Today, my learned and erudite colleague Chris Ziegler will seek to convince you that Google's Galaxy Nexus is no longer the top choice among Android smartphones. As his evidence, he will no doubt present the laudable specs of the HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy S III, pointing out how well they run Android 4.0 and eventually contending that one or both represent a better investment of your hard-earned currency. I'm here to correct Chris' momentary lapse of judgment and shall begin with just two words: Jelly Bean.
Buying into Google's Nexus program guarantees you two things: firstly, you'll get the stock, untainted Android user experience, and secondly, you'll have the best chance of seeing your device upgraded with future versions of the mobile OS. In an ideal world, neither of those would be massive advantages for the Galaxy Nexus — and with the expected introduction of a whole fleet of Nexus phones later in the year, we could move closer to such a utopia — but in the current circumstances, both factors matter a great deal.
The stock Ice Cream Sandwich user interface hasn't been bettered by either HTC or Samsung, which renders their spec supremacy largely irrelevant and leads to the absurdity of community ROM makers having to work to remove their skinning alterations. Adding insult to UX injury, Google's recently unveiled Android 4.1 Jelly Bean will be coming as an over-the-air update for the Galaxy Nexus many weeks (I'm being charitable, we're probably talking months) ahead of the devices that most directly compete with it. In other words, the Galaxy Nexus provides the best Android user experience today, plus the best prospect of improvement tomorrow.
Don't think that matters? Just ask owners of the Galaxy S how they feel about the identically-specced Nexus S enjoying an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade while their phones continue snacking on stale Gingerbread software.
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