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The Samsung Galaxy Nexus, one of the most eagerly awaited smart phones of the season, finally debuted yesterday after a month of delays. Based on our brief use of a press sample, this $300 Verizon 4G phone was worth the wait. It boasts a huge and dazzling display, among other features, and it’s the first smart phone to run Android 4.0, a.k.a. Ice Cream Sandwich—a new OS that appears to more than live up to its high expectations.

Display. While our test experts haven’t yet formally assessed the screen, it’s the best screen I've ever seen on a phone. The fonts are designed to bring out the best from the ultra-sharp 720 x 1280 display, which has a density of about 316 pixels per inch.

Text truly popped. I could read the tiniest type, even on photos, and appointments were sharp and legible on all seven of my integrated Google calendars. And (as in most 4G phones I’ve tried), the display seemed quite fast and responsive and images appeared vivid, yet natural and accurate—even when viewed in fairly bright light outdoors.

Phone navigation. Getting around on the Galaxy Nexus is easy, thanks mostly to the Recent Apps button on the bottom in the systems bar at the bottom of the phone. Just tap it, and you'll see a beautiful stack of screen shots of your most recently used apps. Tap any one of them, and you can jump to that app.

The navigation changes worked well, once I adjusted to them. My only quibble: For searches, you have to hit the Home key to get to the main menu and type or speak into the Google search bar at the top of the screen.

Customization. There are lots of new ways to change backgrounds and perform other cosmetic changes on Android 4.0, but the most practical improvement is the ability to group apps into folders, which saves space and is a great way to keep similar apps together for easier access. You can easily change out any of the five apps (phone, contacts, app drawer, messaging, and Web browser) that initially appear in the Favorite Apps bar at the bottom of the screen.

Voice activation. The Galaxy Nexus has the best voice recognition I've encountered on an Android phone, allowing you to dictate long messages and perform complex searches. It's nowhere near as smart as the iPhone 4S's Siri, though. It often fumbled when I asked it to perform simple tasks, like initiating and sending a text message or e-mail. And it wasn't smart enough to capitalize the first letters of proper nouns, including the names of famous cities.

Facial recognition. The Galaxy Nexus comes with a facial-recognition tool that allows you to unlock your phone. The phone "learns" your face in only a few seconds, and the feature worked fine, for a while. Eventually, though, the phone started having trouble recognizing me when the background lighting was different, or if I changed the part in my hair (or even if I looked at it funny). If facial recognition fails, you can type in a four-digit PIN. But I found inconvenient and a bit humiliating to have the Galaxy Nexus fail to recognize me and then to have to type a PIN to use the phone.

Bottom line: The Galaxy Nexus is certainly one of the best Android phones I've handled, in large part because of the Ice Cream Sandwich operating system it runs on. I expect our full tests of the phone will confirm its status as a high-performing recommended model. But I also expect to see other phones soon that make as much or more of the capabilities of this fantastic new OS

At the current, Apple’s iPhone 4S is claimed the best device in the smartphone market, providing users everything they’re looking for in a handset. However, iPhone 4S is now being competed by Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus, the first smartphone to run the latest version of Google’s most advanced version of Android, 4.0 or “Ice Cream Sandwich”. Therefore, many smartphone buyers are now wondering if it’s worth for them to purchase an iPhone 4S or wait for the Galaxy Nexus to hit store shelves to make their final decision. Let’s see how the Galaxy Nexus is going to be compared to the popular Apple iPhone 4S in specs, speed and camera and so on.

    iPhone 4S features iOS 5 operating system, which is known as the best version of the mobile platform ever launched. Meanwhile, the Galaxy Nexus is running Android 4.0, which is named the best choice for Android customers. iPhone 4S is equipped with the 3.5-inch Retina Display, which gives higher quality than any other screen. On the other hand, although the Galaxy Nexus will not able to deliver the same quality, it has a larger display of 4.65-inch. Samsung Galaxy Nexus only offers a single storage option of 32GB, while the iPhone 4S appears with a much larger storage of between 16GB and 64GB so that it can please user needs. In addition, the Apple’s smartphone comes with an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, allowing customers to take better pictures; but the Galaxy Nexus owns just a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera.     Apple’s iPhone 4S is powered with WiFi and 3G, while the Galaxy Nexus supports WiFi, 3G and 4G. Therefore, the Samsung’s device might be a good choice for people who are looking for faster speeds.     Reading e-books on smartphone is becoming increasingly necessary to users. For this purpose, iBooks application is installed on the iPhone 4S and Google Books is also supported on the Galaxy Nexus. iPhone 4S performs well with the 800MHz Dual-Core Processor. Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus also performs well as it features a dual-core processor of 1.2GHz.

Nearly everyone and their mother has pointed out that Verizon’s LTE-friendly Galaxy Nexus should be launching any day now, but here’s a new set of photos for those of you looking for something a little different to ogle. Courtesy of robertlawson225 on the xda-developers forums, we now have our first look at what may be the Galaxy Nexus in its retail finery.

  Samsung continues to surprise people with a sneak peek at the Verizon LTE flavor of the Galaxy Nexus at the Samsung Experience in Columbus Circle in New York City on Saturday, December 3. Samsung showed off its four pre-production versions of the Ice Cream Sandwich handset at the event. All of these Nexus models were running the Android 4.0.1 software and had no SIM cards. Therefore, users could only test them by using the built-in WiFi module. The performance of Verizon Galaxy Nexus phone was impossible to be tested on Verizon's network. Meanwhile, experts continue speculating whether the Sprint network will carry the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Here are reviews about the release date, specs and features of Samsung Galaxy Nexus:   The Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Verizon version) features no SIM card and it is interesting that if we tried to install a SIM, a security alarm would ring. Nevertheless,   Nexus models work fine with the Android 4.0.1 software and give the download speeds from 5000-7000 kbps. The Galaxy Nexus is equipped with AMOLED 4.65 inch screen with a 720p resolution. The 8.94mm thinness gives the Galaxy Nexus (Verizon version) a sleek finish and weighs only 135g. Although the device is slender and light, it appears with 16.30 GB of storage and 1GB of RAM. Therefore, the phone has twice the memory of the iPhone 4S.   The official release date for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus continued to be a mystery. There is no real way of knowing when the handset will be released in the US. However, the rumored release date for the device is the upcoming 9th December 2011. We will let you know when we hear anything official on this. Or is it? The box’s innards certainly look legitimate — the Nexus comes with the standard microUSB cable/AC adapter and a wired headset. The box proper, on the other hand, is mysteriously blank. Could this be a testament to the pure, untainted version of Android that the Galaxy Nexus bears? It’s possible, though I don’t know if Verizon places that much stock in the symbolism of their package design efforts.   There are a few possibilities, all of which are already being hotly debated on XDA. For what it’s worth, my money is on this particular unit being meant for life as a display unit or as the personal plaything of one of Verizon’s in-store device experts. Either way, it looks like the wait is very nearly over. According to Lawson, Galaxy Nexuses are currently en route to Verizon stores as we speak, and Droid-Life’s sources peg the official release date as December 9. It’s so close, in fact, that I’m beginning to run out of minutiae of obsess over. If you’re anything like me — and I suspect some of you are — check out Jason Kincaid’s thorough dive into how the (GSM) Galaxy Nexus stacks up to the iPhone 4S.

 Not long ago, the iphone 4s launched into the market, brought a wave of purchasing summit. Right after that, Samsung released their new flagship phone, the Galaxy Nexus. Of course, you have got to pay a lot for the new flagship phone, that means an f, If you choose to get one with a mobile servicer, that will be much cheaper.

The much-anticipated new Samsung Galaxy Nexus is the first phone to feature Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich – or ICS if you’re being very 'now' – the latest version of Google’s mobile OS. It also includes one of Samsung’s top of the range HD screens, a dual core processor and 1080p HD video recording – not too aspirational then.

Pick it up and it’s immediately clear that you’re in the company of a quality phone. It’s quite a handful at 136 x 68mm, but pleasingly slim at just 9mm. For the size, it’s also surprisingly light at 135g, due largely to the all-plastic casing. The 4.65in capacitive touch screen takes up most of the front and virtually disappears when the phone powers down, giving it a sheen of glossy black glass.

And what a screen it is. It’s a Super AMOLED HD number, with a 1280 x 720-pixel resolution, all crammed in at 316ppi. That’s 0.3in bigger than Samsung’s flagship Galaxy SII and a real advance on that phone’s 800 x 480 resolution too. With a beautifully wide viewing angle, it’s arguably the best display you’ll see on any mobile phone today.

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At the bottom of the screen is a touch sensitive panel with just two of the standard four Android controls (home and back) plus a multitasking button that shows all your currently running apps as thumbnails. The buttons disappear when the screen’s not in use, adding to that sleek black effect when the phone’s in repose. The loss of search and app controls isn’t too much of a hardship, since menu options now pop up in various apps and search is available as an on-screen widget.

From the start you’re in no doubt that this is Ice Cream Sandwich. Where past updates over the last three years have added features and fixed glitches, this version offers a completely new look and feel, albeit one that bears some resemblance to the 3.0 Honeycomb version that’s been appearing on tablets.

It’s more advanced however, with lots of cute little tweaks that not only look better, but help it to work more intuitively too – using a picture of your face to unlock the device for instance, and the action bar that appears in apps such as Google Maps, allowing you to access key functions without entering a menu first.