Galaxy Nexus vs Galaxy S2: Comparison reviews make me love my SGS2 even more

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curious_yellow_eyes

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Apr 12, 2009
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I love my Nexus. I was also on a toss up between the two, but I'm so glad I went for the Nexus.
The storage is a pain, but really only because all my pcs run various flavours of Linux and the mtp thing is a pain, with an external storage I could still mount it. I just use adb to transfer files.
I haven't really experienced the camera on an sgs2 but the 5mp in the nexus definitely takes better pictures than the 8mp in my previous Sony Ericsson. And it takes them quickly.
Most importantly though, the sgs 2 is ugly, and the nexus is beautiful. In my opinion at least. And I spend a lot of time looking at my phone so it's important that it looks nice.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
 

molesarecoming

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Feb 12, 2012
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yup pretty much because I disagree with you on most of your points ;)

S2 has the superior hardware...oh and that's fact. ;)

Both have ICS now so that's not an advantage.

S2 has a better camera (fact).

My S2 has 50GB of capacity right now (with 32GB micro card). Can't do that on a nexus. (fact).

Sorry dude but you're being biased.

i'll tell you how much biased i am.

i said i own both devices. i get my experiences first hand. so, how is the s2 faster exactly? you got that from a benchmark? come on! im playing games on my devices, shine runner, temple run, i browse alot, i download, record music, record vidos, play movies, etc., the s2 is great, but it ain't faster - this is pure placebo. throw anything you want at the nexus, it'll take it.

camera ... what the heck. i am an amateur photographer, one that owns real cameras. if you dont believe me take a look here. comments that say this toy cam is better than that one are pure b/s. now these silly phone-cams make good snapshots and if you can live with that its just a fun thing to do. nexus makes good snapshots, alright, no doubt about that. to say the s2 is "better" makes me cringe - its just silly.

third point, they both have ICS now. well, how? the s2 certainly does not officially. what it got was not ICS but touchwizz, which is an entirely different creature. some say miscarriage. inofficially it has cm9 now, which is the biggest thing that ever happened to that poor thing ever, i myself run it. but that came half a year later and is still buggy. its entire rom culture is dependent on the efforts of the cm9 team and nexus roms like aokp. it sucks and you know it. again, nexus = adb + fastboot + google aosp + hardware drivers + updates + awesome roms.

you're right about the sd. that is about the only reason to get a s2. i really didn't intend to make the s2 look bad, though. these were just my experiences with it---
 
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molesarecoming

Inactive Recognized Developer
Feb 12, 2012
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well, i just tried it out. gearth is fluid, i can rotate 3d building just fine, middle of crowded new york. sometimes it has a slight lag when i pinch it wide but nothing like what he had in the vid. :confused: who knows what the guy is running there, what version of gearth, silly unrooted stock maybe, etc. i still call the argument that the s2 is faster hokus pokus, because i own and used them both. its neglectable. but yeah as you say, opinions won't do anything so to each his own. :)
 
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molesarecoming

Inactive Recognized Developer
Feb 12, 2012
7,532
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Berlin
out of curiosity ...i just tried it with my s2 now. it is the same, im getting the same little lag. im not noticing even the tiniest difference between the two. that video is bull****, im starting to think he rigged it or something or his nexus was broken. and will you explain what you mean with "real life experience." did you actually own a nexus? :-S
 
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Nosferatu.

Senior Member
Dec 20, 2011
2,255
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Tampa, Florida
out of curiosity ...i just tried it with my s2 now. it is the same, im getting the same little lag. im not noticing even the tiniest difference between the two. that video is bull****, im starting to think he rigged it or something or his nexus was broken. and will you explain what you mean with "real life experience." did you actually own a nexus? :-S

My friend owns a VZW Galaxy Nexus we've played with each others a bit and so I'm aware of how the Nexus performs. :)

We did try playing with Android Beam, care to enlighten me how that works?
 

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    Both phones have their positives and negatives.

    The PenTile Super AMOLED HD vs. the Super AMOLED+ display is subjective. Some people like the higher resolution, some people would rather do without the green tint.

    Both are NFC enabled, so that's a moot point, too.

    About the processors: People in this thread seem to think that every single mobile SOC uses its own native ARM ISA. This is false. The TI OMAP 4460's processor and the processor in the Exynos (And for that matter, the Tegra 2's and the Apple A5's) are the same (Save for certain cases like NEON implementation, which most, but not all SOC's do. The Tegra 2 doesn't.) The Snapdragon's is not, as Qualcomm licenses the ability to design their own ARM based ISA from ARM Holdings (Think AMD and Intel). http://www.anandtech.com/show/3632/anands-google-nexus-one-review/9

    Between Cortex-A9 SOC's, the difference in performance and benchmarks is either down to the GPU (The Exynos uses the Mali-400, the TI uses the PowerVR SGX 540, the Tegra 2 uses the Geforce ULP, and the A5 uses the PowerVR SGX543MP2), software optimization, clock rate, or certain cases where NEON would provide a benefit.

    Performance per clock has the Cortex A9 leading the Snapdragon chip in most cases. This isn't Qualcomm's fault. The Snapdragon was never designed to compete with the A9, but rather, the A8. This is why benchmarks seem to have the T-Mobile SGSII coming in last place between the carrier variants. In real world performance, though, it's relatively a moot point. Most software is still being written for the 1GHz single core crowd. Any dual core device should remain hardware relevant for quite some time.

    As far as GPU performance is concerned... the Adreno 220 /should/ be more powerful than the SGX540 the Galaxy Nexus uses, but software optimization can provide a key role here.

    I've heard mixed views over the camera in the Galaxy Nexus. From what I've gathered, at its best, the camera can snap clearer, more color accurate shots than the SGSII at its best, but it's easier to take rubbish shots than the SGSII's. The resolution of the CMOS sensor means almost nothing in terms of raw image quality, and it's silly to compare cameras based on it.

    The Galaxy Nexus doesn't use Gorilla Glass, but some sort of unknown manufacturer's "reenforced glass", like the Nexus S. I'll hold off until we hear some clear reports on how durable/scratch resistant this glass really is.

    The biggest reason to go with the Galaxy Nexus would definitely be software updates, though. Obviously, it's the first phone with Ice Cream Sandwich, which is a massive improvement over Gingerbread in every way. And then, it will get consistent updates, as they are managed by Google instead of the manufacturer/carrier. (Remember how hard it was just to get an official Froyo on the US versions of the original Galaxy S?) Samsung claims that it's trying to clean up its act on that front, but it's not entirely up to them. It's up to the carriers, and they'd rather us sign onto new contracts with newer phones. We'll see.

    There's no SD card slot on the Nexus. That's a big thing for most people.

    Audio performance is interesting. The Yamaha DAC the Galaxy S II uses has been called a downgrade from the original Wolfson DAC the Galaxy/Nexus S used. I haven't heard reports on the Galaxy Nexus' DAC, so we'll just have to wait and see.

    There will definitely be more ROM support for the Galaxy Nexus. Two reasons.

    1. It's not split up into four (five?) different models, some of which have different hardware altogether.

    2. AOSP Android. Everything running on the Galaxy Nexus has been open sourced from the beginning. (GAPPS excluded). Meaning there won't be any driver issues as per the SGSII.

    If both phones were out right now and available for T-Mobile and I'd have to chose, I'd probably pick the Galaxy Nexus just for the ICS and ROM support. That's not to say I'm unhappy with my SGSII, but running a vastly superior version of Android and being able to tinker around with it that much more is worth it (to me) over my own personal preference for the non PenTile SAMOLED display and the Gorilla Glass.
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    I'm most likely going to own both of them. I love the nexus line of phones. Nothing like stock. They are both amazing from what I have seen and will decide which is better for myself after using both.

    There is enough hate in the world. Why can't we all get along here ...?
    2

    You do realize that both of those reviews are of the i9100, right? That phone is really a COMPLETELY different phone than the SGH-T989! There needs to be a comparison to the T-Mobile US version of the SGSII.

    Considering that the Galaxy Nexus is larger

    The Nexus is larger in height but not width, it is in fact thinner in width.

    , has an inferior screen (supposedly)

    Where the heck did you read that? Are you talking about Gorilla Glass? It has a reinforced glass, Google wouldn't let them put **** on their latest and greatest after the Nexus S flop

    , and lacks the ability to upgrade the internal storage due to lack of an SD card slot

    Who uses more than 32GB?

    Are you still planning on upgrading to the Galaxy Nexus when it becomes available? If so, why?

    YES. Because it is a Nexus. ICS. Updates BEFORE ANY OTHER PHONE GET'S THEM. Will have HUGE developer support. Best display available. There's more, can't think of them now.

    ---------- Post added at 08:13 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:11 AM ----------

    Yeah, the 5mp camera appeared to be a turn off to me at first as well. But I have seen some comparison pictures taken with both phones and the 5mp camera on the Nexus does seem to be a bit clearer than the 8mp camera on the SGS2.

    However, I don't typically choose a phone due to its camera. So this doesn't really matter to me.

    I agree totally. When I first read the stats with a 5mp camera first thought was, "why"? But I have too seen the comparisons. I'm willing to get they upgraded the optics. All that aside, I don't take many pictures with my phone. I use my camera for that so it's a minimal spec.

    ---------- Post added at 08:20 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:13 AM ----------

    Ya I was debating these two for awhile. I went Tmob GS2 and don't regret it one bit...better cpu, gpu, modem, SD card, camera, lighter, smaller, etc. For me a phone any larger than the GS2 and I not interested, it has taken some getting use to the larger size in my hand coming from a Nexus S.

    Hmmm...Better CPU - You sure? This CPU (TMO SGSII) is pain to do anything productive with.

    GPU - Ok, may be a LITTLE better, but I doubt you would ever notice the difference. As far as I've read that GPU performs just fine for any game available on Android.

    Modem - What are you talking about? The HSPA+ speed?

    SD Card, yeah, talked about that already.

    Lighter - Um, NO, they weigh the same.

    Camera - More pixels means **** if the camera itself cant handle them.

    ETC - What else? You say you can't handle a larger phone? I thought this thing was huge when I got it and wanted to go back to my Sensation but in time I grew to like the size. Just FYI, the Nexus is taller but skinnier. Thinner too by .6mm.
    1
    Like many others, I've been drooling over the Galaxy Nexus since it was announced. However, the more I read about it, the less interested I am to get one. At this point it seems that the only real upside to moving from the SGS2 to the Galaxy Nexus is ICS. But we all know there will be an ICS port available for the SGS2 within the upcoming months anyway, so that's a moot point.

    Two comparison reviews I read:
    http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/42623/galaxy-nexus-vs-samsung-galaxy-s-2

    http://www.knowyourmobile.com/comparisons/1098323/samsung_galaxy_nexus_vs_samsung_galaxy_s2.html

    Considering that the Galaxy Nexus is larger, has an inferior screen (supposedly), and lacks the ability to upgrade the internal storage due to lack of an SD card slot, I'm really losing sight on the appeal for the Galaxy Nexus.

    Are you still planning on upgrading to the Galaxy Nexus when it becomes available? If so, why?
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    Plus the Nexus only have a 5MP camera. One reason why I was considering the Nexus is because of the NFC technology Android Beam. I know a lot of people may need the extra space of a micro SD card slot, but a lot of people don't even have a micro SD card in their GS2 just because it doesn't come with one. Either way you go, you will be getting a good phone :)