Galaxy Nexus or Galaxy S II?
 

I will be a first time Android owner on T-Mobile. I am able to get either the Galaxy Nexus (i9250) or the S II (sgh-t989) for free, but can't make up my mind because of the following pros and cons:

Galaxy Nexus pros:

-Flagship (Nexus) device, supposed to get long-term Android updates
-Very little, if any carrier bloatware
-4.1 is available
-Bigger screen (4.65")

Galaxy Nexus cons:
-Camera specs are weaker compared to the S II (5mp primary, 1.3mp ffc)
-21mbps HSPA+ (potential deal breaker)
-No microSD card slot (big potential deal breaker)

S II pros:
-Better camera specs (8mp primary, 2mp ffc)
-42mbps HSPA+
-microSD slot is there
-1.5 GHz dual core Scorpion (vs. 1.2 GHz Cortex-A9 on the GN)

S II cons:
-Samsung bloatware
-Hasn't been (won't be?)updated to 4.1
-Smaller screen (4.52")

Processors wise, I'm not sure which one is better. Is the 1.5 processor better than the 1.2, or is there more to the picture?

So which one should I get? Thanks for your suggestions.

I place high value on actual usage based opinions, as those are intangibles the specs do not lay out.

1. Comparing clock speeds across different microarchitectures is pointless and says almost nothing about their performance. However, purely off of memory I believe the Snapdragon S3 would be the better SoC, but I can't recall any Snapdragon S3 devices running at 1280x720 nor any OMAP 4460 devices running at 800x480 (and thus can't think of any benchmarked devices to check).

2. You forgot to mention the higher resolution screen on the Galaxy Nexus. However, it is also notable to mention this may make worse in game performance more notable.

If this was the international S2 or at least an Exynos-based one I'd say the S2 would be better (due to the presence of Exynos and good third party support plus the things you mentioned). In the case of the T-Mobile variant I'd go with the Galaxy Nexus if you don't care too much for the camera, better HSPA+ support, and microSD slot since I personally value software support (be it first or third party) and prefer the screen of the Galaxy Nexus. That said the T-Mobile variant will be receiving Android 4.1 eventually.

If you don't need a phone urgently, you could also try waiting until Black Friday to see if the S3 comes down in price (which will have better resale value after two years if you decide to sell it anyways).

Thanks. This S II x has the APQ8060 Snapdragon, and the GSMArena review [gsmarena.com] wasn't 100% sure if S II i9000 variant's OMAP was better than this Snapdragon. For sure this is not an Exynos though.

You're right. I didn't notice the higher PPI on the Nexus. Thanks for pointing that out.

The camera I don't mind too much, but microSD and HSPA support kinda are a big deal for me (although I'm not sure if I'm in a 21 or 42 area.) I'm coming from a line of Blackberries, with the latest one getting only getting 3G on T-Mobile.

The 4.1 upgrade (and beyond) and pure Android are really why I'm still considering the Nexus.

Thanks. I'm able to get either phone for free from a Canadian carrier that has them in 1700 MHz, and I'll most likely be passing it down when I'm due for my T-Mobile upgrade early next year. So resale value doesn't matter to me.

Since my OP, I've found out that the S II x variant I'd be getting (the TGH-989D) does not have Gorilla glass. I've heard this term a lot; is it a big deal that this phone doesn't have it?

Note though the Galaxy S2 variants (e.g. the i9100G) featuring OMAP/PowerVR CPUs/GPUs feature them at lower clock speeds than they would be on the Galaxy Nexus making the comparison unfair. More specifically, they seem to feature the OMAP 4430 rather than the OMAP 4460 present in the Galaxy Nexus.

No problem. It is also worth pointing out that while the Super AMOLED HD display on the Galaxy Nexus is a great screen and has a resolution of 1280x720; it is still a pentile screen (whereas the Super AMOLED Plus, 800x480, screen on the S2 isn't) and is typically viewed as being worse than that of other high end IPS display offerings (e.g. the Evo 4G LTE). That said, as an owner of a Sprint Galaxy S3 and Epic 4G Touch, I will say the screen is quite noticeably better.

I'd say the types of HSPA+ speeds available in your area is definitely worth looking into (especially if you tether). In case you haven't already, I suggest going into the store and messing around with both phones as well.

One more thing worth noting regarding the SD card slot on the T989 (assuming it works similarly to my Galaxy S3) is that you won't be able to install applications onto the microSD card on the without the use of additional software (E.g. Links2SD) as the internal storage is mounted as the sdcard (/sdcard) and external sd cards are mounted under /sd-ext. Google's move away from expandable storage in favor of cloud storage is indeed quite annoying.

I'd say this is the only reason why the Galaxy Nexus is still a decent phone by current standards (e.g. compared to the Galaxy S3, HTC One series, etc). On the upside the T989 will receive Android 4.1. On the downside, it may not officially receive Android 4.2 (though I'm guessing the community will take care of that for now since CM10 is already available for it).

Furthermore, while I prefer purer builds of Android as well (technically I prefer CM10 to AOSP which I prefer to Touchwiz) it's worth noting that current incarnations of Touchwiz do have a few useful features that some may find helpful (I'm only mentioning this because you're coming from a Blackberry and am not sure if you've used modern releases of Touchwiz).

If you plan on using a screen protector anyways, no it doesn't really matter. Gorilla glass primarily aids in providing scratch-resistance that may occur from every day use (e.g. keeping one's phone in their pockets with their keys, coins, etc). It is not shatter proof and thus will not save your phone if it falls face down onto concrete. I do consider it to be a nice feature (I don't use a screen protector thanks to it) but it certainly isn't a necessity.

I had considered the whole pentile vs. non-pentile issue (especially after looking at this [androidcentral.com]), but after you pointed out the PPIs, I figured that at 316 PPI, on a SAMOLED HD screen, it probably doesn't show much.

I'm confused. The S3 and Epic 4G Touch (i.e. Sprint's S2 variant) are pentile and non-pentile, respectively. The screen is noticeably better on which phone?

I'm getting the network info from T-Mobile. And I'll probably go down to a Sprint or a Verizon store, or even a Walmart to check out both phones. I don't think T-Mobile or AT&T carry the Galaxy Nexus.

If anything, wouldn't the T989D work like your Epic 4G Touch, given that both are S2s? Either way, I'll most likely be installing apps to device memory, and keeping all media on the card. I'll most likely be switching devices a lot (between the BB and the Android.)

Well that's better than I thought: I was under the impression that Samsung was giving up on this device at 4.0.x :lol:

Good to know. I'll definitely be getting a screen protector. Heck, if I hadn't asked you, I might have still gotten it on a Gorilla glass screen!

Thank you SO much for the time you've taken to answer my questions.

Heh, sorry about that. In my opinion, the screen is noticeably better on the Galaxy S3/Nexus (they use the same display). Regardless of the layout, the S2's SAMOLED+ display only has 41.7% of the pixels as the S3/Nexus's SAMOLED HD display (albeit once again, this does help improve rendering performance of the S2). That said, the S2 had an excellent display for its day and is far better than what you find on most current budget phones.

There were a few differences between the U.S. S2's. The Epic 4G Touch was the thickest of the variants (not that I really cared), had the largest battery, had the largest display, and featured an Exynos 4 Dual, but was the thickest of the variants (not that I really cared), and lacked NFC.

EDIT: Whoops, I read this comment out of context when I quoted it. Most of my use of the Epic 4G Touch was prior to its update to ICS as I gave it to a relative a few months back. I would expect the T989 on ICS to treat storage the same as the Epic 4G Touch on ICS though (as well as the S3).

The main difference is on Android 2.2 and 2.3, users could choose to move any data onto the /sdcard directory (the mount point for the external sdcard) in order to save space on their internal storage. However, most ICS devices (some HTC ones aren't in this category to my understanding) are partitioned differently as such that the /sdcard directory references the devices internal memory and the actual external SD card is located at /sd-ext. As a result of this, most application data (including large amounds of data be it from Google Music cache, Google Drive data, Dropbox data, or game resources) is inadvertently saved to the internal storage by default. That said there are ways around this to my understanding with root (e.g. the application Links2SD) though I haven't tried any.

Fortunately 4.1 is a fairly small update compared to the previous 2.3->4.0 update :). If 4.2 ends up being a small update (and I guess we'll find out soon), they may decide to update it to that as well if we're lucky.

Heh, now I feel nervous (and responsible if anything goes wrong ;)). Note there's nothing wrong with using a screen protector (though depending on the type it may make the screen "feel" different and/or be a pain to apply without air bubbles), it's just that I haven't seen a point in my own cases. However, neither my Galaxy S3 nor Epic 4G Touch have taken any damage to the screen be they in my pockets or in any of my relative's purses. Just make sure to get a decent case and avoid dropping it face down onto concrete :D.

Glad to be of assistance. Feel free to ask if you have any questions/comments.

Screen protectors just ruin the touch screen ... most phones come with gorilla glass now a days anyways so a screen protector is definitely not needed because it won't provide any additional protection.

From personal experience of using both those phones, I'd say you go for the Galaxy S II, I've personally found it to perform better than the Galaxy Nexus. I could go into tech details but it seems they've already been discussed here.

Thanks. It turns out that the HTC One S is also an option available to me. I'm not really feeling that phone though. A few of the same issues as the Nexus (no microSD, pentile screen), plus it's not a nexus device.

I have heard good things about the Sense UI though (especially when compared to Touchwiz.) What do you guys think?

I would say the One S easily trumps the GS2 in pretty much every category unless you know you need more than 16GB of RAM and trumps the Nexus in almost everything except display quality and software support. The display is somewhat worse than the Galaxy Nexus but I'd expect it to be somewhat similar to the Galaxy S2 in quality (pentile layout but features has 26% more pixels).

Furthermore, it features a Snapdragon S4 CPU (with Adreno 225 GPU) which easily outperforms the T-Mobile Galaxy S2's Snapdragon S3 and Galaxy Nexus's OMAP 4460, what Engadget described as "a fantastic camera," great battery life, an aluminum body, and HSPA+ connectivity capable of 42 Mbps. In addition, I would expect T-Mobile's One S variant to feature better after market support than that of T-Mobile's Galaxy S2 variant (due to the change in SoC's for T-Mobile's GS2 variant).

Edit:

As for Touchwiz vs Sense; personally I don't think it really matters. Sense historically was widely accepted as superior to Touchwiz (which was disliked by many in early releases) and often preferred to AOSP but eventually began to be criticized on being bloated and resource intensive until Sense 4.0 which seems to be fairly well liked. Touchwiz has improved over time and is fairly well liked these days as well. Personally I prefer Cyanogenmod and AOKP's modifications to AOSP over both Sense or Touchwiz though this may be simply because I configure my Android installation to the point where most OEM enhancements end up unused/unseen anyways (e.g. I use Nova Launcher, Widget Locker, Widgetsoid, etc). This difference also matters a bit less if you plan on rooting and installing custom ROMs anyways.

I'd definitely say go for the SII, or even the SIII if you want to upgrade ... Nexus is too slow.

I think I'll eliminate the One S as a choice for now, given that I feel it's more or less equivalent to the Nexus per my main needs (no microSD, 21mbps HSPA+). Your display quality comment pretty much seals it against the One S :)

Thanks. If the GS3 was available to me as an option, this thread would have never existed. I'm getting my phone from a carrier that's on AT&T bands. It's a miracle as is that they carry some TMO banded phones :lol:

Huh? As I already stated, the T-Mobile HTC One S features HSPA+ supporting 42 Mbps. Furthermore, I forgot to mention the T-Mobile HTC One S does feature Corning's Gorilla Glass.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/1...le-review/

Keep in mind, the One S, specification-wise, is essentially a U.S. Galaxy S III with a crappier display, half the RAM, and a lack of a microSD drive. The only real benefit the Galaxy S2 has over it is microSD.

I'd say if the One S is eliminated because of the lack of a microSD card, go with the Galaxy S2. If it's eliminated due to the screen, go with the Galaxy Nexus. Personally however, I'd pick the One S (make sure you do go to a store though to compare the three in person though).

Whoops..my mistake on calling the One S a 21mbps phone. I totally did not mean that haha. Your last paragraph is right on the money for me. Now all I have to do is locate working floor models of all three. Once again, thank you for your help.