Supply: Alex Dobie / Android Central
Ten years earlier than the Google Pixel 6, tright here was one other milestone Android system, furtherly developed in partnership with Samsung, that recurrented An limitless leap forwards for the platform.
The Samsung Galaxy Nexus launched a decade in the past this month, Collectively with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The telephone and its Computer software set the stage for The subsequent few years of Android, pioneering options like on-display navigation keys, face unlock, And simple multitasking.
Like 2010’s Nexus S, the “Gnex” was a collaboration between Google and Samsung, which following the success of its Galaxy S line was shortly rising to a dominant place Inside the smarttelephone market.
For Google, it wAs a Outcome of the third Nexus telephone To return to market and The primary To current LTE connectivity As a Outcome of of an unique partnership with Verizon Inside the U.S. For Samsung, it straddled the Galaxy S2 and S3 launch cycles and cemented The agency’s place On The center of the Android ecosystem wright hereas borrowing designal cues from each the S2 and S3.
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The entranceloading of “Galaxy” Inside the telephone’s mannequining furtherly gave the rising Samsung mannequin further prominence.
Supply: Alex Dobie / Android Central
In all probability the most placing function of the Galaxy Nexus was what wasn’t tright here.
Visually, the most placing function of the Galaxy Nexus was what wasn’t tright here. It was The primary Android telephone to Get rid of howevertons on the entrance face of the system. In the meantime, Almost every Android telephone included capacitive or bodily keys for navigation. On the Gnex, these have been changed by “again,” “house,” and “current apps” keys in Computer software as An factor of the navigation paradigm Which might stick round All of the biggest method till gesture navigation was launched in Android 9 Pie. The mannequin new “currents” navigation key had earlier thanhand dehowevered Inside the capsule-focused Android 3.0 Honeycomb, however in Ice Cream Sandwich it made multitasking on telephones far faster and simpler than ever earlier than.
Supply: Alex Dobie / Android Central
The transfer to a howevertonless entrance face gave the Nexus a clear look from the entrance, The one blemish in its curved glass panel being the eartelephone jack up prime.
On the rear, the telephone was principally A a lot hugeger, curvier Galaxy S2. A wedge-shaped space dpersonal under housed a lot of the PCB, As properly as to USB and headtelephone ports, wright hereas the removable again panel was furnished in The identical “hyperskin” textured plastic As a Outcome of the S2.
For the time, the Galaxy Nexus’s hardware was pretty good, albeit in A very plasticky method. Then as quickly as extra, although, it was 2011, and “plastic” wAs a Outcome of the default setting For many Android telephone producers.
And since the barebones entrance face of the Gnex Could have suggested, the Computer software was Much extra important. Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich was An complete seen and structural redesignal for Google’s mobile OS, introducing the new “Holo” designal language, the “Roboto” font That is nonetheless used right now on most Android telephones, and sci-fi-impressed turquoise colour palette. Holo wAs a Outcome of the brainchild of Matias Duarte, who joined Google in late 2010 and has led The agency’s designal efforts over the previous decade.
Holo and Roboto seemed proper at house on the Gnex’s fancy HD current.
The mannequin new UI impressed, On the time, on Samsung’s latest HD SuperAMOLED reveals, Definitely one of many first extreme-density OLEDs in a smarttelephone. Though not The straightforwardst — Samsung reserved its prime panels for The distinctive Galaxy Notice — The colourful colours and deep blacks have been An excellent match for Holo.
“We requested ourselves, for The primary time, What’s the soul of Android?” said Matias Duarte On the Hong Kong launch event. “We needed straightforward typographic layouts with A good deal of whitespace, eliminating strains and bins and levelless ornament. And we needed to imbue everyfactor with delicate animation And nice thrives To actually make Android come astay.”
Supply: Google
Talking at That very similar event, Android founder Andy Rubin informed the press, “the engineering groups stayd In a single constructing Once we constructed this product. We have been actually one group.” Samsung’s personal processor wasn’t used On this product, although — Instead, the “group” opted for the extra open-source-nice Texas Devices OMAP 4460 chip. Paradoxically, Using an OMAP chip would finally reduce the Nexus’s lifespan brief — TI exited the smarttelephone processor enterprise in 2012, leaving mannequins with out an improve path previous Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.
By the requirements of the time — admittedly, By way of the period of pervasive Android lag on A lot of telephones — the Galaxy Nexus felt ridiculously quick. The replace to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean in spring 2012 helped iron out the few reprimarying efficiency kinks, serving to the telephone primarytain a clear 60 frames per second even wright hereas powering an HD-decision current.
Supply: Alex Dobie / Android Central
By the requirements of the time, this telephone felt ridiculously quick.
The telephone’s digital camperiod was extra of a mixed bag. Google extremelighted the Nexus’s zero-shutter-lag pictures in promotional supplies, however even by 2011 requirements, its 5-megapixel rear shooter took uninteresting, low-decision photographs. And wright hereas the entrance-dealing with digital camperiod allowed Google to pioneer face unlock prolonged earlier than the likes of the iPhone X, the function labored so unreliably that it even failed all through its stay demo On the launch event.
However, the Galaxy Nexus reprimaryed properly-appreciated amongst early Android followers. This was a Nexus, In any case, with assured day-one replaces to future Android variations. And it boasted untarnished, straight-from-Google, inventory Android Computer software at a time when heavy, ugly producer skins have been the norm. Constructive, you’d Want to Deal with a (comparatively) crummy digital camperiod And by no means-good battery life — till you imported the prolonged battery that Samsung solely purchased in Korea — however That did not Appear to be such An monumental deal in 2011.
At the time, I used to be smitten with my Gnex, summing up the system as In all probability The biggest Android telephones of the time.
“If, like Many people, You have been continuously holding out for that “subsequent huge factor” Inside the Android world,” I wrote in November 2011, “That’s your signal to sprime ready and revery In your pockets. The Galaxy Nexus is the Android telephone You should personal in 2012.”
One agency that wasn’t An limitless fan, by no meanstheless, was Apple. At The peak of the early-2010s smarttelephone wars, the Galaxy Nexus shortly turned a goal for Cupertino’s legal professionals, who sought To decide the Gnex as infringing upon Apple’s patents in an effort To close dpersonal the broader Android ecosystem. In consequence, the telephone was briefly banned Inside the U.S. in mid-2012 following a courtroom-granted injunction, earlier than swiftly returning to sale. Apple failed in subsequent makes an try to halt gross sales all through 2012 and into 2013, although by That time, the system had been changed with the LG-made Nexus 4.
Though the Galaxy Nexus Did not promote in large numbers, nor take pleasure in a notably prolonged lifespan, it by no meanstheless stands out as a extreme level Inside the early progress of the Android ecosystem. Without the Gnex and Ice Cream Sandwich, tright here’d be no Galaxy S3 or HTC One. Ultimately, the third Nexus was properly-appreciated Among The numerous Android reliable for A lot of The identical causes As a Outcome of the Pixel 6 Professional — it provided pure Google Android Computer software, and quick efficiency agained up by A pair of of Definitely one of the biggest Samsung-sourced hardware.
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Source: https://www.androidcentral.com/remembering-samsung-galaxy-nexus-ten-years