Verizon Galaxy Nexus LTE: New York Sneak Peak

The Galaxy Nexus continues to tease U.S. hopefuls after the phone appeared with Verizon's logo at the Samsung Experience in New York City on Saturday.

Samsung put four pre-production versions of the ice-cream sandwich on display in Columbus Circle, running the Android 4.1.0 software, Engadget reported.

The phones on display at the event did not include SIM-cards, making it impossible to test performance on Verizon's network, but a speed test using Verizon LTE MiFi gave the Engadget team downloaded speeds from 5000-7000 kbps.

Verizon continues to hold its silence about the phone's official release date, which has fueled the Galaxy Nexus rumor mill with daily predictions.

There is no real way of knowing when the phone will be released in the U.S after all rumored dates so far have been a no-show. When the phone was released in Europe two weeks ago, the U.S. had a glimpse of hope for a Thanksgiving release, but it never came.

Days later the phone surfaced in a Best Buy ad that had a Nov. 27 release date, but that, too, never came out. Now, an apparent source at Best Buy has told Engadget that the phone will be in stock on Dec. 11. But the inventory sent in by the source does not reveal the street date, meaning the phone could reach retail shops up to a week after it lands in a stock room.

The most widespread rumor that was released a week ago on thered99.com revealed a Dec.8 release date that they claim was revealed in an official e-mail from Verizon.

The phone really could be out sooner than we think as recent videos released on YouTube indicate that some people have managed to grab early versions of the Verizon Galaxy Nexus LTE.

A YouTube user, hksscom, posted a video performing a speed test on the phone and posted it online. The test carried out on Verizon's 4G network shows the phone peaking at 8Mbps indoors, with only two bars of coverage.

Meanwhile, a user on My Droid World posted a screenshot of an apparent Verizon Galaxy Nexus heralding Android Version 4.1. The Nexus Prime is the first phone to support the new Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich platform, which was designed to bridge the gap between Android 2.x and the 3.0 honeycombs.

The phone comes with AMOLED 4.65 inch screen with a 720p resolution. Its 8.94mm thinness gives the phone a sleek finish and weighs only 135g. Despite being so slender and light the phone comes with 16.30 GB of storage and 1GB of RAM, giving it twice the memory of the iPhone 4S.

Other features:

5-megapixel camera: LED flash

Front-facing camera: 1.3MP unit

Video: 1080p

Connectivity: Bluetooth 3.0, WLAN, 3G.

Wi-Fi-802.11n

HSDPA speed: 21 Mbps