Galaxy Nexus outruns iPhone 4S, suffers volume bug
updated 01:05 pm EST, Sat November 19, 2011
Galaxy Nexus 1st Android to beat iPhone 4S in web
Early benchmarks of the Galaxy Nexus have shown it to be the first Android phone that can outperform an iPhone 4S on the web. The AnandTech tests show that Google's late addition of dual-core processor support gave the phone the edge over Apple both in the SunSpider JavaScript test and Rightware's BrowserMark. The only other Android device to get close, the Droid RAZR, slightly won in one test but lost in another.
The Galaxy Nexus is still far slower in graphics, according to the tests. By using a generation older PowerVR SGX 540 graphics core, the flagship phone has just over a third the visual performance of the iPhone 4S, whose PowerVR SGX 543MP2 is both dual-core and faster in each individual core.
The comparison supports Google's efforts to genuinely optimize Android 4.0 for performance and eliminate some of the chronic problems with responsiveness and speed. They nonetheless also show the much higher performance efficiency of the iPhone 4S' A5 processor, since it runs at or near 800MHz but can still compete with and outperform even very recent phones with 1.2GHz processors, like the Exynos in the Galaxy S II.
Simultaneously, however, early Galaxy Nexus buyers in the UK are reporting that the device might have been rushed after finding a consistent bug. Nicknamed the Self Aware Volume Ghost, the flaw randomly lowers the volume and at least sometimes doesn't let users turn it back up, XDA-Developers forum members said.
While it has yet to be officially addressed, the bug may be a factor in carrier delays in the UK. While O2 is carrying the phone, Vodafone told Pocket-lint Saturday that it was "continuing to test" the Galaxy Nexus' firmware and would only say when it planned to carry the phone after tests had finished.
Signs have appeared that Google and Samsung may have had to move the broader release back by a few weeks. Although Google promised a launch in both Canada and the US for November, Bell and Virgin have moved the Canadian release to December. Internal Verizon system leaks have also shown a December 8 launch. As such, the phone may only reach North America roughly around the one-year anniversary of the Nexus S.
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Reaping the rewards
It's a good thing Google stopped their development for the original Android when the mole saw the iPhone development that no other competitors where privy to. This gave them a huge head start and now reaping the rewards.