Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0: It's Finally Here

The Galaxy Nexus has a 4.65-inch display, LTE/HSPA+ support, a 1.2GHz dual core processor, and--of course--the latest version of Android.

It seems like we’ve been waiting for the first Android Ice Cream Sandwich phone for eternity, but at last long last, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus has arrived. At a press event Wednesday morning in Hong Kong (Tuesday night in the United States), Samsung and Google revealed the first phone with Google’s next generation operating system, Android 4.0.

Like the Samsung Nexus S, the Android Gingerbread flagship phone, the Galaxy Nexus has a curved, contour glass display. The idea is that the phone better fits the shape of your hand, making for a more ergonomic experience.

The Super AMOLED Plus display is rather large at 4.65 inches with a 1280-by-720-pixel resolution. This is the same display technology we’ve seen on Samsung's Galaxy S II series of phones and on the Mototola Droid Charge.

The T-Mobile version of the Galaxy S II, with its 4.5-inches screen, felt slightly too large for my hands, and text looked a bit on the fuzzy side. From what we saw, however, the Nexus Galaxy might not feel oversized, despite the larger display. The bezel around the phone is incredibly thin at only 4.29mm, so you get mostly display and very little bezel.

The Galaxy Nexus will come in both HSPA+ and LTE flavors. The only confirmed carrier was Japan’s DoCoMo. The Galaxy Nexus is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, making for one heck of a powerful, fast phone.

The Nexus has both a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. According to Samsung, the Galaxy Nexus also has zero shutter lag, meaning there’s no delay between when you hit the shutter button and when the photo actually processes.

Other features include Near Field Communication (NFC) as well as a Barometer. When Google first announced Ice Cream Sandwich at its Google I/O developer conference in May, the company placed a lot of stress on NFC technology. With it, you can exchange contact information, make mobile payments, play games, and do other tasks.

Pricing for the Galaxy Nexus has not yet been announced. The Galaxy Nexus will launch in November in the U.S., Europe and Asia--and we can’t wait to get our hands on it.