My "Tempting Review" of the Galaxy Nexus.

[tgyberg]

I love when people bash the phone because its plastic lol, as if nothing can be durable if it is made with plastics. If you drop your phone the screen will break way easier than the body no matter what its made with. Gnex ftw!!

The old "it just felt cheap to me". Yea, well GET the you know what OUT!

 

[hydro556]

So for those that know, I have been a Thunderbolt user, a Bionic user, and a RAZR (still am) user. The Bionic and Thunderbolt, along with the Xperia Play I got for gaming, are going to be sold whenever I get the time to actually ship them to back to T-mobile. Would do the Best Buy trade but they don't take the Bionic in stores and it's $300. Meh.

Anyway, I had an early upgrade on my Mobile Hotspot line so I figured I would take advantage of it since I don't use the hotspot anymore. It was either the Nexus or the Rezound...and try as I might, I simply could not get past the sheer unattractiveness that is the Rezound. So I decided to give the Nexus a whirl as I quite frankly was not impressed the first time around, and the RAZR is a dependable phone that has managed to impress me in everything except its battery life overall. What I discovered was surprising...and not surprising.

First the not-surprising. The screen. It's definitely superior to the RAZR in terms of fine details, fonts, and general definition, but more importantly it seemed more accurate with the touches than the RAZR. This didn't surprise me, as it seems the Nexus has a slimmer glass panel than the RAZR does, which likely lends itself to better contact with the capacitive layer than with the thicker glass of the RAZR. Also, ICS is certainly a refined operating system that feels like a true evolution of the platform in many ways; there is a degree of control here that falls just shy of perfection with its implementation, failing only in terms of the fact that parts of it feel "developer" in nature, which I suppose is the point. It'll be interesting to see how phone manufacturers modify ICS to suit their devices. I wouldn't want to see the exact same OS on every single phone, but at the same time, I couldn't imagine ICS being butchered with Sense or or TouchWiz. Then again, I suppose that if they all used the same OS, they'd be forced to use the design of their devices and the battery life to differentiate.

Now, the surprising. And I need to tackle this with bullets based on my reading about the device since before its release.

1. The Galaxy Nexus has terrible battery life. Indeed, it did not last as long as, say, the Samsung Fascinate or the iPhone, but the reality here is that it's a 4G phone. Its battery won't be epic. But that said, the phone actually managed to last LONGER than the RAZR, and I don't mean under identical conditions, because that would be too easy. No...the RAZR was mostly left alone all day, except for two text messages. 4G was on but I wasn't actively using the device. To be equal I left 4G, GPS and Wi-Fi on for both devices; so the only then differentiators would be screen brightness (since the RAZR was off), and Bluetooth (since the Nexus is not connected to my car). I actively used the Nexus all day as though it were my only device. For me that's some maps, emails, one phone call, and a whole lot of web browsing...and by the time 3pm rolled around, the Nexus was at 50% and the RAZR was at 40% - and again, I hardly touched the thing. So if people say the Nexus' battery is bad, they really should skip the RAZR.
2. The Galaxy Nexus experiences data drop outs. I never encountered this, not once. The data stayed connected the entire time I used it, in fact it never even dropped to 3G and I was in multiple cities all weekend - two parts of San Diego, and 4 cities in the Washington State area, and 4G remained active the entire time. The RAZR was on Mobile Hotspot duty most of this time, and it only had one drop where I had to restart to get it to come back again.
3. The Galaxy Nexus has a weak 4G signal radio. First let me clarify. In San Diego the Nexus had full signal the whole time. That was odd, because even the RAZR could never achieve such a milestone. But in Washington State, where it's literally saturated in 4G and the RAZR remains at full signal except if I'm in a parking structure, the Nexus got weaker. I could visibly see where the signal was lower than the RAZR in the exact same area. But like right now, in my townhome, both phones show maximum signal. So I know it's definitely possible to get strong signal on this phone; I think it's got something to do with how many people are actually accessing it from whatever tower it's connected to. In this area most people are on Sprint (why, I have no idea).
4. The Galaxy Nexus has terrible build quality. Yes, it's plastic. No, it's not metal and glass like another fruity phone. No, it's not metal like the RAZR or the Bionic. No, it's not ruggedized like the Rezound. But it doesn't rattle. There are no loose parts. There are no separate "pieces" to lose. The battery is replaceable. In fact the worst part of the build is the battery cover, and that seems to be a growing trend these days for some reason - flimsy battery covers, likely in an attempt to save on weight. The phone feels solid. It doesn't feel like something easily damaged, though some rough types have managed to do just that. It's not bulky like the Rezound, no hump like the RAZR.
5. The Galaxy Nexus' speaker is pathetic. Here's one where I actually agree. The volume level of the speaker is for the birds and that surprises me - the Fascinate, for example, had a great speaker that was loud and easily heard, so to have Samsung go all this way for a Nexus device only to stop short at the speaker volume is rather appalling for a device that is this expensive. But what's really surprising is that the speaker only swallows when you're NOT in a call. For calls the volume is at least acceptable, for other speaker-type stuff there is just no comparison to other devices on the market today and that's really disheartening.
6. The Galaxy Nexus does not come with Swype. It most certainly does not. A guy hacked a version that does 50% work, but what you'll find is that in certain fields Swype will not add the data. Until and unless Swype themselves release a keyboard for the Nexus I'm afraid this may remain a dealbreaker for some.

So that's just a few things that I've observed. Once I figured out how to disable the animations and add widgets (and I was bothered to see that not all of my preferred widgets were supported), I started to like the phone just a bit more. It certainly has issues. And I haven't had a chance to test Mobile Hotspot with it as I am waiting to run it through its paces for a couple of days for any jarring things. But I can see how it would be appealing for some. I have no intention of rooting or ROMing the Nexus, I think it's fine as-is. I know quite a few people have posted the dreaded "returned Nexus for Rezound" over the past two weeks...but honestly, the Nexus is totally not that bad. Maybe some prefer Sense, I can't stand it personally, and I think the RAZR still has the lean when it comes to out-of-the-box "work" and general beauty, but the Nexus should not be overlooked.

Pretty good analysis. I agree with most of it. I am noticing that the more time I spend with my Nexus, the more I like it. Also, the Rezound is the only other option out there that I even think is in the same league as the Nexus, and I too, am having a problem getting past the very dated, and plain look of the device. Dont get me wrong, if the Rezound was substantially superior, I could ignore the looks. But when they are fairly comparable in many areas, the more modern and handsome looks of the Nexus is a difference maker.

I have a question. What animations are you killing, and what is the difference?

 

[hydro556]

You forgot to mention the Galaxy Nexus's GPS takes forever to lock.

Mine locks instantly. Is this an issue some have reported? Shessh, I remember thinking that from early on, that it locked basically as quick as it opened. I will be glad when the OTA comes that increases the speaker volume, but I hope it doesnt mess with my GPS lock, because that is already impressive.

 

[captdroid]

These 'review' threads are old and boring now.

 

[tgyberg]

Pretty good analysis. I agree with most of it. I am noticing that the more time I spend with my Nexus, the more I like it. Also, the Rezound is the only other option out there that I even think is in the same league as the Nexus, and I too, am having a problem getting past the very dated, and plain look of the device. Dont get me wrong, if the Rezound was substantially superior, I could ignore the looks. But when they are fairly comparable in many areas, the more modern and handsome looks of the Nexus is a difference maker.

I have a question. What animations are you killing, and what is the difference?

Go under Developer options and shut off your animations. Then move around on the phone a bit and you will see the difference. I shut those off right away, don't like'm.

 

[713King]

Okay a lot of people say the speaker is weak and its software related have the devs fixed this issue with roms? Also I see the while concern about signal issues will a kernel fix ths issue our the phone is just defective if it had signal problems? I looked at both phones today and I was impressed with both but I didn't get an upgrade yet because I wanted to ask these questions, and I am leaning towards the Galaxy Nexus even with the crap camera it has which can be fixed with zoom fx

 

[Freakzilla401k]

Lets also not forget that "feeling" cheap and actually being cheap are two different things. Look at how much plastic goes into tv's. I can feel safe knowing if I drop my fascinate on the concrete on accident, which I've done multiple times, its not going to completely break into pieces because of the plastic build.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using DroidForums

 

[Caligula2008]

Okay a lot of people say the speaker is weak and its software related have the devs fixed this issue with roms? Also I see the while concern about signal issues will a kernel fix ths issue our the phone is just defective if it had signal problems? I looked at both phones today and I was impressed with both but I didn't get an upgrade yet because I wanted to ask these questions, and I am leaning towards the Galaxy Nexus even with the crap camera it has which can be fixed with zoom fx

It's already fixed with software (volume plus is one app) and signal could be both software and hardware end. As I do not experience this issue at all I'm inclined to say it'll be fixed.

As for the camera.... Crap is the furthest word from my mind. Rezound owners will tell you its not the best and that may indeed be the case but I have nothing but awesome experiences with it and it's instant capture.

BTW SwiftKey is really good. Made the trial switch and after it gets used to you its unbelievable.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using DroidForums

 

[joekess]

That's a good review revelator, fair and balanced.

Like revelator, I have both Razr and Galaxy Nexus (I am not a hobbiest, just a family man. We have two gnex, one razr and an older phone as well.) I've had all for at least three weeks. My "return by" date on the Gnex phones is up Jan 13 and I had been thinking of exchanging them after discovering several bugs in the fist days of using the phone(s).

I decided to keep the Gnex phones and will hope that future software updates improve things. Even if they don't, I am satisfied overall.

My bugs are:

Data drops (this doesn't happen all that often, but has probably does every two or three days for 5 minutes);

Weak 4G signals (the razr always outperforms. the gnex generally shows -100 to -126 signal strength. this is not a big deal for me. 3G is fine from time to time and heck, the battery lasts longer in 3g!). I tested my gnew vs an iphone 4s in the verizon store and the gnex pulled up the cnn.com home page in a fourth or fifth the time of the iphone. Sweet!;

Battery life: The first day with the phone scared me. I had everything active (wifi, gps, synch, bluetooth) and the phone went dead sitting off in its holster after about 4 hours. It also became quite hot). I spent time afterward learning a lot about controlling power on these new devices. Using data defender and keeping thing off except when I need them, the phone lasts almost all day now. A new fact of life is that, if we want versatile and speedy phones, we should probably accept that we will have to plug them in from time to time during the day. I can live with that;

Hardware problem: My first Gnex locked up a number of times in its first day of use. This required pulling the battery repeatedly. I got a replacement phone right away and its fine;

Random reboots. I've only had this happen twice. the phone sits on the desk (not in use) and then reboots. no big deal - for now;

Voice Dialer stopped working. For some unknown reason, that is not uncommon, I get this message now when I click the Voice Dialer app: "lost connection to headset"
I can still voice dial if I click the Google box on the home screen and then click the mic. I assume this may get a fix with a future software update; and

Color wears off of back cover easily. I may be the only one here who did not buy a case right away. I bought a Verizon store holster. I really like the holster but twice in a month, it has worn the gray color off the back of the phone. I will return the holster. (I got a replacement battery cover a week ago when I thought heat from the phone caused the first problem. Now I see it is the holster.)

That's my list of bugs (plus there are several apps that don't yet work on ICS). This is not meant as a complaint though. No phone is perfect. I am sticking with the Gnex.

 

[713King]

Yeah I did a side by side picture and Rezound has a good camera, I guess I exaggerated by saying crap camera lol. Well if I were to get a bad phone with signal problems would they exchange my phone? The application volume plus is still not implemented in a rom with the same fix that app does?

 

[joekess]

I don't know if you are on Verizon. If so, tech support supervisors tell me is that the data problem is likely a software issue that they hope to fix. They say that changing the phone would not help.

Also, a number of people have said that u should not count on them changing equipment for you (after the initial period), even if no fix is forthcoming.


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using DroidForums

 

[orion2001]

Battery life: The first day with the phone scared me. I had everything active (wifi, gps, synch, bluetooth) and the phone went dead sitting off in its holster after about 4 hours. It also became quite hot). I spent time afterward learning a lot about controlling power on these new devices. Using data defender and keeping thing off except when I need them, the phone lasts almost all day now. A new fact of life is that, if we want versatile and speedy phones, we should probably accept that we will have to plug them in from time to time during the day. I can live with that;

That really seems abnormal. When I got my GN, I had great standby battery life. 1-2% per hour drain when connected to Wifi. That was before I rooted and undervolted the processor. With that kind of drain, it had to be some background app that was messing up your phone.

There is plenty you can do to troubleshoot battery life. I get great battery life without having to resort to things like Juice defender, etc. Try installing Better Battery Stats, Watchdog, and CPU Spy. CPU Spy will log what percent of time the phone spends at each CPU speed or Deep Sleep. Ideally you want Deep Sleep to be in the 80% or higher range when the phone is idling. Better Battery stats will tell you which system or downloaded App is resulting in wakelocks on the phone. CPU Watchdog will help identify any app that is resulting in high CPU usage. Between those 3 apps and the battery usage stats in ICS, it is usually easy to identify the major culprits behind strong battery drain.

 

[joekess]

So nice of you to offer this help. Big thanks Orion.

I have CPU Spy but stopped using it when I consistently saw that 97% of my use was deep sleep of 350mhz. Thanks for recommending the other apps. Any reason not to use the free version of Juice Defender? A big benefit from that program is that it will shut down data and apps at 15% remaining battery life so I still have the ability to make and receive calls which is, ahem, the reason I carry a phone. My other battery app is Battery Widget. That shows me that most of my drain is from the screen, then the operating system.

My phone loses more than 2% per hour. I will play around some by watching what it does when I keep it aslee for an hour. My wife has one too, so I can check hers to make sure ours our consistent. I wonder if it might use more in my area (wash DC suburbs) just by searching for a phone signal. It that use area or strength dependent?

That really seems abnormal. When I got my GN, I had great standby battery life. 1-2% per hour drain when connected to Wifi. That was before I rooted and undervolted the processor. With that kind of drain, it had to be some background app that was messing up your phone.

There is plenty you can do to troubleshoot battery life. I get great battery life without having to resort to things like Juice defender, etc. Try installing Better Battery Stats, Watchdog, and CPU Spy. CPU Spy will log what percent of time the phone spends at each CPU speed or Deep Sleep. Ideally you want Deep Sleep to be in the 80% or higher range when the phone is idling. Better Battery stats will tell you which system or downloaded App is resulting in wakelocks on the phone. CPU Watchdog will help identify any app that is resulting in high CPU usage. Between those 3 apps and the battery usage stats in ICS, it is usually easy to identify the major culprits behind strong battery drain.

 

[orion2001]

So nice of you to offer this help. Big thanks Orion.

I have CPU Spy but stopped using it when I consistently saw that 97% of my use was deep sleep of 350mhz. Thanks for recommending the other apps. Any reason not to use the free version of Juice Defender? A big benefit from that program is that it will shut down data and apps at 15% remaining battery life so I still have the ability to make and receive calls which is, ahem, the reason I carry a phone. My other battery app is Battery Widget. That shows me that most of my drain is from the screen, then the operating system.

My phone loses more than 2% per hour. I will play around some by watching what it does when I keep it aslee for an hour. My wife has one too, so I can check hers to make sure ours our consistent. I wonder if it might use more in my area (wash DC suburbs) just by searching for a phone signal. It that use area or strength dependent?

Joe, when you say 97% of use was in Deep Sleep at 350MHz...did you mean it showed up under "Deep Sleep" or 350MHz? THe two are different, and CPU spy should point out which one your phone spent most time in. 90+ % Deep sleep is really good when the phone is in idle.

WatchDog is perhaps not really that necessary, but Better Battery Stats is quite useful as the Partial Wakelock information can help in identifying run-away processes that prevent your phone from going into Deep Sleep. Also, if you've rooted, I'd highly recommend the Jame Bond Any Kernel. It allows you to undervolt the phone and that also really helped drop my idle power consumption. I usually use slightly over 1% per hour with my current setup, and with WiFi always on and connected.

With regards to Juice Defender, etc, some people have had some issues in ICS with it causing lock ups, etc after a few days of use. Also, personally, I feel it negates the point of a smartphone to some extent as I prefer being able to receive IMs and respond to them as and when I receive them (if I can). I think it should be a last resort rather than a first line of defense. It makes more sense to try and squeeze out the best battery life you can with fixing your setup, before you resort to apps like Juice Defender. But certainly, it can be useful for some folks who use their phones differently and don't care about having all apps push notifications to them instantly. Still, I'd suggest optimizing battery life without it first, and then getting the extra savings with the app.

I just realized yesterday that the latest update of NOVA Launcher was sucking down battery life without showing up on any of my monitoring apps as the cause of the battery drain. Since then I've gone back to the Stock Launcher and all is well.

Ideally you want to aim for a battery drain of under 20-25mA at idle (as reported under History in your Battery Stats widget). Good luck!

 

[joekess]

I certainly did mean Deep Sleep "OR" 350mhz.

Thus far today, I show 51% deep and 44% at 350. Thanks to you Orion, I now realize that parts of that 350 use may be while the phone is asleep. Thus I have some good leads to work through.

(BTW, the phone has been off the charger now for 3.75 hours. The battery has 75% life remaining after fairly low usage and with wifi on.)

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using DroidForums