It is the third generation successor to Google's previous flagship phones, the Nexus One and Nexus S . It has an HD (720p) Super AMOLED display with curved glass, an improved camera system, and Google's new version of its Android operating system, version 4.0, codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich.
The name is the result of co-branding between the Samsung Galaxy and Google Nexus brands of Android smartphones. It is one of the few phones recommended by the Android Open Source Project for Android software development .
HARDWARE
The Galaxy Nexus features a 4.65- inch 1280x720-pixel HD Super AMOLED PenTile curved glass display,a dual-core 1.2 GHz TI OMAP 4460 processor (ARM Cortex- A9)with an accompanying PowerVR SGX540, 1 GB of RAM; a 1,750 mAh battery (1,850 mAh LTE version); 1.3 MP front camera and 5 MP rear camera (with zero shutter lag) capable of 1080p video with the rear camera and 720p with the front camera; 4G; Wi-Fi a/b/ g/n; Bluetooth ; GPS, barometer; NFC ; and 16 GB or 32 GB of internal storage. As of 2012, the 32 GB model has been discontinued.
The Galaxy Nexus also hosts support for MHL through the use of its Micro USB 2.0 port. This means that the Galaxy Nexus has the ability to output up to 1080p audio-visual content (through HDMI) to any supported external display such as HD Television .
The Galaxy Nexus has no physical buttons on the front, but instead features on-screen soft keys embedded into the system software (part of Android 4.0). Beneath the soft keys, a multicolored notification LED is featured, a feature missing from the Nexus S .
The 3.5 mm headphone jackis located on the bottom of the phone, and the camera is located in the center of the rear side.
SOFTWARE:
Galaxy Nexus is the first device to run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich,introducing a large number of new features and improvements including, but not limited to:
►Enhanced speed and performance Voice typing, a speech-to-Text feature
►Virtual buttons in the user interface, in place of capacitive or physical buttons
►Separation of widgets in a new tab, listed in a similar manner to apps
►Pinch-to-zoom functionality in the calendar
►Ability to access apps directly from lock screen (similar to HTC Sense 3.x )
►Improved copy and paste functionality
►Better voice integration and continuous, real-time speech to text dictation
►Face Unlock, a feature that allows users to unlock handsets using facial recognition software
►New tabbed web browser, allowing up to 16 tabs
►Data Usage section in settings that lets users set warnings when they approach a certain usage limit, and disable data use when the limit is exceeded
►Improved camera app with zero shutter lag, time lapse settings, panorama mode, and the ability to zoom while recording
►Built-in photo editor.New gallery layout, organized by location and person
►Android Beam, a near-field communication feature allowing the rapid short-range exchange of web bookmarks, contact info, directions, YouTube videos and other data
►Wi-Fi Direct
►1080p HD (1920x1080 @ 24 fps) video recording with the rear facing 5 MP camera
►720p HD (1280x720 @ 30 fps) video recording with the front facing 1.3 MP camera
►Android Market was updated and re-designed, now with over 400 000 apps, including Adobe Flash player, several Google-made apps and many others.
