In many ways, the Galaxy Nexus is Android's iPhone 4S. It is manufactured by Samsung, which became the leading manufacturer of Androphones thanks to the Nexus S, Galaxy S and Galaxy S II. And it's powered by Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version of Google's mobile system, and the first to feature a consistent GUI. A true overhaul of Android, the Galaxy Nexus is an ambitious device. But is this enough to convince an iPhone 4S user? The answer in our test !

NB: for this test, we adopted the same methodology as for the Nexus One. This test, which comes after several weeks of intensive use, is not intended to be exhaustive, but wants to convey the feelings of an iPhone user on some of the most important points in daily use.

Holo: and Android became beautiful Ice Cream Sandwich is the first version of Android on which Matias Duarte was able to exert all his influence: the result is called Holo, the new user interface of Google's system. Available in two versions, one predominantly black for OLED screens, the other predominantly white for LCD screens, Holo is very far from the skeumorphism of iOS.

Rather than trying to imitate real objects, Holo is much more "digital", more abstract. It makes great use of straight lines as frames and separators, of touches of blue as notifications (arrival at the end of a list, position in a scrollable element, etc.) and it is true, rather pleasing to the eye and subtle. Holo systematizes the use of tabs to separate different parts of the application (like on iOS), and adds a large number of animations that are often fluid and rarely too long. However, everything is not perfect: she sometimes turns out to be a bit geeky and complex.

We feel that Matias Duarte (ex Palm) has seen and reviewed Tron, and Holo sometimes does a little too much. The main problem lies in the use of virtual buttons instead of physical buttons (an issue already raised by the Amazon Kindle Fire). The iPhone home button isn't perfect (especially when it stops working properly), but it's still there, and can be pressed with your eyes closed. Android's home button only does one thing, return to the home screen, but doesn't always do it well: it's often hidden by an app going full screen, so you have to tap twice once on the screen to return to the home page.

The Previous button still raises as many functional questions: it is both a "go left" button in the chronology of states, and a "go up" button in the hierarchy of states (read: The iPhone home too complicated?).

It sometimes allows you to go back in an application, sometimes to return to the home screen, sometimes finally to switch from one application to another. It's not a drama, but it's often confusing.

The subsequent disappearance of the Menu system button requires the presence of a button in each of the applications: this most often takes the form of three vertical dots, which are too difficult to see and whose position changes between applications, including between those of Google. It also has the unfortunate tendency to disappear from the screen (for example in the browser: it is on the address bar, which disappears as soon as you scroll).

All is not black, however, in this area on Android: the presence of a Multitasking button is undoubtedly one of the best ideas of Ice Cream Sandwich (much, much better than the double-click on the home button of 'iOS). A press summons an illustrated list of recently used applications, a very nice and efficient interface to switch between applications, but also to close an application (swipe to "throw" a card out of the list, something that is reminiscent of webOS… designed by Matias Duarte).

Multitasking on steroids In general, the management of concurrent tasks is a strong point of Android, which is reinforced from year to year: whereas iOS applications are silos with an input, an output, and a direction specific traffic patterns, Android apps can communicate, notify and act more freely.

We would almost find, on a mobile scale, the fundamental philosophical difference between Macintosh applications and Windows programs. The home screen in the form of a grid of icons of iOS thus opposes the desktop prototype that is the home screen of Android. The notification center appears almost out of place on iOS: it's a layer above the icon grid (which nevertheless carries the texture of the layer below this grid) which is not really connected to it. From this point of view, Android has an advantage – like webOS or even Windows Phone 7 –: multitasking is an integral part of its operation, not a succession of additions more or less well integrated after the fact.

Thus, the widgets offer content and functions from the home screen, apart from the applications to which they refer: you can change the current piece of music, consult your latest tweets, activate Wi-Fi, call a contact on their mobile phone, launch a Google search, directly from the home screen using various widgets. The management of these small windows has been greatly improved in Android 4.0: they have their own tab in the application launcher, and are now positioned on a clearly drawn grid.

Android's "notification center" has also been overhauled. It still appears by a top-down gesture from the taskbar (which still suffers from a certain overweight since it carries the notifications), but it is now clearer, easier to manage, and incidentally more pleasant ( transitions, etc.). Positive point: it offers direct access to the phone settings.

The splitting of applications into quasi-services is a constant of Android: each application can declare a suite of services that it can offer to others, and thus integrate into it. For example, from the camera, you can directly send an image via Bluetooth, Picasa, SMS/MMS by default, but also Facebook, Google+, Gmail, Twitter, Path, Skype and you can switch to them as soon as the corresponding applications are installed. The integration of these services is much more subtle in Android 4.0, which avoids the accordion effect of the long lists of previous versions – and avoids the constant back and forth between applications that iOS imposes.

Android Market: quantity or quality? iOS, however, retains an advantage: its selection of applications. In general, we find the great must-haves on Android – to claim otherwise would be a lie. Some of the basic apps that come with Ice Cream Sandwich can even make the iOS user jealous: Google Maps with built-in navigation, YouTube client or Gmail are on Android light years away from their iPhone counterparts.

In the Android Market, you will find the classics (Facebook, Twitter, Skype, applications from major news sites, etc.), and a few applications that are no longer reserved for the iPhone (for example Path, the elegant social network). It is nevertheless clear that these applications, which invite comparison, reveal the weaknesses of Android.

Path, for example, shows the difficulties that a single application can have in responding to different configurations: on the large screen of the Galaxy Nexus, its interface is far too small to be easily usable. Most third-party applications have more than passable performance (scrolling and jerky animations), which is all the more surprising since the majority of integrated applications have solved this problem. Thus, the web browser is truly impressive and allows itself to be reviewed by Safari Mobile.

The Android Market is still marked by an incredible number of applications which are content to ape others, in particular the great successes of iOS, others whose content is a pretext to display advertising, applications blithely plundering the copyright, and finally more or less flagrant assholes. It must nevertheless be admitted that the situation is gradually improving: this is not the case in all sections of the Market, but the selection of games for example is now very similar to that of iOS.

Keyboard, accessibility and other remarks The interface and the Android Market are not the only points on which Google has made efforts. The keyboard is noticeably better than in recent versions – and its suggestion and auto-correction mechanism, which resides in a bar above the keys, is incomparably superior to the tiny bubbles imposed by iOS.

The text entered with this keyboard is displayed with the famous Roboto font which has been talked about so much for its disturbing proximity to Helvetica and Myriad, with a few touches of Universe for form. Still, this sans-serif font is not unpleasant at all to look at, especially on the rather thin screen of the Galaxy Nexus.

Beyond the keyboard, Google has also taken care of Android's accessibility: from the first start of the phone, you can activate the accessibility functions by drawing a square with your finger. These are very different from iOS: the zoom feature only enlarges the font, not the interface, and TalkBack isn't as easy to use as VoiceOver. These functions, however, have the merit of existing and of offering an alternative to iOS for the visually impaired — it remains to be observed carefully how Google will change things, its web services being for some little (and less and less) accessible .

Meanwhile, voice recognition is still included: Voice Actions and voice dictation are fast and accurate. It is difficult to compare them with Siri: the basic functions are the same and are equal, but Google's system goes a little further in handling the services of the Mountain View firm, where Siri is more conversational and natural. .

Finally, we could mention pell-mell some novelties of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich which are not of crucial importance, but which are perhaps worth noting. Face recognition to unlock the phone is more than an accessory function, which works quite poorly most of the time and can be circumvented with a simple photo – fortunately, Android specifies that this is the zero degree of protection. The camera's accessory functions (panorama and filters) are nice, but their usefulness is limited – a third-party app would probably have done the trick. The NFC is a bet on the future, but in this case it is useless.

We can however note, as you will no doubt have noticed, that it is now possible to easily take screenshots on Android. Easily, this means that you no longer have to install the SDK on your computer and connect the phone to it. Unfortunately, this does not mean that it is done without difficulty: the format of the Galaxy Nexus requires comic contortions to press the power button and volume down at the same time for the big second necessary for the trigger.

4.65 ": too big, it does not pass ... The Galaxy Nexus is indeed at the extreme end of the jumbophone trend with its screen with a diagonal of 4.65". It's big, very big… too big, for the hand as well as for the pockets (Editor's note: from the top of my 1.96 m, I nevertheless have big hands and huge pockets). The iPhone 4S looks ridiculously tiny next door.

Like the Dell Streak before it, the Galaxy Nexus raises the question of the maximum size of a smartphone and almost logically the minimum size of a tablet. If we consider that a smartphone is in essence ultra-mobile, but also ultra-used, then the right compromise is somewhere between 3.5" and 4.2". Below, the screen is often too small to allow easy reading of content without scrolling too much (one of the faults of the BlackBerry); above, the screen certainly displays entire web pages, but it is often too large for one-handed manipulation.

The problem is reinforced on the Galaxy Nexus by the virtual buttons, which shift the entire interface by a hundred pixels upwards. The Galaxy Nexus is however not huge: it is incredibly thin (8.94 mm against 9.3 mm for the iPhone 4S) and light (135 g against 140 g for the iPhone 4S) for its surface. The fineness makes it possible to go a little further to the elements on the screen, but does not solve all the problems. In the end, the Galaxy Nexus is more impressive than it is useful: displaying pixels is good; being able to use them comfortably is better.

These pixels, moreover, are not all the most beautiful effect: the phone from Samsung and Google uses a Super AMOLED screen. In theory, it offers a resolution of 316 dpi thanks to its definition of 720x1280 px: it therefore offers in theory reading comfort very close to the iPhone 4S, equipped with a resolution of 330 dpi (definition of 640x960 px on 3 .5" diagonal). But practice tells a different story: the sub-pixels are arranged in such a way on Super AMOLED displays that the large screen of the Galaxy Nexus has as many sub-pixels as the "small" screen of the Galaxy Nexus. iPhone 4S, 1,843,200 to be exact.

To be as “thin” as the iPhone 4S, the Galaxy Nexus screen should have a theoretical definition of 420 ppi – as it is and because of the Pentile arrangement, its real definition is around 200 dpi. Despite all the efforts made by Google on Roboto and the elements of the interface, the texts are sometimes slightly blurry, especially on the smallest elements: all the advantages of a larger screen are therefore canceled since it is necessary often zoom.

Small surprises in big disappointments This is not the only problem with which the Galaxy Nexus is decked out. We can start with the good points, such as its general finish: Samsung has certainly designed a plastic phone with a more than ordinary design, but this plastic is well adjusted and of good quality. The rear cover, which detaches to reveal the battery, is slightly textured, which favors the grip like the general shape of the device (curved screen, "hips"). The battery, precisely, is sufficient to spend the day without rushing to any available outlet.

The Galaxy Nexus' controls and ports leave a half-fig half-grape impression. Some will love the placement of the micro-USB port and headphone jack on the bottom of the phone, others will hate it. All, on the other hand, should comment on the terrible quality of the volume and standby buttons, as well as their disastrous placement. It is very fashionable to put the sleep button on the right side of the phone, under the user's left index finger, with the idea that this placement is natural and convenient. Natural, it is: the button falls under the finger; practical, it is not: we tend to put the phone on standby without wanting to.

The phone being huge, taking a screenshot requires the use of two hands (like on the iPhone), but in addition holding the phone on the side if you don't want to drop it (not like on the iPhone). If you want to quickly check the time while the phone is on the table, you have to take the phone in your hand and press the standby button on its edge, since there is no home button. is provided on the front. A handling all the more irritating that we find precisely on the front an extremely practical diode of notifications which flashes as soon as a message, email or any other element requires the attention of the user.

In Android 4.0, Google has revised two important applications, but which had never been developed in previous versions, the music player and the camera. It's a success: the music player is very pleasant to use, sometimes more so than that of iOS which is beginning to show its age - but the Galaxy Nexus' speaker is simply anemic (which is also annoying when playing music). video calling features similar to FaceTime). Similarly, the new camera is a success, its panorama mode being certainly the best existing today on a mobile OS – but the photo sensor and especially the optics used are of terrible quality, the 5 MP photos taken are lacking dive and are affected by a white veil reminiscent of the first iPhones.

To conclude Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is undoubtedly the most important update of Google's OS: it's almost a reset of Android, a new beginning. The user accustomed to iOS will notice the care given to the interface, the greater coherence instilled in all the stages of the system, which only reinforce the strengths of Android, and in particular its excellent management of multitasking and notifications. Everything is not yet ready and some ancestral defects of Android are still there, but iOS is not perfect either.

Let's be very clear: Android 4.0, more than any other version of Android, is today extremely attractive and truly functional, with a level of finish in the high average of the sector. It's a real alternative to iOS, even more than Android 2.3 Gingerbread — Apple's conduct over the next few months will be very interesting to observe: will iOS continue on its current path with the risk of being overtaken, or will it evolve in depth according to the calendar (five years) which had been enacted by Steve Jobs?

Google's real problem is therefore no longer Android, which is certainly on the right track. These are the phones that welcome it: despite some good ideas, the Galaxy Nexus is only one phone among many others – a bland phone, without charm and with heavy and serious functional failures. Android has found a raison d'être, it must now find a way to cause a real crush. The Galaxy Nexus fails.