Android Beam was introduced in Jelly Bean. That's why Samsung made S Beam, and why the person mentioned (GNex vs S3) failed to transfer stuff.
There's no standard way to send large files. NFC's payloads are very small. Open the browser on an S3, open a site and tap the N9, it'll send a bookmark, but when it comes to photos, each manufacturer does it their own way.
(S Beam uses Wi-Fi Direct, it's an open standard by Wi-Fi Alliance that can be used in devices that support it. It's not related to Android)