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  • Lunyone - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link

    I'll be looking at this against the Droid Bionic, assuming it comes to Verizon (which I think it will).
  • DigitalFreak - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    Might want to compare it to the Droid Razr instead.
  • BMartinelli - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link

    The hd screen is pentile?
  • daveloft - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link

    Does it matter?

    I agree a WVGA display with pentile is clearly inferior to a regular WVGA display, but this display is 720p. Even with slightly less sub pixels in a pentile arrangement it still blows away the current crop of devices.
  • tom1l21 - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    Well it doesn't bet the iPhone in terms of dpi, I don't think it's fair to compare when one is Pentile, and one isn't.
  • deV14nt - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    PPI is a funny measurement. Because by definition it factors screen size out of the equation, arguably the most important factor in real-world use. Great marketing.

    PPI matters, but only relative to the screen size you're discussing. It would likely make sense to bin devices into different categories, then compare PPI within each category. You wouldn't just straight up compare PPI between this device and iPhone. They should not even be in the same category. Screen size difference is often more important than pixel density. That should not be ignored. Obviously it's best to consider both, every single time you make a comparison. Especially when you factor in usable space and other factors in devices with larger, more usable touchscreens.

    I mean, if you don't do that, then there's a Kopin LCD with 2272 ppi @ 0.44 inches that is obviously the best. Right? I'd love to see that phone. We can call it the iPhone Shuffle HD. Best screen in existence, right?
  • SanX - Thursday, October 20, 2011 - link

    Holly @#$..what the mess in peoples heads. Kopin LCD is viewed through the lenses. And despite of that it and all other screens of all sizes are perfectly comparable based on physics and physiology of human vision. This is why exist SMPTE and other rules for best viewing distances and pixel density requirements for monitors, televisions and cinema screens which by the way all are described by approximately the same formulas.

    As to these two screens - they are of absolutely the same category and there is no need to stretch through the nose two different ones.

    No matter how this pentile is made - RGBG or RGBW it has 2 subpixels per pixel and hence this HD is fake HD. This is typical salespeople trap for "unwashed masses". For some specific situations - like the colors close to red and orange or magenta solid colors - the subpixel density is 158 ppi which is total utter sh!t comparable to iPhone1 circa 2007.

    This pentile must be beyond even 1920x1080 to not notice pixelation of red/orange/magenta!

    And i will claim even more - take a chair - we need actually not 720 but true 1080p RGB matrix for such kind of large phones for all small fonts to be ideally resolved on full web pages without permanent zooming. Just take the phone a bit closer then optimal viewing distance 10-12", take it at 8-9" and you will see pixelation again because perceived or implied ppi for subpixels will drop below 300. This is the distance i usually keep my phones when browse or kids play their games. So ideal RGB matrix PPI must be 400+ and no PenisTile cr#p.

    Meantime we will keep zooming. People will sue eventually phone screen manufacturers for repetitive finger motion disorders. LOL
  • FlyBri - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    I guess we'll see if it totally matters, but if it is PenTile, I think it actually will matter. I took a look at the Droid Bionic, which has a qHD display, and even compared to my WVGA screen on my Droid X, I still favored my Droid X -- I can't stand PenTile...it was totally noticeable (and annoying) to me.
  • daveloft - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    An 800 x 480 pentile display has 384,000 pixels and 768,000 sub pixels.

    An 800 x 480 RGB display has 384,000 pixels and 1,152,000 sub pixels.

    A 960 x 540 pentile display has 518,400 pixels and 1,036,800 sub pixels.

    A 1280 x 720 pentile display has 921,600 pixels and 1,843,200 sub pixels.

    From the numbers above you can clearly see why people prefer 800 x 480 RGB over pentile at 800 x 480 and even 960 x 540. You can also see that even with a pentile display the 720p display is clearly better.
  • daveloft - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    A 1280 x 720 RGB display with 921,600 pixels and 2,764,800 pixels would clearly be better than a 720p pentile display. But until that's available I'll be buying a device with the 720p pentile display.
  • ssddaydream - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    It should be pointed out that a the subpixel density of the Droid Charge is actually higher than the Droid Prime (648subpixels per inch vs 640 subpixels per inch)
    Also, because of the nature of how pentile displays render blue and red, certain images will result in a reduced clarity over RGB. Text may appear as sharp, however. The advantage of the Droid Prime is that it has a larger screen and thus can be held further away.
    Withholding judgement until I actually compare the Prime to the Charge, I expect the Droid to have a better overall display.
    I figure its only a matter of time before SAMOLED+ HD, anybody have any insights?
  • ssddaydream - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    eek, need edit, I expect the *Droid Charge* to have a better overall display...
  • cptcolo - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link

    Roughly 22 fps with Egypt and that is not even that new of a game. The SGX540 is way under spec for a 720p screen. Simply put this thing will not be able to play modern games.
  • nimus - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link

    Especially for the price.
  • nimus - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link

    Anyone know how much of Ice Cream Sandwich is GPU-assisted (if at all)?
  • cherrybombaz - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link

    It says in the SDK "Beginning with Android 4.0, hardware acceleration for all windows is enabled by default".

    But honestly, the GPU is such a disappointment.
  • Red Storm - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link

    I could care less?

    I don't buy smartphones to play crappy mobile games that pale in comparison to even consoles let alone PCs. The only thing I care about is if it runs the OS and built in functions/apps well, and judging from the stream it most certainly does. :D
  • Skiddywinks - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    Well, personal usage scenarios will obviously vary, but a GPU accelerated GUI is always a good thing.

    Personally, I fancy some emulation, so a decent GPU would be awesome. Plus, the Galaxy S line tends to be real easy to ROM and what not, which is definitely something I am interested in (running the SpeedMod kernel and Darkys ROM final on my SGS currently).
  • doobydoo - Thursday, October 20, 2011 - link

    Then you don't need a current generation phone. Get a Samsung Galaxy S or an iPhone 4.
  • jiffylube1024 - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    If the Galaxy Nexus does indeed use the SGX540 then that would be very disappointing. That's the same GPU that was used on the original Galaxy S!

    However, they haven't confirmed the GPU on the Galaxy Nexus yet. They actually didn't talk about it at all last night.
  • JasonInofuentes - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    The SoC for this is the TI OMAP 4460, and we have actually covered this thing extensively, despite not seeing it in a shipping product yet. The GPU is the SGX540 that we've seen in lots of other devices, but it isn't fair to call it the same. In the Hummingbird SoC's of the Galaxy S it was clocked at roughly 200 MHz. In the OMAP 4430 it was clocked at 304 MHz, as in the Bionic. So if you look at a more recent chart than the one you were looking at you'll see (http://www.anandtech.com/show/4910/motorola-droid-... That in Egypt the Fascinate scores 22 FPS and the BIonic 28 FPS, a roughly 30% increase, which tracks with the clock increase.
    Now, the implementation in the OMAP 4460 puts the clock at 384 MHz (http://www.anandtech.com/show/4413/ti-announces-om... which should yield another 20-25% increase in performance.This won't put it faster than the iPhone 4S, nor will it be faster than Mali, it will however be the third fastest GPU shipping.
    I will coach all of this by saying, the discussion above is based on the chip manufacturer's specs, but the device manufacturer has final say on how he clocks his devices. It could be that we'll be disappointed and that the SGX540 in the GN will be clocked lower than it's max. But if it is it'll still be among the fastest GPU's in an Android device.
  • 3DoubleD - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    Even if it is in "3rd place", it is still significantly behind, especially next the the SGX543MP2 in the iPhone4S. I think most people would have been content if this at least shipped with an Exynos SoC.

    What we are seeing here is more LTE bull****. Carriers feel that the only way they can differentiate their services is through theoretical download speed... the 3G/"4G" marketing war. So they pressure the phone manufacturers to add LTE, even though there is very little coverage and the SoC's do not yet include an LTE modem. There are so few LTE modems available we are restricted to OMAP 44xx chips. That's why we don't have Exynos in the Nexus Prime.

    My home internet connection is 24 mbps... I don't need more than HSPA+ speeds on my phone! I might need a GPU that can keep up for more than a year (that isn't already a year old)!
  • cmdrdredd - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    Very little LTE coverage? You need to read more. It covers half of the population and will be in 175 cities on Nov 17.
  • cmdrdredd - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    Oh I totally buy a phone to play "modern games". Oh yes...wait, I have a what...an iPad? a Real PC? a PS3? A Xbox 360? A Wii? A 3DS? a PSP? Oh yeah...that's right...my phone doesn't matter for games.
  • doobydoo - Thursday, October 20, 2011 - link

    Right, so you're happy to buy a second rate smart phone with old technology?

    If your phone performance (in not just gaming) doesn't matter, then don't waste your money buying the fastest phone on the market currently (the iPhone 4S), Instead, buy an older second generation phone such as the Samsung Galaxy S or iPhone 4.

    A lot of people do appreciate the performance boost throughout the OS in every single app that a better GPU would have offered, but if you want a slower phone, fair enough. A lot of people also play games. On the iPhone 4S, for example, you can stream the phone content to a TV, so it becomes very much like a games console. Some Android phones let you link with a physical cable too.
  • doobydoo - Thursday, October 20, 2011 - link

    Is it just me or is the missing GPU specification (the Primes worst feature) a glaring omission from this article?

    I'm sorry but this absolutely screams of bias. Why would such an in-depth tech site miss off such a key specification which also just so happens to be it's worst.

    Couple that to an unfounded 'justification' of including a 2 year old GPU in a flagship smartphone within the comments sections, with wild claims of '20%', '30%' improvements etc - including defending the phone rather than objectively stating the facts.

    Not too impressive on the impartial front.
  • LostPassword - Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - link

    is this actually going to be pentaband or are they going to separate it by carriers when it reaches america?
  • Trefugl - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    I'm wondering that as well. I don't recall seeing Pentaband HSPA+ before, but maybe my memory is failing me.

    HSPA+ 21.1 850/900/1900/1700/2100
    EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1900/


    Currently looks like they're going to support AWS, so I'm thinking it might come to T-Mobile? Oh how I hope it will.
  • Goi - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    Just wondering if the face unlock can be fooled to unlock the phone by showing the phone a picture of its owner?
  • tipoo - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    Not sure about Google's implementation, but I tried that many times with my Dell's face recognition. To answer your question, it was never fooled.

    On the down side, sometimes if say I don't shave for a few days, it takes a while to re-learn me.
  • Goi - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    Hmm yeah, facial hair could mess things up...
  • Ushio01 - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    For all the fuss I expected more than a Galaxy S 2 HD with worse camera's.
  • jiffylube1024 - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    Worse camera? You mean because 5MP cannot possible be better than 8MP?? All we know about the new Galaxy Nexus' camera is that it's 5MP, does 1080p HD video (just like the SGS II's camera) and has virtually no shutter lag. It's very possible that the camera in the Galaxy Nexus is similar, the same or better than the one in the SGS II and they dropped the megapixels to improve shutter lag and performance in the new panoramic camera mode.
  • Ushio01 - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    The phone is thinner so wouldn't the sensor require a decrease in size? plus the front camera is 1.3MP reduced from 2MP.
  • Zan Lynx - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    Megapixels is not the final word on camera quality. Not even close.

    Now, I am not saying the camera is better or worse. I am saying that you can't claim it is worse just because it's 5 MP instead of 8 MP. Optics, sensor noise and processing all contribute to the picture.

    I used to have a 2 MP camera and its pictures were clearly superior when compared to a friend's 8 MP camera, just because my 2 MP camera was top of the line when it was new and his 8 MP was a $75 give away model.
  • doobydoo - Thursday, October 20, 2011 - link

    Just because there are exceptions doesn't mean we should ignore a clear correlation. The majority of phone cameras which have higher megapixel cameras take more detailed pictures and can obviously zoom in more without losing quality.

    I'm seeing no evidence here to suggest that the camera has improved anything which should lead us to ignore the aforementioned correlation.
  • Paulman - Thursday, October 20, 2011 - link

    Theoretically, more megapixels often results in LOWER image quality. Because with cell phone cameras, you're usually bound by noise and low-light performance, which is a direct result of smaller pixels.

    So a lower megapixel camera should outperform a higher megapixel camera in a smartphone in indoor or low-light settings. The only time it won't is if you need to crop / want to zoom in digitally, and only if there's already LOTS of light (e.g. outdoors during the day). But if you're taking an outdoor daytime shot, the majority of users won't care if the image is 5MP or 8MP because they're going to upload it to Facebook / Twitter straight from their phone, anyways, so it's going to be downsampled.

    HOWEVER, where doobydoo may have a point though is that typically a 5MP camera will be OLDER than an 8MP camera - in other words, it's not just lower megapixels, but the 8MP camera may be made on a better silicon process, etc. Case in point: iPhone 4's 5MP camera vs the BETTER (in low-light) iPhone 4S 8MP camera sensor. It's better in low-light because of backside illumination, NOT because of the megapixel increase.

    Really, I'm just curious to see what this 5MP sensor is really like. Maybe it's quite advanced? :P
  • doobydoo - Thursday, October 20, 2011 - link

    As you say, the only way a lower megapixel camera would outperform a higher megapixel camera is if they hadn't made the necessary changes to allow the same level of light to be captured per pixel, that was a big selling point of the iPhone 4 camera, which would only happen with poor engineering.

    The point is, that improvement HAS happened in the iPhone 4s, as you say - and that is the phone to which this one will be compared - and as a result the major difference is simply resolution.

    Resolution on its own is important consideration anyway - it simply means more available pixels which can capture more minute details. I think it's fair to say that the iPhone 4S camera is likely to take better photographs than this one.
  • Skiddywinks - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    And a worse GPU.
  • doobydoo - Thursday, October 20, 2011 - link

    The Galaxy S2 also has a faster GPU in the Mali-400, both of which are significantly slower than the 543 found in the iPhone 4S
  • Death666Angel - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    Nice stuff, though that has been known for quite a while. :D
    Because of the screen, I'd be tempted to make the switch to this from my SGS2. But I'll hold off until next year when we see 720p without pentile and 28nm SoCs. Hopefull this phone along with ICS will mean better utilisation of the phone hardware in games and other applications. :-)
  • doobydoo - Thursday, October 20, 2011 - link

    Your SGS2 is a better phone, with a faster GPU and a better camera.

    If I was you, I'd keep it.
  • Pessimism - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    I'm still waiting for when Samsung gets the message that people don't want a $700 phone with a cheap plastic housing. I don't give a hoot if the phone weighs a few grams less or more, I want durability.
  • zorxd - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    Plastic is more durable than just about anything else on a phone. Unlike metal which transmit the shock (or glass that just break), plastic absorbs a little, which means your phone have more chances surviving a drop on the street. A lighter phone also has more chances of surviving and plastic is light.
  • KnightBreed - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    I am glad they are sticking with plastic. The metal housing in my Incredible2 sucks. I've dropped it from a moderate height (clumsy me) and the metal dents and gouges like cheap aluminum foil.

    We have a few Nexus S 4G's at work for development that have been dropped a bunch of times. Nothing but a few scuffs on the case.

    Besides most people just put a case on it anyway. I prefer to leave my phone naked, which is why I prefer the plastic body.
  • Zan Lynx - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    The nubbly rubber case I put on my galaxy S phone has saved it from taking a hard knock a bunch of times.
  • doobydoo - Thursday, October 20, 2011 - link

    The thing is, with plastic phones, they are ugly by default.

    With metal phones, at least they start out looking good. I personally never drop my phone so my metal cased-phone still looks excellent.

    Your plastic covered phone looks cheap and old whether you've dropped it or not.

    Having to cover it up with a case kinda proves that point.
  • Omid.M - Wednesday, October 19, 2011 - link

    It's worth it for the Google updates alone (and pure Vanilla Android), else the SoC is so boring. I really wish Krait was out or that they used a special version of Exynos. I'd be willing to forgo LTE for that.

    @moids
  • IeraseU - Thursday, October 20, 2011 - link

    I'm considering this phone and the iPhone 4S. I like the larger and higher resolution screen of the Galaxy Nexus, but the iPhone 4S has a better camera and Siri. Hmm, I guess I'll wait until I can try them both to make a decision.
  • satishnramtreare - Thursday, December 15, 2011 - link

    Where is my complete full blown Galaxy Nexus review?
  • ashan616 - Saturday, April 13, 2013 - link

    Galaxy S4 Camera 13 megapixel is supported by the 12 shooting modes.

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