The Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the Samsung Galaxy Note are two of the best android smartphones phones to come out of the Samsung stable. Without much ado, let us discuss the pros and cons of these fantastic phones.
The Design
The Galaxy Nexus has a minimalistic feel to it due to the lack of physical buttons and looks gorgeous with a rounded display that is decorated with black gloss. The Nexus is controlled with the help of three buttons that are present on the screen. At 8.9mm, the device is impressively slim and reasonably light at 135 grams. However, the back plate which has a textured finish and is grey in color, leaves a lot to be desired. The area where the camera is placed has a bulgy look to it, which prevents the Nexus from getting an overall smooth feel.
On the other hand, the Samsung Note exudes a lot of class. It has a curved back, into which the camera makes a snug fit. The device weighs only 178 grams and is 9.77 mm thin. This gives the idea that the Note is completely portable. But that may not be the case with individuals who have smaller hands. The Note has a design flaw as well which may make you think twice before going for the phone. The bottom of the Note has a spot where you can hide the stylus which can be used for sketching purposes or for quickly jotting down notes. However, more often than not, the stylus may come loose and get lost.
The Hardware
The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is bigger that the Samsung S2 and boasts of a 4.65 inch display that is complimented by an amazing high resolution of 1,280×720 pixels. This leads to a crystal clear display on the screen when you use any app, open up a web page or access a video. The impressive graphics are powered by an equally powerful 1.2GHz dual-core processor that makes for faster and smoother performance of this smartphone.
However, the Nexus has a bit of a hardware downside. The phone comes with only a 5 megapixel rear camera and a 1.3 megapixel front facing camera for video calling. Even then we cannot brush off the Nexus as the camera does produce great photos and videos. Additionally, the Nexus comes only with an option of 16/32 GB internal storage capacity without any option for expandable memory.
The Samsung Galaxy Note is a complete hardware giant. It has an alarmingly fast 1.4GHz dual-core processor that facilitates multitasking and other activities. The apps can be opened at lighting-like speeds which produces exhilarating experiences. The back camera is a monster at 8 megapixels and the secondary camera of 2 megapixels is available for video calling.
The biggest saleable factor of the Note is the gigantic display size. At 5.3 inches, the display is the biggest that is available for a smartphone and just smaller than a tablet’s display. The screen resolution for the Note is better than the Nexus at 1,280×800 pixels. However, due to the big size of the screen the pixel density or dpi is much lower than the Nexus. The photos, videos and graphics still have a crisp, colorful and clear look to them, though.
The Software
The Samsung Nexus comes with the latest Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, while the Note is powered by the Android Gingerbread OS. The Note can be upgraded to the latest OS in the future though.
Also, the Nexus has the vanilla version of Android, whereas the Note runs on a Samsung-tweaked edition of Android. This means that the Note has to wait for Samsung to tweak any future updates, whereas the Nexus can immediately avail of any updates to the OS. The Note is also riddled with unwanted Samsung bloatware apps, which are not present in the Samsung Nexus.
Also read about Samsung Galaxy Note vs Samsung Galaxy S2
