Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the iPhone 4S both debuted a new flavor of the OS their predecessors were running, Android 4.0 and iOS 5 respectively, but there’s more to them than meets the eye. Let’s see what’s appealing about each of these handsets, in a duel done by the folks of T3.

For one thing, both are dual core smartphones, but the Galaxy Nexus uses a powerful 1.2GHz CPU, while the iPhone 4S does just as good with a dual core Apple A5 800 MHz CPU. The latter handled every task perfectly in our review, so no objections here and it’s hard to tell which CPU is better. What’s clearly better is the display on the Galaxy Nexus, a 720p 4.65 inch screen, but one that sadly lacks Gorilla Glass protection. If you draw the line, is the Retina Display better in the end after all?

One thing is for sure: the camera on the iPhone 4S is fantastic and all of those 8 megapixels are put to work, with the result being stunning 1080p capture and great looking pictures. The 5MP shooter on the Galaxy Nexus isn’t that bad, but the video captures I’ve seen so far are far from impressive. Galaxy Nexus has the upper hand on the connectivity side, supporting NFC and HSDPA+ with speeds higher than the ones of the iPhone 4S. Also, the Android 4.0 comes with 1GB of RAM, versus the 512MB on the 4S iPhone. Add to that a better battery of 1750 mAh versus the 1420 unit on the new iPhone and maybe the Nexus has a chance to win the duel…