We recently saw the user agent profile for the upcoming Nexus Prime pop up and many were disappointed with what was revealed. Well, upon further inspection and reading through the comments over at Pocketnow, something becomes apparent. With the exception of the model number, the Nexus Prime’s user agent profile is completely identical as the Nexus S.
So what do we know about the next Google phone? According to rumors, we can expect three things: Ice Cream Sandwich, likely TI’s OMAP 4460 1.5GHz dual-core processor, and a massive display, ranging from 4.5-4.65 inches with a 1280×720 resolution. While rumors may be just that, there’s enough reason to believe that the latter two specs will actually materialize, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
All one needs to do to see that there’s treachery afoot is by looking at the Nexus S UAProf. You’ll soon notice that the two, with the exception of the model number (GT-I9250 vs GT-I902X), are exactly the same. This doesn’t make the Nexus Prime identical to the Nexus S. That would just be plain stupid. The user agent profile is nothing more than a placeholder for the real thing.
We’ve been hearing about Samsung’s Super AMOLED HD display appearing in the next Nexus phone for some time, and it was recently reaffirmed. While we have no confirmation as to what CPU the Nexus Prime will be using, and rumors are pointing to the TI OMAP 4460, which would interfere with the vague “ARM 11” processor found in the UAProf.
If Google is really trying to go after the iPhone and is letting Samsung produce yet another Nexus device, I’d expect this device to deliver on all fronts. The Nexus S wasn’t the device that Nexus One owners were hoping to upgrade to. The Nexus S isn’t a bad phone but it was hardly the leap that the Nexus One provided at the time. I’d say that if Samsung gets a second shot at a Nexus handset in a row, it needs to best even its Galaxy S II.
If Verizon believes that the Galaxy S II isn’t enough to challenge the upcoming iPhone, and will offer up the Droid Prime instead, I have serious doubts that said Verizon device would outdo the next Nexus handset.
Also, let’s not forget the first time we got word of the first Ice Cream Sandwich device. It was rumored that Google could have given top vendors early access to the next version of the Android OS and multiple Ice Cream Sandwich devices could launch around the same time on multiple carriers in the US. Between the Nexus Prime, Droid Prime, and the mysterious LG device we saw a while back, we’d say that’s still a possibility.
So could the Nexus Prime be as underwhelming as the user agent profile suggests? Sure, but something tells me that Google is really betting big on the introduction of Ice Cream Sandwich and isn’t looking to bring a handset with sub-par hardware to the market this year. The user agent profile seems to be a placeholder for the real deal. That said, if it’s not I won’t feel so bad about pulling the trigger on the Epic 4G Touch.
Have a look for yourself: