Anonymous 4chan user goes hands-on with Nexus Prime

As far as rumors of the upcoming Google Nexus Prime and the Ice Cream Sandwich go, it doesn't get better than this. An anonymous user on 4chan claims to have got some hands-on time with the Nexus Prime, courtesy of Samsung and he has provided a fairly detailed account of his experience with it. So without wasting any more time, let's get on with the juicy details.

• Anonymous refers to the device as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which fits in nicely with what we heard previously.

• The phone looks similar to the Sprint version of Galaxy S II but also has a curved glass like the one on the Nexus S. The device is fairly large in size. It will weigh around 130-140g and will use metal for the body. It is said to be just 8.8mm thick and will have a 2000mAh battery.

• Verizon will be getting exclusive rights to the Nexus Prime, which is why they gave up on the US version of the Galaxy S II.

• He mentions that the phone had a 4.65-inch, Super AMOLED Plus display with a 1280 x 720 resolution (1280 x 800 seems a bit more likely to us, looking at the display on the Galaxy Note).

• It will be running on Samsung's dual-core Exynos processor, clocked at 1.5GHz and will have 1GB of RAM and 16GB internal memory, with the option to expand it further.

• The phone was said to be blazing fast and felt very smooth. This obviously has a lot to do with the powerful processor and we believe ICS will also bring some performance improvements.

• There was no mention about the camera on the device but we think it is fairly clear to everyone by now that it will have an 8 megapixel camera with HD video recording.

That’s all we know about the hardware for now but Mr. Anonymous also had a lot to say about the software. Here’s what he had to say about Ice Cream Sandwich running on the Nexus Prime.

• It looks bit similar to the current Gingerbread but a lot more polished. The UI has a glassy look, same as the one in Honeycomb.

• The version of the OS on the demo unit was 2.4.1. It is unlikely that this will be the final version of the OS for a simple reason that the current Honeycomb tablets are running on 3.2 and if Ice Cream Sandwich is 2.4 instead of 4.0 as is widely believed then it will seem as a step down for current Honeycomb users, at least as far as the version number is concerned.

• Just like in Honeycomb, the application drawer has categories on top. We have seen this before in the leaked screenshots. Apps and widgets seem to be the default but the good thing is that you can make custom categories and put apps in them. The demo unit had categories such as 'Games', 'News', 'Sports', etc. It remains to be seen whether these have to be created manually or if the OS can create them automatically as well, if you have more than one app from a certain category.

• A cool new feature is the ability to preview widgets from the app drawer.

• There is a new Gmail app. In landscape mode, it splits the screen in two, with the inbox on the left and a preview of the mail on the right. This is similar to the Gmail app in Honeycomb. This would be useful on the 4.65-incher of the Nexus Prime but probably not so much on phones with a smaller display.

• There is a new calendar app along with a new widget accompanying it.

• The internet browser has also been updated. The tabs are on the bottom of the display now, as in Opera Mobile/Mini. It’s also faster and smoother than before. There is also a new icon for it.

That’s all the user had to say about the OS. It leaves you wanting for bit more but still that’s a lot more than what we knew till now. And although there could be some doubts regarding the authenticity of this information, to us it sounds fairly accurate.

The Nexus Prime certainly seems like an awesome device but Ice Cream Sandwich could have been more impressive. Having said that, there is still some time left for the official release so we will reserve judgment until then.

For more information, check out the source link below.

Source