. The Galaxy Nexus may have the best camera but we haven't seen a shootout yet.

RobertH said,

Superior optics ? Are you talking about some cheap software tricks to enhance contrast and saturation to the point that the images look unnatural ? Seriously, iPhone users shouldn't even talk about "optics" or professional photography because it just makes them look stupid.

BK201 said,

Lol...it reminds me of the time, during one of the iphone launches, that a reporter asked about the iphone camera, and jobs said something along the "its not about megapixels" line. Gotta love iphone users parroting things.

Yea I was wondering if I was the only one that was noticing that haha. It seems to be an Android was reviewing the phones and popping in the stats in the charts haha...

RobertH said,

If it is about the megapixels, and not about the optics, then explain cameras during the film era. No megapixel discussions there.

BK201 said,

Superior optics ? Are you talking about some cheap software tricks to enhance contrast and saturation to the point that the images look unnatural ?

What are you talking about? f2.4 is not a cheap software trick? Nor is the improved sensor or added lens. And actually the iPhone 4 produces the most natural colour saturations??

iPhone users shouldn't even talk about "optics" or professional photography because it just makes them look stupid

Um wait what? "iphone users"? Oh disregard what I said before... you are just a troll and my mistake for taking it seriously.

how come apple is the only manufacturer who can put 64 gb in a phone nowadays?

jasonon said,

how come apple is the only manufacturer who can put 64 gb in a phone nowadays?

Because unlike iPhone, most Android phones have sd slot ? Duh ? You can get 32GB micro-sd card for like 30 buck nowadays.

BK201 said,

Because unlike iPhone, most Android phones have sd slot ? Duh ? You can get 32GB micro-sd card for like 30 buck nowadays.

I havn't seen anything saying the galaxy nexus will have an sd slot.

Berserk87 said,

I haven't seen anything saying the galaxy nexus will have an sd slot.

It doesn't.

Looks to me like the most significant difference between the Galaxy Nexus and S2 is the screen resolution.

I presume the processor and graphics will be similar in performance.

Oh and the Galaxy Nexus battery is slightly bigger (although countered by the slightly bigger screen).

I'm waiting to see it in person and test the interface response. It is something that have always left people, me included, disappointed. I prefer WP7 but Android is good too.

For many friends that prefer Android first have always talked about how smooth WP7 on my LG Optimus 7 is compared to their phones.

Galaxy S2 supports dual band wifi.

What's a barometer?

Hardcore Til I Die said,

Galaxy S2 supports dual band wifi.

What's a barometer?

The barometer indicates the atmosphere pressure; simply put when the pressure goes down..... you are going to experience bad weather.
More details:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barometer

anyone know why they put that in there?
there has to be a reason.

Berserk87 said,

anyone know why they put that in there?
there has to be a reason.

Probably to predict real time weather. But they don't have an ambient temp sensor so I'm not sure how that is going to work.

Berserk87 said,

anyone know why they put that in there?
there has to be a reason.

Probably for "hey, wear a coat!" Notifications

Why do they always screw up something with this Google phone? This time with the camera - what was the problem with putting in a 8MP sensor?

tom5 said,

Why do they always screw up something with this Google phone? This time with the camera - what was the problem with putting in a 8MP sensor?

It comes down to the quality of the sensor. On the Droid Incredible and the HTC Thuderbolt, they both had 8MP. However the iPhone 4 has 5MP and took better pictures. More MP doesn't always mean better. Without the right sensor (Which has always been HTCs problem) photos look saturated.

Those screen sizes look ridiculous. I had enough trouble touching the top corners on my friend's first gen Samsung Galaxy S when used one handed and that only had a little bit bigger screen than the iPhone. I don't think something with a 4.65 inch display would even fit my hands comfortably because the current biggest phones certainly don't.

It's good that the resolutions are improving on the competition though.

LaXu said,

It's good that the resolutions are improving on the competition though.

You are forgetting one thing. The phone dimensions are pretty much the same. It's the screen dimension that changes. You see the Galaxy Nexus has no buttons. It's built in to the UI where as the Nexus S had buttons.

Anyone for Top Trumps with phone specs?

Specs mean nothing when the OS is junk. The benchmarks already showed that the iPhone blew everybody else out of the water.

ICS' GPU accelerated UI looks smooth as butter in the videos I've seen. Looking forward to playing with it

I'm not sure how having a larger battery is a win for the Androids. That's like declaring SUVs best at MPG based on the fact that it has a 16 gallon tank while the sedan only has a 12.

Shadrack said,

I'm not sure how having a larger battery is a win for the Androids. That's like declaring SUVs best at MPG based on the fact that it has a 16 gallon tank while the sedan only has a 12.

Because Android phones are capable of decent battery life. I had a HTC Trophy running Mango, and with the same settings, it fared the same battery life as the Droid Incredible (running Gingerbread), and I used the same battery for both phones, since it's interchangeable...

samsung makes crap devices, ill be getting the moto razr or the htc vigor, they both will get ice cream in the near future.

How do they make 'crap' devices when the Galaxy S2 has been such a huge success???

Just bought a iPhone 4S and that new Google Galaxy Nexus looks really good, I'd buy it if it had iOS on it

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