The Verizon 4G LTE Samsung Galaxy Nexus is out, and if you were not in line to get one on Friday, you may be mulling your options. We will publish the full review soon, but let’s start with the basics. Here is a video that shows what is in the box, what the phone looks like and the boot sequence (it looks cool). Beyond that I have started to set it up and run benchmarks, but I’ll reserve my final judgment for the actual review.
What I can say is this: the Galaxy Nexus’ main selling point has to be Android 4.0, aka Ice Cream Sandwich or ICS. Hardware-wise, the 1280x720p display is terrific, but performance-wise, this is not a monster, and it is comparable with other dual-core phones in the market, like the Galaxy S2. Actually, the older Samsung Galaxy S2 is just as good in terms of raw performance. I will also take a particular look at the battery life, because it seemed to me that the phone had a tendency to get warm, which is usually an ominous sign in terms of energy output. More very soon.