About the screen, and comparing it to the S2 and S3. Both the Samsungs have a home button and the other two buttons below the screen area. It looks like the N4 uses part of the screen to display these, since it doesnt have a hard "home" button. So the actual screen size looks more like the S2, not the S3. Is this the case?
Not really, it is much closer to sgs3 size wise.
http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=5048&idPhone2=4238