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***Official G-Nex first impressions thread*** Love it? Hate it?

Just got mine. Paid 269 after NE2 discount. Also, with my company discount, got the extended battery for 17 bucks so that was a no brainer.

So far, I love it. Going to have to spend a few hours digging into it to give a proper impression, but it blows my TB away out of the box.

The downside is that it auto downloaded every app, INCLUDING the VZW bloatware from my TB. :D Easily undone though. :)

Initial impressions..., ICS is the best Android yet, no doubt about it. I am getting used to the new button arrangement and finding menus and what not.

Not a lot of things available in stock ICS for customization..., like wall papers and such.

It feels..., plasticy... since it is all plastic. The battery door is very chincy, IMO.

The external speaker is considerably more quiet than my TB speaker.

I will post back more as I learn more.

Justin

PS Someone was buying the iPhone 4 next to me..., and I can't believe how tiny that thing is!
 
eagle17 said:
First i am really enjoying this phone it was worth the wait... and I just saw that fedex delivered my GSM version. (so I have both but will probably sell the gsm version unopened and use the older gsm phone I have for travel)...

second not rooted yet want to go a few days with how it should be working to make certain that I dont confuse any problems...

and lastly a technical question for users of corp mail.
After playing with it for a few minutes I have one question .. in the corp email app can you make it so that it shows the entire page of rich html content instead of having to scroll around. ?>

thanks,

and congrats to those that have one... :)
Click to expand...

Careful, if you want to root the device, you will need to unlock the bootloader, which will wipe all you user data.

Might want to do that soon before you populate the device with a bunch of stuff you don't want to lose :-)

TzuDohNihm said:
I'm confused by the two or three people that have mentioned the build quality of the phone. I just spent fifteen minutes at my local store playing with the Nexus and from the second I picked it up it felt cheap and sub-par from what I would expect of a flagship device.

The battery cover came off while I was pulling on the security cable to give me some slack to use the phone and the cover is thinner and more flimsy than a credit card. The plastic housing of the phone is of a cheaper quality than the case for my Incredible. Which is not even a good case, its the Verizon red/black gradient cover.

More power to anyone who buys this thing but I spent $99 on my Incredible with upgrade discounts and had it the day before launch. If I would get the rumored $100 3G>4G discount and my NE2 I would still be spending $150 for this phone and it isn't anywhere near the build quality of my Incredible. The upgrade to 4.0 isn't worth $50 if the phone may not make it through my next NE2 cycle.

I want something that feels and looks good as well as being cutting edge technology. Someone needs to combine Apple's build quality with Android and put out a truly amazing phone.

I can't stand the Rezound name and I am hesitant to continue with HTC until I see how they integrate Sense into ICS which is almost devoid of a need to skin it.

I really don't like Motorola products either so I am stuck for a few more months unless I can convince myself there is a need for one of those three.
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Problem is, there's no real concrete definition of build quality. Yes, many people loathe the plastic materials that Samsung uses to build their phones. But then again, they are proven to be very durable. Drop a GSII or GN from shoulder height onto the ground, and the plastic scratches a little.

Drop an iPhone4S (considered by many as the best built phone) from shoulder height and the glass shatters.

Sure, there's a good middleground, such as the RAZR, which uses "premium" materials and is quite durable, but many people think that durability is enough to qualify the phone as having good "build quality".


Also, the battery door, while flimsy on its own, is quite solid when properly attached. If it came off just from you pulling on the cord, it was definitely not attached properly.
 
TzuDohNihm said:
I'm confused by the two or three people that have mentioned the build quality of the phone. I just spent fifteen minutes at my local store playing with the Nexus and from the second I picked it up it felt cheap and sub-par from what I would expect of a flagship device.

The battery cover came off while I was pulling on the security cable to give me some slack to use the phone and the cover is thinner and more flimsy than a credit card. The plastic housing of the phone is of a cheaper quality than the case for my Incredible. Which is not even a good case, its the Verizon red/black gradient cover.

More power to anyone who buys this thing but I spent $99 on my Incredible with upgrade discounts and had it the day before launch. If I would get the rumored $100 3G>4G discount and my NE2 I would still be spending $150 for this phone and it isn't anywhere near the build quality of my Incredible. The upgrade to 4.0 isn't worth $50 if the phone may not make it through my next NE2 cycle.

I want something that feels and looks good as well as being cutting edge technology. Someone needs to combine Apple's build quality with Android and put out a truly amazing phone.

I can't stand the Rezound name and I am hesitant to continue with HTC until I see how they integrate Sense into ICS which is almost devoid of a need to skin it.

I really don't like Motorola products either so I am stuck for a few more months unless I can convince myself there is a need for one of those three.
Click to expand...

I agree, the phone definitely is cheap feeling, and the battery cover is very chincy.

Otherwise, I like the phone. I wanted to try a Nexus and since I was able to get this at a discount..., plus selling my TB to cover 2/3rds of the cost..., I went with it. But yes, I agree, it is not flagship quality in build.

This is my first Samsung phone and I will give it the benefit of the doubt. Although it may "feel" cheap since it isn't has "heavy" as past phones, like the user said above, that may prove to not be true.

Justin
 
My first impressions:

Positives:
-Amaaazing screen
-Blazing fast, I'm downloading all my preivous Apps from the market, talking on the phone, and it never does the "Android Stutter"
-Browser = how it should've been from the start
-Love love love the feel of the phone
-Great camera for a phone IMO, if I need more I'll use my Nikon D5100
-Speaker seems reasonably loud, my Droid Incredible was pretty impressive
-Battery life seems pretty good so far, but will need more time to judge. I can already tell this will be better than my Droid Incredible which was a fiasco when it launched. It will be nice to NOT have to Root and run custom ROMs, kernels, etc to make it through the day.

Negatives:
-Verizon employees are horrible at setting up phones, I had to do a factory reset after leaving
-Earpiece volume is a little on the low side even fully cranked up
-I don't want to damage my $300 baby!

Overall extremely pleased!
 
tluley51 said:
I am happy with all the bells and whistles that everyone comments about, but I am EXTREMELY disappointed with the radio's, seeing as I am in the middle of an LTE area and I am only getting 1 bar of 3g...VERY disappointing. The radios are very weak compared to my X. NEVER had an issue with my X.
Click to expand...

How are your data transfer rates doing? (Trying to see if this is just an issue of bars displayed versus an actual connection deficiency)
 
JustinHEMI said:
I agree, the phone definitely is cheap feeling, and the battery cover is very chincy.
Click to expand...

With everything together, I actually think it feels pretty good in the hand. Seperated, the battery cover does look cheap. How often are you going to remove the battery cover? There's no MicroSD! With a phone packing this much power into a small package, I can't complain!

Kudos to Google and Samsung! Verizon, get it together.
 
Lefort1 said:
My first impressions:

Positives:
-Amaaazing screen
-Blazing fast, I'm downloading all my preivous Apps from the market, talking on the phone, and it never does the "Android Stutter"
-Browser = how it should've been from the start
-Love love love the feel of the phone
-Great camera for a phone IMO, if I need more I'll use my Nikon D5100
-Speaker seems reasonably loud, my Droid Incredible was pretty impressive
-Battery life seems pretty good so far, but will need more time to judge. I can already tell this will be better than my Droid Incredible which was a fiasco when it launched. It will be nice to NOT have to Root and run custom ROMs, kernels, etc to make it through the day.

Negatives:
-Verizon employees are horrible at setting up phones, I had to do a factory reset after leaving
-Earpiece volume is a little on the low side even fully cranked up
-I don't want to damage my $300 baby!

Overall extremely pleased!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the details--boldface added by me...EVERYONE with an Android Phone should do this after leaving a VZW store. I've had them sneak task killers onto the phone, etc., even though the phone appeared factory fresh. It's a variable none of us need to deal with...best time to do it is right as you walk out!
 
just got my nexus about an hour ago. My meeting was over early so I ended up having to wait for the csr I talked to yesterday. While I was there, I played with the demo unit and pulled up the browser. A bunch of search hits popped up for "how to root galaxy nexus" LOL.

I was going to pay full retail as Im not due for an upgrade but when they tried to ring it up it kept popping up that I was So I got it for the upgrade price just had to sign a new two year contract which only extends my current contract by like 6 months.
 
Love it.

If I had a complaint it's the lack of flash, but that will be fixed soon. Also, the AMOLED HD isn't QUITE as sharp as I had hoped, but WAY better than the PenTile Moto's that are all qHD. Seem to equal dpi of my OG unless some bad color combos for RGBG are being displayed. That's all I wanted and the contrast of the AMOLED is AWESOME!
 
Well, suffice to say, I love love love this phone! Also, for those who were wondering, despite the PR, double data does apply. I came over from AT&T and my CSR gave me double data without even asking.

I've been playing with this thing all morning. Got all my Xoom-related Android apps downloaded and installed, except for the apps that are exclusive to tablet devices, of course, and I'm still getting used to the differences between Honeycomb and ICS, but ICS is so intuitive that I'm learning this thing fast.

Just got face unlock set up. It's very fast! Love it!
 
Coming from an OG Droid. (OGD)


  • Updated to 4.0.2 after activation.
  • Build is ICL53F
  • In contrast to others I am very happy with the build. I would not change anything.
  • I like the lighter in weight change from the OGD.
  • Perfect fit in my hand.
  • Fantastic in my front pants pocket.
  • Love ICS.
  • Signal strength indicators on the OG & the GN match.
  • Display is WoW and at any brightness is fine with me.
  • Call quality is better then my OGD on both ends.
  • Speaker volume in speaker phone and ring tones are acceptable. This was a large issue for me to look at. I was worried about this as my OGD was a very loud and some early testers noted it to be weak but not my copy. I'm good with it.
  • Very fast.
  • PdaNet works.
  • USB mass storage and drivers came up and installed with no issues.
  • USB transfer speed is OK
Notes:


  1. I noticed it wobbled when laid flat on a table. Upon a close visual I noticed the outer chrome ring around the camera was not evenly displayed. The top of the camera cover opening didn't look right. I massaged it and got one more fastener to pop in. Much better and it lays flat with no wobble. If you remove the cover make sure you give it a close inspection all the way around.
  2. Ring tone choices lack normal business like tones.
 
i love this phone so far.

can someone tell me how i get the apps on my old phone onto the gnex? i was under the impression there was a very simple way to do this

also, can you turn off the vibrate on the lock screen and in the text messaging app? disabled everything under settings but it still vibrates.

thanks!
 
I do wish they would have put the power button on top, and the volume rocker in the usual area. I've found myself hitting the volume a few times in landscape mode.

It would also have been nice to have separate ringtone and notification volumes. I think the auto-brightness feature needs some tweaking as well. Seems a little too dark in some scenerios.
 
I have a question. I can't for the life of me get any of the sounds to work. ie: phone lock sound, sound on keypress for keyboard or sound while selecting an app. My sound is turned all the way up and everything else works fine. It has to be something stupid that I am missing!?

edit: factory reset worked. weird!! This phone is an absolute beast!!!
 
Just got my phone like an hour ago. I absolutely love it! I see people that don't seem to like the lightness of the phone, but I actually like it. The phone does have a plastic feel, but also feels solid. I'm gonna have a hard time putting this thing down for awhile. Best upgrade by far!:D
 
Just upgraded from a Droid Eris, the bastard child of the Droid lineup, and my hair is on fire. Give me time to catch my breath and I will have a better review. I'm smitten.
 
atrain311 said:
Absolutely loving it so far, but I have one question...
How do i get all of my contact pics back? Thanks!!!
Click to expand...
Contact pics are most likely from Facebook, so you'd have to add your facebook account. If they aren't there, then the picture isn't part of your gmail contacts.

Sync my pics from the market also works well. Would like to see some higher res pictures, though.
 
Also, I got the extended battery and it cover actually looks more like the proper cover than the standard battery one. I like that. Barely adds any thickness and at least aesthetically to me looks more stock than the actual stock cover. BTW, my VZW corp store here in Hurst, TX was selling the extended bat's at half price for $25.
 
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