Review of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus One

The Galaxy Nexus was hyped by Samsung to be an evolutionary step up from its immensely popular flagship smart phone, the Galaxy SII. The focus of the prerelease hype centered the phone's blazing fast 4G LTE technology that claimed download speeds of up to 12 Mbps. Shipped with the latest Android OS, dubbed Ice Cream Sandwich, the Galaxy Nexus was one of the most anticipated phones of the past year.

Pros

• The 4G LTE coverage provides faster download speeds than what was claimed. In areas with strong signals, the Galaxy Nexus was capable of achieving download speeds of up to 16 Mbps.

• Like its cousin, the Galaxy SII, the screen of the Nexus is brilliant. Sporting a 720 by 1280 AMOLED 4.6" HD touch screen, the Nexus renders a large and beautiful display. Iphone users will be blown away at Samsung's ability to achieve true black on their phones by turning off individual pixels during video play.

• The overall performance of this phone is fantastic. The Ice Cream Sandwich OS, the 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, and the 1 GB of Ram allow numerous processes to run concurrently without a hint of lag.

Cons

• The camera on this phone was a big disappointment. I'm not sure why Samsung chose to go with a 5 Megapixel camera in their first LTE phone. Like most cheap camera phones, the Nexus doesn't handle overly dark or overly bright environments well. It also has problem with blurring pictures if your hand is slightly shaky. The camera isn't unusable, but it definitely lags way behind the Galaxy SII and the Iphone 4s.

• The drawback of LTE technology is that it kills battery life. Owners of this phone will have to charge it at least every day, and depending on how much wifi they use, sometimes twice a day.

• As of now, the phone is only carried by Verizon Wireless. This obviously isn't a con if you are a subscriber, but ATT and T-Mobile customers are going to have to wait a while before they can buy a Nexus.

Although the battery life and camera phone are lacking, the Nexus is definitely a step up from the Galaxy SII in terms of speed and performance. Overall, I consider Samsung's first venture into LTE technology a success.

About the Author

Scott Morgan is a board certified Austin divorce lawyer who regularly blogs on the subject of divorce and family law. You can read his blog at AustinDivorceSpecialist.com.