Hey Everyone,
Just gonna share my initial reaction and general thoughts on the Galaxy Nexus in no particular order.
Here's my smartphone device history (so you get a sense of where I am coming from):
Blackberry Curve -> i*hone 3G -> Droid Incredible -> Droid X -> Droid Bionic -> Galaxy Nexus
General sense: I think that this phone is a giant leap forward for Android. Another reviewer said something like Android is “getting a soul”, I would have said it already had one, but now it’s a lot more in your face.
I love the hardware. I don’t mind the plastic feel at all. I think it’s well built, much like the Droids I owned. The major difference lies with Motorola’s choice of metals and industrial design. That’s a preference thing to many people and while the Motorola Droid variants are solid, Samsung has come a long way from their first Android phones, in my opinion.
Screen is gorgeous. It really pops! I love this screen!! I just wish the auto-brightness was a little more aggressive. It seems dim to me in a lot of ways when turned on, usually I have to manually adjust it myself. However, when you watch a movie on this thing, it doesn't feel like it's a small screen!! It's almost like a phablet
(phone tablet!)
The software is like buttah. It’s the star of the show in many ways, one being fluidity, another being smoothness, and another being speed. I can multi-task like a champ on this thing AND it rarely ever stutters. When it does stutter it’s because I have A TON of apps open doing MANY things in the background simultaneously. If there’s one thing I could wish for now, it would be that all of my old apps would work well under ICS. In time, they will, I’m sure.
Rooting and ROMing is something that I am into a major way. After all, it’s MY phone, let me do with it as I PLEASE. That being said, thanks to Vanilla Android and Google’s open nature to accessing their software, this was the most painless rooting/unlocking I have ever performed in my life. If my old i*hone is at one end of the spectrum, the G-Nex is definitely at the other complete opposite end.
Battery life hasn’t been so good. I’ll come out and say it. My old Droid X had the extended battery of 1900mAh and that thing STILL has excellent battery life some 17+ months later. I can’t say that about my G-Nex yet. I’ve already got the extended battery for it, but it doesn’t seem to be helping all that much. I guess it could be that I can’t put the phone down, but I digress in any case…
Camera is pretty good. Now, I'll admit, I haven't been subject to awesome Nokia cameras, nor the stupendous Galaxy SII camera, but coming from a Droid Bionic, this camera is LIGHTYEARS better than that one. I find you get this best results if you don't rapid fire on the software camera button. FOCUS FIRST. That'll make your pictures actually quite good. I haven't tested out video recording yet, but I am sure it will be good for a smartphone. Any more and you'll need a dedicated camcorder.
tl;dr – The long and short of it is, if you’re on the fence about getting into a contract for the next two years on Verizon wireless, have no fear – your phone is here. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is the one you’ve been waiting for, even if you don’t know it yet! Do yourself a favour: Get one. Immediately. That is all.
Shoot any comments, questions, or concerns you have my way! I'd be happy to answer them.
-Elo