The Galaxy Nexus is a touchscreen slate Android smartphone developed by a partnership between Samsung and Google. The phone and operating system were developed collaboratively by engineers from both companies. It is the third generation successor to Google’s previous flagship phones, the Nexus One and Nexus S. It has a curved HD (1280×720 pixels) Super AMOLED display, an improved camera system, and Google’s new version of its Android operating system, version 4.0, codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich. The name is the result of co-branding between the Samsung Galaxy and Google Nexus brands of Android smartphones.
The Galaxy Nexus was unveiled at Google and Samsung's Ice Cream Sandwich event on 19 October, 2011 in Hong Kong. It was released on November 17, 2011.

Hardware:
The Galaxy Nexus features a 4.65-inch 1280×720-pixel HD Super AMOLED PenTile curved glass display a dual-core 1.2 GHz TI OMAP 4460 processor (ARM Cortex-A9) with an accompanying PowerVR SGX540, GB of RAM. The processor can run from 1.2–1.5 GHz, but is underclocked at 1.2 GHz for smooth performance. However, it can easily run at 1.5 GHz once rooted (see Texas Instruments OMAP). Additionally, a 1,750 mAh battery, 1.3 MP front camera and 5 MP rear camera (with zero shutter lag) capable of 1080p video, 4G, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS, barometer, and NFC and it has 16 or 32 GB of internal memory.
The Galaxy Nexus also hosts support for MHL through the use of its Micro USB 2.0 port. This means that the Galaxy Nexus has the ability to output up to 1080p audio-visual content (through HDMI) to any supported external display such as HD Television
The Galaxy Nexus has no physical buttons on the front, but instead features on-screen soft keys embedded into the system software (part of Android 4.0). Beneath the soft keys, a multicolored notification LED is featured, a feature missing from the Nexus S.
The 3.5 mm headphone jack is located on the bottom of the phone, and the camera is located in the center of the rear side. The phone will have 16/32 GB internal storage depending on model.

#from http://en.wikipedia.org