Yesterday we heard some rumors about a mythical “Droid Prime” phone made by Samsung and coming to Verizon. This rumor is right on the tail of another rumor/leak that showed us the Galaxy S II will not arrive to Verizon. This news disappointed a lot of people as they could barely wait for the Galaxy S II to arrive in USA, and on Verizon. But I think the main reason why the Galaxy S II isn’t coming to Verizon, is because they want something even better – Google’s Nexus Prime.
Rumors of another device called Droid Prime being launched on Verizon have already been proven wrong, as there will not be a “Droid” Prime device on Verizon that will be the first to have ICS. I have a very hard time believing that there will be any other phone with Android 4.0 besides the Nexus Prime initially. The reason is because Google will add features to ICS and test them until the very last moment, and they will only have one phone to do that. They can’t afford to waste time because they’ll want to release it as soon as possible after the iPhone 5 launch. Hopefully, not too soon, though, because I don’t want them to pull another Honeycomb launch, with rushed software.
The only incompatibility with the Droid Prime and Nexus Prime is that the Droid Prime is supposed to have a dual core 1.4 Ghz OMAP 4 processor, while Nexus Prime was rumored to have a dual core 1.5 Ghz OMAP 4 processor. Also, I’m not aware of any dual core 1.4 Ghz chip in the OMAP 4 line, but I did hear a rumor about future Samsung phones with a dual core 1.4 Ghz chip. So it’s possible that there will be an “upgraded” Galaxy S II model on Verizon, by the end of the year, but it won’t be called a Droid Prime as long as Nexus Prime launches a couple of months earlier.
What to get? Nexus Prime or the upgraded Galaxy S II? My guess is that the upgraded GS2 won’t be much different from the current models, at least internally. It’s possible that it will have a similar body to the Samsung Celox, and slightly faster processor, and an HD display. Also, it might not have ICS. In the mean time the Nexus Prime should be even faster, and come with ICS, which will definitely be the biggest differentiating factor when it arrives.
So Verizon customers, who have been waiting for Galaxy S II, you shouldn’t be too disappointed, because you’ll be able to buy an even better phone by the end of the year, whether it’s the Nexus Prime, even an upgraded Galaxy S II.