January 15th- Deadline mass exodus

[red66charger]

Forums are great tools and I use them often to get answers, help if needed, and just information, especially before buying. That said, one has to exercise some caution in reading since every person has their own unique interpretations of what "acceptable" is, what "great" is and so on.

For anyone not having issues with their GNex phone it is a really wonderful phone.I love my phone and am having trouble finding a replacement that I will enjoy as much, IF I decide to return it. Current issues I have had with mine:

- speaker volume - this is fairly well documented and affects mostly ringtones and the like (alarms for example). Speaker phone is loud enough for me. This is NOT a fatal error for me.

- battery life - isn't that great. Keep a charger handy, use wi fi when it is available, turn screen off when not in use among other things. extended battery (I have one) is really almost a panacea since the change is like 13% of an increase. Not a fatal error for me but somewhat of an issue when it starts searching for a 4G signal.

- radio issues

This one seems a bit more complex:

- Signal bar display - does not seem to really be a true issue since the bars displayed truthfully are no indicator of the signal/connectivity. Software can be altered to make this phone display bars similar to other phones (right,wrong, or otherwise). In doing so, people will stop comparing their GNex to their friend's motos, etc and seeing a weaker signal.

- Weaker signal in dbm - not sure what to think here. If the GNex is the only phone that displays signal in terms of LTE strength, again we may be comparing apples and oranges. The signal displayed MAY always be LTE strength even when phone is turnded to CDMA only (someone would need to research that). Bottom line the number matters little as long as one has connectivity.

- My home has a good 4G signal as does my surrounding nearby area. My work place is heavily shielded, some phones do well with the signal, others do not. I'll be back next week to see how the GNex does. if I cannot get any signal at all, it goes back. One reason I wanted a smart phone was to have access to my personal email while at work (our work computers don't allow personal email).

- My trip from home to near Asheville NC on December 27th had me losing connectivity/signal very often once I left the Charlotte area. Was that a GNex issue or was that a Verizon network issue? Hard to say though I should be making same trip in the next week. Would other phones have done better regardless? Perhaps.

Bottom line is we each have to determine if any particular phone works for our particular circumstances. It would appear in present form the GNex has either a weaker radio or has software settings that are causing the authenticate part to fail. The latter should be either software fixable or Verizon network fixable. The former is what it is.

Overall, I love the phone and want to keep it but only if I can use it where I travel/work. If it doesn't work, I'll probably try the Rezound given reports it has a better radio. I won't like the phone as well but a phone is only a phone if it works where I am

I think in the long run for many if not most people the Gnex will be just fine but for those with weaker signals, etc it may not be the optimum phone.

Thanks for writing my impressions for me lol. I love the handset and I want to keep it. I too need it to function at work. It's been spotty so far. Leaning towards keeping mine and getting a next Gen LTE device if fixes don't come.

 

[crackers8199]

define "connectivity issues"...I do have the occasional time where the phone says I have full signal and 3g but the bars are grey and no data. Airplane mode off and on usually fixes it. So does mobile data off and on.

I also have the occasional hiccup with what seems like hand offs between towers while travelling. Other than that I've had no issues.

Should I be worried that I have a defective phone, or am I OK? I'm running the leaked radios btw...

 

[aldouse]

i gladly paid the ETF from Sprint to ditch them and move over to Verizon. IMHO its the best decision i ever made. Sure there's going to be issues w/ the phone esp since this is the first near pure google device on verizon's networks and sure they're rapidly expanding the 4g/LTE network as fast as they can. It's only expected. But coming from Sprint and the ridiculous slow speeds and coverages i've had with them.... Verizon and the GN is heavensent.

I'm sorry but i'm definitely keeping this phone just cuz its that hot and sweet.

 

[jdavis37]

Thanks for writing my impressions for me lol. I love the handset and I want to keep it. I too need it to function at work. It's been spotty so far. Leaning towards keeping mine and getting a next Gen LTE device if fixes don't come.

Most welcome. I like the phone itself, the screen size, etc. But I need a phone that works and when I return to work I'll have my answer, or at least half the answer ( I will know if the Gnex works or not but won't know about any others). My current phone, a Samsung Rogue, semi works at work. I can receive text messages but can't really talk on it. Never tried email with it.

I'm not into the pay $500+ for a cell phone group so I need to find a phone that works and enjoy it for 2+ years. If it isn't the Gnex then I'll try the resound and at that point am stuck. I knew better than to pay full price to beta test anew phone but the 2 for 1 data plans Verizon offered pulled e in. Otherwise I would have let others drive out the bugs and waited 6 months and then bought for about $100 less without the free "undocumented" features.

Am still hopeful it will work at work. If so the performance can only improve with future upgrades. But, if it doesn't work for email/text at work, it will go back before the 15th. Too much money to pay for a device that in essence doesn't offer the features I most wanted ( personal email at work). I'll know Wednesday

Phone wise I prefer the Gnex to the Resound in terms of layout, size, screen, etc. But its the performance which will drive the decision! And I realize I may end up with an HTC phone that also does not work at work regardless of the Gnex. Ack!

 

[pragmatous]

I am coming off an HTC Incredible which I loved. I have been reading and waiting with huge anticipation for this Galaxy Nexus. I even made sure I watched the live presentation from Hong Kong when they unveiled the phone.

I am extremely disappointed with the phone. The one issue I have that I have not heard mentioned yet is when you call a business, they instruct you press 3 for tech support lets say...you pull up the numbers and press 3...put it back up to your ear to continue listening, but the proximity sensor is not doing its job and keeps the screen lit, and you wind up hitting other buttons or hanging up.

But the thing that completely discounts and discredits this phone is the horrendous lack of connectivity!!! Its a total crap shoot whether you can get online or not, 3G, 4G, or wifi even. Its truly maddening. I have read every post on here in regards to this issue. It seems like the smarter members are leaning toward a hardware issue, but Im praying its a correctable software issue. There not much worse than my brother sitting next to me on my couch
with his 4S and we try to compare hd youtube videos and I cant connect with all 3 of my available choices! This was not during any of the 3 verizon outages either.

If I could get a better signal and connectivity, I would stay for sure. The subpar camera, poor speaker phone, and some other hiccups are no big deal to me. This is my mini tablet which I had intended for heavy web browsing. Thus far that has yet to be a seamless effort.

Since we all fall under the Verizon holiday return policy, which states any phone purchased between November 15th and December 28th can be returned up until January 15th. If they dont correct this signal/connectivity/radio receptor/hardware/software nonsense then we should all return our units en masse. Let verizon have one huge smoldering pile of Nexus returns to learn how to update phone in a more timely manner.

I noticed that the other day too. Just give it a second and its fine.

 

[teddyearp]

i gladly paid the ETF from Sprint to ditch them and move over to Verizon. IMHO its the best decision i ever made. Sure there's going to be issues w/ the phone esp since this is the first near pure google device on verizon's networks and sure they're rapidly expanding the 4g/LTE network as fast as they can. It's only expected. But coming from Sprint and the ridiculous slow speeds and coverages i've had with them.... Verizon and the GN is heavensent.

I'm sorry but i'm definitely keeping this phone just cuz its that hot and sweet.

Welcome to Verizon, the company I work for uses Sprint, but my boss's phone(s) have always had bad reception out here in the country since the switch. He had VZW before. IMHO you will be happier with VZW than Sprint.

But just for a tiny history lesson for the readers, this is in fact the first near pure google device for VZW in over two years, but not the first overall. The first actual pure google device on VZW was the Motorola A855 (OG Droid). It didn't have any 'bloatware' on it at all, well not from Verizon. IMHO, it was the device that put Android as a phone OS on the map in bold. When it was released, nobody even knew about it and still wanted an iPhone, now every other person I see carries an Android phone.

 

[dacama]

Yeah I'm leaning back and forth about taking this phone back. I'm having connectivity issues...(mobile network not being found, having to reboot to get connectivity back, etc, etc)

I was waiting for this phone and was so excited verizon was getting it, especially coming from a OG droid...but the more I have issues the more I just plan on getting an iphone4s and being done with it. Maybe buying an iphone4 off contract and waiting to see if something else comes along.

I know many of you claim to not be having issues..but there are TONS of people claiming to have them. I'm familiar with rooting...but jesus christ this thing should work better without rooting.

 

[Premium1]

Yeah I'm leaning back and forth about taking this phone back. I'm having connectivity issues...(mobile network not being found, having to reboot to get connectivity back, etc, etc)

I was waiting for this phone and was so excited verizon was getting it, especially coming from a OG droid...but the more I have issues the more I just plan on getting an iphone4s and being done with it. Maybe buying an iphone4 off contract and waiting to see if something else comes along.

I know many of you claim to not be having issues..but there are TONS of people claiming to have them. I'm familiar with rooting...but jesus christ this thing should work better without rooting.

The people that are saying they have issues, rooting will not really help with connectivity it would require a new radio..

 

[syntrix]

Yeah I'm leaning back and forth about taking this phone back. I'm having connectivity issues...(mobile network not being found, having to reboot to get connectivity back, etc, etc)

I was waiting for this phone and was so excited verizon was getting it, especially coming from a OG droid...but the more I have issues the more I just plan on getting an iphone4s and being done with it. Maybe buying an iphone4 off contract and waiting to see if something else comes along.

I know many of you claim to not be having issues..but there are TONS of people claiming to have them. I'm familiar with rooting...but jesus christ this thing should work better without rooting.

Don't need to root to get an amazing device!

Have you called VZW from a land line to help sort it out? Sometimes they can help, or open a ticket to help your area. Really, did ya?

 

[jroc]

Welcome to Verizon, the company I work for uses Sprint, but my boss's phone(s) have always had bad reception out here in the country since the switch. He had VZW before. IMHO you will be happier with VZW than Sprint.

But just for a tiny history lesson for the readers, this is in fact the first near pure google device for VZW in over two years, but not the first overall. The first actual pure google device on VZW was the Motorola A855 (OG Droid). It didn't have any 'bloatware' on it at all, well not from Verizon. IMHO, it was the device that put Android as a phone OS on the map in bold. When it was released, nobody even knew about it and still wanted an iPhone, now every other person I see carries an Android phone.

I would think the G Nex is more of a pure Google device than the Droid 1. How easy is it to unlock the bootloader or root the G Nex vs. the Droid 1? There was a time when you had to go back to 2.0 by sbf to root 2.1.

If anything the Droid 1 was the first near pure Google device on Verizon. And before the G Nex....there was the XOOM....

 

[dacama]

Don't need to root to get an amazing device!

Have you called VZW from a land line to help sort it out? Sometimes they can help, or open a ticket to help your area. Really, did ya?

Ha not quite. I'm thinking it has to do with me keeping wifi on most of the places. And in my room at home I don't get the best wifi signal...so maybe I have a spotty connection.

Disabling wifi at home I get a decent 4g connection..which didn't use to happen in the first week I owned it.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the phone take wifi over 3g/4g if wifi is enabled?

 

[syntrix]

Ha not quite. I'm thinking it has to do with me keeping wifi on most of the places. And in my room at home I don't get the best wifi signal...so maybe I have a spotty connection.

Disabling wifi at home I get a decent 4g connection..which didn't use to happen in the first week I owned it.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the phone take wifi over 3g/4g if wifi is enabled?

Yup wifi is the preferred. Don't discount it though, a lot of people are saying battery life is much better with wifi.

I will take 4G since it's faster than wifi, and I'm on unlimited Alltel

 

[Blue218]

Take a car charger?

 

[teddyearp]

I would think the G Nex is more of a pure Google device than the Droid 1. How easy is it to unlock the bootloader or root the G Nex vs. the Droid 1? There was a time when you had to go back to 2.0 by sbf to root 2.1.

If anything the Droid 1 was the first near pure Google device on Verizon. And before the G Nex....there was the XOOM....

The Droid 1 never had a locked/encrypted bootloader, it didn't have any VZW apps pre-loaded on it. I had it since release and the first root method was just an modification of the update to 2.0.1 update.zip file. Easy as pie.

 

[jdavis37]

I'm very curious to see how the connectivity is next weekend when I travel westward again. After Christmas I lost connection quite often as we traveled and the searching rapidly depleted my battery 9I used car charger to remedy that situation. Not a fix of course but the charger is there for a purpose!).

Looking back, this was December 27th and it MAY have been the Verizon network issues, OR it could have been the Gnex, but for now is difficult to figure out which until I repeat the journey.

I love the phone itself with exception of the speaker volume which really should be re-done by Samsung. I'll return to work Wednesday so can see how it handles that signal then (bad signal but some phones are able to handle it, others aren't). Hopefully, by Sunday I'll have the informatin I'll need to make a good decision about keeping the phone I prefer or switching it for a rezound based upon radio hearsay!

 

[crankerchick]

I don't understand why people who have complete loss of data don't try an exchange. Even among the people with signal complaints, the majority are NOT complaints about inability to get a mobile data connection at all, but rather just weak reception resulting in bouncing back and forth between 3G and 4G or being in 3G when another phone has 4G. No data at all is worth an exchange at the least, before abandoning the phone completely.

 

[jdavis37]

I don't understand why people who have complete loss of data don't try an exchange. Even among the people with signal complaints, the majority are NOT complaints about inability to get a mobile data connection at all, but rather just weak reception resulting in bouncing back and forth between 3G and 4G or being in 3G when another phone has 4G. No data at all is worth an exchange at the least, before abandoning the phone completely.

Most forums attract the problems and agree that some probably need to do things the old fashioned way and simply return a device that is just "not working" at all.

Today was my first day back to work, and I was not expecting to get a good signal due to all the concrete and metal. I had no 4g signal and had a -120 dB 3G signal, but never lost connection as far as I know the entire day. I did not do any voice calls but did have text messages working quickly and without issue and the same for my personal email. From that perspective, the phone worked as desired today.

Hopefully I'll have a chance to travel with the phone this weekend. Perhaps the connectivity problems I had Dec 27th were network issues or in worst case perhaps was the hand off between 3G and 4G. If it reproduces itself where I struggle to get connectivity or lose it many times, I think I'll return the phone, assuming I look at a Rezound and actually like it, and then hope/pray all the accolades about its radio are true.

I hope my GNex does just fone.. if so I'll keep it and hope they can improve the hand off via software. I really like the phone overall, even the speaker volume is doing ok in general.

By the way battery life at work was fairly bad. With extended battery and very light use I went from full charge to under 30% in about 8 hours. Not a deal breaker but means i'll need a charger at work if I keep it! The rezounds big battery sounds good though at the expense of thickness!

 

[tarponbeach]

Yup wifi is the preferred. Don't discount it though, a lot of people are saying battery life is much better with wifi.

I will take 4G since it's faster than wifi, and I'm on unlimited Alltel

I would agree. With WiFi off, at the office from 7 am to 4, battery was down to 30% by 4 pm. I am fortunate that 4g signal is 4 bars at the office.

With WiFi on, same time period, battery was at 65% at 4 pm.

So, even though not very scientific, it would appear to me that 4g, even with good signal strength (-75 - -80 dbm) , uses more battery than WiFi.

 

[syntrix]

I would agree. With WiFi off, at the office from 7 am to 4, battery was down to 30% by 4 pm. I am fortunate that 4g signal is 4 bars at the office.

With WiFi on, same time period, battery was at 65% at 4 pm.

So, even though not very scientific, it would appear to me that 4g, even with good signal strength (-75 - -80 dbm) , uses more battery than WiFi.

4G dbm's are better than mine, and when I get home with 4G on all day (I also leave wifi on, with no wifi routers... another questionable battery mod is to leave it on) I'm about 60%, but my day starts much earlier than work.

This is very good by my standards, and by using several other 4G phones, it's about on par with the others. I am using the the extended battery which gives about 15% more love.

 

[tarponbeach]

4G dbm's are better than mine, and when I get home with 4G on all day (I also leave wifi on, with no wifi routers... another questionable battery mod is to leave it on) I'm about 60%, but my day starts much earlier than work.

This is very good by my standards, and by using several other 4G phones, it's about on par with the others. I am using the the extended battery which gives about 15% more love.

Forgot to mention, I am using the "extended" battery, which I maintain, Samsung should have equipped with the SGN in the first place.

 

[jdavis37]

Forgot to mention, I am using the "extended" battery, which I maintain, Samsung should have equipped with the SGN in the first place.

Given it is a whopping 13% or so larger I agree! Minor quibble

 

[lilRikki]

The one issue I have that I have not heard mentioned yet is when you call a business, they instruct you press 3 for tech support lets say...you pull up the numbers and press 3...put it back up to your ear to continue listening, but the proximity sensor is not doing its job and keeps the screen lit, and you wind up hitting other buttons or hanging up.

I had this happen to me yesterday and it really was irritating. When I pulled the phone away from my face to hit a number, the screen would flash on and off repeatedly making it almost impossible to enter anything. However, I am not having connectivity issues (except when VZW was down nationwide) and this issue isn't a deal-breaker for me, I'll just put it on speaker when calling into companies from now on. Hopefully it's software and not hardware related so they'll be able to fix it with a patch, but either way, still not a deal-breaker.

 

[crankerchick]

By the way battery life at work was fairly bad. With extended battery and very light use I went from full charge to under 30% in about 8 hours. Not a deal breaker but means i'll need a charger at work if I keep it! The rezounds big battery sounds good though at the expense of thickness!

I have about the same behavior at my work place. My phone will occasionally pick up 4G but drop it almost right away if I try to use it. It fluctuates at -93, -100, and -113 dBm on 3G and will plow through about 8-10% of battery per hour while I'm here so that a typical day of very light usage, I'm around 30% when I leave. If I don't touch the phone at all in that time, it will be around 50-60%.

I plug my phone into the usb port on my work PC just as I always have with every other smartphone I've had in the last 6 years though, so the battery drain at work is irrelevant to me. I'm used to having poor signal here and my battery not being able to handle it. The concern is what happens if I find myself traveling to a place with service like this.

One thing that will help in these environments is to switch to CDMA only so that the phone isn't trying to pick up the 4G if it can.

 

[AntimonyER]

I have about the same behavior at my work place. My phone will occasionally pick up 4G but drop it almost right away if I try to use it. It fluctuates at -93, -100, and -113 dBm on 3G and will plow through about 8-10% of battery per hour while I'm here so that a typical day of very light usage, I'm around 30% when I leave. If I don't touch the phone at all in that time, it will be around 50-60%.

I plug my phone into the usb port on my work PC just as I always have with every other smartphone I've had in the last 6 years though, so the battery drain at work is irrelevant to me. I'm used to having poor signal here and my battery not being able to handle it. The concern is what happens if I find myself traveling to a place with service like this.

One thing that will help in these environments is to switch to CDMA only so that the phone isn't trying to pick up the 4G if it can.

This is my exact situation. I can get weak 4G near the window about 20 feet from my desk, but otherwise always on 3G. It kind of sucks, and has me wondering if the Rezound would hold a 4G signal at my desk, as the general consensus is that is the strongest performer right now. I still like everything else about the phone, but I hope no one around me gets one, as I don't ever want to feel the pangs of jealousy.

 

[jdavis37]

I have about the same behavior at my work place. My phone will occasionally pick up 4G but drop it almost right away if I try to use it. It fluctuates at -93, -100, and -113 dBm on 3G and will plow through about 8-10% of battery per hour while I'm here so that a typical day of very light usage, I'm around 30% when I leave. If I don't touch the phone at all in that time, it will be around 50-60%.

I plug my phone into the usb port on my work PC just as I always have with every other smartphone I've had in the last 6 years though, so the battery drain at work is irrelevant to me. I'm used to having poor signal here and my battery not being able to handle it. The concern is what happens if I find myself traveling to a place with service like this.

One thing that will help in these environments is to switch to CDMA only so that the phone isn't trying to pick up the 4G if it can.

2nd day back at work and it was a Jeckyll day for my phone.. battery (extended) was nearly discharged in about 4 hours with no activity form me whatsoever. I had the phone set to CDMA mode. I was able to receive text messages later on the day as well as email but could not get enough signal to do anything on the web ( which while at work isnt abig deal).

leaving work I quickly noticed I was ahving trouble holding onto the 4G signal in many areas. Even the 3G signal seemed weaker than normal (-93db range at best). Now, not sure again.

I WISH I could borrow Verizon's rezound for half an hour to compare. really hate going to the phone given phone wise I prefer the Gnex in every way. But, now I am once again concerned about the inability to hold the 4G signal. Just not having a good feeling about the radio on this one. Ack! Not much time left to decide either. If I could go back to my old dumb phone for a while longer I probably would.. i know he he waits, well waits and tomorrow's "better" phone will have its own share of "issues".

I really do like the phone with exception of what seems to be really bad battery life (I can deal with using chargers and even a second battery if I have to ) but the radio is disturbing... course who knows maybe it is Verizon and not the phone!