Droid RAZR Preorders Now Live

Specs:
Display - 4.3" Super AMOLED "Advanced" Display

Processor: TI OMAP Dual-Core @ 1.2gHz
RAM: 1GB
Onboard Storage/SD Storage/Total Storage: 16GB/16GB/32GB
Camera: 8MP Rear, 1.3MP Front (capable of shooting 720p front video)

Battery: 1780 mAh
Connectivity: 4G
Bonuses: HDMI output, webtop capable, Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread), MotoCast.

The Droid RAZR was available for preorder Thursday and sold out online quickly after it was made available. Given the fact that it has an amazing 4G radio from Motorola and is incredibly thin, you can see why it did. It has the amazing RAZR name behind it as well as some serious hard ware under the hood of this device. For those who are interested, you can head over to your local Best Buy and grab one for a $50 down payment.

Galaxy Nexus vs. Galaxy S2 Touch vs. Droid RAZR

Let's take the three best Android phones that are up-and-coming and put them head to head in a hardware comparison and see which one comes out on top.

Display:
Galaxy Nexus: 4.65" Super AMOLED HD, ~324 pixel density
Galaxy S2 Touch: 4.52" Super AMOLED Plus, ~206 pixel density
Droid RAZR: 4.3" Super AMOLED, 256 pixel density

Out of all of these, the Galaxy Nexus comes out on top. It's got Samsung's beautiful Super AMOLED HD display, which tops its AMOLED Plus and obviously its regular AMOLED.

Winner: Galaxy Nexus


Processor:
Galaxy Nexus: A9 Cortex Dual-Core @ 1.2gHz
Galaxy S2 Touch: Samsung Exynos Dual-Core @ 1.2gHz
Droid RAZR: A9 Cortex Dual-Core @ 1.2gHz

All of these devices use relatively similar processors. They are all clocked at 1.2gHz. While the Galaxy S2 Touch's processor rocks a better graphics chip in it, we will leave that part to the actual graphics section. As far as processor speed is concerned, all three are a tie.

Winner: Tie


RAM:
Galaxy Nexus: 1GB
Galaxy S2 Touch: 1GB
Droid RAZR: 1GB

Obviously this is the industry standard at this point. Not much to say here. Tie all the way..

Winner: Tie


Graphics Processor:
Galaxy Nexus: Power VT SGX540 GPU
Galaxy S2 Touch: Mali-400MP
Droid RAZR: Power VT SGX540 GPU

The biggest difference here is Samsung's amazing hardware acceleration that comes with their Mali-400MP chip. It will blow the RAZR and Galaxy Nexus out of the water. Expect about 10% more performance out of the Touch in comparison to the other two devices. Because of this, the winner is the Galaxy S2 Touch.


Winner: Galaxy S2 Touch


Min/Max Storage:
Galaxy Nexus: 16GB/64GB
Galaxy S2 Touch: 16GB/48GB
Droid RAZR: 16GB/48GB

Given that the Galaxy Nexus will be coming in a 16GB model and a 32GB model, the Galaxy Nexus allows for its 32GB onboard storage combined with a 32GB microSD card, giving it the most storage power out of all three of the phones.

Winner: Galaxy Nexus


Thickness:
Galaxy Nexus: 9mm
Galaxy S2 Touch: 10mm
Droid RAZR: 7.1mm

Motrola takes the cake on this one. 7.1mm? How on earth did they fit a 4G modem in something that is 1/3 of an inch thick? It's crazy thin. Motorola wins hands down with the Droid RAZR.

Winner: Droid RAZR


Camera:
Galaxy Nexus: 5MP Rear, 1.2MP Front
Galaxy S2 Touch: 8MP Rear, 2MP Front
Droid RAZR: 8MP Rear, 2MP Front

Just from the raw numbers, it seems as if the Galaxy S2 and Droid RAZR would come out on top. However this is the one area where pure numbers don't matter. Megapixels is just a small fraction of the equation to figure out what a good camera picture looks like. The Galaxy Nexus rocks the software of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, as well as allowing for panoramic pictures and zero shutter lag. This makes the Galaxy Nexus come out on top.

Winner: Galaxy Nexus


Battery:
Galaxy Nexus: 1750mAh
Galaxy S2 Touch: 1800mAh
Droid RAZR: 1780mAh

Now with battery, like the camera, there are many other factors that get bundled in with it. How efficient is the operating system in talking to the hardware? Is the processor running at the fastest speed it can handle? Is it overclocked, underclocked, or set at a normal stock recommended speed? The Galaxy Nexus has a TI OMAP 4460 compared to the RAZR's 4430. The difference being that the Nexus has a speed cap of 1.5gHz per core, while the RAZR has a limit of 1.2gHz per core. The S2 Touch's is clocked at 1.2gHz max, so in this case, the Galaxy Nexus wins on the terms of not being ran at its maximum potential.

Winner: Galaxy Nexus


Connectivity:
Galaxy Nexus: 4G Samsung modem
Galaxy S2 Touch: 4G Samsung modem
Droid RAZR: 4G Motorola modem

All of the devices run 4G networks. Motorola has always had considerably better 4G modems in their devices, and the RAZR is no different. For this, the RAZR takes the cake for faster download/upload speeds.

Winner: Droid RAZR




Overall:
Galaxy Nexus: 4
Galaxy S2 Touch: 1
Droid RAZR: 2


The Samsung Galaxy Nexus takes the cake on this one.

No Gorilla Glass on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Well, there you have it. No Gorilla Glass on the G-Nex. It's a sad report indeed, considering most of us tend to drop our phones when we try to pocket them. Don't do that with the G-Nex though, otherwise you're buying a whole new phone. Or just get the Best Buy protection plan. Runs you 9.99/month, but covers screen cracks and water damage on top of general wear and tear.

Can't Wait to Have Ice Cream Sandwich On Your Phone? Download This

For those who are interested, there is a skin on XDA that allows you to use the theme chooser built in to ROMs like Cyanogenmod that looks and feels exactly like Ice Cream Sandwich, Android 4.0.

To view discussion and download this ROM, here is the link to it on the XDA forums. I personally have installed it and it works great, and is snappy even on smaller screen devices like my Droid Incredible. I couldn't get the extras .zip to unpack, but that's okay. Now we just need the real deal to get here.

ASUS Transformer Prime

Asus has announced the next generation of their widely-successful tablet, the Transformer. Dubbed the Transformer Prime, ir is going to be sporting NVIDIA's Tegra 3 chipset. This means that it's going to have a quad-core processor, and will likely be the first mobile device in existence with a Tegra 3 operating in it. It will be about 8.3mm thick. In comparison, the iPad2 is 8.8mm thick. It will sport the usual 10" screen, so it will be a monster for media, just like a tablet should be. It will be running Google's Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, and will have a keyboard dock just like the first Transformer did.

Stick around, as Asus will be announcing the Prime officially on November 9th.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus is Now Official (Preview)

Specs:
Display - 4.65" Super AMOLED HD Display (1280x720)

Processor: TI OMAP 4460 Dual-Core @ 1.2gHz
RAM: 1GB
Onboard Storage/SD Storage/Total Storage: 16GB or 32GB/32GB/48GB or 64GB
Camera: 5MP Rear, 1.3MP Front

Battery: 1750 mAh
Connectivity: 4G
Bonuses: HDMI output, webtop capable, NFC chip, facial recognition, Android 4.0.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).


Imagine if everything good that has ever graced a cell phone was all rolled in to one super smartphone. Oh wait, that just happened.


Display:
The Galaxy Nexus utilizes the Honeycomb feature that banishes hard buttons like most Android devices have now in replace for software buttons. These are buttons that are displayed on the screen rather than built in to the device. That way, you can get rid of the buttons during something like video playback or an HD picture viewer and you can animate then when you click on the back., home, or app drawer buttons. It's displaying its picture in 1280x720 resolution (most commonly known as 720p). You know that 20" HD TV you bought? Yea, this thing has the same quality display as that when you're watching your blu-ray movies or streaming your HD videos from Netflix. This bad boy's screen has the best technology out there behind its native resolution too - Samsung's Super AMOLED display. Being an organic display, it makes it incredibly energy efficient as well. Seeing as how cell standby and display are the #1 and #2 battery suckers in Android devices, this means good things for battery life. They have a hidden notification LED at the bottom of the phone to notify you via different colored light flashes that you have a new e-mail, new voice mail, new text, etc. This keeps the nice sleek and simplistic design the way it's meant to be by not having any noticeable tarnishes on this monster screen.

Processor/RAM:
The processor in this thing is a beast. It's got a 1.2gHz dual-core TI OMAP 4460 behind it to power that big beautiful display. That means your videos are going to be played lag free, and your applications and screen transitions are going to be like ice cream melting down a stick (no pun intended). A 1.2gHz dual-core is the current standard in smart phones today, and the Galaxy Nexus delivers on that standard beautifully. On top of that, you've got a nice amount of memory in this thing to keep track of all the things you're going to be doing on it. 1GB of RAM is more than enough for constant every day use considering all of the features the OS will bring to minimize memory usage and give the user an easy way to free up used memory if need be. Maintaining phone speed will be easier than ever.

Graphics Processor:
This is the one area that the Galaxy Nexus is only up to par in. It doesn't have the newest and greatest processor, so the graphics processor is slightly out dated as well. When I say slightly out dated, we're talking about it still being more powerful than 90% of the Android devices in-use today. It's rocking a Power VT SGX540 GPU that is in that TI OMAP processor listed above. It's still one of the best graphics processors on the market and will still blow all the other phones away, while still being equal to all of the phones that are just being released now. It will still run all of the games that you currently play, and it will run them all damn good.

Storage:
The Galaxy Nexus was rumored for a long time to have forgotten to include a microSD slot. Today they announced that they had not forgotten the SD slot, and that it does in fact have one with a max storage capacity of 32GB. Seeing as how the Galaxy Nexus is available in a 16GB model and a 32GB model, you can have up to 64GB on this bad boy. That's a lot of memory. Most everyone will wind up going with the 16GB model for economic reasons, considering Google is trying to move most of their content on to the cloud this day in age. Either way, you're looking at a minimum of 48GB of storage if you max out the SD card slot. That's a lot of space to take a lot of pictures, and that's a lot of space to play all of your HD videos you have downloaded digital copies of.

Thickness:
The Galaxy Nexus is 8.94mm thick. This means that it is ridiculously thin, seeing as how that's only about 1/3 of an inch. How Samsung managed to make a device so thin and still include a 4G modem is outstanding craftsmanship on their part. This phone is going to be very, very thin.

Camera:
The camera in this thing is a beast. It's got a 5MP Rear capable of recording in 1080p while having a 3mm focal point, 2.75 max aperture, and a 1.2MP Front-facing camera. The camera has the ability to take panoramic shots by shooting a 'video' of the stretch of picture you wish to create, and then formatting the frames to create a beautiful panoramic shot. It also has the ability to have facial recognition through the front-facing camera, although the demo at the event showed us that if you cake too much makeup on, it can lock you out of your phone (sorry ladies and cross dressers). Don't be demoralized by the 5MP camera. When Samsung took funding away from the sheer MP of the camera, they focused that funding in to amazing sensors for it. Oh, did I mention it has the shutter-close speed of an SLR camera? That's right, it takes a picture literally instantly after you press the button to tell it to take it. Literally. It's instant. Considering that, it takes amazing pictures and video as well.

Battery/Connectivity:
 It rocks a 1750mAh battery, which is considered normal in most LTE phones today. Given that Samsung is using its newest modem technologies for its 4G radio in the Galaxy Nexus, you can expect to see better battery life than the dreaded HTC Thunderbolt. Overall, the battery should last only slightly less than your current 3G phone does. Considering you will be getting faster download speeds than your home internet connection, it's worth it. Seamless streaming with seamless content sharing. That's the goal of this device. Samsung boasts it as the fastest modem for any of the 4G phones on the market today, which I wouldn't doubt.


Overall:
This phone is what the market needs right now. Things are getting stale. 4G, 1gHz dual-core, 1GB RAM, 8MP camera, 1.2MP front camera, things are all the same. Things are stale. The Galaxy Nexus is going to spice up the phone market just like its predecessors have. Expect to see great things from this device. Hopefully soon we will see a release or preorder date.

Droid RAZR Announced

Motorola just made official the next addition to the Droid family, as well as a continuation of one of the best cellphone names in history. The Droid RAZR was just announced. You can preorder it starting October 27th for $299.99 with a contract renewal. Expect it to launch in November.

Specs:
Display - 4.3" Super AMOLED "Advanced" Display

Processor: TI OMAP Dual-Core @ 1.2gHz
RAM: 1GB
Onboard Storage/SD Storage/Total Storage: 16GB/16GB/32GB
Camera: 8MP Rear, 1.3MP Front

Battery: 1780 mAh
Connectivity: 4G
Bonuses: HDMI output, webtop capable, Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread), MotoCast.

Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich Announced Today

Later tonight, Google and Samsung are holding an unpacked event that they plan on revealing the Galaxy Nexus at as well as Google's next itteration of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich. Expect a lot of updates on Galaxy Nexus and Droid RAZR devices today.

Droid Bionic Source Now Available

Thanks, Motorola. Today they released the source code for the Droid Bionic today. Hopefully now we can see some better kerenels made for battery life and performance for people who bought this device. For those of you who have, expect some nice updates to your ROMs and kerensl in the next few days.

Google Announces 190M Android Devices Activated as of Q3

Google's Android operating system is nothing to mess around with (I'm talking to you, Apple). It's grown in to the most popular and most used mobile operating system in the world.

Because of that success, Google announced that they activated 190 million devices running some form of Android so far. That's quite a lot of devices. Google is also creeping up with Google+ users compared to Facebook, and the Google Chrome browser is catching up to Mozilla Firefox. Soon, Google will have complete web dominance.

This seems similar to the 90's when Microsoft was the dominating IT force. Google threatened them, and took them down. Now the real question is, who is going to take down Google?

Hardware War: iPhone 4S vs. Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Display:
Nexus - 4.65" Super AMOLED HD Display, ~324 pixel density
iP4S -  3.5" LED Backlit IPS TFT, ~330 pixel density

The displays are radically different in size, but relatively close in pixel density, making it a no-brainer that the Nexus will be favored in screen size. 3.5" this day in age is just way too small.

Winner: Galaxy Nexus

Processor:

Nexus - A9 Cortex Dual-Core @ 1.2gHz

iP4S - A9 Cortex Dual-Core @ 1gHz

Based on processor speed, the Nexus has the iPhone beat hands down.

Winner: Galaxy Nexus

RAM:

Nexus - 1GB

iP4S - 512MB

Yet another no brainer, the Nexus is in the lead in hardware. It's got double the memory of the iPhone 4S

Winner: Galaxy Nexus

Graphics Processor:

Nexus -Power VT SGX540 GPU

iP4S - PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU

Graphics processing is the one area where the iPhone4S is going to excel, there's no doubt about that. iPhone 4S takes this one easily.

Winner: iPhone 4S

Min/Max Storage:
Nexus - Min/Max Storage: 32GB/64GB

iP4S - Min/Max Storage: 16GB/64GB

With this one, it could either be a plus or a minus that the iPhone4S has less storage on its lower models. So for that, we're going to give this one a tie, seeing as how its a good thing that the Nexus comes with more storage, but its also a good thing that the iPhone 4S gives you options for a cheaper price.

Winner: Tie

Thickness:

Nexus - 9mm

iP4S - 9.3mm

The Nexus is .3mm thinner than the iPhone 4S, which is about a 4% difference. The Galaxy Nexus wins this one.

Winner: Galaxy Nexus

Camera:
Nexus - 5MP Rear, 1.2MP Front, 1080P Video Recording, 3mm focal point, 2.75 max aperture

iP4S - 8MP Rear, VGA Front, 1080P Video Recording, 4.28mm focal point, 2.4 max aperture

This is the battle of the cameras, folks. We have two amazing devices here both rocking incredible cameras. The 1.2MP vs VGA and 5MP vs 8MP neutralize each other, and the ability to record in true 1080P HD is a god send. For that, it is a tie for war 1. On top of that, the Nexus is going to be a little better at taking your near to midrange pictures, seeing as how it has a smaller focal length. This is both a positive and a negative seeing as how that means the iP4S will be a natural at sniping long distance photographs and keeping their detail. No one wins war 2, it's a tie due to depending on picture circumstances. The Nexus prime is going to capture a higher maximum amount of light during its pictures due to its higher aperture, so it is going to make its pictures look more vibrant, realistic, and less washed-out. Because of that, the Nexus wins, 1-0.

Winner: Galaxy Nexus

Battery:

Nexus - 1750 mAh

iP4S - 1450mAh

For this one, the Nexus clearly out ranks the iP4S.

Winner: Galaxy Nexus

Connectivity:

Nexus - 4G LTE / 3G

iP4S - 3G

This one is a landslide again. Galaxy Nexus takes this one.

Winner: Galaxy Nexus

Total

Galaxy Nexus: 7

iPhone 4S: 1

Grand Winner: Galaxy Nexus 

Conclusion

It's safe to say that Google and Samsung's new baby, the Galaxy Nexus aka Nexus Prime should have no competition with the iPhone 4S. Apple used to set the bar for what a smart phone should be like. Now it looks like they are taking the back seat. At least for now. All of this could change at any time, and seeing as how the iPhone 5 is going to now be more anticipated than ever, you should expect a few months from now that the rumor mill will start whirling with iPhone 5 news. What will the next generation of smartphones bring us? What will the iPhone 5 bring us? Quad-core processors? Will we leap finally to something more than 1GB of RAM? Perhaps a camera that has decked out sensors and sports 8MP Rear, 2MP Front? Only time will tell.

As of right now though, Apple, you've got some ground to cover. Android came at you hard, and you fell down.

Android vs. Apple Philosophy

Apple and Google are taking two entirely separate approaches with the new iterations of their OS's.

Apple is taking the user-friendly road, as it always has. Starting with the iTouch, they capitalized on the users ability to have an easy-to-use device. It syncs itself, and can be used across several major platforms in the fact that it can be synced to iTunes to transfer music, movies, or apps. You can then use that sync to play those songs on your computer. Then, if you have another iOS device, you can plug that in and sync that one too. It's easy. You just plug and go. When the bar stops loading, everything will work for you perfectly. This logic is being used in Apple's devotion to voice-activated programming in the form of Siri. Siri is going to give users the same ease-of-use that they once had when the iOS just came out and iTunes gave it its exclusivity as the most easy-to-use OS. Sure Siri is going to be far from perfect, and by no means am I an Apple fan. I hate Apple. A lot. But their marketing scheme is always their selling point. People are going to get used to Siri, and use it more often as they have integrated it so well with the OS.

This is where Android parts ways. They did not focus on integrating easier user-interface options with their voice recog. They instead focused on a cleaner, more appealing visual user-interface that the user can touch and interact with. If Apple were smart, they would continue to pour money in to Siri development to further themselves from Android and create a different genre of device. Leave the gadgety, pretty looking devices to Android, and leave the user-friendly devices to Apple. If Apple continues aggressive development on Siri, no doubt will it be the differentiating factor between the two. People aren't buying into Siri itself, they are buying in to the idea of Siri. The idea of not having to open applications or a messaging app to type a message or send a text. The idea that you can control things that were once only controllable with your hands, with your voice. And Apple will recognize this, and they will develop Siri further.

For the record, I own no Apple products besides a 2nd generation iTouch and am an avid Android fanatic. However if you're looking at Apple vs. Google, you need to look at it logically and understand why each company is developing the way that they are.

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus

 

(Droid-life.com)

Samsung and Google have teamed up to bring us a truly revolutionary experience in the form of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

With its release date scheduled for  October 27th, the Galaxy Nexus is going to be the next big flagship phone that the public gets its sweaty, hungry hands on.

Specs:
Display - 4.65" Super AMOLED HD

Processor: A9 Cortex Dual-Core @ 1.2gHz
RAM: 1GB
Onboard Storage/SD Storage/Total Storage: 16/32GB onboard only.
Camera: 5MP Rear, 1.2MP Front.
Battery: 1750 mAh
Connectivity: 4G
Bonuses: HDMI output, webtop capable, NFC Chip, Facial Recognition, Android 4.0.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

GZR Top 5 Android Phones - September

Rank 1: Motorola DROID Bionic

Specs:
Display - 4.3" qHD
Processor: OMAP Dual-Core @ 1gHz
RAM: 1GB
Onboard Storage/SD Storage/Total Storage: 16GB/32GB/48GB
Camera: 8MP Rear, VGA Front.
Battery: 1930 mAh
Connectivity: 4G
Bonuses: HDMI output, webtop capable, Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread).

The DROID Bionic is Motorola's newest and greatest piece of equipment out. It's got the nice big 4.3" qHD screen for excellent media playback, and is rocking a 1gHz dual-core OMAP to back it up. The Bionic takes the rank 1 spot because of its hardware. It's got the industry standard dual-core, 1GB of RAM, and 48GB of max storage. But on top of that, It's running one of the newest itterations of Gingerbread (2.3.4), has 4G speeds, an amazing set of back and front-facing cameras, and an incredible 1930 mAh battery. If you need a phone this very minute, the DROID Bionic is the way to go.

Rank 2: HTC Evo 3D

Specs:

Display - 4.3" 3D qHD
Processor: Snapdragon Dual-Core @ 1.2gHz
RAM: 1GB
Onboard Storage/SD Storage/Total Storage: 8GB/32GB/40GB
Camera: 5MP dual-rear, 1.3MP Front.
Battery: 1730 mAh
Connectivity: 3G
Bonuses: 3D video recording @ 720p, 3D pictures, Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)

The HTC Evo 3D moves up to rank 2 in my book this month. It's popularity and 3D features are really starting to shine with its hardware. Since last month it was one of the newer phones, one would think that most phones to come after would sport a 1.2 or better speed dual-core, but with the Bionic, you can see that isn't the case. So that being said, it's amazing hardware brings it up to the number two spot taking over the Motorola Atrix 4G.

Rank 3: Motorola Atrix

Specs:
Display - 4" qHD
Processor: NVIDIA Tegra 2 Dual-Core @ 1gHz
RAM: 1GB
Onboard Storage/SD Storage/Total Storage: 16GB/32GB/48GB
Camera: 5MP Rear, VGA Front.
Battery: 1930 mAh
Connectivity: 4G
Bonuses: Fingerprint scanner, laptop dock, Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).

The Motorola Atrix is starting to lose its shine. It's hardware is slightly behind the times, however it does still have a great feature set so it still rocks rank 3. See Rank #2 for more details.

Rank #4: Samsung Galaxy S2

Specs:

Display - 4.3" Super AMOLED

Processor: ARM Dual-Core @ 1.2gHz
RAM: 1GB

Onboard Storage/SD Storage/Total Storage: 16GB/32GB/48GB
Camera: 8MP dual-rear, 2MP rear-facing

Battery: 1650 mAh
Connectivity: 3G
Bonuses: Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)

The Samsung Galaxy S2 is an incredible piece of equipment. It's got a very nice display, a 1.2gHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and a nice amount of storage to hold all of the awesome pictures and videos that it's going to take. The only downside is the slightly outdated form of Gingerbread it's running, as well as being a 3G device in a time where 4G seems to be the popular favorite.

Rank #5: HTC Droid Incredible 2

Specs:

Display - 4" S-LCD WVGA
Processor: Snapdragon Single-Core @ 1gHz
RAM: 768MB
Onboard Storage/SD Storage/Total Storage: 16GB/32GB/48GB
Camera: 8MP dual-rear, 1.3MP Front.
Battery: 1450 mAh
Connectivity: 3G
Bonuses: Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)

The DROID Incredible 2 has dropped to rank 5, seeing as how its cameras are no longer its selling point and its hardware is becoming slightly outdated. Luckily it still carries the amazing HTC brand and the good reputation of the Incredible name, so it still holds its spot on the list this month.