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Comtemplating Purchase: Real Life Experience Wanted

M

MrJohnnySpot

Member
Hi everyone,

I'm currently on a Droid X and am finally up for a discounted upgrade. That's a great thing since my X is pretty much dead. So, that being said I'm looking at the MAXX vs the Nexus and I keep flip flopping on what will be better for me. I can't wait for another phone because the current one works about 10% of the time over the last two weeks, and I'd rather not pay for the insurance replacement since I'll end up waiting for a new phone and putting out even more money. Does anyone have experience between the two? If you do, what differences are key?

I made another post in one of the general android forums and right now I've been told to go with the Nexus or not go with either. Obviously the latter option is not an option actually and I'm torn between the Nexus and the MAXX.

I'm a medium to high user, use the phone to stream music/radio and will often leave it sans headphones so speaker quality is important to me, and am on the web a good portion of my daily usage. I think one of the key areas that's hard for me to decide is the screen and camera. It seems that the screen and camera are purportedly better in the Nexus, but by how much?

So, what cons can you all provide that would steer me away from the MAXX and into the arms of the Nexus? Any pros that are key and superior (other than battery life) over the Nexus, that you're aware of, are also helpful. Regardless, anything you can add in is helpful because I had been leaning heavily towards the MAXX when I woke up this morning but in reading various threads debating the two phones now I'm town about 60/40 to the MAXX.
 
In the past few months, I've had the Galaxy Nexus and the MAXX (along with the Rezound and iPhone 4S). Out of all of them, I kept the MAXX. I'm generally the type of person who changes phones every couple of months or more, but I'll be sticking with the MAXX for quite awhile.

The Nexus is a great device, but it's just not a great phone. The reception issues are very real for many people (myself included - I went through four different brand new ones, all with the same problems). It doesn't matter how amazing a device is, if I can't get a signal to make a phone call or get online, it's useless to me. I could set the Nexus directly beside a MAXX, Incredible 2, and an iPhone 4S, all of which had good signal, and the Nexus would be searching for service. Even in areas with tremendous signal, it would constantly lose signal, making it unusable. Great device, poor phone.

For me, the MAXX just does pretty much everything right. The radios are top notch. I've never had a problem with reception in the slightest. The OS is the most stable and smooth rendition of Android I've used. And yes, that includes ICS on the Nexus. And of course, there's the battery. Nothing else can even come close. A lot of people talk about the 3300 and 3800mAh batteries out there for the Nexus, but the fact of the matter is that those third party batteries never actually perform to that level. There's nothing out there that can realistically compete with the MAXX's battery life without looking like a comically mutated brick. And even then, I'd wager that the MAXX will outlast just about any of the third-party batteries out there.

The Nexus has a higher resolution screen, and it's really nice. Even so, the MAXX has a really solid screen (one that's more usable in direct sunlight than the Nexus) that is great. I haven't missed the screen on the Nexus one bit. And even though the Nexus has a 4.65" screen versus the 4.3" screen on the MAXX, in most situations, the usable screen area is actually the same. The on-screen navigation buttons on the Nexus cut the usable area of the screen down to right at 4.3", putting it right there with the MAXX. The only time there's any real difference in screen size is when watching videos.

In my experience, the camera on the MAXX is better than the camera on the Nexus. You can get decent shots from both, but I've found the MAXX to do a job better more often. That said, neither has a top of the line shooter. But they're far from scraping the bottom of the barrel.

There certainly are specific things I liked more on the Nexus, but on the whole, the MAXX is just better all the way around in my opinion. It's the most polished Android phone I've used.I've owned a lot of smartphones over the past four years (well over twenty), and the MAXX is easily the best one I've had. If you like to play around with a lot of ROMs, and you if you absolutely must be one of the first to have Android updates, go with the Nexus. It's a great device. But I found it to be a very poor phone. If you want a phone that works all the way around and has a battery that will easily last you all day (and do so in a slim form factor), the MAXX is easily the better choice in my opinion. Having used both extensively, I can't recommend the MAXX enough. And, tossing a third hat into the ring, I'd say the Rezound is better than the Nexus as well. If the MAXX didn't exist, I would have kept the Rezound. But, it's just tough to beat everything the MAXX offers right now.
 
bsweetness you hit on all the points that had me up in the air and contemplating a different phone. Coupled with the real life experience and examples you were able to provide just sold me. On my way to go pick it up now.
 
bsweetness said:
In the past few months, I've had the Galaxy Nexus and the MAXX (along with the Rezound and iPhone 4S). Out of all of them, I kept the MAXX. I'm generally the type of person who changes phones every couple of months or more, but I'll be sticking with the MAXX for quite awhile.

The Nexus is a great device, but it's just not a great phone. The reception issues are very real for many people (myself included - I went through four different brand new ones, all with the same problems). It doesn't matter how amazing a device is, if I can't get a signal to make a phone call or get online, it's useless to me. I could set the Nexus directly beside a MAXX, Incredible 2, and an iPhone 4S, all of which had good signal, and the Nexus would be searching for service. Even in areas with tremendous signal, it would constantly lose signal, making it unusable. Great device, poor phone.

For me, the MAXX just does pretty much everything right. The radios are top notch. I've never had a problem with reception in the slightest. The OS is the most stable and smooth rendition of Android I've used. And yes, that includes ICS on the Nexus. And of course, there's the battery. Nothing else can even come close. A lot of people talk about the 3300 and 3800mAh batteries out there for the Nexus, but the fact of the matter is that those third party batteries never actually perform to that level. There's nothing out there that can realistically compete with the MAXX's battery life without looking like a comically mutated brick. And even then, I'd wager that the MAXX will outlast just about any of the third-party batteries out there.

The Nexus has a higher resolution screen, and it's really nice. Even so, the MAXX has a really solid screen (one that's more usable in direct sunlight than the Nexus) that is great. I haven't missed the screen on the Nexus one bit. And even though the Nexus has a 4.65" screen versus the 4.3" screen on the MAXX, in most situations, the usable screen area is actually the same. The on-screen navigation buttons on the Nexus cut the usable area of the screen down to right at 4.3", putting it right there with the MAXX. The only time there's any real difference in screen size is when watching videos.

In my experience, the camera on the MAXX is better than the camera on the Nexus. You can get decent shots from both, but I've found the MAXX to do a job better more often. That said, neither has a top of the line shooter. But they're far from scraping the bottom of the barrel.

There certainly are specific things I liked more on the Nexus, but on the whole, the MAXX is just better all the way around in my opinion. It's the most polished Android phone I've used.I've owned a lot of smartphones over the past four years (well over twenty), and the MAXX is easily the best one I've had. If you like to play around with a lot of ROMs, and you if you absolutely must be one of the first to have Android updates, go with the Nexus. It's a great device. But I found it to be a very poor phone. If you want a phone that works all the way around and has a battery that will easily last you all day (and do so in a slim form factor), the MAXX is easily the better choice in my opinion. Having used both extensively, I can't recommend the MAXX enough. And, tossing a third hat into the ring, I'd say the Rezound is better than the Nexus as well. If the MAXX didn't exist, I would have kept the Rezound. But, it's just tough to beat everything the MAXX offers right now.
Click to expand...

I agree, completely and whole-heartedly with what he said. That is exactly the comparison I would have written.

I had the Galaxy Nexus since January and I've had the Maxx for two weeks (Verizon let me switch at no cost since I had so much problem with reception) and I can tell you, besides the screen (which is a close second to the Nexus) and obviously Ice Cream Sandwich is better and I miss it a little, the Maxx is fantastic and is the best phone I've ever used. I turned it on at 8:00am this morning and at 11am it was still at 100% battery. I just installed Juice Defender Ultimate last night, and it is apparently working like a charm. I made a few phone calls this morning and checked all of my websites and Facebook a few times. To still be at 100%, well...that's just amazing and second to none. Out of the box the Maxx has amazing batterly life and is very stable. Tweaked a little with something like Juice Defender and, personally, it is even more fantastic.

I installed ADW Launcher and have an Ice Cream Sandwich theme installed for it and my phone on the surface looks exactly like my Galaxy Nexus did. I have zero complaints at this time, and all of my reception problems (data and phone calls) have been solved. This phone will get signal and will make calls from places I've never been able to use any phone at ever. I love this phone.
 
I had been on the fence about upgrading the DX. It didn't seem to me that the Maxx would be enough of an upgrade to justify the cost. But I broke down last week and did it anyway. I'm loving this phone. No regrets.
 
I came from the droid x and now I have the max... the upgrade was worth it.... even with 3 g the web pages load faster.... and because of the dual core processor the applications load faster... as for the 21.5 hours of talk time.... keep in mind does that were probly from a completely stock phone... with turning on and off the screen 45 times a day... checking facebook, emails, etc... and making phone calls.... I can probably get 4 ne half hours of phone calls... and that's on 4 g.... my average battery time is roughly 12 hours.... but on 3 g I have no problem getting at least 16.. now I don't know if this is normal I'm hoping that wants ice cream sandwich I'll see an improvement
 
I'll keep it short and sweet. Get the Razr Maxx.

I came from the Nexus, haven't looked back. You mentioned speaker is important? Well speaker on the Nexus is terrible in comparison to the maxx. Honestly I enjoyed having both phones and never had any service problems with either, but it boils down to this....

Nexus pros: Better dev support, unlocked bootloader, screen.

Razr Maxx pros: Battery life, radios, speakers, build.

Nexus is fun to play around with, but it had some mehh things about it. Plus you need to see how nice it is to have a phone that lasts all day even with heavy use.
 
You have to ask yourself which will provide you with what you need for the next 20 months, the length of your contract. Battery life is important. You can easily replace the battery on the Nexus. The Maxx has an excellent battery, but how good will it be 15 months from now. I don't know. The radio on the Maxx is top notch as is the voice quality. Motorola is probably the best in the industry when it comes to that.
 
I had the OG Droid and loved the open platform and developer support. Switched to an iPhone 4 and really enjoyed that phone, too, but I longed for open platform and ability to customize everything the way I wanted it. Plus iTunes sucks.

So I was one of the guys on the GNex forums until 3am every night talking about the Nexus, dreaming about the Nexus, waiting...waiting...waiting for the Nexus. When it was finally released, I got it on release day and was like a kid in a candy store. Then I noticed I couldn't get a phone signal in the same areas my iPhone easily pulled a solid 3G signal. Ok....I could deal with that. Battery life was abysmal, but I bought the extended battery and a spare battery. Just always kept two fully charged batteries in my pocket and never had to worry about battery life.

Then I started having issues with people not being able to hear me on the phone. My signal was non existent at work or at home, and even Verizon couldn't figure out why. I'm right in the center of a solid 4G area. Then my call quality got REALLY bad. I got a replacement Nexus two times, and tried every custom ROM and leaked radio out there, but things never got any better. I also tried three different Nexii and three different SIM cards.

Finally last week I called Verizon and explained my frustration with not being able to use my phone as a phone and they offered me a RAZR. Within 48 hours of receiving it I had it rooted and the leaked ICS loaded (.75) and couldn't be happier. Battery life was comparable to the Nexus, but still wasn't what I wanted, so...

Today I transferred my wife's upgrade to my line, bought a MAXX, and she's getting my RAZR. I can't believe I put up with the Nexus for so long, the difference is unbelievable. You asked why, so here you go, in a nutshell:

1. Moto Radios - Better, stronger signal everywhere. And not by a small margin either.
2. Call quality - The RAZR/MAXX call quality is much better. I can actually use it as a PHONE!!!
3. Battery - This is obvious.
4. RAZR/MAXX is still rootable. May not be an unlocked bootloader, but that hasn't slowed me down. And if you don't like Blur, you can disable 90% of it.
5. Build quality - Moto makes solid phones. Period.
6. Screen - It may not be the 720p of the Nexus, but this screen is still gorgeous, bright, colorful, and sharp. I don't miss the Nexus screen at all.

Sure development isn't as active on the RAZR, but it suits my needs. It just works. All the pros of the Nexus with none of the headaches.

The tl;dr version:

Had the Nexus, switched to the MAXX...no regrets...AT ALL.
 
This board is full odd stories odd people who switched from nexus to Maxx, and i've found very very few complaints in the Maxx. This is the sweet spot in mobile phones for now.
 
I almost bought the nexus,Mim a former "epic" (1st gs) owner and loved the Samsung. It would have been more of an impulse buy cause the screens look so sexy lol, glad I chose the maxx :-).
 
bsweetness said:
In the past few months, I've had the Galaxy Nexus and the MAXX (along with the Rezound and iPhone 4S). Out of all of them, I kept the MAXX. I'm generally the type of person who changes phones every couple of months or more, but I'll be sticking with the MAXX for quite awhile.

The Nexus is a great device, but it's just not a great phone. The reception issues are very real for many people (myself included - I went through four different brand new ones, all with the same problems). It doesn't matter how amazing a device is, if I can't get a signal to make a phone call or get online, it's useless to me. I could set the Nexus directly beside a MAXX, Incredible 2, and an iPhone 4S, all of which had good signal, and the Nexus would be searching for service. Even in areas with tremendous signal, it would constantly lose signal, making it unusable. Great device, poor phone.

For me, the MAXX just does pretty much everything right. The radios are top notch. I've never had a problem with reception in the slightest. The OS is the most stable and smooth rendition of Android I've used. And yes, that includes ICS on the Nexus. And of course, there's the battery. Nothing else can even come close. A lot of people talk about the 3300 and 3800mAh batteries out there for the Nexus, but the fact of the matter is that those third party batteries never actually perform to that level. There's nothing out there that can realistically compete with the MAXX's battery life without looking like a comically mutated brick. And even then, I'd wager that the MAXX will outlast just about any of the third-party batteries out there.

The Nexus has a higher resolution screen, and it's really nice. Even so, the MAXX has a really solid screen (one that's more usable in direct sunlight than the Nexus) that is great. I haven't missed the screen on the Nexus one bit. And even though the Nexus has a 4.65" screen versus the 4.3" screen on the MAXX, in most situations, the usable screen area is actually the same. The on-screen navigation buttons on the Nexus cut the usable area of the screen down to right at 4.3", putting it right there with the MAXX. The only time there's any real difference in screen size is when watching videos.

In my experience, the camera on the MAXX is better than the camera on the Nexus. You can get decent shots from both, but I've found the MAXX to do a job better more often. That said, neither has a top of the line shooter. But they're far from scraping the bottom of the barrel.

There certainly are specific things I liked more on the Nexus, but on the whole, the MAXX is just better all the way around in my opinion. It's the most polished Android phone I've used.I've owned a lot of smartphones over the past four years (well over twenty), and the MAXX is easily the best one I've had. If you like to play around with a lot of ROMs, and you if you absolutely must be one of the first to have Android updates, go with the Nexus. It's a great device. But I found it to be a very poor phone. If you want a phone that works all the way around and has a battery that will easily last you all day (and do so in a slim form factor), the MAXX is easily the better choice in my opinion. Having used both extensively, I can't recommend the MAXX enough. And, tossing a third hat into the ring, I'd say the Rezound is better than the Nexus as well. If the MAXX didn't exist, I would have kept the Rezound. But, it's just tough to beat everything the MAXX offers right now.
Click to expand...
Could you please compare the MAXX and the Rezound? I am torn between those two at the moment.
 
Go with the maxx, I had the nexus for 2 months and got tired of constantly having 0-1 bars of 3g service. I called Verizon and they acknowledged that it was a known issue and offered me a maxx. Now I get 3-4 bars of 4g in the same areas. I have never been happier with a phone.
Oh, and I too came from the droid x. Which was also the next best phone I owned, you won't be sad with a maxx. Motorola is top notch in android
 
So, I ended up getting the MAXX. All he store reps I talked to said that was there phone of choice.

So far, super fast, great rf. Was in a building that very few people get service with Verizon in today for 6 hours. My phone held onto at least one bar the whole time. This did however make my battery life not so good.

100% - 7% in 19h 41m. Mind you, 6 of those hours were with very weak signal. This is my first test. Testing it again tomorrow with a full nights charge tonight.
 
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