[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] -=Vex=-:
Hey guys,

Long time (part-time/occasional) lurker and first time poster here.

Currently, I'm coming from an iPhone 4 with a broken home button, but luckily for me my contract ended as well, so it's time for me to get a new phone. The things I really liked about the iPhone 4 were the graphical quality, the slightly heavier weight, solid built quality, and the longer battery life.

Recently, I've turned into quite a musical appreciator. This made me go with the Sensation XE because I didn't really like having a dedicated hardware "home" button like on the SGSII. I've used a friends SGSII for a while he was abroad, and while it was fun to finally come back to Android after the G1 Fiasco, it did feel a lot less snappy than the videos I've seen, regardless of the fact that I got the phone completely factory restored (he did it, not me). Also the home button really made an annoying clicking sound and the device felt kind of cheap overall. Seeing as my past experience with home buttons, I would rather avoid a phone with a dedicated home button. I have used this phone for 2 weeks, so near the end of it I knew how to handle the phone quite nicely.

So then there was the Sensation XE. According to many, the YourBeats with the additional Beats profile on the XE make a great listening experience, and I must admit it is. I have yet to meet another phone capable of producing clear low and high ranges like the XE. However, I have read many reviews of people complaining about slower performance compared to the SGSII and lower battery life. Also the SA+ screen seems to work wonders for battery life even though the colors looked over-saturated to me. So far the Sense UI has proven to be not any slower, if not faster than the TouchWiz interface, and this is coming from a point where both devices are at factory settings, with the XE having a couple of apps installed. The qHD screen isn't bad either, and the text is still very readable from almost every angle, up to the point where the screen isn't really visible anymore. The colors do lose their vividness, but at that angle, I don't really expected anything else.

The XE runs with a 1.5 GHz processor compared to the Galaxy II's 1.2 GHz and the Nexus' 1.2 GHz. Despite the 300MHz more, I don't think it really affects performance that much compared to extra RAM or a better GPU. So I'll disregard that "Major Feature" of the XE.

Now here's my question:

Currently I'm in the possession of the HTX Sensation XE and still have 13 days left to decide if I want to keep this phone or trade it for a SGSII or a voucher for when the SGN releases which will ensure me a SGN on release date (Additional fees ofcourse, but nothing too high)

With more and more details being revealed on the SGN, and almost all specifications known right now, what would be the better choice?

To try and help myself decide, I've tried to make up some short lists regarding each device, and tried to list the Pro's and Cons:

Samsung Galaxy SII​

Pro's

Super Amoled+ Screen

Greater battery life than the Sensation XE

Eligible for an ICS Upgrade near Janaury (?)

Has been labeled best Smartphone/Superphone of the Year (2011)

Roughly 3.7k Quadrant score

1024 MB of RAM

Cons

TouchWiz interface felt sluggish even at factory reset

Plastic frame felt cheap

Hardware based home button (Felt cheap as well)

6 Months old device

Lower resolution

HTC Sensation XE​

Pro's

HTC Sense Interface

Beats by Dre technology and earphones

Slightly heavier and sturdier frame feels great

Red accents on the XE make it look really stylish

Solely touch buttons for Home, Menu, Back and Search

Higher resolution than SGSII

5GB Cloud Storage, thanks to HTC's partnership with Dropbox

Eligible for an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade

[Cons]

Quadrant score of roughly 2.4k

Lower battery life

Original Sensation often had dust under its screen (Nothing so far, seems to be solved on the XE version?)

No real improvements over the original Sensation which is also an aged device

768 MB of RAM

qHD screen has a lower resolution compared to the SA screen of the SGN

Samsung Galaxy Nexus​

Pro's

Completely Google Phone, and thus first to receive official updates

Ships with Ice Cream Sandwich

Touch buttons for Menu, Back and Home

4.65'' Display (Of which some is taken by software buttons)

32GB Variant (The Netherlands only has this version)

Really snappy according to videos

720p screen with high dpi/ppi (forgot which it was)

Really well working camera (Even though it's 5MP, People often use MP as a standard, but that's just not right)

1024 MB of RAM

Cons

I would be without a (decent working) phone for 2-3 weeks

The design of the phone does not seem more stylish than the XE

Snappyness seems to be related to ICS with its GPU acceleration, something the XE and SGSII have not been able to try out yet

Real world battery life is unknown

Some issues could easily be fixed of course, for example the TouchWiz interface, garbage it and get a proper CM7 rom but the fact is, I'm not really into flashing yet, and I'd like to get a good performer out of the box until I feel confident enough to take the step and head into the Custom ROMs.

The main things I want to use the device for is:

General stuff such as Messaging, Calling and Browsing the Web/Facebook

Heavy music use, talk about at least 2-3 hours a day

Gaming, and I'm not just talking about angry birds, I'm talking about games such as Dungeon Defenders which no device seems capable of running properly yet at max graphics (Phones that is) for extended periods of time

Watching movies while on the road or at school when there are no classes

Agenda

Navigation

So there you have it, my thoughts on the current three phones which I am considering.

I only have 13 days left before I'm "stuck" with my Sensation XE, so I'm hoping for some helpful replies with reasoning behind it explaining why I should get that specific phone.

Also, I've read something about enabling tegrak to improve Quadrant scores on the XE up to 4.5k? How equally do Quadrant score represent gaming fluidity? and does anyone have any gameplay of the SGSII on Dungeon Defenders? Because I was not able to try it out myself at the time I had the SGSII in my possession, but the XE doesn't seem to be able to handle it at max graphics fluidly.

I apologise for the wall of text and would like to thank you for your time.

Regards,

Vex