***Official Galaxy Nexus Pre-Release speculation thread**

[cereal killer]

not to keep this going, but there actually is quite a big difference between them. the 4210 is built on a 45nm process and the 4212 is on 32nm process. (

come on..you understand what I'm saying. you are not a dumb guy

 

[xtop]

to officially get off the subject. has anyone done their homework on 5mp sensors that could possibly be in this phone? the camera has me the most curious

 

[Nashdroid]

haha

hey, the 4460 hasn't been in a phone yet either

Very true. I would be fine with the 4460 clocked at 1.5. Totally fine. I actually think that the 1.2 Exynos would be fine. It's in my fiance's Epic 4G Touch and that thing scoots! I just think that there is a slight possibility that this new Exynos might be in the new Nexus for Verizon. It might have a snowball's chance in Hell, but that's still a chance. Could you imagine if it DOES come with the new Exynos and the gpu that GSM Arena reported? What if it does? Can you imagine owning that phone right now? It would be mind-blowing. I'm just optimistic that this phone will be SPECtacular. That feels better to me than feeling hopeless and thinking that it might not be as great as we all have hoped, and I admit I've battled with those feelings over the past week. Just trying to be optimistic, that's all. Great debate though. Very interesting and nice research, indeed.

 

[cereal killer]

Nashdroid you have a good attitude don't let anyone spoil it your having a good time and thats what the forums are all about.

I like your positive attitude it rubs off on me lol

 

[ItIsLikeThat]

haha

hey, the 4460 hasn't been in a phone yet either

Beyond benchmarks-- the make of the SoC is not important. I would welcome the TI just because it'd likely mean WiLink 7 or greater -- meaning Bluetooth Low Energy, ANT+, and NFC all are possibilities.

 

[xtop]

Nashdroid you have a good attitude don't let anyone spoil it your having a good time and thats what the forums are all about.

I like your positive attitude it rubs off on me lol

indeed! i appreciate all of you guys being good sports. i know sometimes i probably come off as brash, but it's all in good fun

also, this is the first sensor i could find in a quick google search. if we're to believe the original rumors of 5 mp, here's a 5mp sensor that does 1080p video.

OmniVision

 

[Nashdroid]

Nashdroid you have a good attitude don't let anyone spoil it your having a good time and thats what the forums are all about.

I like your positive attitude it rubs off on me lol

Thank you. I've noticed you've really been optimistic lately. Good for you. I just think that being negative about a phone is silly. I always have. If it comes out and it doesn't live up to your expectations, don't buy it. Wait. My Droid Incredible is like a month old, I got a warranty replacement because there was a software malfunction. It could last another two years. If this Nexus isn't as amazing as I am hoping, and at least as great as my fiance's Epic 4G Touch for Sprint, then I'll continue to wait and that's totally fine by me. I'm really in no hurry to upgrade. But if this Nexus is mind blowing, yes...I'll be getting a new phone. It's really as simple as that.

 

[Nashdroid]

indeed! i appreciate all of you guys being good sports. i know sometimes i probably come off as brash, but it's all in good fun

also, this is the first sensor i could find in a quick google search. if we're to believe the original rumors of 5 mp, here's a 5mp sensor that does 1080p video.

OmniVision

I'm thinking that this new sensor, if it's really revamped and is much better, is made by Samsung. I am not really up on these things, but do we know who made the sensor in the Galaxy SII's? If it was made by Samsung, I'm guessing Samsung made this new sensor too. Maybe we don't even know about it. Somewhere I read that it might be Samsung's new CMOS sensor for cell phones. Can't remember where I read that though. I DO know that the current sensor in the Epic 4G Touch is amazing. I've never used a phone camera that is that good. I can't believe the pictures it takes. I would be fine with that exact sensor in the Nexus. If the new sensor is better, then geez...that would be a killer camera.

 

[ItIsLikeThat]

I'm thinking that this new sensor, if it's really revamped and is much better, is made by Samsung. I am not really up on these things, but do we know who made the sensor in the Galaxy SII's? If it was made by Samsung, I'm guessing Samsung made this new sensor too. Maybe we don't even know about it. Somewhere I read that it might be Samsung's new CMOS sensor for cell phones. Can't remember where I read that though. I DO know that the current sensor in the Epic 4G Touch is amazing. I've never used a phone camera that is that good. I can't believe the pictures it takes. I would be fine with that exact sensor in the Nexus. If the new sensor is better, then geez...that would be a killer camera.

Yes, Samsung makes the CMOS sensor for cellphones. This is why Samsung is such a power house and sampling to external parties is irrelevant. Samsung makes CMOS sensors, SoCs, flash, RAM, displays, etc... With the SGS2, it was alleged that they were running into shortages for the Exynos. So if they did plan on putting the 4212 into the NP, then it would make sense to hold off sampling/selling it to external customers until production is ramped up enough to fill internal demand. Consider the profit on a SoC vs the completed phone...

 

[xtop]

I'm thinking that this new sensor, if it's really revamped and is much better, is made by Samsung. I am not really up on these things, but do we know who made the sensor in the Galaxy SII's? If it was made by Samsung, I'm guessing Samsung made this new sensor too. Maybe we don't even know about it. Somewhere I read that it might be Samsung's new CMOS sensor for cell phones. Can't remember where I read that though. I DO know that the current sensor in the Epic 4G Touch is amazing. I've never used a phone camera that is that good. I can't believe the pictures it takes. I would be fine with that exact sensor in the Nexus. If the new sensor is better, then geez...that would be a killer camera.

looks like they do make the sensor on the s2. but i can't seem to find any good info on a 5mp 1080p sensor from them. well, any news on one recently anyways. something from 2009 :/ and if we're going with the 8mp rumor, well..good luck finding that needle in the haystack

 

[UBRocked]

I appreciate that you peeps can have debates without getting shitty with each other. Seriously, thank you all for your civility!

I'm getting more and more excited about this phone but am also glad I have some time to decide. I'm wondering what will follow this device. We know the nexus will be a pure Google device but ICS was supposed to eliminate or at least minimize custom skins. If this device pans out the way I hope, maybe I'll actually be able to pick one up during a sales in January. It would be nice to buy a phone for less than 200 bucks for a change

 

[cereal killer]

Not sure if this was posted...probably was but in case it was I won't link it. Copy and pasted for those that MAY have missed it (that would be me)

From DL:

We received a press invite yesterday from a company at CTIA who let slip this line – “I know we’re up against the Samsung/Google news and the Verizon announcement…” I would say that the goal initially was to let Samsung and Google do their thing on stage which would be followed by a press release from VZW on dates for the phone. Now, we know none of that will be happening next week after hearing of a postponement, but I’d say the LTE version will still be the first out.
Don’t be surprised if you see the SCH-I515 cruise through the FCC next week.

 

[Nashdroid]

Yes, Samsung makes the CMOS sensor for cellphones. This is why Samsung is such a power house and sampling to external parties is irrelevant. Samsung makes CMOS sensors, SoCs, flash, RAM, displays, etc... With the SGS2, it was alleged that they were running into shortages for the Exynos. So if they did plan on putting the 4212 into the NP, then it would make sense to hold off sampling/selling it to external customers until production is ramped up enough to fill internal demand. Consider the profit on a SoC vs the completed phone...

This is the best post I've read in here in a long time. In one short post you've summarized exactly what I've been trying to say in multiple posts. Thank you for saying this so eloquently. +1

 

[nkk]

Thats just because its installed on the bionic

Wow...I need to pay attention. I thought it said it was installed on a Nexus S.

Just ignore me,
Nkk

 

[BlueBiker]

When do you guys think Sprint will get this phone? I'm trying to resist the galaxy s ii

It's been said before, but since I think you're new I'll repeat it here: SGS2 is a helluva nice phone! I don't think Prime is coming to Sprint for at least a few months, but most people besides the fanatics would be delighted with SGS2 right now.

do you not think if they were capable of getting good yields that they would release it asap? do you think intel and amd hold their chips back because they want to wait to make sales?

Ohhhhh my friend xtop, you just stepped in it bigtime. In fact Intel is widely known to be doing exactly that right now. They can already introduce higher clocked chips on most of their sockets right now today if they wanted, but they're currently so far ahead of AMD that there's no reason to -- they're already making top dollar on their upper level chips!

It's true on Intel's server line too. I think it's their latest E-step chips that haven't been officially released (because they don't need to) but which are actually being unofficially sold to certain high-value customers (at caviar prices, naturally).

So I think SGSII is not only benefiting from Exynos but also from Samsung's excellent optimization of firmwares and TW 4.0. HTC is probably slower due to either Sense or their less optimized firmwares.

That's a good point. Certain phones get sucky quadrant scores due largely to subpar firmware and unoptimized filesystems. Root a Droid Charge and replace its proprietary filesystem, and benchmarks go up dramatically w/o any overclocking.

Argh.

Hopefully the pissing match will be over by morning. Drink lots of water, guys. Its a long night.

Heh, I'm mostly taking a rest from this match. Just couldn't resist temporarily switching sides to keep xtop on his toes.

 

[hazydave]

Very true. I would be fine with the 4460 clocked at 1.5. Totally fine.

CPU-speed-wise, sure.. though the 4460 is a 45nm SOC, so it's way more power hungry than a 32nm Exynos would be, all things being equal. The 4460 puts this a tiny bit ahead of the Moto Droid Bionic, in theory.. but in practice, not so much. They both run a faster clocked version of the PowerVR SGX540 from the Galaxy S, but the Prime will have 2.4x as many pixels to push around, versus the S. And the Galaxy SII sports the new MALI-400 GPU, which is faster.

I'm not sure it's a dealbreaker, and the OMAP 4460 does seem to have a decent image processing engine and sweet camera interface. But a flagship smartphone should make the top of the heap... at least for a week or two.

I actually think that the 1.2 Exynos would be fine. It's in my fiance's Epic 4G Touch and that thing scoots! I just think that there is a slight possibility that this new Exynos might be in the new Nexus for Verizon.

It's VERY likely that Samsung will put different SOCs in different versions of the Prime... just because they do that kind of crap all the time, for no obvious reason. Again, a 32nm Exynos sounds like the right answer for a flagship phone, and also making it a Samsung-designed processor is probably great politically. The other thing, of course, is the inevitable comparison to the iPhone 4S.. which sports a faster (versus iPhone 4) clocked PowerVR SGX543MP2... dual core GPU. Probably the fastest GPU in a handheld when it hits the streets in two weeks.

It might have a snowball's chance in Hell, but that's still a chance. Could you imagine if it DOES come with the new Exynos and the gpu that GSM Arena reported? What if it does? Can you imagine owning that phone right now? It would be mind-blowing. I'm just optimistic that this phone will be SPECtacular.

Naturally, every new unreleased tech item is extremely cool, and of course, the less we know about it and more we get teased about it, the better it "is" and the worse all the competition looks. But we'll have to see how much actual reality has to set in on this one. As an OG Droid owner, I'm in upgrade mode, and waiting for these to ship to make the final decision.

 

[hazydave]

Ohhhhh my friend xtop, you just stepped in it bigtime. In fact Intel is widely known to be doing exactly that right now. They can already introduce higher clocked chips on most of their sockets right now today if they wanted, but they're currently so far ahead of AMD that there's no reason to -- they're already making top dollar on their upper level chips!

Yeah, this is always Intel's pattern, and it's not even much of a reaction to AMD. Rather, Intel can usually get about $1000 for their high-end enthusiast CPU... for a few months, anyway. Then they have to boost it in some way. Trust me, they're not redesigning these things every three months.

My last Intel system was one of these, six months after it peaked. When released, the Core2 Quad Q9550 ran about a grand. Six month later, I paid a bit under $200 for the CPU. Intel loves that "speed at any price" option, and realizes that, at any given time, there are only so many buyers out there for that performance level. And yet, if it's not fresh and new, they'll wait.

Thing is, I don't expect Samsung to hold back on this one... if they're not shipping the Nexus Prime with a Samsung made SOC, that probably means that the one they wanted wasn't available in ample supply. Look at all the behavior of Samsung in phones over the last few years. They're coming very close to shipping Apple numbers in the smartphone business, they're getting into legal battles with Apple, etc. They absolutely want to be the leader in smartphones, and that means doing what they've been doing: leveraging their status as the leader in OLED tech and the world's second largest IC company to produce great products.

Even if Samsung's actually making the Apple A5 (most reports claim they are making the 45nm version, and Apple's been shopping in Taiwan for a fab to produce a 32nm version, but it's not ready yet), Apple gets the credit. So politically, they have got to want Samsung processors in their flagship phones. And while this may say Google on it, everyone knows who makes it.

 

[EarlyMon]

I expect this to get lost in the flood, and disputed, but here goes.

Don't trust Quadrant. If you want to benchmark the cpu, try CF-Bench, Nenamark 2 for the GPU on dual cores, and Vellamo for a real world browser capabilities comparison (uses your defined default browser).

Quadrant, no. Those, yes.

In my opinion. Just saying.

 

[Montana Man]

If this Nexus isn't as amazing as I am hoping... then I'll continue to wait and that's totally fine by me. I'm really in no hurry to upgrade. But if this Nexus is mind blowing, yes...I'll be getting a new phone. It's really as simple as that.

Nash, that sums it up precisely for me! Very well said as always, bro!

After finally getting caught up with this thread over the past couple of days, I've decided to sit back and take a front row seat to observe the reactions and opinions of those of you who will purchase this seemingly spectacular phone. I've loved my Incredible from day one; it has done everything I have asked of it so far. Unfortunately, since I do demand a lot from it, the single biggest drawback has been battery life. Despite the fact that it currently has a 1750mAh battery in it now (the highest capacity battery you can buy and still use the original back cover) it barely gets me through a day - and often, it requires a bump charge during the day.

I keep hearing rave reviews about the iPhone's amazing battery life - and now the iPhone 4GS is supposed to have the best battery life yet! Now don't get me wrong - I have absolutely NO intentions of jumping ship to Apple, but it irks me in knowing that phenomenal battery technology DOES exist - yet it has seemingly eluded Android phones all these years - unless you want to buy a behemoth battery with its brick-like cover... no, thank you. Been there, own it, hate it. The whole eye-candy appeal in a sleek new smartphone is just that - it's sleek!

So, I'll just wait and see... and if the Prime turns out to be the next "Oh-my-god-I-can't-live-without-this-thing" phone, then it'll be mine! Just as long as the battery in it is up to my demands. If not - I'll simply remain on the sidelines until the next big thing emerges from the shadows and has the battery to back it up. (Any input from anyone regarding this phone's battery capabilities (as it emerges, of course) would be greatly appreciated!)


P.S. Much thanks to ALL of you who have contributed to making this THE definitive source on the web on all things Prime! Very well-written, educational and insightful indeed! Also my compliments to my good friend Steven for a very well moderated forum here! Nice going, Ace!

 

[hazydave]

Chief, I have some good news for you on the microsdxc front. I've read that many current Android phones seem to no problems using the 64GB microsdxc card. It has been tested on devices like Droid X and the Galaxy S line as well as the GSII phones.

Nice to see the support in there. But keep in mind, SDHC vs. SDXC is just "a simple matter of software"... sure, there are higher speed SDXC modes now, but the main deal is recognizing the extra sizes and, if you want to be pedantic about it, supporting the exFAT file system.

... also I don't know if the Prime is going to have hardware decoders (and the software support) for formats like Divx and mkv. That would be a shame because I got a ton of 720p mkv files that I would love to play on the SAMOLED HD screen.

Don't mix Apples and Androids here. Original DiVX is essentially a flavor of MPEG-4 Part 2, so every smartphone ought to be able to decode DiVX video in hardware. The new stuff is all AVC, which is already well supported. It's the DiVX wrapper that the default Android player doesn't support, but that's just a renamed AVI file. None of the devices actually have hardware to decode the file wrapper.

Similarly, MKV is just a file wrapper. Contents vary, just like AVI, but AVC is a pretty popular payload.

Anyway, I really wish Google and Samsung would tell us when and where the new venue for the delayed announcement is.

Ditto.

 

[nMIK-3]

The recently announced Samsung Galaxy S II HD LTE packs the following specs:

• 1.5GHz dual core AP (they do not specify if it is the new Exynos)
• 4.65-inch HD(1280x720) Super AMOLED
• 8 megapixel (flash) / 2 megapixel on the front
• 1850 mAh Battery

I expect the Prime to also pack the same specs. Especially the camera as all resend Galaxy S II models including the first model available in Europe from last May of 2011 comes with 8Mepapixels camera and 1080p video recording. And since all the high-end phones comes with 8Megapixel as a standard now-days is going to be crazy if they decide to put a 5Megapixel.

For the processor I am also hopping for 1.5GHz. Again not that 1.2GHz will be bad, but since they are already releasing models with 1.5 and the Nexus Prime is going to be like the best of the bests is going to be very weird to pack a lower clocked processor.

That's my 2 cents.

 

[hazydave]

More power to you if you can afford a class 6+ 64gb micro sd card. I can tell you class 2 or 4 ain't gonna cut it for recording 1080p.

You're wrong. My real camcorder records 1080/60p just dandy, 28Mb/s, on Class 4 media. That's well within the standard (4MB/s = 32Mb/s), and fully supported by Panasonic (this one's a TM700; I have others, all shoot full HD video onto Class 4 cards). It's highly unlikely we'll see anything beyond 1080/30p on any smartphone this year, so that's half the data. Well within the 24Mb/s limits of most consumer video, works just dandy on a Class 4 SDHC card.

The nice thing about built in storage is the ability to control the quality for the purpose of fast enough write times to support HD recording or quick camera shots. If there's no support for micro SD, I'm fine with it as long as it's 32gb internal. If it's 16gb, it needs external memory support.

No argument about "quick camera shots"... while I only have class 4 cards for my two camcorders, I use Class 10 on my Canon 60D. You do need Class 6 for video on that beast (at about 44Mb/s.... class 6 gives you 48Mb/s), but also for stashing photos as fast as possible. Particularly important if the camera on this is actually good, for the first time ever on a smartphone

 

[Namrak]

Every day I check this thread I only get more exciting news. Peace out guys and gals. LET'S SEE WHAT TOMORROW BRINGS!!!

 

[s34n1811]

LOL! Wow this totally reminds me of the Incredible thread awhile back. Even some familiar folks in here too! Anyway, I'm loving my Incredible but I'm loving what I'm seeing from the Nexus too. Can't wait until this thing drops. Anyway looks like another EPIC thread is going on! Cheers!

 

[breadnatty08]

Alright, I'm still trying to catch up. This phone is looking better and better each day. I just picked up a Flyer the other day when it was on its (brief and wrong) discount for $100 and I have to say that using Sense for the first time, it's smooooth.
Anyway, since this thing is moving really fast and there's a few Mods in here, I was hoping to shout out a question. I got the Bionic on launch (which I love, all you haters!) but was saving my wifes' upgrade for the Prime and giving her the Bionic. Well, her OG Droid has really come to bite the dust and seeing as how my OG is in fine shape, I figured I should activate it for her to hold us over until the Prime is released. The woman at VZW said the process is really easy and can be done online. Is anyone else here able to pitch in the detailed process? Definitely thanks in advance, and let the rumors continue!
Edit: if it means anything my droid is rooted.