Phone Phlip Phlop

The decision was made. I was counting down.

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the first Ice Cream Sandwich phone ohmygodawesome!

With an NFC chip!

720p screen! 32GB of storage! Wowser wowsy wow!

But...

The other announced phone, the Droid Razr, has some significant advantages.

It's billed as being damn durable.

Kevlar construction.

Gorilla Glass (officially confirmed to NOT be on the Nexus)

"Splashguard" coating.

I've got a 3-year-old, and I'm not exactly the most graceful person myself. My next phone will get dropped and scratched.

Some other advantages too, like a removable SDcard.

Sure, it has a smaller screen, and no NFC chip (sorry Google Wallet!). Will be running Motorola-branded (not "Google Pure") Gingerbread out of the box, and will have to wait a few months for ICS (also probably not "Google Pure"). Non-removable battery (which could cause trouble in emergency situations).

But it is looking better for my actual use cases.

And then there is the HTC Rezound, formerly known as Vigor.

It's supposed to be in the same class as these two phones, but nothing has been announced about it officially yet. I don't know what that means.

It's a good thing I have some time to weigh the options and read the blogs.

I still don't think I will be waiting for the Galaxy S 3 (which could come in 6 months and might not be on Verizon), but the Nexus is not looking as shiny or obvious-choicey as it did. :/