Verizon Droid 4 vs. Verizon Galaxy Nexus




The Droid 4, recently announced at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, will be coming “soon” to Verizon‘s network, at a price of $249 on contract.

The Droid series has long been Verizon’s flagship line of Android smartphones, since the first Droid was released in 2009. But the Nexus series is Google‘s darling, and the Galaxy Nexus showcases Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version of Google’s Android operating system. The Droid 4, meanwhile, will ship with Gingerbread, and will receive an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade “in the coming months,” according to Justin West of Legit Reviews.

Here’s what the two phones have to offer compared to each other.

Price

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus currently sells for $299 on contract. Android phones’ prices tend to fall steadily downward, though; the Droid 3 just had its price bumped down by $100. It’s possible that the Nexus will be discounted by the time the Droid 4 launches.

Hardware design

In the tradition of the Droid lineup (and Motorola’s other designs), the Verizon Droid 4 is a boxy, angular chunk of plastic, shaped to resemble something out of a pulp sci-fi movie. It has a screen that’s 4 inches across, and a slide-out keyboard with edge lighting and five rows of hardware keys. Motorola claims that it has the thinnest profile of any gadget with similar specs, at only half an inch thick.

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus has a gently curved “contour display”, which uses Super AMOLED technology for extremely vibrant colors. It’s also 4.65 inches across, putting it almost into the range of the Galaxy Note mini-tablet. It does not have a hardware keyboard, but it’s also significantly thinner than the Droid 4 besides having a larger screen.

Under the hood

Both smartphones have similar specs, with 1.2 GHz dual-core processors and cameras that can record 1080p video. They also both have 4G LTE wireless radios. Perhaps the biggest difference is that the Droid 4 has 16 GB of onboard flash memory, while the Galaxy Nexus has 32 GB.

Polish and experience

The Ice Cream Sandwich version of Google’s open-source Android operating system is significantly more polished than Gingerbread. Where previous versions of Android looked and felt mostly the same, but with a few subtle changes or animations thrown in over their predecessors, Ice Cream Sandwich rewrites much of Android’s look and feel. It takes many of its cues from Honeycomb, the version used on tablets through most of 2011.

The Droid 4 will supposedly receive an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade soon after its launch. But the other difference worth noting is that Google Nexus phones tend to run “pure” Android, or as close as you can get to it, while Droids and other Verizon smartphones come bundled with lots of apps that you can’t uninstall.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

Other articles you might like;

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/verizon-droid-4-vs-verizon-galaxy-nexus-224500264.html

Related posts:

  1. Verizon to launch Samsung Galaxy Nexus with LTE
  2. Verizon gets Galaxy Nexus exclusive (at first)
  3. Verizon delays the launch of the Galaxy Nexus
  4. Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus price: $199.99?
  5. Support is the reason to get Verizon’s Samsung Galaxy Nexus