Screen too small
If the big-but-skinny form factor is the rage, then the iPhone 4S's 3.5-inch display is out of fashion. The Google/Samsung Galaxy Nexus has a 4.65-inch screen and the Motorola Droid RAZR has a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Advanced display. The HTC Titan, which runs on the Windows Phone 7.5 Mango Platform, sports a 4.7-inch Super LCD capacitive touch-screen. Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich could rival Apple's iOS 5 in sheer functionality. The iPhone usually beats rivals in terms of design but the screen size is holding it back. Apple / Samsung

Google Inc. and Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Nexus phone running on Ice Cream Sandwich, the newest version of Android, at an event in Hong Kong on Oct. 18. The Galaxy Nexus, which will hit the stores in November, is expected to give stiff competition to Apple Inc.'s iPhone 4S.

Apple, which unveiled iPhone 4S on Oct. 4 instead of the eagerly-anticipated iPhone 5, received overwhelming positive responses for the smartphone that sold 4 million units during the opening weekend. The smartphone missed some prominent specs like edge-to-edge design, a larger display, 4G LTE and Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.

However, iPhone 4S featured some important upgrades that were rumored to be a part of the imaginary iPhone 5, like the 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor, PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU, an Apple A5 chipset and an 8-megapixel camera. It also has a 3.5-inch TFT Retina multi-touch display and is loaded with the latest Apple operating system iOS 5.

It also comes with alternating antennae for better call reception, CDMA and GSM support, a personal assistant called Siri, iCloud and Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technology. The Apple smartphone has a Li-Po 1,420 mAh battery, with 8 hours of talk time on 3G networks and up to 14 hours on 2G networks (GSM).

On the other hand, Galaxy Nexus, which is the first LTE-enabled smartphone to feature Ice Cream Sandwich, was also known as Samsung Google Nexus Prime, Samsung Google Galaxy Nexus I9250, Samsung Google Nexus 3 and Samsung Google Nexus 4G.

Galaxy Nexus is adorned with dual-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A9 CPU, TI OMAP 4460 chipset, 4.65-inch high-definition Super AMOLED display, 1 GB of RAM, 16 or 32 GB of internal memory, NFC, 4G LTE support, 5-megapixel rear-facing camera with 1080p video capture and 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video calls.

Let's look at the specifications of Apple iPhone 4S and Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

Display: Galaxy Nexus touts a 4.65-inch high-definition Super AMOLED display that may give a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels with about 316 ppi pixel density. iPhone 4S, when compared, has the same 3.5-inch TFT Retina multi-touch display that may give a resolution of 960 x 640 pixels at 326 ppi density.

Size: Galaxy Nexus will come in 135.5 x 67.94 x 8.94 mm dimension and weighs 135 grams, while iPhone 4S comes with 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3 mm and weighs 140 grams.

Processor: iPhone 4S, which comes in an A5 chipset, is powered by 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU, PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU. On the other hand, Galaxy Nexus will feature 1.2GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU, TI OMAP 4460 chipset with 1GB RAM.

Operating System: Apple's iPhone 4S runs on the newest iOS 5 that comes with 200 new features that will include an improved Notifications System, Newsstand and iMessage. On the other hand, Galaxy Nexus will run on the latest version of Google Inc.'s smartphone operating system, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Ice Cream Sandwich is a combination of Gingerbread and Honeycomb in one unit. Android Head of Engineering Mike Claren announced that the new OS is Google's most ambitious release to date.

The newest features arriving with Android 4.0 include widgets in a new tab, a customizable launcher, Gmail with offline search with a two-line preview and new action bar at the bottom, better voice integration, improved copy and paste and a new tabbed Web browser that allows up to 16 tabs.

Camera: iPhone 4S sports a rear-facing 8-megapixel camera with 1080p HD video capture capability, while Galaxy Nexus will sport a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera with 1080p video capture. For video calls, Galaxy Nexus will sport a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera while iPhone 4S comes with a secondary VGA camera.

3G/4G: Apple iPhone 4S has HSDPA 14.4 Mbps, HSUPA 5.8 Mbps support and also has CDMA EV-DO Rev. A (800, 1900 MHz) technology, while Galaxy Nexus will have HSDPA 21 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps and 4G LTE support.

Storage: iPhone 4S has fixed 16/32/64 GB internal storage, while Galaxy Nexus will have a fixed 16/32 GB internal storage.

WLAN/Bluetooth/USB: iPhone 4S has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Wi-Fi hotspot, while Galaxy Nexus will have Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot. Galaxy Nexus will have Bluetooth 3.0 version with A2DP along with microUSB 2.0 version, while iPhone 4S has advanced Bluetooth version 4.0 with A2DP along with USB version 2.0.

Battery: The Apple smartphone has a Li-Po 1420 mAh battery, with 8 hours of talk time on 3G networks, up to 14 hours on 2G networks (GSM) and a standby time of 200 hours. On the other hand, Galaxy Nexus will come with a standard 1750 mAh battery.

Pricing: Galaxy Nexus will hit the stores in November in the U.S., Europe and Asia (including China and Japan) and as far as the pricing goes, nothing has been announced yet.

With a two-year contract, iPhone 4S costs $199 for the 16GB model, $299 for the 32GB model and $399 for the 64GB model. Apple-listed prices for a contract-free phone in the United States are $649 for the 16GB model, $749 for 32GB and $849 for the 64GB.

Additional Features: Galaxy Nexus will come with Oleophobic surface, Multi-touch input method, Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate, Touch-sensitive controls, Proximity sensor for auto turn-off, Three-axis gyro sensor, SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM, RSS, HTML, A-GPS support, barometer sensor, Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa integration, Adobe Flash support, NFC support, Digital compass, Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic, MP4/H.264/H.263 player and MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3 player.

On the other hand, Apple iPhone 4S comes with Scratch-resistant Oleophobic surface, Multi-touch input method, Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate, Three-axis gyro sensor, Proximity sensor for auto turn-off, iMessage, SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, HTML (Safari), A-GPS support, GLONASS, micro-SIM card support only, scratch-resistant glass back panel, active noise cancellation with dedicated mic, Siri natural language commands and dictation, iCloud cloud service, Twitter integration, Digital compass and Google Maps.

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