My Verizon galaxy nexus experience

[pc747]

I had a rocky start with several bad nexus from stock. Now with a good nexus and an improved vzw lte network I feel I can give a fair assessment. I been waiting for vzw to get the nexus since the nexus one was rumored and am glad vzw chose this version of the nexus to give to us. Compare to the nexus s this thing is a nice step forward. Now I must say the nexus is not for everyone but anyone can use it. And what stands out is google keeping with the core value of Android that allows for the users to define his or her android experience (well except for the Google bloat which I will get to later). When the og droid came out it had the basic google apps and everything else the user had to install from the market. Now manufacturers and carriers have gone from teaching people how to install apps to pre loading apps and services to appease all the users and to do that they almost have to pre load services for every form of social media. The goal in that is to include everyone and make everyone happy but the reality is they are degrading the experience. What needs to happen is Android needs to go back to its roots of giving me a phone with the bare minimum and teach me how to install what ever social medium I want. And while we are on that Google needs to lead the way with their nexus. Google has gone the way of the carriers by dumping their brand on the phone. Now nexus have google books, google earth, google plus, and other google brand services google trying to push to the masses and some of them can only be disabled and not uninstalled unless you root. Now yes 90% of people who buy a nexus are going to root and put a from on it but still we look for google to lead the way in this. Now I am not opposed to the manufacturers putting custom skins but wish they would return to the ways of the og droid with having the user choose the apps and social media.
Now my nexus experience. I like the nexus device as a whole it gives the user the chance to experience android experience similar to that of the of droid. I personally think the nexus program will benefit heavily by allowing multiple oems to add to the pot. This gives the user more choices provided the carriers cooperate.

That's my experience what's yours?


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[syndicate0017]

Before getting into my experience, I must say that's it's nice to have you back on the Nexus bandwagon. It made me very sad that you had to give it up for the Rezound because of the constant issues you seemed to facing (WiFi if I remember right). Once you get a good Nexus, there is no question that this phone is a beast.

Now, my experience has not been without issues. I went without data for nearly 48 hours and recently had to get a replacement because text messages would no longer be sent or received, but I would not trade this phone for anything other than a newer Nexus. The Devs are quick to implement new features, ROMs are constantly being updated, new hacks are developed each and every day. THIS is what a Nexus experience is about. The only way it could possibly be better is if Verizon pulled their head out of their asses and gave us timely updates. That said, I have the most current binaries now so I can't complain. I will never own another phone other than a Nexus. If VZ doesn't get another one, I will be jumping ship to prepaid GSM. Nexus for life!

 

[JSM9872]

So far my experience has been great, I honestly love it.

I am a heavy wifi user, pretty much when I am at home or at work (between the both that is pretty much always) I am connected to it. When I am not I have no trouble keeping a data connection. The only downside to my area is that I do not technically have 4g coverage but I cross in and out of it several times a day depending on where I am going, which does mean I switch between 3g and 4g quite often.

I have also flashed the latest 4.0.4 radios and noticed some differences. There are fewer switches since I flashed them, I tend to hold onto 3g longer but it's a solid connection so I can't complain. And when I do switch I noticed they tend to happen faster then prior to flashing them. I also now have the ability to pick up 4g at work (when I don't feel like being on the wifi network there) prior to the new radios I could not.

The most important thing, at least to me, is the tinkering I can do. I bought this phone because it is a Nexus and I wanted to be able to flash ROMs, mods, etc. I used to like flashing new stuff but with the way things move for this bad boy it has become a necessity to "crackflash" just to keep up

 

[FryFTW]

My experience (so far) with my Galaxy Nexus

I've been waiting for the GNex since I've first heard about it, a month out so before it came out. I've had a terrible experience with my phone before (OG Droid) and it was time for a change. Don't get me wrong, the OG was a great phone, it just became old and show after 2 years with it and my screen all cracked. Just graduated last Sunday, got the phone Monday. (Sorry if this is too much info) When I first got the phone, it was charged up to about 45%, but it died within the first hot and a half of me playing with it. I just let it die to train the battery. But even still after I it fire the first time, it still dies pretty fast. I wanna say the most I ever got out if the phone was 6-7 hours. And since Thursday I've been on vacation, and the signal hasn't been the best at the hotel. Every time I get in the elevator, I lose signal completely. No 4G, no bars. Idk how much this has to do with the battery, but after going up and down the elevator a few times, after about 20 minutes or do, my battery's on about 85%. (I just realized how boring this must be, but I'll continue just cause I'm almost done, and I'm bored as can be right now) My overall view of this phone, it's a nice phone in my opinion, this battery just sucks. Any recommended ROMs and kernels for battery life? I'm really interested in AOKP right now, and don't know anything about kernels.

 

[dezymond]

Stock Nexus battery life isn't anything to brag about and is pretty below what I would consider acceptable actually. You can try a ROM and it's much better along with the 4.0.4 update and radio update. Can't really search right now but if you search for it and look at the posts you'll see many are happy with it. I'm running AOKP myself and the radios and they're much better than stock.

 

[FryFTW]

Stock Nexus battery life isn't anything to brag about and is pretty below what I would consider acceptable actually. You can try a ROM and it's much better along with the 4.0.4 update and radio update. Can't really search right now but if you search for it and look at the posts you'll see many are happy with it. I'm running AOKP myself and the radios and they're much better than stock.

From what I hear, it doesn't matter so much about what ROM and kernel you put on your phone, but it matters about each individual device the ROM us pt on. Idk how true it is. Care to inform me?

 

[dezymond]

From what I hear, it doesn't matter so much about what ROM and kernel you put on your phone, but it matters about each individual device the ROM us pt on. Idk how true it is. Care to inform me?

Choosing a ROM is subjective, there really is not such thing as a bad ROM. I ran 2 other ROMs before AOKP and both were fantastic, but imo AOKP is a step above both. AOKP is definitely one of the most liked among the Nexus crew.

 

[syndicate0017]

PC or another mod....would you mind merging these Experience threads? They're sitting right on top of eachother. Lol.

 

[alucard9114]

i have been using smartphones for a long time from blackberryto iphone to droids and the specs and the performance on the gnex dont add up at all i love the phone but battery and signal are terrible same with call quality (best call quality phone is Bionic hands down)and camera the touchscreen is terrible for games(multi touch is just now working on some roms)but for some reason i love this phone.The gnex just has a feel to it i suggest Redemption rom for battery life not in this forum but here Redemption Rom v1.3 AOSP 4.0.4 UPDATE April 18th - [VZW] Galaxy Nexus Development - RootzWiki its a great phone but verizon destroyed it with crappy radios and update delays also samsung is just retarded for the camera 5mp wtfffffffff????????????????????????

 

[SSHGuru]

I love my GN. I had the OG Droid and moved to the Bionic which was horrible - talking about bloatware and problems.

Then I changed to the GN and it's been almost perfect.

As far as bloatware you will always find it on phone's - it's a way for the companies to make more money. But I will take Google bloat which is useful over Verizon bloat which is not.

 

[jroc]

My experience?

I had one... exchanged it for a Rezound. After having 2 Rezounds since 1-14...I shoulda just kept my G Nex. You would be surprised how similar they are with connection, phone issues. IMO...they cancel each other out for that. In some areas the Rezound did better, in some areas the G Nex did better. Imagine that...lol. After that...the G Nex has a lot more upside, more positives to it than the Rezound. IMO of course....

If I had to do it all over again...I woulda kept my G Nex. Especially since I never got a chance to try 4.0.4.

 

[DoctorDeDroid]

I've been eyeing the nexus for months... this gives me hope. Often such posts don't give a phone a thumbs up! I still have my OG because I like this phone! I'm rooted and have NO facebook NO twitter NO visual voice mail NO amazon mp3 store... because when they run all the time for no reason (I have no accounts for any of them but they are almost always running) I feel they must go. I'm not even overclocking. I just like the experience *the OG gives me*.

This phone seems to be the only one that *easily* allows you to do any of this sort of thing.
Thanks!

 

[DoctorDeDroid]

one more thing... perhaps I should know this already but at the vzw store the nexus was anti-theft-hooked-up in a way that I couldn't get the back cover off... it does come off and you can pull the battery if you need to, right?

 

[FryFTW]

I'll admit the 5MP camera was pretty stupid, but I decided to look past it. It's really not that bad to me. And I'm on my way back home from my vacation, so I'll try flashing AOKP before I do anything else. What's some of you guys favorite kernels to match it?

 

[Bang Pow Boom]

one more thing... perhaps I should know this already but at the vzw store the nexus was anti-theft-hooked-up in a way that I couldn't get the back cover off... it does come off and you can pull the battery if you need to, right?

Yes, you can pull the battery out.

I had the nexus for about a month. 3 to be exact. They all had bad reception. Even with that I LOVED it. I really like pure android, no sense or blur. It was my dream phone. I had the iphone 4S after that, gave that the boot and now have the Maxx. I have zero reception issues. Even with that, I still wish I had a nexus. I like having complete control over my phone. I was very surprised with the bloat from Verizon and Motorola that was unremovable. I got used to it and am pretty happy with the battery life and signal strength.