Despite former Hurricane Sandy slamming the East Coast and forcing Google to cancel their press conference, several Android devices were unveiled today.
1. Nexus 4
Also known as the Internet’s worst-kept secret, the LG–built smartphone replaces the current Galaxy Nexus as the “flagship” Android device.
It has a large 4.7-inch display and a 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor for lightning-fast operations. Google claims the S4 is the fastest on the market, besting Apple’s A6 and the Tegra 3.
The phone also has an 8 megapixel camera and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing one, and supports up to 16GB of storage.
Interestingly, the Nexus 4 doesn’t support 4G LTE networks, putting it far behind the iPhone 5 and Windows Phone 8 devices in terms of cellular download speed.
Slow networking aside, the phone is beautifully designed. The back has a sort of multi-etched glass design and the front glass was melted over the body, making everything very smooth and rounded.
It costs $299 for 8GB and $349 for 16GB. A $199, 2-year based contract version with T-Mobile will be available November 13.
2. Nexus 10 and Nexus 7
Google also showcased its first flagship 10-inch tablet, aptly named the Nexus 10.
It sports a dual-core ARM Cortex-A15 chip with 2GB of RAM in addition to a quad-core Mali T604 graphics processor, more than enough to run Android with speed and efficiency.
The screen reaches a pixel density of 300, more or less on par with the iPad’s Retina display, and there are 1.9 and 5 megapixel front and rear-facing cameras, respectively.
Nexus 10 will come in a $399 16GB and $499 32GB, Wi-Fi only flavors on November 13.
In addition, Google dropped the price on its 16GB Nexus 7 to $199 and the 32GB model to $249. It also announced a 3G version for $299. All three of which are cheaper than Apple’s iPad Mini.
3. Android 4.2 (Jelly-er Bean?)
The Nexus 4 and 10 will be the first devices to run the latest version of Android, Jelly Bean 4.2.
New features include gesture-based typing, multiple user account support and a super-panorama camera mode called Photo Sphere.
However, Android Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) is only installed on around 10 percent of Android devices, and Jelly Bean (4.1) is on even less. The fragmentation of Android’s user base continues.
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That’s all the news for today! Check back on Thursday for any further developments.
