![]() The Galaxy Nexus has a gyroscope and a compass and a big leg up over the iPhone: it supports real-time turn-by-turn voice directions out of the box. For the best experience, you should activate Wi-Fi and the GPS location feature in the Settings menu. On the second try, however, it pinpointed my location in the office precisely. On the first try, it placed me about a block away from CNET's New York offices, which is normal. Glide two fingers up and down the screen to tilt the screen for a better view. Zoom in far enough (with two fingers) and you'll see the buildings start to get some 3D shape. Maps get a little more 3D treatment with ICS. And as I said above, Sprint gets points for actually letting us use Google wallet. The list is no different from the handset's Nexus ancestors, but they're worth repeating: Google Talk, YouTube, Google Search (with voice), Google Latitude, Google Places, Google+, Google Maps with Navigation, and Google Messenger. Google fans have plenty of Google apps and services to use and explore. The alphanumeric dial pad shows huge numbers, but tiny text. Unfortunately, it does not support Swype. You'll need to click through to the additional keyboard for more punctuation and numbers, but the keyboard is spacious and easy to use. On the bottom row, there's a huge spacebar smack in the center with a voice-activation key just to the left (when entering an e-mail address an key takes its place). The primary screen has three rows of alphabet keys with main punctuation just above. The virtual keyboard takes up the whole width of the display, whether you're using it in portrait or landscape mode. ![]() It may seem like a minor touch, I'm glad it's there since that was a big omission on the Nexus S. Yet, you'll notice a glowing indicator light which pulses when you have a call and receive messages, e-mail, or notifications. Otherwise there are no physical controls on the front of the phone. You can transfer images and connect as a media device via a USB cable, but I don't like that even though ICS supports USB mass storage, the Galaxy Nexus does not. They work fine as long as you speak clearly and use the phone in a place without a lot of background noise. The speaker-independent voice commands let you do just about anything using only your voice. Also onboard are Bluetooth 2.0 (with A2DP), Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n), and a download and file manager. The Galaxy Nexus has all of the other essentials you'd expect from a smartphone, like text and multimedia messaging, e-mail syncing (both Gmail and not), calendar syncing (both Google and not), a calculator, an alarm clock, and a news and weather widget. What's more, the controls rotate 90 degrees when you reorient the phone. And as in Honeycomb, these ICS controls will fade in some apps to three points of light, until you tap them again. Yes, you lose the dedicated search button that's on earlier Android phones, but that's a trait that the Galaxy Nexus inherited from Honeycomb (the search field is available in almost every native app and home screen). Developers also will love the dedicated "Developer options" in the main menu it offers access to such features as showing CPU usage, setting a background process limit, and activating a visual feedback for the touch screen.Īt the very bottom of the phone's front face sit three touch controls for moving backward through a menu, jumping to the Home screen, and opening a list of recent apps. It's great for users and developers alike, as it lets Android's true appearance shine through. Like other Nexus devices, the Galaxy Nexus has a pure Android interface that isn't muddled by a manufacturer or carrier skin. With very high contrast, it produces colors that pop and blacks that are deep. One of the best attributes of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is its big 4.65-inch HD Super AMOLED screen.
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