Samsung Galaxy S2 HD LTE vs. Samsung Galaxy Nexus

The Unofficial Comparison Guide!

Samsung Galaxy S2 HD LTE is an upgradeversion of Samsung’s best selling Android smartphone Samsung Galaxy S II (SG2) which has helped the company to beat Apple into becoming the new leader in smartphone and achieved an amazing sale result with over 10 million units shipped worldwide. While on the other hand, Galaxy Nexus is Google’s third generation Nexus flagship smartphone – a name from the co-branding between the Samsung Galaxy and Google Nexus brands of Android smartphone. Galaxy Nexus is the first device on the planet that will be running on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Samsung Galaxy S2 HD LTE vs. Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which one have better fare ? Are you facing a difficuty decide which one you should be buying?  see the below  full coverage of the comparison between Samsung Galaxy S II HD LTE and Samsung Galaxy Nexus. If you miss out any of our previous comparison, you may check it out here: Samsung Galaxy S2 HD LTE vs. Samsung Galaxy S2. The Unofficial Comparison Guide! Motorola Droid Razr vs. Samsung Galaxy Nexus. The Complete Ultimate Comparison Guide! Samsung Galaxy Nexus vs. Samsung Galaxy S2 the Complete Ultimate Comparison Guide!

1.Design & Dimension

Galaxy S2 HD LTE: 129.8 x 68.8 x 9.5mm, 130.5g  (4.60oz)

Galaxy Nexus: 135.5 x 67.9 x 8.9mm, 135.0g  (4.76

oz)

In term of the form factor measurement, both Samsung Galaxy S II HD LTE and Galaxy Nexus are almost the same with no significant different between both. e.g. Galaxy Nexus weight 4.5g more than Galaxy S2 HD LTE and the phone body’s measurement vary only by few mm – not a big deal really. While from our point of view,  Galaxy Nexus has one of the most stylish curvy glass on the front panel of which really make it appeal from the rest.

 2. Processor

Galaxy S2 HD LTE: Dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm MSM 8660 Snapdragon CPU, Adreno 220 GPU Galaxy Nexus:  Dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex A9 CPU TI OMAP 4460, PowerVR SGX540 GPU (@384MHz) Samsung Galaxy S II HD LTE will come with a 1.5 GHz dual-core Scorpion processor from QualComm MSM 8660 Snapdragon while on the other hand, Samsung Galaxy Nexus will be using 1.2 GHz dual-core OMAP 4460 processor from Texas Instrument making Samsung Galaxy S II HD LTE additional 300MHz more powerful than the later.

Why Galaxy Nexus’s TI OMAP 4460 Clocked at 1.2GHz Instead of 1.5GHz?

if you check out the spec from the table we provided below you will notice that both of the processor fair equally to each other e.g. both MSM 8660 (Galaxy S2 HD LTE) and OMAP 4460 (Galaxy Nexus) are using 45nm core with the same CPU Instruction set (ARMv7) and CPU power ranging from 1.2 – 1.5 GHz. But if that is the case why Galaxy S2 HD LTE can be clocked at 1.5Ghz and Galaxy Nexus get an under-clocked CPU at 1.2GHz? We found out an article from AndroidAndMe that claimed that actually OMAP4460 was supposedly to debut at 1.5 GHz but the folks at TI were having some hard time to hit those speeds so Google finally decided to clock it at 1.2Ghz. So if the crews at TI manage to get that 1.5Ghz clock speed resolved, you will start seeing the a more powerful version of Galaxy Nexus.

No Exynos 4212 for Samsung Galaxy S2 HD LTE

As previously mentioned in the Samsung Galaxy S2 HD LTE vs. Samsung Galaxy Nexus comparison, Samsung was planning to apply its latest 32nm Exynos 4212 into the Galaxy S2 HD LTE but due to the time limitation of the chip availability, Samsung eventually ops for QualComm’s Snapdragon S3. But it is not a good news for power user as 32nm core’s Exynos 4212 is far more superior than Snapdragon S3.

Exynos 4212 Specifiction

Exynos 4212 is come with a higher clock frequency and “50 percent higher 3D graphics performance over the previous processor generation – Exynos 4210″. Built with 32 nm High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) low-power process it promises “30 percent lower power-level over the previous process generation.” via Wikipedia

While for the GPU, SG2 HD LTE will be using Adreno 220 GPU instead of Samsung’s trademark GPU Mali-400MP and Galaxy Nexus will come with PowerVR SGX540 GPU that clocked at a higher speed of 384MHz.

3. Screen & Display

Galaxy S2 HD LTE: 4.65-inch, 1280 x 720px, 316ppi, Super AMOLED HD, Gorilla Glass Galaxy Nexus: 4.65-inch, 1280x720px, 316ppi, Super AMOLED HD, Other Fortified Glass – Not Gorilla Glass` Galaxy SII                                                          

 Galaxy Nexus Both the Samsung Galaxy S2 HD LTE and Galaxy Nexus will have the same display spec (4.65-inch Super AMOLED HD screen and HD resolution of 720×1280 pixels with pixel density of 316ppi). But one thing you must noted, Engadget has confirmed that Galaxy Nexus will not come with a CorningWare’s Gorilla Glass instead it will be equipped with a fortified glass. While Samsung Galaxy S II HD LTE will follow the legacy of Samsung Galaxy S II to continue using Gorilla Glass. We have compiled the info of Samsung’s AMOLED technology as below: Super AMOLED Display Info

• Super AMOLED is the original display which added an integrated touch-layer to the classic AMOLED display. This results in a thinner display that behaves much better under sunlight. Super AMOLED uses PenTile technology
• Super AMOLED Plus is Samsung’s more advanced technology – which ditches the PenTile in favor of the classic RGB Stripe matrix. So while the displays look better, they provide less pixel density compared to Super AMOLED displays.
• Super AMOLED HD is the HD version of the Super AMOLED displays – there’s no technology difference, but Samsung uses this brand (they sometimes call it HD Super AMOLED) to make sure we know that the resolution is HD (1280×720, or 720p).

4. Memory

Galaxy S2 HD LTE: 16/32GB + microSD Galaxy Nexus: 16/32GBBoth the Galaxy S II HD LTE and Galaxy Nexus will come with 1 GB of dedicated RAM (much depending on region e.g Asia has reported to get 2GB of RAM while the unit in Northern America has reported to has 1GB RAM) and 16 GB / 32GB of in-built storage. But the Samsung Galaxy S2 HD LTE does come with an extendable microSD which can support up to 32GB while Galaxy Nexus does not come with an expandable memory slot.

 5. Battery Life

Galaxy Nexus: 1750mAh Galaxy S2 HD LTE will come a 1850mAh battery,  which is an additional 100mAh or 5.7% extra of battery life compare to Galaxy Nexus (1750mAh). Both the battery in Samsung S2 HD LTE and Galaxy Nexus are removable so you can still choose to replace it with a larger capacity battery later.

 6. Software / OS

Galaxy S2 HD LTE: Android 2.3 Gingerbread + TouchWiz 4.0 Galaxy Nexus: Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Samsung Galaxy Nexus will be the first Android device that come with the latest Google’s Android OS, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) whereas Galaxy S2 HD LTE will be come with Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread.  This also indicate that Nexus phone will be able to reap the benefits of the Android latest firmware’s feature like Android Beam NFC sharing, Face Unlock, and bring in more exciting modern look and feel. But it will not be long before the update be available to Samsung Galaxy S2 HD LTE. "Ice Cream Sandwich, Android 4.0 is a combination of Gingerbread Android 2.3 and Honeycomb Android 3.0 hence it offer more features than either of the earlier version." 

7. Camera

Galaxy S2 HD LTE: 8MP rear, 2.0MP front, 1080p video Galaxy Nexus: 5MP rear, 1.3MP front, 1080p video It appear that Samsung Galaxy Nexus doesn’t come with the best camera in the market. From the spec listed above, it is clear that the different is pretty obvious. The Samsung Galaxy S II HD LTE has a little higher spec on the front and rear camera resolutions (8-megapixel at the rear, 2.0 megapixel at the front) compare toSamsung Galaxy Nexus that will come with a 5-megapixel rear (primary) camera at 2592×1936 pixels and 1.3-megapixel front camera. Although Galaxy Nexus does come with a lower camera spec, it will be equipped with a shutter-lag camera.