It has been almost a year since the last Google branded nexus phone has hit the consumer market. The hype is up for Google to unveil their next successor to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus which was the king of android phones for months after its release. Until the HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy S3 made their début. The majority of the android community was surprised by Google’s decision to go with LG for the next Nexus phone, given that the previous 2 were from Samsung. But LG recently has proven themselves that they are as capable as others with their latest phone, the Optimus G.
Rumours and leaked photos have already appeared online, as shown above. The leaked specification sheet was also quite generic, given as follows:
Qualcomm S4 Quad-core processor 1.5 Ghz
2GB RAM
4.7″ Display with 1280×768 resolution
8 Mega pixel camera
Android 4.1.1 / 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
8gb of internal storage, non-expandable
8gb of internal storage, non-expandable
The last feature was certainly a deal breaker for some. However, these are merely rumoured specifications taken from a prototype device. It is very common for prototypes to have dumbed down memory or storage space to keep development cost down. I’m confident that Google and LG will surprise us with a true flagship that more than deserves the Nexus branding.
On a side note, I absolutely love the pixel matrix pattern behind the leaked device. I certainly hope LG and Google sticks with this.
As of writing this article, the 2 major Android smartphone giants, Samsung and HTC has been releasing or announcing amazing devices such as the Galaxy Note 2, and HTC One X+, One J Butterfly. How will LG win consumers over Samsung’s market dominance (especially in S.Korea) or beat the jaw dropping 5″ 1080P display of the butterfly?
LG doesn’t have to, Google ensures it
What makes people still buy the Galaxy Nexus even today, almost a year after its release? The modding community and the unconditional love from Google itself. Nexus devices have an undisputed track record of having the largest modding community in the XDA forums. That means the first to get the latest and greatest ROMs and Kernels from developers. It is a geek’s heaven basically.
Even if you’re not keen to mod your phone, Google has you covered. Nexus devices are always the first to get the latest software updates from Google. Software plays an extremely important role in the user experience of the phone. Example would be jumping from 2.3 Gingerbread to 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The user interface and experience was raised several levels and looks as elegant as an iPhone.
There is an audience including myself who loves the stock experience (even more so after ICS upgrade) and hate the skin that Samsung (TouchWiz) and HTC (Sense) slaps on their phones. Some of us are also hesitant to even root the phone just to get rid of the skin due to potential instability. Thus the Nexus branding is significant as it truly caters for the pure Google experience and satisfying us geeks.
