Pros/Cons of HTC Rezound vs. Galaxy Nexus

[TxGoat]

No. This attitude of "I paid 300 so I now have to defend my purchase at all cost" can be found in all 3 forums. It's inherent human nature, you just have to learn to ignore it.

You prefer the Rezound, while I have no desire to own another HTC/Sense product. To each their own.

But, I'd say it's found less on the Rezound forum than the Nexus forum for a couple of reasons, the first reason is the Rezound is out everyone that owns one knows what it can and can't do and thus we have a solid understanding of its limitations. There is still much speculation about the Nexus and what features it will have, how buggy/perfect ICS will be out of the gate, what hardware to expect, etc. So while some people can argue "The Rezound's battery sucks" (typically an argument from those that don't own a Rezound I might add), those of us that have had real world experience with the phone can say, "Well it's not going to get me through a whole week on a full charge, but I can go through a whole shift at work without issue", and actually aren't bound by speculation.

The second reason you'll find more fanaticism on the Nexus forum than here is many people are already backing the phone without any real world experiences. I guarantee you not every phone they produce is going to be a 100% trouble free gem. There are going to be some problematic phones that slip through Samsung's QA department and you'll see some of the threads you see in every other phone's forum, "Battery life is horrible", "My Nexus gets hot when I _______", and some threads you'll see there that you won't find here, "I'm near my capacity on my memory, can I add more memory?", or "I can't get Flash to work with this website/app". You have many people on the Nexus side that are so emotionally invested in the phone because they haven't had any real world experience with it. It's like lusting for some supermodel or hot actress/actor whose shortfalls you won't consider because you only see that person in their best light.

So while the Rezound didn't make as big a splash as the Razr, it's still a worthy consideration and frankly has enough big feature items to justify its consideration alongside the Razr and the invisible-Nexus. Out of the 3 phones, it's definitely a sleeper as someone else has already mentioned. The "Quietly Brilliant" pegs it perfectly.

 

[jayochs]

i haven't read any of this topic (i'm honest lol) buuuuuuut

my samsung rep stopped by today and i played with a nexus. it was pretty neat; seemed wider than the rezound though, so i didn't like that. screen was nice, and thankfully the weirdly shaped glass didn't affect anything too much. however, as i always stated, stock android is ugly as sin, and this was no different. it was bland as hell and boring to look at. camera seemed pretty cool and quick, but idk, personally i think the rezounds shutter speed might be a little faster. then again, i had a limited time to play with it. all in all, my rep said he loved it, he gets like 8-10 hours outta it with 4g turned off (which i mean, that seems ok i guess...i get like 10-16 outta my rezound with 4g turned off and we both seemed to use the phones just as much) but yeah. seems cool, but it just isn't for me!

 

[RottnJP]

Fixed

HTC Vigor to be the HTC ThunderBolt 2 while the Samsung DROID Prime replaces the Droid Charge

Nah, I didn't mean "chronological" successor... Thunderbolt was teh fail, a gutless first attempt to hit the 4G market with nothing but a new radio. Big hat, no cattle.

I mean a *spiritual* sucessor... The Incredible brought everything together, and had such legs that people are still happily running them 2 years later... It was tough and capable, and inspired well-deserved loyalty.

That's what the Vigor going to do- Under-marketed as it is, it's a real winner.

 

[Deleted User]

i haven't read any of this topic (i'm honest lol) buuuuuuut

my samsung rep stopped by today and i played with a nexus. it was pretty neat; seemed wider than the rezound though, so i didn't like that. screen was nice, and thankfully the weirdly shaped glass didn't affect anything too much. however, as i always stated, stock android is ugly as sin, and this was no different. it was bland as hell and boring to look at. camera seemed pretty cool and quick, but idk, personally i think the rezounds shutter speed might be a little faster. then again, i had a limited time to play with it. all in all, my rep said he loved it, he gets like 8-10 hours outta it with 4g turned off (which i mean, that seems ok i guess...i get like 10-16 outta my rezound with 4g turned off and we both seemed to use the phones just as much) but yeah. seems cool, but it just isn't for me!

Agreed. My very first Android interaction was with the Incredible... I just assumed that all of the features that were in "Sense" were in all Android phones. When my wife needed a new phone, she was partial to a physical keyboard, so we bought her a Droid 2. What a major downgrade that was, "sense" was leaps and bounds ahead of "stock" android IMO. I was disappointed to say the least. Some people may not like it, but that is the good thing about Android, we have a choice about certain features of a phone and aren't limited to one device (Cough iPhone Cough).

 

[zazan]

Again, I say "Nexus, I don't need no stinking Nexus".

Look folks these are all only just phones. They are not our friends, lovers or children. I personally am completely enamored with my rezound (except for the camera WB ). However it is just a tool for communication and so is the nexus.

For everyone who wants a Nexus, great I wish you all well. For me I'm perfectly happy with the rezound as a communication tool. Let's stop comparing these toys and start talking or texting or whatever. Communication will change the world! And we do need to change our world.

Well enough philosophical preaching, its Friday evening, back to the wine!

Have a great weekend everybody!

 

[TxGoat]

Again, I say "Nexus, I don't need no stinking Nexus".

Look folks these are all only just phones. They are not our friends, lovers or children. I personally am completely enamored with my rezound (except for the camera WB ). However it is just a tool for communication and so is the nexus.

For everyone who wants a Nexus, great I wish you all well. For me I'm perfectly happy with the rezound as a communication tool. Let's stop comparing these toys and start talking or texting or whatever. Communication will change the world! And we do need to change our world.

Well enough philosophical preaching, its Friday evening, back to the wine!

Have a great weekend everybody!

Well everyone is ready to take sides on everything nowadays. I think being on the cutting edge of technology is the new trend in status. In the process of downplaying someone else's fanaticism we tend to get fanatical ourselves and then next thing we know we're as bad as the other side COUGHiphoneCOUGH.

I personally like the ribbing, "What you can't add more memory to your phone?", "What? The Dr. Dre's Beats technology was conceived while he was on the toilet dropping some rancid old-rap artist stink-bombs?", "What your phone is made of Kevlar and Gorilla Glass but your Baby momma's baby slobbered on it and now it doesn't work?" I think it helps remind me, as you pointed out, that it's just a phone.

 

[vzwuser76]

But, I'd say it's found less on the Rezound forum than the Nexus forum for a couple of reasons, the first reason is the Rezound is out everyone that owns one knows what it can and can't do and thus we have a solid understanding of its limitations. There is still much speculation about the Nexus and what features it will have, how buggy/perfect ICS will be out of the gate, what hardware to expect, etc. So while some people can argue "The Rezound's battery sucks" (typically an argument from those that don't own a Rezound I might add), those of us that have had real world experience with the phone can say, "Well it's not going to get me through a whole week on a full charge, but I can go through a whole shift at work without issue", and actually aren't bound by speculation.

The second reason you'll find more fanaticism on the Nexus forum than here is many people are already backing the phone without any real world experiences. I guarantee you not every phone they produce is going to be a 100% trouble free gem. There are going to be some problematic phones that slip through Samsung's QA department and you'll see some of the threads you see in every other phone's forum, "Battery life is horrible", "My Nexus gets hot when I _______", and some threads you'll see there that you won't find here, "I'm near my capacity on my memory, can I add more memory?", or "I can't get Flash to work with this website/app". You have many people on the Nexus side that are so emotionally invested in the phone because they haven't had any real world experience with it. It's like lusting for some supermodel or hot actress/actor whose shortfalls you won't consider because you only see that person in their best light.

So while the Rezound didn't make as big a splash as the Razr, it's still a worthy consideration and frankly has enough big feature items to justify its consideration alongside the Razr and the invisible-Nexus. Out of the 3 phones, it's definitely a sleeper as someone else has already mentioned. The "Quietly Brilliant" pegs it perfectly.

You might just have the perfect summation right there. Bench speccing (like Bench racing) cannot take every factor into account. Hell, even now that people have the Razr and Rezound, sometimes the Razr wins, sometimes the Rezound wins. The reasons for that are endless, see below.

With bench racing, you can't take into account every factor that occurs in real world use, like tire composition, vehicle weight, altitude (how thin the air is), driver alertness (if he's hungover or not), etc, etc. The same things happen with bench speccing, you simply can't go off specs and absolutley be able to declare a winner. Real world performance comes down to many factors, like hardware tolerances, how the user has the phone setup, how many processes are running at any one time, signal reception, etc, etc.

Until the Nexus is in people's hands, there's no way to really know if it's better or not, and even then it comes down to the factors I mentioned earlier and personal opinion/ perception.

 

[TxGoat]

You might just have the perfect summation right there. Bench speccing (like Bench racing) cannot take every factor into account. Hell, even now that people have the Razr and Rezound, sometimes the Razr wins, sometimes the Rezound wins. The reasons for that are endless, see below.

With bench racing, you can't take into account every factor that occurs in real world use, like tire composition, vehicle weight, altitude (how thin the air is), driver alertness (if he's hungover or not), etc, etc. The same things happen with bench speccing, you simply can't go off specs and absolutley be able to declare a winner. Real world performance comes down to many factors, like hardware tolerances, how the user has the phone setup, how many processes are running at any one time, signal reception, etc, etc.

Until the Nexus is in people's hands, there's no way to really know if it's better or not, and even then it comes down to the factors I mentioned earlier and personal opinion/ perception.

Definitely a good point. That's why you see some muscle cars referred to as "Dyno Queens". They register great horsepower numbers on a Dyno but at the track they have trouble winning races. Or when people say "Horsepower sells cars Torque wins races", bigger numbers look good on paper, but it doesn't always translate to a good user experience. As it stands right now, I'm very pleased with my Rezound (moreso than I was with the Thunderbolt). I can't imagine what it would be like if I was waiting for the Nexus to get here. I'd probably would've already jumped off of the Nexus bandwagon by now. If the phone's been delayed this long then to me that means they're running into some unexpected issues with that phone. That's exactly how the Thunderbolt's release started. Why would I want to relive that experience?

 

[RottnJP]

... They are not our friends, lovers or children....

I bet there's an app or two for at least one of those... But we'll have to wait for the *actual android* dock to get maximum utility out of the Sense interface...

I'm picturing a smokin' Stepford Wife with a dock in her back you can pop your phone into, and just shut 'er down when she starts wanting things tidied up, commitment, the checkbook, etc...

How much would that be with my corp. discount?

 

[LTE4Ever]

Forgive me if I missed comments about these, but I have a few other thoughts:

Cons:
* I do miss having an HDMI port on my phone since sometimes when travelling it's nice to throw up a Netflix stream or a local video onto the hotel flatscreen. (When will they have Android mirroring like iOS!?!)
* The unit gets warm in time when playing graphics-intensive applications, but I wouldn't call it hot
* I agree with Engadget when they say that the buttons for power and volume are a bit too flush making it hard to use them without looking at the unit. In time I'll figure these out without looking
* I was looking forward to the higher resolution but it's not the panacea I was looking for. The buttons can be a bit smaller which is a pain but the faster processor means zooming in is more fluid, reducing the pain of the smaller buttons
* Battery life not as good as what I had on the Charge, but we're also dealing with theoretically 3X the horsepower
* Engadget review shows that the faster processor Hz may not correspond to a faster experience, but this is one of the first and only superphones out there and the difference is negligible. I don't need to have the fastest thing on the block, I just want it to work reliably and have a rast response (and it does)
* The dedicated soft buttons don't always stay lit, perhaps not a problem for most

Pros:
* Very fast and fluid indeed
* Loaded it up with hundreds of apps and it hasn't slowed down
* Thick like an LTE phone but not too thick - no weird hump on it anywhere like on the Charge and RAZR
* Screen not the best contrast but the colors are better
* Fast camera response
* Bluetooth 3.0
* Beats audio (not big for me since I think it's more about the headphones and rip quality, if applicable)
* Resolution - watching my 720p videos is super nice - a very crisp picture
* I think when ICS is stable and available, the 1280x720 resolution will let this unit act like a small tablet
* LTE speeds in my hotel over the weekend let me do roughly 2MB/sec over 1.2GB of download in 10 minutes

Hope this helps!

 

[kishin14]

Forgive me if I missed comments about these, but I have a few other thoughts:

Cons:
* I do miss having an HDMI port on my phone since sometimes when travelling it's nice to throw up a Netflix stream or a local video onto the hotel flatscreen. (When will they have Android mirroring like iOS!?!)
* The unit gets warm in time when playing graphics-intensive applications, but I wouldn't call it hot
* I agree with Engadget when they say that the buttons for power and volume are a bit too flush making it hard to use them without looking at the unit. In time I'll figure these out without looking
* I was looking forward to the higher resolution but it's not the panacea I was looking for. The buttons can be a bit smaller which is a pain but the faster processor means zooming in is more fluid, reducing the pain of the smaller buttons
* Battery life not as good as what I had on the Charge, but we're also dealing with theoretically 3X the horsepower
* Engadget review shows that the faster processor Hz may not correspond to a faster experience, but this is one of the first and only superphones out there and the difference is negligible. I don't need to have the fastest thing on the block, I just want it to work reliably and have a rast response (and it does)
* The dedicated soft buttons don't always stay lit, perhaps not a problem for most

Pros:
* Very fast and fluid indeed
* Loaded it up with hundreds of apps and it hasn't slowed down
* Thick like an LTE phone but not too thick - no weird hump on it anywhere like on the Charge and RAZR
* Screen not the best contrast but the colors are better
* Fast camera response
* Bluetooth 3.0
* Beats audio (not big for me since I think it's more about the headphones and rip quality, if applicable)
* Resolution - watching my 720p videos is super nice - a very crisp picture
* I think when ICS is stable and available, the 1280x720 resolution will let this unit act like a small tablet
* LTE speeds in my hotel over the weekend let me do roughly 2MB/sec over 1.2GB of download in 10 minutes

Hope this helps!

Good points, but if you're strictly talking about pros/cons versus the GNex then the lack of a true HDMI port is not really a con since neither the rezound or GNex has it. They both require MHL adaptors.

Also the soft keys staying lit is based on the amount of ambient light in the environment. Mine are never on in my office but as soon as I leave work at night, they come right on and stay on until I'm home. Still, this could be a con for some if you want them on all the time.

 

[TxGoat]

Good points, but if you're strictly talking about pros/cons versus the GNex then the lack of a true HDMI port is not really a con since neither the rezound or GNex has it. They both require MHL adaptors.

Also the soft keys staying lit is based on the amount of ambient light in the environment. Mine are never on in my office but as soon as I leave work at night, they come right on and stay on until I'm home. Still, this could be a con for some if you want them on all the time.

What's worse is the MHL adapter from HTC has a problem with 720p content. I'd get audio dropout when trying to push 720p content. 480p doesn't have the audio dropout that 720p does.


As far as the soft keys, mine don't stay lit up if the phone's screen is turned off so I don't find it that big a deal. If I'm using the phone then it's nice that those buttons are lit up (although if I'm using the phone for extended periods, I can see the lights being a distraction.

 

[Colchicine]

I've been loosely following both the Rezound and the GNexus. I've been having trouble trying to decide which to get, so I created a spreadsheet to help me decide. As you can see by the score, it hasn't actually helped!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0At7fgiEyuMfodF81S0JvT0pYZVJnc011RGNIY0d5Nmc

I didn't list features that were unimportant to me (such as Beats audio), so it's not a full listing of features.
Did I miss any other critical features? Have I rated them properly?

Background on me: Love HTC and my Incredible and can upgrade on Dec 29. I primarily got interested in the Nexus since it would be the first one on VZW. Not depending on manufacturers and carriers for updates have become a major interest to me, but it's not a deal killer.

 

[you2]

The nexus LTE version is not out yet so the only real thing you can list are based on actual specification i.e,:
size
nfc chip
sd slot
sense
pure google experience
ICQ
-
Things like battery life; reception quality; audtio quality, how it feels in your hand will have to wait another week or so.
-
I've been on the fence for a while - was going to buy rezound @ amazon for 1ct but then they cancelled the deal a day early - now I'm leaning towards the nexus with the latest icq crap (as well as some security evaluation that indicate non pure google phone have significant more issues) but none of those are deciding factors. If the nexus has no major issues (too soft, bad recpetion, horrible battery life, just doesn't fit in my hands) I'll go that route else the rezound. I'm sure both are great phones not sure you can truely make a mistake here unless there are long term issues that won't show up for a few months.

 

[kishin14]

I just realized that with the exception of when you're taking/watching videos and pictures (in which case the onscreen soft buttons should disappear), the resolution on the GNex is is actually 1184x720 due to the 96 pixels the soft buttons take up. Kind of a strange aspect ratio of 1.64 versus 1.78 for our phone (and qHD). Even slightly off the 1.67 found on phones with wvga screens (800x480). Not really a big deal, but just something I just didn't notice until today. But it does mean that for the average app that doesn't hide the soft buttons on the GNex, the rezound will actually show more content on screen.

 

[Medion]

I've been loosely following both the Rezound and the GNexus. I've been having trouble trying to decide which to get, so I created a spreadsheet to help me decide. As you can see by the score, it hasn't actually helped!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0At7fgiEyuMfodF81S0JvT0pYZVJnc011RGNIY0d5Nmc

I didn't list features that were unimportant to me (such as Beats audio), so it's not a full listing of features.
Did I miss any other critical features? Have I rated them properly?

Background on me: Love HTC and my Incredible and can upgrade on Dec 29. I primarily got interested in the Nexus since it would be the first one on VZW. Not depending on manufacturers and carriers for updates have become a major interest to me, but it's not a deal killer.

Here are some things that you scored that I disagree with. I'll just post my understanding of the specs and let you decide if it needs to be re-scored or not.

Camera LED - After using the Incredible (also 2 LEDs), I've come to learn that the dual-LED is a marketing trick designed to appeal to the "moar betterer!!!111" crowd. It overexposes pictures to the point where I just stopped taking low-light photos with it. The single-LED on my SGS2 is far superior. The amount of exposure isn't perfect, but far better than what I had.

CPU - Let's say that you and I are racing two Ford Fusions (same car, engine, and everything else). I'm in 1st gear at 4k RPMs, while you're in 4th gear at 3k RPMs. According to your scoring, I just won the race (even if I'm merely doing 20mph and you're doing 60mph). There is more to a CPU than just the number of clock cycles over time. What matters is what they do with those clock cycles. The Cortex A9 in the Galaxy Nexus puts out 2.5DMIPS per clock cycle, while the Scorpion inside the Rezound puts out 2.1 DMIPS per clock cycle. Assuming both cores maxed out, that's 6k DMIPS (Galaxy) vs. 6300 DMIPS (Rezound), or a difference of 5%. That's a very minor lead given that, at a higher clock rate, you're using higher voltage. Maxed out, battery life would suffer more on the Rezound. In everyday usage, however, performance and battery life should be similar between the two.

GPU - You omitted this, so it may simply be one of those things you don't care about. If you're not a gamer, then disregard this as both GPUs are outstanding. However, if you are a gamer, you will notice a difference, especially in higher-end games like those by Gameloft. The 384mhz-clocked PowerVR SGX540 inside the Nexus benchmarks at roughly 2x the performance of the Adreno 220 inside the Rezound. However, I suspect real world performance would be closer.

VZW Bloat - Nexus seems to come installed with My Verizon, VZW Backup Assistant, and Isis (in lieu of Google Wallet). So, there seems to be some bloat here, just not to the degree as on the HTC phones.

And lastly, the most important thing that you left out was the user experience. While the Rezound is smoother than most older handsets, it still lags when browsing, especially compared to handsets like the iPhone 4s or SGS2 (anyone who disagrees with me should be prepared to record high quality video, as I've already compared them and will gladly do the same). So, when the Nexus comes out, I'd urge you to head to the closest VZW store, Best Buy, or any other places that has a working demo of both, and try them. The user experience is the most important aspect of a device.

 

[Colchicine]

Here are some things that you scored that I disagree with. I'll just post my understanding of the specs and let you decide if it needs to be re-scored or not.

Excellent! That's what I was looking for!

Camera LED - After using the Incredible (also 2 LEDs), I've come to learn that the dual-LED is a marketing trick designed to appeal to the "moar betterer!!!111" crowd.

Actually, the reason I prefer two LEDs is that you will still have a functioning flash after 1 of them malfunctions. Like in my Inc. It's a guard against future malfunctions that would render a feature useless.

CPU - In everyday usage, however, performance and battery life should be similar between the two.

Understood, and that's why I'm not putting a big emphasis on it. This is just a guard against future obsolescence, in the off chance that the 1.5GHz DC becomes the magic cut off limit for on-par performance. Kind of like how after the Inc came out, any phone worth having for the next year had to have a 1GHz! But because of your well supported premise, I will further devalue that feature.

GPU -The 384mhz-clocked PowerVR SGX540 inside the Nexus benchmarks at roughly 2x the performance of the Adreno 220 inside the Rezound. However, I suspect real world performance would be closer.

Did not know that. Not a hard core gamer, but maybe I will be.

VZW Bloat - Nexus seems to come installed with My Verizon, VZW Backup Assistant, and Isis (in lieu of Google Wallet). So, there seems to be some bloat here, just not to the degree as on the HTC phones.

I am NOT happy about the Isis instead of G Wallet situation. If it is confirmed that G Wallet is not usable or supported on the GNex, my interest in NFC will go to near zero. Again, I should devalue this feature anyway because I'll like root and delete the bloat. I just like the idea of sticking it to VZW if I buy the phone with the least bloat THEY get paid for putting on there.

And lastly, the most important thing that you left out was the user experience.

That's because judging that feature is not possible at the moment.
Thanks again!

 

[jikhead]

Well, after getting to play with a Nexus today at the store, I've made my decision: Galaxy Nexus. Even though I found a bug in the software already and I think the camera hardware is better on the Rezound, I still like the feel of ICS and the phone itself in my hand. I had no issues with the size nor any navigating ICS. It didn't feel as plastic-e feeling as other Samsung devices. The camera shutter is super fast, but I think most will be using the on-screen focus first; otherwise you're going to turn out with a lot of useless photos. It was really nice seeing the app drawer only have 1 and a 1/3 page(s) of apps in it. I will continue to follow the Rezound thread, as I think this is a great phone as well.

 

[Dagr]

I'm curious... are those GPU calculations correct? I was under the impression that the Nexus gpu was very underwhelming... does that mean that the Rezound GPU is even less?

 

[jikhead]

Hey TxGoat...you've got to see this. Check out this thread...I made a comment over there even with the fact I'm getting the GN myself.

http://androidforums.com/samsung-ga...-nexus-store-meetup-thread-2.html#post3596477

 

[TheXFactor]

Couple of things. First, the bloat on the Rezound. Second, the recessed power/volume buttons. Third, the inability to hide the bloat. Fourth, no ICS on the Rezound.

On the Nexus. First, the extremely low speaker volume. Second, not a huge fan of vanilla android. Third, it's a Samsung. Questionable build quality and reception.

Like sense on the HTC. Like the size of the HTC. Like the screen of the HTC. It's gonna be a tough decision. Keep the Rezound or return and get the Nexus???

 

[soccermom17540]

Couple of things. First, the bloat on the Rezound. Second, the recessed power/volume buttons. Third, the inability to hide the bloat. Fourth, no ICS on the Rezound.

On the Nexus. First, the extremely low speaker volume. Second, not a huge fan of vanilla android. Third, it's a Samsung. Questionable build quality and reception.

Like sense on the HTC. Like the size of the HTC. Like the screen of the HTC. It's gonna be a tough decision. Keep the Rezound or return and get the Nexus???

I don't mind waiting for ICS (isn't the Rezound supposed to get it 1Q?) so they can get the bugs worked out.

 

[Medion]

I'm curious... are those GPU calculations correct? I was under the impression that the Nexus gpu was very underwhelming... does that mean that the Rezound GPU is even less?

Saying that the GPU of the Nexus is underwhelming is like saying the Snapdragon SOC on the Rezound is the same as the Snapdragon of the Nexus One. People need to stop looking at the name of the spec and see what's underneath. In synthetic benchmarks (which attempt to predict future results), the SGX540 in the RAZR benches ahead of the Mali400MP in the SGS2 in geometric performance, while falling behind the Mali in fill-rate. However, in real world results, the SGX540 seems to beat out the Mali in today's most demanding games (NOVA2 HD, Order and Chaos) due to Gameloft's love of abusing high polygon counts.

On top of that, the SGX540 in the Nexus is clocked higher than the one in the RAZR. At this point, I'd score the Nexus' GPU as either the best for an Android phone, or tied for the best with the SGS2's Mali. The only GPU that beats out the SGX540 hands down today is the SGX543. There's a dual-core version (MP2) in the iPhone 4s and iPad 2, and a quad-core version (MP4) being used in the Sony PS Vita. Tegra 3 is also out in a tablet now, but I haven't played with it yet, so I can't tell if it's merely on par with today's top GPUs, or if it truly beats it.

 

[Dagr]

Saying that the GPU of the Nexus is underwhelming is like saying the Snapdragon SOC on the Rezound is the same as the Snapdragon of the Nexus One. People need to stop looking at the name of the spec and see what's underneath. In synthetic benchmarks (which attempt to predict future results), the SGX540 in the RAZR benches ahead of the Mali400MP in the SGS2 in geometric performance, while falling behind the Mali in fill-rate. However, in real world results, the SGX540 seems to beat out the Mali in today's most demanding games (NOVA2 HD, Order and Chaos) due to Gameloft's love of abusing high polygon counts.

On top of that, the SGX540 in the Nexus is clocked higher than the one in the RAZR. At this point, I'd score the Nexus' GPU as either the best for an Android phone, or tied for the best with the SGS2's Mali. The only GPU that beats out the SGX540 hands down today is the SGX543. There's a dual-core version (MP2) in the iPhone 4s and iPad 2, and a quad-core version (MP4) being used in the Sony PS Vita. Tegra 3 is also out in a tablet now, but I haven't played with it yet, so I can't tell if it's merely on par with today's top GPUs, or if it truly beats it.

Thanks for the info. This is going to be a really tough decision for me. I'm in love with the screen of the Rezound and the camera quality... but I've had 2 units now and BOTH run extremely hot... even with routine web browsing (no games). I'm not sure if its just my luck, but that's how they seem to run. Also, my current unit now has a rather creaky stock battery cover (the salesperson really yanked it when putting in my sim & sd card). So... now I'm stuck with the decision of getting another Rezound to try again (and fix the creak)... or go with a Nexus (assuming next week is the week... since my best buy 30 days are up a week from tomorrow). Decisions! I'm suprised how on the fence I am with this.

 

[RottnJP]

Hmm. The heat issue is surprising- I assumed that had to be uber gamers, since I haven't felt that at all. Not even a noticable warm-up, and I do have stints where I'm doing a fair bit of browsing.