Last night Samsung and Google held their joint press conference in Hong Kong both unveiling the next generation of Android. Samsung has finally put a stop to all the rumors regarding the hardware to be featured on their next iteration in the Nexus saga, dubbed the Galaxy Nexus. Meanwhile Google has been developing their next iteration of Android OS 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, and as surprising as it may seem they had kept all the good features a secret until now…

First things first, the Galaxy Nexus official specifications:

-Texas Instruments OMAP 4460 1.2GHz dual-core CPU

-PowerVR SGX 540 GPU

-1GB of RAM

-4.7″ Super AMOLED 720P HD display

-5 megapixel rear facing camera with 1.3 megapixel front facing camera

-NFC, GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, WiFi

-16 or 32GB of internal storage

-1750mAh battery which will be put to the test when attempting to support the large HD display and powerful CPU/GPU.

-HSPA+ model as well as an LTE (a little thicker in size 8.94mm)

-Dimensions: 136 x 68 x 8.8mm, and 11.5 mm at the thickest point, weighs in at 135g

So it seems the last leaked specs were correct, but that was somewhat expected. The hardware isn’t revolutionary but brings some interesting changes shadowy the ‘norm’ expected from Android.

Release Date:

During the conference there was no mention of Canada when discussing release dates. The only information provided was that the Galaxy Nexus will be available in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. We were extremely disappointed when we didn’t hear the words Canada, but no worries, Andy Rubin (the Head of Android) has posted on Google’s Blog and said “Starting in November, Galaxy Nexus will be available in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia. Check out the Nexus website for a product tour and more info.”

Display:

The curved display, a la Nexus S, seems to have been taken even further including more curvature. It’s hard to say how we feel about this without actually having the device in hand, but it shouldn’t fall short of how the Nexus S feels.

Camera:

The camera on the Galaxy Nexus is quite interesting as it takes a few steps back from the now common 8MP camera and instead builds on the older generation 5MP, but with some new features.

As seen in the above slide the camera its capable of recording full 1080p HD able to zoom in during recording, add live effects, time scape, as well as taking panoramic photo stills, instant photo shutter, with some nifty image editing.

One of the image editing capabilities that was featured was the ability to change the angle of which the picture was taken. The picture on the left shows the original while the picture below is an example of how you can change the angle of the picture.

<-Original

                        Angle Changed->

Taking panorama photos is made quite easy with the only action required is a slow movement of the scene you want captured, which seems like a video is being taken but after completed the image is rendered.

Camera Sample:

Beam (NFC) Feature:

This new feature makes sharing of almost anything as simple as putting two phones together…literally. At the conference the Google team demoed this by sharing a website article, photos, and even a game (lead the phone to the market for purchase).

We have yet to see a large movement on NFC capabilities either than Google wallet (still not available here in Canada), so this is a great step in making NFC a useful tool in the Android arsenal.

People Integration:

Google is taking a similar approach to Windows Phone 7 in terms of their integration with your contacts. This may be a more visual similarity than functionality but it is quite interesting nonetheless. 

This also brings about a feature called Quick Contacts, which in short brings up a pop contact card whenever you click on a contact’s name, whether it be in Gmail or any other app. See below:

The result is clear and looks to be a more efficient way in communicating with contacts all by incorporating every social network in which they and you are attached to.

Source: Google Blog