Verizon Galaxy Nexus vs HTC Rezound

Introduction:

In our last comparison, we pitted the very best from Motorola’s camp, the incredibly thin DROID RAZR, against the high-flying and Ice Cream Sandwich filled Samsung Galaxy Nexus. This time around, however, we’re again pitting the venerable Verizon Galaxy Nexus against the Beats Audio enabled HTC Rezound to find out exactly how these two polished Android smartphones stack up against one another. Featuring  very similar specs, like dual-core processors, 720p displays, and 4G LTE connectivity, we’re going to need to dive in even further to find out which one truly deserves your hard earned money!


Design:

Frankly, neither device flaunts a compelling design that captures our attention right off the bat, and to tell you the truth, they pretty much follow the same conventional approach. First of all, they’re both comprised out of plastic, which results in a decent build quality, but the HTC Rezound is the thicker and more heavy of the two. Meanwhile, we do like that the Verizon Galaxy Nexus is pretty streamlined and lightweight by today’s standards, but its wide figure makes it difficult for those with smaller hands to grip the handset.


Looking at the Rezound’s usual set of Android capacitive buttons, we do like their red glow, but we find it more prone to accidental presses. On the other hand, it’s not a problem with the Galaxy Nexus because its on-screen buttons are evenly spaced, and are now incorporated to the interface.

Of course, it’s fantastic that they employ removable batteries, but the Rezound offers the usefulness of expanding its internal memory with its microSD card slot is preoccupied by a 16GB card out of the box. Conversely, there’s no expansion whatsoever with the Galaxy Nexus.



Display:

So it’s great that these two highly esteemed smartphones feature 720p (720 x 1280) displays, but they’re actually very different. Specifically, the Verizon Galaxy Nexus packs a larger 4.65” Super AMOLED HD display with a PenTile matrix arrangement, whereas the Rezound resorts to sticking with a 4.3” S-LCD panel using a standard RGB pixel arrangement. Calculating the math, the Rezound undeniably has the higher pixel density at 342 ppi, versus the still respectable 316 ppi pixel density of the Galaxy Nexus, but the Rezound’s higher detail is barely noticeable. Either way, they’re both sharp looking and offer plenty of clarity – though, our eyes fall in love with the deep color production and wider viewing angles offered by the Galaxy Nexus.

Interface and Functionality:

There’s always this never-ending argument about how some would easily prefer a stock Android experience as opposed to a customized one. Well, that’s essentially what we find against these two, as the Galaxy Nexus presents itself with the latest and most-up-to-date pure Android experience in the form of Andorid 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Of course, we love the total redesign of the smartphone platform, seeing it boasts a ton of new features and a cleaner looking interface as a whole, but don’t let that stop you from equally liking the HTC Rezound. In fact, HTC Sense 3.5 running on top of Android 2.3 Gingerbread on the Rezound is an equally compelling experience – thanks to its rich set of personalization, polished presentation, and usefulness. Still, though, the notion of being the latest version of Android would undoubtedly attract more people.


Blessed with plenty of real estate, we find it very easy for our thumbs to type up long passages of text with their respective on-screen keyboards. Not only are they spacious to accommodate any finger size, but their responsiveness enables us to type quickly with minimal mistakes made along the way.




Processor and Memory:

Dual-core processors aren’t anything new nowadays, but at least they complement handsets in being regarded as top-shelf products. The HTC Rezound features a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8660 processor, while the Galaxy Nexus relies on a 1.2GHz TI OMAP 4460 CPU – both of which are coupled with 1GB of RAM. Interestingly enough, they perform very similar to one another, but they don’t necessarily come off as the most fluid things we’ve come across. With static wallpapers, they move with a good amount of responsiveness, but we experienced some evidence of choppiness when using graphically intensive live wallpapers. Granted that we’d love to see them running flawlessly, but at least the choppiness doesn’t dramatically deteriorate the entire experience.

As we’ve mentioned already, the HTC Rezound is preloaded with a 16GB microSD card, which supplements its 10.48GB of memory. Oppositely, the Verizon Galaxy Nexus omits a slot for expandability, but it’s stuffed with a spacious 32GB of memory.

Internet and Connectivity:

Being the best of the best, these beastly smartphones offer all the advantages of 4G LTE connectivity, but interestingly enough, we find the HTC Rezound delivering the faster speeds. In fact, it produces speeds that are roughly 3Mbit/s faster on the download, and 1Mbit/s peppier on the upload. On paper, the difference might seem to be substantial, but nonetheless, both are able to load our site in under 20 seconds. Certainly, the Rezound has the advantage with data speeds, but when it comes to the actual web browsing performance, the Galaxy Nexus boast the more fluid and responsive movements – though, Flash content tends to slow down their performance a little bit. In any event, they’re more than tolerable to accept.



Moreover, they both feature aGPS, Bluetooth 3.0 , 802.11 b/g/n/a Wi-Fi, and mobile hotspot functionality. Besides offering charging and data connectivity with their  microUSB ports, they also offer video-out connectivity – though, you’re required to purchase an optional MHL adapter to gain the functionality.

Camera:

Yes, the Rezound has a higher count 8-megapixel camera, but that doesn’t necessarily translate over to better image quality over the 5-megapixel camera of the Galaxy Nexus. In actuality, their qualities are very similar to one another, but more importantly, they’re fairly good looking to the eye in the end. Details are average, with color reproduction being very neutral with the two, but when it comes to low lighting situations, the Rezound has a slight advantageseeing that its results are less noisy looking compared to the Galaxy Nexus. Still, their LED flashes are equally potent in lighting the scenery.

When it comes to shooting 1080p high-definition videos, we’re actually not all that compelled by their qualities seeing that results are average. On one side, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus captures video at the unusually slow rate of 24 frames per second – making videos choppy looking. Meanwhile, the HTC Rezound is plagued with soft details and some heavy instances of artifacting when panning very quickly. Obviously, they’re far from perfect, butthey’re tolerable enough to accept.

Verizon Galaxy Nexus Sample Video:



HTC Rezound Sample Video:



As usual, they both feature front-facing cameras for snapping self-portraits, shooting 720p videos, and using them for the occasional video chatting sessions. However, it’s a 1.3-megaixel camera on the Galaxy Nexus compared to the 2-megapixel snapper on the Rezound.

Multimedia:

Visually, there isn’t a whole lot different with their music players, seeing that we’re greeted with the usual suspects consisting of the album cover and on-screen controls. However, the Galaxy Nexus has a more polished UI when browsing through songs/albums in landscape with its 3D-like carousel. Without a doubt though, the Rezound’s speaker is the stronger and more boisterous – without straining at the loudest setting. On top of that, its bundled Beats Audio headphones essentially provides the best audio experiences on any phone, as the audio quality is rich in tone and more robust.



Hardly breaking a sweat, both Android smartphones play our test video encoded in MPEG-4 1920 x 1080 resolution very smoothly and with minimal effort. However, seeing that it boasts the larger and more alluring display, we prefer the Galaxy Nexus for this one.

Performance:

Overall, calling quality has to go to the HTC Rezound since its earpiece is stronger in output, voices are clear sounding without any evidence of background noise or distortion, and its speakerphone is more powerful. Although it’s not perfect, we’re still accepting of the Verizon Galaxy Nexus calling quality – though, callers say our voice have a robotic-like tone.

Above all, one of the biggest distractions that we see is the constant loss of 4G LTE connectivity with the Verizon Galaxy Nexus, which isn’t much of a taxing problem with the HTC Rezound. As much as we’re sometimes frustrated by that, neither device dropped any of our phone calls during our testing.

Knowing that these juggernauts are packing super large high-resolution displays, dual-core processors, and 4G LTE, we’re not all that surprised that battery life is rather poor by today’s standards. Charging them up completely, we’re able to obtain roughly 10 hours of normal usage with the two. Barely getting us by through a solid work shift, these two vociferous battery eating devices will need constant charging throughout the day to meet our demands.

Conclusion:

So if you’ve managed to save up a cool $300 so far and wondering which one is worth your hard earned money, we’d have to say that you’re better off investing it on the Verizon Galaxy Nexus. Even though its design is hardly a standout winner in our books, the realization that it’s the sole device out there featuring Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich simply entices us more than anything. Moreover, there’s still a lot more to like with it – like its gorgeous looking 4.65” 720p Super AMOLED HD display, streamlined construction, and it takes some decent photos/videos. Yes, the HTC Rezound has the muscle power to appeal some people, and with the aid of the always charismatic Sense UI, it still provides a very sensual Android experience. Oh yeah! There’s this thing call Beats Audio that it boasts, but to tell you the truth, it’s hardly something that’s going to be prized over other things on the pedestal. Therefore, we’re certain that the Galaxy Nexus has the right ingredients to reel in people.

You can also read:

Verizon Galaxy Nexus vs Motorola DROID RAZR

HTC Rezound vs Motorola DROID RAZR