The Verizon Galaxy Nexus 4G was the first handset to deliver the much-anticipated Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 Android operating system to a handset in the United States when it launched last December. Although the handset is almost a year old now, it still ranks as one of the better performing Android smartphones in the entire mobile marketplace. Delivering a large screen, high display resolution, high resolution video recording and skinny profile, the Galaxy Nexus 4G has been a best seller and flagship phone for Verizon and continues to perform as such.
Just over a month ago, the Galaxy Nexus 4G handset began to receive an over the air transfer to the Jelly Bean 4.1 operating system, which is best known for the contextual search, Google Now virtual assistant, and for making Android smartphones operate much more smoothly, as well as faster. The handset delivers Near Field Communications (NFC) wireless connectivity out-of-the-box, supporting popular applications like Google Wallet and the Android Beam wireless data transfer app.
RootMetrics found the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE system to deliver the fastest and most reliable 4G speeds of all the major US wireless carriers, and speeds of 5 to 12 megabits per second (Mbps) can be expected, as well as upload speeds of 2 to 5 Mbps while in Verizon coverage areas. Still one of the thinnest smartphones in the entire mobile marketplace at 0.37 inches (9.47 mm), the handset delivers one of the largest displays of any smartphone at 4.65 inches.
Resolution runs 720 x 1,280 pixels, delivered at 316 pixels every inch. A light sensor offers auto brightness adjustment, and the proximity sensor helps preserve battery life. 12.0 hours of talk time are offered from a single battery charge, and the hardware package is anchored by an OMAP 4460 Texas Instruments microchip package. The CPU is a dual core 1.2 GHz Cortex A9 model, and a PowerVR SGX540GPU GPU handles all graphics processing.
The Galaxy Nexus 4G comes equipped with 1.0 GB of RAM system memory, and the handset has the most out-of-the-box, built-in memory storage at 32 GB. The camera combo on board the handset includes a front facing 1.3 megapixel chat cam, as well as a rear mounted 5.0 megapixel camcorder. That rear device provides video capture at 1,080P HD resolution, while the front camera can offer video call support and portrait snapshots. Popular applications YouTube and Picasa have been pre-installed and are ready for use out-of-the-box.
