What makes the Galaxy Nexus so special

[mtpeke]

This is a serious question. I have an origional droid and was trying to decide about the razr vs droid 4. There is a lot of buzz on here but I can't see or figure out what makes this phone extra special? I'm a mom who uses my phone for work, volunteer stuff, home emails. I like to be able to wireless teather my iPad for my daughter to use on trips and for me when I travel for work. A friend rooted it for me. My Area just got 4 g. Any advice is appreciated. Thank you!

[ice456789]

It all depends on what is important for you. If a keyboard is important then you'll obviously go for the D4. If thinness is the most important thing to you, then you'll go with the Razr. I think the GN is the best all-around phone. It's not the thinnest but it is very thin. It has a huge screen, fast processor and more than enough memory. It is the phone that will have the most mass appeal.

[vtnerd]

Faster updates from Google and no manufacturer skins bogging it down like Blur (Motorola) or Sense (HTC) and it's supposed to not have carrier apps (Verizon stuck 2 on but they can be disabled).

If none of this is important to you, or you happen to love Blur or Sense, then the Nexus is not all that special.

For me, it means not waiting 8 months for an official Motorola update on my phone from Froyo to Gingerbread and not having to wonder if my phone will even get upgraded to ICS (or what comes after it) and not having to void my warranty just to get rid of a useless ugly skin that slows down the phone.

[bacK_N_87]

I think the biggest feature of the GNex is that memory is fully available. No more app memory which means you can use your full 16 or 32 gigs for everything. Everything else is nice but somewhat available on current phones.

Sent from my DROID3

[ModestMuse]

I think the phone is only special for Android enthusiasts. We care about having the latest OS updates as soon as they drop. We care about having unlocked bootloaders for easy modding. We care about not having Blur or Sense skinned on our phones.

If you are not an Android enthusiast, then the Galaxy Nexus is no different from any other Android phone. Based upon your post, it seems that a Razr or Rezound would be just fine for you.

[mtpeke]

What is Blut and sense?

Thinness isn't huge for me. My first cell phone in 1994 was a bag phone. Lol. I like the keyboard on my droid but with the bigger screen a touch keyboard is fine. I use my iPad with ease. Honestly the thing most important to me is Internet speed ( I hate how long my org droid takes to rewrite the screen) and wireless tethering. On road trips my daughter loves playing games and I liketosurfon a larger screen. At hotels it's nice to have teathering asi don't have to pay the $18 a day for wifi.

[mtpeke]

I will add, I hate bloat ware and I do like getting OS updates. I can't update my google map ap since my phone is old.

[ModestMuse]

I will add, I hate bloat ware and I do like getting OS updates. I can't update my google map ap since my phone is old.

I'm not quite sure what you're asking then. You seem to understand what the Galaxy Nexus as well as Razr and Rezound. What specifically do you want to know?

[bacK_N_87]

What is Blut and sense?

Thinness isn't huge for me. My first cell phone in 1994 was a bag phone. Lol. I like the keyboard on my droid but with the bigger screen a touch keyboard is fine. I use my iPad with ease. Honestly the thing most important to me is Internet speed ( I hate how long my org droid takes to rewrite the screen) and wireless tethering. On road trips my daughter loves playing games and I liketosurfon a larger screen. At hotels it's nice to have teathering asi don't have to pay the $18 a day for wifi.

Lol blur and sense is the skin they use over vanilla android devices from Motorola and HTC respectively. Vanilla means stock, basic or straight from Google. You're definitely on the right track with 4G if you care about upload speed. I would have to say Galaxy Nexus coming from the OG Droid.

Sent from my DROID3

[mjones73]

It's going to be running out of the box Android just like the original Droid. If you look at all of the Motorola Android devices released since the original Droid, you'll see they have blur added on top of Android which changes the appearance of the interface.

The Galaxy Nexus will have Android 4.X (aka Ice Cream Sandwich) which is the newest version of Android, it's the first device released in the US with it installed. The Razr, Droid 4, Rezound, etc will eventually get 4.X once the manufactures modify their custom interfaces to work with it.

If you're just looking for a phone that works, it comes down to preference, compare the interfaces on the Moto, HTC and Samsung devices and go with what works best for you.