Is there a Galaxy Nexus-esque phone without the shortcomings coming any time soon? (Off contract, first time buyer)

I'm shopping for my first smartphone. It's a toss up between the iPhone 4S and the Galaxy Nexus, but I can't help but feel I'm getting the short end of the stick buying now. Problem is, I'm using an old flip phone with terrible battery life and really could use an upgrade. I'm off contract December 3rd.

The iPhone 4S has a great camera and large app store, two very important things to me, and the Galaxy Nexus has a 720p display and faster CPU / double the RAM, things that seem like good 'future proofing' specs to have in a phone tied to a two-year commitment.

But... the iPhone 4S doesn't have LTE and has a paltry 512MB of RAM, and the Galaxy Nexus uses a pentile display and plasticy construction, alongside a 'meh' camera (24fps 1080p = why?)

And don't get me started on the Nexus' GPU.

The Nexus shortcomings sting the most when you see other smartphones that address its issues (RAZR's kevlar, Galaxy SII's camera, Rezound's display)

So, is there a device on the horizon that's a better fit? At this point I'm not bought in to either camp (Android vs iOS) and can use any carrier, but would prefer Verizon for LTE.

As an aside, anyone here foregone a smartphone in favor of a 'just calls and texts' dumbphone and a modern tablet?

tl;dr: Buying first smartphone, what's the best one? Or, do I skip the smartphone and use a dumbphone with a Tablet?