Both Samsung and Google have just revealed their latest device, the latest and third Nexus device at the Samsung Unpacked event in Hong Kong.

It’s being officially called the Samsung Galaxy Nexus as speculated and not Nexus Prime, it’s powered by stock Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The device has appeared in several leaks earlier this week, but now we at hemorrdroids have the full scoop for you, so keep reading.

On presenting the device, Kevin Packingham, SVP from Samsung tells us that there are “several unique aspects” of this device, which he categorises into speed, screen, design, and OS. So, in respect to these categories, I’ll go through the information using the same headings.

Speed

The device will be launching with both LTE and HSPA+, and the model that will come out for the market will depend on local demand. The Galaxy Nexus will run on a dual core 1.2GHz processor “that flies” and is said to be “ultra-smooth” at multi-tasking. Kevin Packingham explains that this speed is due to the hardware and software being designed together.

Screen

The device has a 4.65inch HD Super AMOLED screen, Kevin described it as being ”the most colorful display on the market” and that it has the “highest contrast ratio.” seen on a device like this at a ratio of 100,000:1.  The screen is 720p (1,280 x 720) with an a 16:9 aspect ratio, which should make watching movies seem natural as if you were watching it on a widescreen TV.

Design

The Galaxy Nexus has a curved screen (contour display), much like the Samsung Nexus S, it’s 8.94mm thick, and a bezel that’s just 4.29mm. We are told the they’ve “made the screen wider, but the phone won’t feel any bigger in your hand.” ”hyperskin” is used for the back of the device: a soft grip texture similar to that of the Samsung Galaxy SII.

There’s a five megapixel camera on the back, that’ll do 1080p video recording and it’ll take pictures with “zero shutter lag” stated to be less than a second, but the exact time wasn’t stated. Demonstrations of the camera did show that it did indeed take pictures very quick.

OS

Matias Duarte gets on the stage and tells us the UI has been redesigned from the ground up, and tells us about the new typeface ICS is using, Robato, ”Meet Robato. It’s a totally new typeface for Android — modern yet approachable. It was built from scratch for high-definition paper density displays.”

The main star of the show was obviously the OS, Ice Cream Sandwich. This category is talked about in much more length, so I’ll do a seperate post for it to describe all the new features and UI changes. To summarise, ICS is the new version of Android which includes many new features like “brand new People app with Google+ integration”,  panoramic photo support, “face unlock” facial recognition, Android beam using NFC and much more which I’ll get more into on a separate ICS post, so be sure to check that out.

Conclusion

Although the hardware isn’t a big leap in specs over the Galaxy SII, it’s still pretty impressive, mind you, the 5 megapixel camera may seem a little bit disappointing  at first but features like like ”zero shutter lag” and all the other additional features they’ve added, makes it look very impressive. The 1080p video they demonstrated on the stage looks very good, and so did the pictures taken by the device, so all in all the camera looks like it can do a good job, more on that when we actually get the device for review.

There was no mention of a SD Card slot, so I’m a little disappointed there, but since it’ll be available in  both 16 and 32GB of internal storage, I guess there isn’t much to complain about.

All in all, the device looks very sexy, and well designed and I can’t wait to get my hands on one, it looks super fast and smooth, so thumbs up to both Google and Samsung for that.

Full Official Specifications

• Network: HSPA+ 21Mbps/HSUPA 5.76Mbps 850/900/1900/1700/2100, EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900
  Specifications above may differ on the LTE version.
• Processor: 1.2 GHz Dual-core Processor (OMAP 4460)
• Display: 4.65-inch 1280×720 HD Super AMOLED
• OS: Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
• Main (Rear) Camera: 5MP AF with LED Flash with zero shutter lag and fast shot2shot
• Sub (Front) Camera: 1.3MP for Video Call
• Sensor: Accelerometer, Compass, Gyro, Light, Proximity, Barometer
• Memory: 1GB RAM + 16/32GB Internal memory
• Size: 135.5 x 67.94 x 8.94 mm, 135g
• Battery: Standard battery, Li-on 1750 mAh