Android Phone

[notyoueither]

They delayed it in respect for Steve Jobs' passing.

OK. Thanks.

[Asher]

Ice Cream Sandwich has leaked: http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/07/i...load-previews/

[DaShi]

It's because it's so hot!

[Theben]

I got an HTC Sensation. It's pretty cool, except when it sucks. TMobile, which works just fine for me, thanks.

[Asher]

[Asher]

The specs reported on various sites from a "very reliable source" indicate the following:

1. Screen is definitely a 4.6" 720p (1280x720)
2. CPU is a Samsung processor (not TI like earlier reported). It's a dual-core 1.5GHz likely based on the Cortex A9 (same CPUs in the iPad 2 / iPhone 4S, but at 1.5GHz instead of 1.0GHz)
3. GPU is SGX534MP2. This is the exact same GPU in the iPad 2 / iPhone 4S.
4. The rear camera is 8MPixel (same as the 4S)
5. Battery is 2050mAh
6. 8mm thin (iPhone 4S is 9.4mm)

[onodera]

Time to replace my phone, I guess.

Sent from my Nexus One.

[Burning_Monkey]

I just bought a bionic last week. Other than the horrible amounts of bloatware that Verizon installed on it, I like the phone a lot.

I am probably going to get the 'original' software package installed on the phone from the factory and reflash the phone, then go in with a machete and skillfully, delicately hack all that **** out.

[Asher]

The Droid Razr looks badass.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2011/10/hands-on-with-the-motorola-droid-razr-and-motoactv.ars

[Asher]

Galaxy Nexus unveiled.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/18/samsungs-galaxy-nexus-gets-official-android-4-0-4-65-inch-hd/

4.65" 720p screen
1.2GHz dual-core CPU
1GB of RAM
5Mpixel rear, 1.3Mpixel front camera capable of 1080p30 recording
NFC chip (rumoured for the iPhone 4S, but not included)
And a frickin barometer (whatever for?)

Wait no more. Google and Samsung have just made the long-awaited Galaxy Nexus (not longer the Nexus Prime, as we'd once heard) official here in Hong Kong, and the specifications are downright drool-worthy. Those with bantam hands need not apply, as this 4.65-inch behemoth is bound to bring back talk of Sidetalkin'. Naturally, Ice Cream Sandwich is onboard, with Google finally revealing the version number as 4.0. Other specs include an HD Super AMOLED display (1,280 x 720), a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 5 megapixel rear camera (with LED flash), a 1.3 megapixel front-facing cam, 1080p30 video recording and playback, a newfangled panorama mode, a 3.5mm headphone jack and Bluetooth 3.0. You'll also find USB 2.0, 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, an embedded NFC module, accelerometer, compass, gyro, proximity sensor and even a barometer -- yeah, a barometer. Finishing things out, there's 1GB of RAM, 16 or 32GB of internal storage space and a 1,750mAh battery. As for radios? There's an HSPA+ model on tap, while an LTE version will "be available depending on region." There's nary a mention of carrier in the press release we're holding, but based on earlier leaks, a 4G build for Verizon Wireless seems a lock.

Focusing on Ice Cream Sandwich for a tick, Android 4.0 will bring "an entirely new look and feel to Android," boasting a redesigned user interface, bolstered multitasking / notifications, full-on NFC support and a new People app, which enables users to browse friends, family and coworkers' photos whilst peeking their status updates from Google+. ICS also introduces Face Unlock, which taps into facial recognition protocols in order to unlock your handset. And then there's Android Beam, an NFC-based technology that allows you to "quickly share webpages, apps and YouTube videos by simply tapping two phones together." According to Goog, the "lock screen, home screen, phone app and everything in between has been rethought and redesigned," and this is quite the beastly phone to launch with. We're still awaiting word as to when ICS will be rolled out to other handsets (and which ones will support it), so keep it locked here for more as the liveblog unfolds.

[Asher]

http://thisismynext.com/2011/10/18/galaxy-nexus-android-ice-cream-sandwich-pictures-video-hands-on/

Galaxy Nexus with Ice Cream Sandwich: pictures, video, and hands-on

Samsung may have been the one to launch and produce it, but the Galaxy Nexus is all about Google and its latest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich. This 4.65-inch smartphone is loaded with a fundamentally new operating system, whether you’ve been using the Gingerbread or Honeycomb builds previously, and emphasizes lateral swipes, resizable UI elements / widgets, and high-def images wherever possible. We’ve just returned from our first play with it and have a thorough preview of both the hardware and software waiting for you after the break. Hands-on photos and video can also be found there.

Hardware

Let’s start by allaying your biggest concern: in spite of having a 4.65-inch screen, the Galaxy Nexus doesn’t feel too big to be a smartphone. A good chunk of its screen size expansion actually treads into the area vacated by the row of capacitive keys that were previously standard issue on Android handsets, the result of which is that it isn’t that much larger than the original, 4.3-inch, Galaxy S II. It’d probably be right to characterize the Galaxy Nexus as the natural outcome of splicing the Nexus S with the GSII. It has the same concave screen curve as the previous Android flagship smartphone, while its rear is very much inspired by the Galaxy S II, including the feather-light plastic back cover and gentle protrusion in the lower half.

Where the new Nexus differs from its predecessors is in its teardrop-like profile, starting off fantastically thin at the top and gently, smoothly expanding to a (relatively) rotund bottom. It lends the phone a very sophisticated look and also makes it easy to handle and operate. In terms of weight, the Galaxy Nexus surprises by being quite a bit lighter than one might expect from just looking at it. This is likely down to the all-plastic external construction — which sadly didn’t impress us too much — though Samsung has installed a metallic inner frame to ensure the phone’s frame is rigid enough.

The Galaxy Nexus is the first so-called HD phone we’ve seen yet (hey, the Droid RAZR was just introduced a few hours ago), touting a 1280 x 720 resolution, and we’ve got to say that the experience of using such a device is well worth the price of admission. The sheer amount of stuff you can fit on the screen at one time is terrific and the high resolution finally gives us a large-screened smartphone that truly expands the onscreen real estate. Google’s continued push toward more expandable and resizable widgets will really pay off as more phones move to this crazy new res. On top of that, the Super AMOLED panel is what you’ve come to expect — incredibly bright with extremely vibrant colors.
Software / Ice Cream Sandwich

Google’s bag of new tricks in Ice Cream Sandwich is seemingly bottomless. Unlocking the phone is done through automatic face recognition via the front-facing camera. You just have to face the Galaxy Nexus, hold still for a moment, and the phone unlocks itself right into the homescreen. Once there, you’ll find three software menu keys — Back, Home, and Recent Apps, a trifecta that should be familiar to Honeycomb users — adorning the bottom of the large display and replacing the formerly necessary physical or capacitive touch buttons. The Recent Apps link brings up a visual multitasking overview, which is very similar to the design in Honeycomb and shows a vertically scrollable list of the latest applications you’ve opened. They’re all represented by a screen grab of the last activity you had in each app and can be dismissed by being swiped out of the way. Importantly, that action doesn’t shut down the app, just removes it from the list, turning the Recent Apps into a sort of launcher rather an than actual task manager. The reason for this decision, Google tells us, is that the company believes it knows how to manage apps’ resource usage and doesn’t want you to ever worry about “killing” them. Brave words.

Above the pervasive three buttons is a five-icon launcher row. Your app drawer’s in the middle, as is to be expected, and it’s surrounded by the most commonly used applications, like the phone dialer, messaging app, and browser. The notifications screen has seen a few nips and tucks as well, with the ability to dismiss alerts by swiping them away. Importantly, Google is saying that it’s moving away from the use of the long press in Ice Cream Sandwich, it’s all about swiping from here on out.

The Gmail and client have also been overhauled, both visually and functionally. You can now swipe to the side to move between different conversations. That allows you to start a mail-reading session by opening the latest unread message and then progress through the rest by swiping right, never returning to the inbox overview. It works well and struck us as a very neat addition. Another area where the side-swipes are prominent is in the browser, which features a tab management tool not too dissimilar to the Recent Apps menu. It too allows you to dispatch unwanted items by pushing them off to the side and into some digital abyss. Syncing of your Chrome bookmarks is now also built in, so if you’re a loyal Google products user, there’ll be almost no setup required when picking up an Ice Cream Sandwich phone — just about everything you care to keep synced is now indeed being maintained by the Google cloud.

The new People application pulls in high-resolution images of your contacts from Google+ (provided they’re on it, of course) and populates their profiles and your in-call background with them. Just another subtle little way in which Google is exploiting its extremely wide ecosystem. Also new when receiving calls is the option to respond with a pre-canned text message — an option that Samsung and LG have built into their latest Android skins — you can swipe to the sides to choose whether to take or reject the call or swipe up to bring a list of responses explaining your indisposition.

The camera app comes with a promise of zero shutter lag and indeed we saw a Google rep bash away at the capture button with practically no delay between shots. They weren’t all in focus and the time it takes you to load up the application will of course depend on the underlying hardware, but it was an impressive demo and a sign that Google is taking the speed of photography on Android devices seriously. As to overall performance, we saw a good deal of stutter in the Galaxy Nexus before us. Taps were not always recognized and there were occasional delays in performing an instruction, though in Google’s defense, it was a phone fully loaded with running tasks and the software is being continually improved and optimized (i.e. it’s not yet fully baked). That having been said, it unfortunately remains the case that Android isn’t as swift and responsive as iOS or Windows Phone (or even MeeGo Harmattan on the N9). Or at least it wasn’t on the demo phone we got a look at. The subtle, pervasive lag that has characterized the Android UI since it inception is still there, which is not a heartening thing to hear when you’re talking about a super-powered dual-core device like the Galaxy Nexus.

We’ll have a whole lot more on the Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich in the coming weeks, so stay tuned. For now, feast your eyes on the gallery below. [At the link]

That display is ****ing gorgeous. Perfect blacks, tons of colour, perfect viewing angles, 0.1ms response rate(!), and slightly higher pixel density than the iPhone 4/4S. 720p also.

[Asher]

I was worried about the size until I saw this:

http://www.androidauthority.com/galaxy-nexus-nexus-prime-gets-measured-up-27265/

[Asher]

In that it's going to be a Nexus Device. It isn't, it's going to be a "Google Experience Device"(like the OG Droid/Milestone and the Xoom) on Verizon. I'm sure it'll make it's way overseas as something else, but stateside it's going to be a Verizon Droid-branded device...which means it is not going to be a "Nexus" device.

Damn, why am I always right?

[DaShi]

I hope there are other options than face recognition to unlock the phone. Otherwise, it's going to screw over black people and asians.

[DaShi]

Oh, and before anyone cries "racist!" I'm referring to the well-known issue that face recognition has a hard time seeing black faces in certain lighting conditions and that all asians look alike.