Samsung Galaxy Nexus or Galaxy SII?

[Keller]

Whats about HTC Sensation XE or XL? Much better than any Samsung phone.

Bloated + It doesnt have the cute amoled screen. AFAIK there's beats enabled ROMs for S2.

[Amity]

I'd presonally wait for the 28nm facbricated phones

about the comfortable to hold, that's opinion as i have seen both these phones in person just not right next to eachother to compare

The nexus does not use gorilla glass because the screen has a slight curve (to improve scrolling comfortability from what i've heard)

about the Micro SD; that's a good point.. 16gb of internal storage is plenty for me to put all my music on there. But having the option of a micro sd for the future is still an advantage over the Nexus.

And i can't really wait months to buy a new phone simply because i do not have a phone at the moment, I'm just trying to get an idea which is more worth it's money and owners of these phones opinions.

[Keller]

Talking about the UI - isn't ICS (ice cream sandwich) on the SII just going to be transfered from the nexus? so the nexus will be receiving quicker updates than the SII?
will this also mean that ICS will be more optimized for the Nexus?

Nexus phones are a developer platform made as a 'standard' of hardware at their time of release. They've never really been famous for their amazing internals, rather it's the pure 'google' experience, think of them as google's answer to the iPhone.

---------- Post added 2012-02-20 at 12:58 PM ----------

about the comfortable to hold, that's opinion as i have seen both these phones in person just not right next to eachother to compare

The nexus does not use gorilla glass because the screen has a slight curve (to improve scrolling comfortability from what i've heard)

about the Micro SD; that's a good point.. 16gb of internal storage is plenty for me to put all my music on there. But having the option of a micro sd for the future is still an advantage over the Nexus.

And i can't really wait months to buy a new phone simply because i do not have a phone at the moment, I'm just trying to get an idea which is more worth it's money and owners of these phones opinions.

Honestly, I seriously doubt they'd make a phone without some kind of Alumosilicate-hardened glass, especially at that price. I'd honestly get the S2 if it had to be -right now-, however dont be surprised if they dont port android 6 or 7 to it.

[Syro]

Just buy a good SH nokia n8 and enjoy a great phone and the best camera on the market. With the symbian belle update it moves/feels/looks great. Plus you have free lifetime navigation, gorilla glass and an excelent build quality wich will stand out in the sea of samsung plastics and iphones. Oh and it also should cost about 200 dolars.

[Amity]

Nexus phones are a developer platform made as a 'standard' of hardware at their time of release. They've never really been famous for their amazing internals, rather it's the pure 'google' experience, think of them as google's answer to the iPhone.

---------- Post added 2012-02-20 at 12:58 PM ----------



Honestly, I seriously doubt they'd make a phone without some kind of Alumosilicate-hardened glass, especially at that price. I'd honestly get the S2 if it had to be -right now-, however dont be surprised if they dont port android 6 or 7 to it.

I believe they use similar glass to gorilla glass only not as scratch resistant and only a bit stronger than the glass on iphones.
If i buy the SII I would just get a normal back protection cover where'as if i buy the nexus i will most likely be investing in a leather case cover if you know what I mean.

Thanks for the all the feedback btw

[Deleted]

Whats about HTC Sensation XE or XL? Much better than any Samsung phone.

You're pretty lonely with that opinion.

@OP

Basicly it comes down to what you need. Galaxy S2 has much stronger hardware, it will play games (and any other slightly demanding software) a lot smoother than Nexus. Galaxy S2 also has clearly better camera.

Nexus has.... umm.... ICS, and it looks cooler. A bit better screen too or? I don't know. I got S2 and the screen is amazing, so hard to say how Nexus can even do it better, at least for average user.

Yea, the only reason I'd go with Nexus personally would be to have ICS before it's released on S2. S2 hardware is just way superior to Nexus.

[Djinni]

http://www.motoringcrunch.com/news/m...laxys-s2-vs-s3

Worth looking at ... mostly this bit:

So if you can't wait until late summer for the Galaxy S3, try and hang on a week more and see what Samsung has to unveil before taking a plunge with the Galaxy S2. )

[Asera]

If you're OK with the lower resolution screen, don't mind carrier bloatware (or are adept enough to remove it), go for the SGSII because of the slightly faster GPU speed, and SD slot.

If you think 1280x720 is appealing (I personally wouldn't be able to go smaller now), and don't really want to deal with carrier bloatware, and don't care about a tad bit of slowdown on some games due to the weaker GPU, go for the Galaxy Nexus.

Either will have high resale value because of how popular the SGSII is and how the Nexus is extremely developer friendly.

If you want the Nexus and you live in the States though... I'd just get the SGSII because the Nexus is like, $200 more expensive in the USA for no reason.

[BicycleMafioso]

I have the SGSII, and while I think it's a great phone in its own right, I'm unsure whether either are the right for you. New phones are on the horizon. How badly do you need one now?

[Amity]

If you're OK with the lower resolution screen, don't mind carrier bloatware (or are adept enough to remove it), go for the SGSII because of the slightly faster GPU speed, and SD slot.

If you think 1280x720 is appealing (I personally wouldn't be able to go smaller now), and don't really want to deal with carrier bloatware, and don't care about a tad bit of slowdown on some games due to the weaker GPU, go for the Galaxy Nexus.
Either will have high resale value because of how popular the SGSII is and how the Nexus is extremely developer friendly.

If you want the Nexus and you live in the States though... I'd just get the SGSII because the Nexus is like, $200 more expensive in the USA for no reason.

Yes the higher ppi ( i think its like 318 on the nexus vs something like 228 on the gs2) is really appealing
Also kinda the same here in australia 720 bucks for the gs2 850 for the nexus although on ebay the nexus is only 6 dollars more than the gs2 being 575

---------- Post added 2012-02-21 at 01:11 AM ----------

I have the SGSII, and while I think it's a great phone in its own right, I'm unsure whether either are the right for you. New phones are on the horizon. How badly do you need one now?

Well like i said i don't have a phone at all atm so i'll most likely hold on till the 27th

Trying not to sound like a dick but aren't new phones always on the horizon?

[Deleted]

Saw a lot of comments where peolpe say that the smooth and quickness of the phone is all about the software. Thats partly true. It's a matter of programming and how well they made the software communicate with the hardware. If you take iOS as an example, they have amazing software that doesnt need that good hardware. Android is not there just yet, thus the majority of the Android based phones have far better hardware than for example iPhone, but still the iPhone beat some top of the line models in performance. But saying the hardware doesnt matter beside running games is wrong. Then there would be no point for the manifactures to build the high end phones, if you could pay 200 bucks instead of 600 and get the same performance.

[jmacphee9]

Whats about HTC Sensation XE or XL? Much better than any Samsung phone.

htc has been lagging behind samsung since just after the evo, HTC sat back on it too much. samsung delivers far better performance out of its chips in benchmarks and it shows in real time... as of today the galaxu nexus is the best android in the world though..the s2 is pretty fancy as well but several features i really like with the nexus that would make me pick it over the s2, like the curved screen, the native ICS support (no buttons), wicked fast processor that loves to be overlocked...

[Brett Skullcrack]

Android is not there just yet, thus the majority of the Android based phones have far better hardware than for example iPhone, but still the iPhone beat some top of the line models in performance.

It's not a question of Android not being there "just yet". Android will never be "there" because it has different design goals. Google is interested in proving the underlying platform that supports as many phones as possible, while leaving much of the higher level stuff up to manufacturers and operators. It's simply never going to be as polished as iOS devices because Apple micromanages and optimizes every part of the stack from building the processors to every user interaction. Sure the Android manufacturers can throw more GHz or whatever at the problem, but they'll just end up with a device that runs hot and drains the battery while Apple will beat them in actual user experience with "worse" components like they always do.

[Deleted]

It's not a question of Android not being there "just yet". Android will never be "there" because it has different design goals. Google is interested in proving the underlying platform that supports as many phones as possible, while leaving much of the higher level stuff up to manufacturers and operators. It's simply never going to be as polished as iOS devices because Apple micromanages and optimizes every part of the stack from building the processors to every user interaction.

To me it seem like you try to turn this into a Apple vs Android cockfight, which is a whole other topic. Don't you think Google would develop a similar software if they could? Optimizing the OS for as many phones as possible is not difficult, but time consuming. ICS is a step in the right direction where it's not as hardware dependant as previous updates. iOS is designed so everyone should be able to use it without any problems. They want to give any user an excellent experience, a person that never ever used a smartphone and is completly clueless on the subject or a experienced user with higher requirements, while (sadly) Android suits people with good experience that want their smartphone for advanced usage, but doesnt fit the newbie. Me for example would never use an iPhone cause the system is so locked up. I cant do half of the things i can do with my Android, but that doesnt mean the iPhone is bad or wrong. In the end its all about the user.

Sure the Android manufacturers can throw more GHz or whatever at the problem, but they'll just end up with a device that runs hot and drains the battery while Apple will beat them in actual user experience with "worse" components like they always do.

Putting it like that is just ignorant. My SGSII, which have a dual core 1.2 GHz CPU (A9) have way better battery time than my Desire HD with a worse CPU (Scorpion 1 GHz single core). Most likely cause the SGSII have a 1650 mAh battery while the DHD have a 1250, but the SGSII is 2 mm thinner. My point is that they develope the hardware quickly and the better hardware doesnt affect the battery time, since they develope the technology and find ways around that.

Sorry if this was irrelevent to the OP, but just wanted to prove my point ;p

[Deleted]

Depends what you are going to do on the phone.

If you are going to be using the screen more than you would as a phone, try out a Galaxy Note. Awesome 'phone' but it is big.

If you want to have the new Android versions first, then get the Galaxy Nexus.

If you want the better device specs wise with more app support due to numbers sold (thus devs aiming for the phone specifically), then get the Galaxy S II.

I personally would get a cheap phone that texts and calls, and then wait for the Galaxy S III or maybe a 'superphone' that gets announced at MWC next week.

[Brett Skullcrack]

To me it seem like you try to turn this into a Apple vs Android cockfight, which is a whole other topic. Don't you think Google would develop a similar software if they could? Optimizing the OS for as many phones as possible is not difficult, but time consuming. ICS is a step in the right direction where it's not as hardware dependant as previous updates. iOS is designed so everyone should be able to use it without any problems. They want to give any user an excellent experience, a person that never ever used a smartphone and is completly clueless on the subject or a experienced user with higher requirements, while (sadly) Android suits people with good experience that want their smartphone for advanced usage, but doesnt fit the newbie. Me for example would never use an iPhone cause the system is so locked up. I cant do half of the things i can do with my Android, but that doesnt mean the iPhone is bad or wrong. In the end its all about the user.

I'm not turning it into anything, I'm just describing the differences between two platforms. Whatever you choose to use is up to you and I couldn't care less what it is. You seem to be fundamentally confused about a few things.

First, it absolutely is more difficult to design a system that supports a wider hardware base, not just more time consuming. When you're writing for a specific configuration you can make a whole host of assumptions (and if you control that configuration you can even optimize the hardware configuration where necessary) and those assumptions are what allow you to optimize the performance. If you can't make such detailed assumptions about the underlying configuration you simply cannot make as many optimizations. And that's not even what Google is aiming at with Android, they are aiming at building a generic platform that can run on a wide variety of hardware which fundamentally excludes many types of optimizations that Apple can do with their limited and strictly controlled hardware configuration.

It's just a difference in design goals: Android is designed to support a large number of different hardware configurations and allowing the manufacturer and operator huge amount of freedom to customize the device (this is what the manufacturers and operators were asking for when Android Inc. started their development). Apple on the other hand wants to control the whole thing very strictly from top to bottom in order to give the best user experience possible. Both approaches have their plusses and minuses.

Second, your characterization of iOS devices as some kind of "newbie" platform and Android as "advanced" user platform is wrong. I've been using and developing for mobile devices long before iOS and Android even existed. I'd class myself as an "advanced" user and yet I'd pick an iPhone for personal use. I can't get root out of the box on my Android device anymore than I can get it on an iPhone, both require the device to be jailbroken/rooted before I can even do any "advanced" use on it. What exactly are these "half the things" that you can't do on an iPhone that you can on Android?

Putting it like that is just ignorant. My SGSII, which have a dual core 1.2 GHz CPU (A9) have way better battery time than my Desire HD with a worse CPU (Scorpion 1 GHz single core). Most likely cause the SGSII have a 1650 mAh battery while the DHD have a 1250, but the SGSII is 2 mm thinner. My point is that they develope the hardware quickly and the better hardware doesnt affect the battery time, since they develope the technology and find ways around that.

No, putting it that way is just ignorant. The point is that all other things being equal, having to throw more processing power at a problem in the form of clock rates etc. will just generate more heat and drain the battery. New generation of hardware that's designed to be more power efficient will obviously give you better performance, but that's not the point here.

[Grewsome]

Android vs Apple - personal choice. Nothing more, because they are fundamentally the same tool. I just happen to think my Skyrocket is friggen amazing, and feel like I'm holding a toy when I use my GF's 4s. I let my 5 year old play with my 3gs. Perfect for him.

OP - get the SII.

[vaeevictiss]

i have the GNex and it is awesome. I dropped AOKP rom and trinitys kernel in it and it rocks. Dont worry about the benchmarks people claim, they mean nothing. Spend a little time on the XDA forums and you will see why.

[Amity]

Just saying rose528400 has put the price down 6 bucks from the nexus to equal it to the SII, kind of strange how in most areas the nexus is at least $100 more

I still keep getting pulled back to the simple and beautiful looking GS2 tho so i might just end up buying that

Thanks for all the feedback and stuff its been a big help!

Edit: someone mentioned waiting out for a week to see if samsung releases any superphones.. but would they even be shipped to Australia and wouldn't they be in the $800-1000 dollar price range? thanks

[Steelyorc]

S II... greatest phone I've ever owned