Best Android phone

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Ararat

Member
Jul 21, 2007
89
0
66
If OP can wait this long he should get the Galaxy Nexus.

Oh........


Oh well.

In my (and a lot of other peoples) opinion, the Galaxy Nexus is an inferior phone to the GS2. Aside from the lack of an Exynos SoC, the fact that they are using a PenTile display instead of the the RGB array of the GS2's S-AMOLED Plus display is disappointing. And what's with stock Android not supporting UMTS video calling (unless this has been fixed in ICS)? (There are a multitude of other reasons, but they are ones that come down to personal taste or opinion).
 

kekspernikai

Junior Member
Jan 10, 2012
3
0
0
In my (and a lot of other peoples) opinion, the Galaxy Nexus is an inferior phone to the GS2. Aside from the lack of an Exynos SoC, the fact that they are using a PenTile display instead of the the RGB array of the GS2's S-AMOLED Plus display is disappointing. And what's with stock Android not supporting UMTS video calling (unless this has been fixed in ICS)? (There are a multitude of other reasons, but they are ones that come down to personal taste or opinion).

They have very different purposes and they are flagship devices for different companies. The Galaxy Nexus is Google's flagship, and it is supposed to be the software flagship for Android. Hardware-wise, it is a reference device. The GSII is Samsung's flagship, and is supposed to be the most killer hardware on the market. Google made decisions about the Nexus in regards to where Android is headed. The choice in processor, GPU, NFC, barometer, gyroscope, etc. were Google's trade-offs, where as Samsung went for raw power, and maximizing the potential of the current (2.3) version of Android.

edit: I forgot to mention the screen, which was one of your original points. The Nexus is 720p, which is the new hardware reference for Android 4.0+. 720p was either not possible or too expensive at the time in a SAMOLED+ display, and it was another trade-off. Honestly, though, I cannot see any pixels or RGB matrices at all, with the high pixel density it has.
 

you2

Diamond Member
Apr 2, 2002
7,170
2,210
136
Its kind of lame to judge a device by specs (oh it has xyz processor it must be [better, worse, grand, suck, ...; the screen is pentile it must be inferior, yada yada yda].
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Having said that I would take a galaxy s2 over a nexus any day of the week. Not so much because of the screen (I think the screen on the nexus is actually quite nice); but the nexus (to me) felt laggy, had speaker issue (distortion of phone calls (my end), very low max volume, signal acquisitoin issues). Anyways that's my 2ct; obviously other folks have different experience, opinions, critera for a phone, ...) and that is fine and dandy if they prefer the nexus by all means I strongly encourage them to buy one - for me the nexus didn't work (sadly verizon did no get a galaxy s2 so I ended up with something else).
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Anyways by the time you get done arguing over specs; there will be something newer and better (crise the flagship cycle has dropped from 1 year to 6 months; My wallet cringes that it will soon be 3 months).
 

Oyeve

Lifer
Oct 18, 1999
22,076
887
126
They have very different purposes and they are flagship devices for different companies. The Galaxy Nexus is Google's flagship, and it is supposed to be the software flagship for Android. Hardware-wise, it is a reference device. The GSII is Samsung's flagship, and is supposed to be the most killer hardware on the market. Google made decisions about the Nexus in regards to where Android is headed. The choice in processor, GPU, NFC, barometer, gyroscope, etc. were Google's trade-offs, where as Samsung went for raw power, and maximizing the potential of the current (2.3) version of Android.

edit: I forgot to mention the screen, which was one of your original points. The Nexus is 720p, which is the new hardware reference for Android 4.0+. 720p was either not possible or too expensive at the time in a SAMOLED+ display, and it was another trade-off. Honestly, though, I cannot see any pixels or RGB matrices at all, with the high pixel density it has.

Is not the Nexus MADE by samsung? You make it sound as if it is made from someone else.
 

Red Storm

Lifer
Oct 2, 2005
14,233
234
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The Nexus is not a flagship device, though it does have the specs to look like one. It's a reference platform for ICS. The hardware was specifically chosen by Google so app developers know what to aim for.
 

Oyeve

Lifer
Oct 18, 1999
22,076
887
126
I personally find the specs on the gs2 to be better, other than res the gs2 has, imo, a better camera and sound, both which are important to me. Plus the higher cost of the nexus for, imo, less funtionality made me decide to get the gs2 on tmo. Im loving it.
 

s44

Diamond Member
Oct 13, 2006
9,427
16
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I personally find the specs on the gs2 to be better, other than res the gs2 has, imo, a better camera and sound, both which are important to me.
The S2 has a better speaker, at least out of the box, but the Nexus is way ahead on headphone output.
 

you2

Diamond Member
Apr 2, 2002
7,170
2,210
136
Actually someone over at xda did an analysis of the chip used with high quality headphone and found that the s2 had the better dac. Caveat - this was for the european version; no clue if samsung change the dac on the various usa models (at/t, sprint, tmobile).

The S2 has a better speaker, at least out of the box, but the Nexus is way ahead on headphone output.
 

ponyo

Lifer
Feb 14, 2002
19,688
2,811
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Actually someone over at xda did an analysis of the chip used with high quality headphone and found that the s2 had the better dac. Caveat - this was for the european version; no clue if samsung change the dac on the various usa models (at/t, sprint, tmobile).

no they didn't. supercurio has panned S2 poor quality sound from the beginning. supercurio is in France so he had the European model. He said the same on his Anandtech sound review of the internation Galaxy SII.
 

kekspernikai

Junior Member
Jan 10, 2012
3
0
0
The hardware is made by Samsung, but for Google. When the phone is booted up, it says Google, not Samsung. Nexus devices are usually grouped as Google phones rather than HTC/Samsung. I didn't mean to sound like the phone is made by someone else.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,997
31,564
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no they didn't. supercurio has panned S2 poor quality sound from the beginning. supercurio is in France so he had the European model. He said the same on his Anandtech sound review of the internation Galaxy SII.

I think those problems are related to the music player, and not the phone, no?
 

you2

Diamond Member
Apr 2, 2002
7,170
2,210
136
Hum. It might have been the original galaxy s1 that had the better dac. Sorry about that; there was a detail analysis of the nexus ti dac by someone on xda; just can't find it now.

Oh well I give up (just spent 15 minutes looking for the xda thread). Hum. I think he did a spectrum analysis for accuracy or something along those lines.

no they didn't. supercurio has panned S2 poor quality sound from the beginning. supercurio is in France so he had the European model. He said the same on his Anandtech sound review of the internation Galaxy SII.
 

Oyeve

Lifer
Oct 18, 1999
22,076
887
126
no they didn't. supercurio has panned S2 poor quality sound from the beginning. supercurio is in France so he had the European model. He said the same on his Anandtech sound review of the internation Galaxy SII.

Interesting. I own the vibrant and tmos gs2 and i find the sound quality to be quite good. In fact i think it sounds better than the vibrant on my higher end headphones. I use poweramp on both as the builtin app stinks.
 

you2

Diamond Member
Apr 2, 2002
7,170
2,210
136
In one of the xda threads there was some comments specifically that power amp worked well with the gs2; but I didn't really understand the details.

Anyways; I'm more concern about voice quality during a phone call where I think the gnexus is not that great; the razr seems to do a better job there; can't put my finger on it but the voice comes out muted in the syllables on the nexus. Mind you this is more of a comment on the built in speaker than the dac.
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The photon did a really good job here (compared to the epic touch); esp in the high tones with the epic 4g touch tended to mute.
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Oh well at the end of the day ('cept for the really bad phones) I'm not sure how big of a deal it makes.
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Hum. I would now begin my rant on usa cell companies but what's the point.

Interesting. I own the vibrant and tmos gs2 and i find the sound quality to be quite good. In fact i think it sounds better than the vibrant on my higher end headphones. I use poweramp on both as the builtin app stinks.
 

dbk

Lifer
Apr 23, 2004
17,685
10
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The sound on my galaxy s2 sux compared to my old iphone4.. Like not even close.. I messed with the EQ and that helps but still really shitty