Oh how the mighty hath fallen … in price. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus 4G Android smartphone that was the first to deliver the long-awaited and much-anticipated Android Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) 4.0 operating system to a US handset is now practically free. The Galaxy Nexus 4G arrived on Verizon’s 4G LTE network in mid December of last year, and has been a flagship smartphone for that wireless service provider ever since. Verizon recently dropped the retail price of their Galaxy Nexus 4G to $0.01 with a standard new two-year activation and data plan at select retailers. Aside from ICS 4.0, the handset delivers a large high resolution display, high definition video recording and speedy dual core processor.
The Galaxy Nexus measures 5.33 x 2.67 x 0.37 inches (135.5 x 67.94 x 9.47 mm) and weighs 5.29 ounces (150 g), and arrives in the typical candy bar smartphone form factor. The display on board the handset is 4.65 inches, and is protected against scratching with an Oleophobic coating. That Super AMOLED display represents visuals in more than 16 million different colors, and at a resolution of 316 pixels per inch. That creates an overall screen resolution of 720 x 1,280 pixels, and standard multitouch capacitive gestures are used to navigate the device.
The extended life 1,850 mA battery on board the handset delivers 50% better run time than the average 4G smartphone, at 12.00 hours from a single charge. Texas Instruments provides their OMAP 4460 microchip package to power the Galaxy Nexus 4G, and that includes a 1.2 GHz Cortex A9 dual core central processor and PowerVR SGX540 GPU that handles all graphics processing. 1.0 GB of RAM memory is on board, and the Galaxy Nexus leads all 4G handsets in delivering 32 GB of built-in storage.
A 5.0 megapixel camcorder is integrated into the back of the Galaxy Nexus 4G, and comes equipped with an LED flash, autofocus, white balance, geo-tagging, panorama a special effects package and face detection features. That camcorder provides video capture at 1,920 x 1,080 pixels (1,080p HD) and 30 frames per second, and is joined in the camera combo by a front facing 1.3 megapixel chat cam.
Near Field Communications (NFC) support is present out-of-the-box, the Galaxy Nexus 4G contains a built-in music player that sorts by album, artist and play lists, and a proprietary YouTube video player is also on board. Voice memo recording, voice dialing and voice commands are supported by active noise cancellation and a dedicated mic, and Google integration runs complete with Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail and Picasa applications pre-installed. You can buy the Samsung Galaxy Nexus starting at just one penny!
