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Disappointments with Gnex

O

Old Member

Android Expert
As we all begin to come to the end of life of our Gnex, I wanted to know what didn't live up to the hype of the pre-release Gnex. What you didn't use that you thought would be AMAZING in our epic pre-release thread and what you used that you didn't really think would be important.

For example, I remember being geeked about the 3 pin connector and all of the possibilities of using it. Not only didn't I ever use it but I'm not sure Samsung ever released a working version of a dock for it. Also, I never bought ANY dock over the last 20 months.

Google Wallet was something that I thought that I'd use all the time. I've used it some and it's been nice to show off, but really, it's not been ready for prime time yet.

Updates were also not really that big of a deal. I expected to get updates pushed all the time since this is a pure Google phone. Then again, when you root, it you get updates all the time anyway, so this proved to be a useless thing as well.
 
My GNex always had a problem with overheating. Rooted or not. Regardless of the ROM.

I really hate the on screen nav keys. That was my main reason for rooting... to eliminate them. To take up real estate on that beautiful screen with nav keys was a travesty.

The GPS was lacking in accuracy. I'm a geocacher and accuracy is paramount. You simply couldn't use this device for caching.

But... all those things aside, I loved this device. It was fast. It was fluid. Aside from the stuff I listed, it performed flawlessly. I LOVED my GNex. It is breaking my heart to sell it on eBay but at $300 the Droid Maxx is breaking my bank.

At this very moment it is packed back in its original packing. The packing I was so excited to unwrap just two short years ago. Hopefully it will make someone as happy as it made me. With its vibrant, spectacular display. With its ease of customisation. With it's just.... Nexus-ness. To this point it is THE BEST phone I have ever owned.

I labored long and hard about selling it. If I sell it now, I will probably get over $100 on eBay. I cannot say that in a year that will be true. Is that $100 worth it? Well... right now, things as they are... $100 goes a long way. Especially when I'm looking to buy a $300 phone in just one week. So, very reluctantly, I have decided to part ways with my Nex.

But... doing so is killing me. Regardless of how much I'll love the phone that's replacing it. I had always envisioned it sitting on my desk, next to my Incredible that I also loved. Just gathering dust. But always there. Every once in awhile I'd charge it up. Log on my WiFi. Update the apps. Look at that brilliant screen. None of those things will happen. I will leave that to a new user. Someone who will hopefully appreciate just how much I loved this device.

So ultimately, no. I was not disappointed with my Nex. I was blown away. I loved showing it off in front of my iPhone friends. My Nex CONVERTED two of my iPhone friends who were fan boys. It was just that good.
 
Though I didn't have many issues with my Gnex, most of the ones I did were due to the fact it was the Verizon version. While we did get a pogo desk dock, it was really short lived and quite expensive. Plus we never got the car pogo dock. Google wallet was blocked, and the radios were poor. But I still think it was the best phone I had owned up to that point.

I left Verizon because they didn't have the Nexus 4, so I got one on T-Mobile. I will never own a non nexus phone unless something absolutely blows me away. The only phone that could at this point would be an ASUS Padfone, but they still have yet to make one compatible with standard North American 3g & 4g frequencies.
 
I'm lucky to have not been disappointed with my GNex aside from wishing the camera was a bit better as it can be grainy and lag a bit. Also the latest update is a bit of a battery drain. My phone still goes from screen to screen, pulls up apps, and generally performs very smoothly on the stock UI. I'm happy with this phone still as it allows me to continue to wait and see what other phones will be coming out without having to rush to make a decision. I'll likely keep it as a back-up if my new phone is lost or damaged.
 
my opinion on the gnex is pretty bad.

pros:
screen was pretty
onscreen buttons was awesome ( i think that was the first one to do it)
ICS was cool for a minute
ease of rooting and modding was obviously the biggest +

cons:
couldn't use it for a phone because it was a turd at reception
battery life was horrid
nfc is stupid imo. didn't think i would use it and never did.
the pogo pins were a joke
lack of officially supported accessories
slow updates from VZW
did i mention the radios sucked in it which also aided in the less than turd-rific battery life?


OVERALL DISAPPOINTED
 
Have to say, I mostly agree with you, Trophy.
I did love this phone and thankfully, it wasn't a Bionic! :eek:
Reception wise, I don't see it as being much different than my Bionic and now S3 is on Verizon. However, we live in a really strong area, so take that with a grain of salt.
Screen is honestly no different than my S3, beautiful; just could be a tad brighter.

My two biggest complaints to drop it over an S3 (which I got used for a great price), were battery life and camera. Both of which are markedly better on the S3. Also, there's still plenty of development going on so I don't feel any further behind.
 
Coming from a Droid X, only thing that kills me is the crap reception. Looking pretty hard at the new Moto X. Hopefully they drop the off contract pricing around Thanksgiving/Christmas.
 
maguro = great device.. for its day

toro = eh, kinda sucked, vzw ruined the nexus aspect of it, cdma killed the battery life.

toroplus = same as toro really, ruined by sprint.
 
Only thing that ever really irritated me was the low speaker volume. Battery life kinda sucked but that was fixed for me with the official extended one. After a few months the nav key bar kinda burned in and discolored the screen slightly when watching videos, but barely enough to notice. Overall, was my favorite phone I ever had until I got the N4. But the only reason I still don't have the Gnex is because it took a swim in the toilet. Otherwise, I'd have most likely used it for another year.
 
My GNex delivered on most of my expectations, but it was not without its faults. I expected better updates on VZW, but that was kind of silly, seeing as I went with custom ROM's, anyway. In a sense, the dev support is what mattered, which was certainly available.

I assumed it would have better battery life, but the phone is absolutely horrible in low reception areas. I've had numerous chances to compare it to other devices, some from Samsung, all on the same network, and the GNex just doesn't cut it. As a result, the battery is often hit hard.

I liked the display, but as I got used to it, I could see some banding and even burn-in with ROMs that remove the black Navigation and Status bars. No bueno.

The camera also wasn't so hot, though it could take it's share of livable shots.

The speakers were way too low. Period.
 
I mostly agree with lordj. I have a GSM Galaxy Nexus and my only real issue is with the low speaker volume -- especially since Volume+ doesn't work with Jellybean. I may replace it this winter, I'm hoping the Nexus 5 has LTE.
 
I think I have the same complaints as others: Bad battery life and low speaker volume.

I overcame the battery life by using greenify and getting spare batteries.

I overcame low speaker volume by using my tablet to watch tv shows/movies.

I still love this phone. My wife has it now and I still flash ROMs and tinker with it when she's not looking :D
 
mogelijk said:
I mostly agree with lordj. I have a GSM Galaxy Nexus and my only real issue is with the low speaker volume -- especially since Volume+ doesn't work with Jellybean. I may replace it this winter, I'm hoping the Nexus 5 has LTE.
Click to expand...

Yeah, If the Nexus 5 has LTE out of box, I'll upgrade my 4 to it. It gets quite annoying having to reapply the software mods to make LTE work on the Nexus 4 after every rom flash. Speaker volume isn't great on the 4 either though, so I'm starting to notice a trend.
 
jhawkkw said:
Yeah, If the Nexus 5 has LTE out of box, I'll upgrade my 4 to it. It gets quite annoying having to reapply the software mods to make LTE work on the Nexus 4 after every rom flash. Speaker volume isn't great on the 4 either though, so I'm starting to notice a trend.
Click to expand...

Wait . . . did you just say that you could use software mods to get 4G (LTE) to work on the Nexus 4? Please tell me that isn't true or I will kick myself! That is the ONLY reason why I didn't buy one of those phones! :mad:
 
Cincybearcatfan said:
Wait . . . did you just say that you could use software mods to get 4G (LTE) to work on the Nexus 4? Please tell me that isn't true or I will kick myself! That is the ONLY reason why I didn't buy one of those phones! :mad:
Click to expand...

Yes, the Nexus 4 supports band 4 lte which is used by T-Mobile and in a very small number of AT&T locations, but it is disabled by software because the device wasn't certified for it by the FCC. Following a 4 part procedure, you can enable it to work. Nothing too intense, flash a certain radio file, change/add 3 lines to the build.prop, use a dial code to enable it, then configure the proper apn setting for you carrier.
 
Cincybearcatfan said:
Wait . . . did you just say that you could use software mods to get 4G (LTE) to work on the Nexus 4? Please tell me that isn't true or I will kick myself! That is the ONLY reason why I didn't buy one of those phones! :mad:
Click to expand...

The Nexus 4 does have an LTE radio built in but it was never tested/approved by the FCC, so it is disabled. There was an Android build that included the LTE radio, so people keep reflashing that radio over the current Android version so that LTE works.
 
trophynuts said:
to clarify further The Nexus for does not have a VZW LTE radio inside.
Click to expand...
It does, but it doesn't at the same time. Verizon has plans to roll out LTE on band 4 (1700/2100) now that their rollout on band 13(700 C block) is complete. However, since there are no towers that operate on this frequency, it's useless. Not to mention the fact the Nexus 4 is a GSM only phone and has no CDMA radios, so that's also a problem.
 
jhawkkw said:
It does, but it doesn't at the same time. Verizon has plans to roll out LTE on band 4 (1700/2100) now that their rollout on band 13(700 C block) is complete. However, since there are no towers that operate on this frequency, it's useless. Not to mention the fact the Nexus 4 is a GSM only phone and has no CDMA radios, so that's also a problem.
Click to expand...


touche'
 
I was very disappointed overall with my GNex. The radio reception was probably the biggest thing I hated. Mine got really bad reception. A lot (and I stress a lot) of incoming calls never rang on my phone, they went straight to voicemail because of the horrible reception. This was my first Samsung phone and because of it being crap on the radio, will probably be my last. Ringer volume and headset volume were not great either.

The best thing I like about it was, at the time, it came with the largest screen available. I like the flexible of the the custom rom's and kernels.

Overall, again, very disappointed with this phone.
 
Overall I have been satisfied with this phone. By far my biggest disappointment was the terrible update support. Most of you have said this didn't bother you because of the dev support but that wasn't enough for me. I never found a custom rom as stable as stock. There was always something wrong, usually minor but annoying enough not to run it daily. Regardless this was SUPPOSED to be a nexus/developer phone. I am an app developer (not a great one, but still) and having updates come so late forced me to use custom roms to make sure my apps worked. Every other carrier pushed out updates faster. I guess I should have known better when it took so long to get it in the first place. When my contract is up, I will be saying goodbye to VZW.

I never got good battery life with it until I bought an extended battery. Without that I barely made it through the day. What fun is it if I can't use it?

Plenty of pros to go with these cons, and overall satisfied with the phone itself, but I can't wait to kick VZW to the curb.
 
i had the extended battery from day one and had horrible battery life. couldn't make it through a full day. Besides the extended battery if i'm not mistaken was only 200 mah bigger. At best it may have given you an extra hour or two.
 
I agree that the oem extended battery was pathetic in how much extra juice it offered. I had to jump to a 3rd party extended battery from amazon. I ended up using a 3800mAh battery from hyperion, and that made a world of difference. That gives almost 2000extra mAh effectively doubling capacity from the original battery. With that, I had no problem getting through the day often with 4.5-6 hours of screen time depending how much of it was on wifi versus lte.

Of course, that is pretty much what I average now with my Nexus 4 and it's non removable 2100mAh battery. Just goes to show you how much better things have gotten tech wise.
 
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