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

well, the signal some of you are receiving scared me abit, but im getting over 31Mbps and 22Mbps on speedtest app at my home. At work yesterday (in a concrete/glass building) i had only 3G, outside the building I had 4G again but only 2 bars i think.

I dunno, to me I'm very satisfied with the Nexus, I rarely drop below 3G in SoCal; This is easily the BEST phone I have ever used.

Now I just want a nice sleeve to go with it, I have no screen protector or case, and my og Droid was treated the same and fared very well

also, signal strength at -80 dBm; and a side note, camera unlock is working flawlessly, had to add an extra photo of me with a hat, the hat threw it off, but after that, with or without a hat, low light or high, its working great!

That's good to hear as I'm also in SoCal. Verizon seems to have good 4G coverage here. Seems like most 4G signal complains are from folks in mid west or south east.
 
First impressions? Comng for an Incredible...i hate this phone...i have only had it for a few minutes and it is updating now....but dislike it and will likely return it. I miss the "sense" of the Incredible, and the screen quality is worse...i am looking at my mail program and depending on how i hold the screen the white background is either really magenta or really cyan....this is a deal breaker if I cant fix it.

I am sending it back....its giving me an ice cream headache. I will probably have to pay the 35 restocking fee....but i hate this phone. The only reason i bought it was for the screen quality...and it is horrible.
 
Took mine back,signal strength is terrible ,won't pull 3g where My iPhones,Rezound or Razr will.Battery life not terrible and phone is awesome but damn,haven't had a phone with this bad of reception since My Fascinate ........
 
Got mine on launch day and love every single thing about it especially the battery life on, its great, coming from a TBolt at least i dont have to charge it 3-4 times a day now i can get through a whole day without a charge
 
loving it so far. Was a little disappointed by the stock ringtones, using the radiation one until I can find my own Nexus worthy ringer

Very snappy, no lag, nice screen and no apps force closing or acting a fool.
 
To go along with swiping in Gmail to the next message, (as well as other apps) I'm not sure why this was left out of the messaging app itself. It'd be rather convenient.
 
Ordered mine thursday... Still isn't here yet.

Can anyone confirm if the headphones in the box come with an in line mic and cushions?

TIA
 
Note: I realize some of the stuff below is not necessary. I'm only writing what I did and my experience so far.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus arrived Friday afternoon around 3pm (was overnighted). It was chilly out and the SGN box and device were pretty cold. Decided to just let it sit and warm up a little to room temps.

Around 5:30pm I activated over my home phone. I then installed the SIM card and the stock battery. I did NOT turn the SGN on. Instead, I plugged it in and left it alone.

I was up late Friday night so at around 1:30am I disconnected from the outlet and I turned it on and activated. I used a fresh google account (different than the one from my OG Droid) -- I wanted a clean start. I used the phone for a while, just checking out some of the features and hoping around the OS. The only settings I changed were turning WiFi on and brightness off (by clicking options in the power control widget). GPS and sync were on and Bluetooth was off (by default on my phone).

Went to sleep around 2:45am and left the SGN unplugged. Got up Saturday morning around 9 and had a day of general use. Installed the software update, threw a still image on there for the background. Went to lunch with my family, did a little bit of shopping. I used the phone to occasionally snap a picture and upload a photo to Facebook and read a quick article on the net. I was out and about for about 4 hours total.

Battery not looking terrible, while back at home I did not use it constantly but checked it every once in a while and responded to a text or google talk message. Read an article here and there through the news/weather app. Installed a new app every so often.

Later in the evening I watched a few videos on youtube (looked great). I also played with the camera a bit more and tried google video chat which worked nicely. Played with some of the wacky features of the video camera. Throughout the rest of the evening I played with it every once in a while.

It's now almost 3am and some battery info is below.

I was an original Droid owner, really liked that phone. It went through a lot, even came back to life at one point when I thought it was completely dead from the abuse it took. But that's another story.

I do love the SGN so far. It's fast, a great size (I wouldn't have minded it even being a little bigger), and everything works fine so far. I notice a few quirks. The WiFi and overall reception seem slightly worse than the Droid so far. HOWEVER, I will say that there were times my wifi AND cell signal had no bars and I was still able to surf the net and stream video with NO hiccups or noticeable slowdown in speed. Leads me to believe the WiFi signal indicator is a little off.

I've seen a bunch of battery life complaints and perhaps it is bad when you use the phone much more. But for me, so far, it seems fine.


sgn_screen5.png
 
Well I've had the phone for about a day, so here are my thoughts on it.

The form factor is pretty nice. Yea its a little on the big side, but I dont mind that at all. it doesnt feel cheap despite being all plastic. It has a little bit of weight so it still feels like a premium device. The only issue I have with the phone physically is that when pressing the unlock/lock button, I often wind up accidentally hitting the volume rocker 40 times.

ICS is easily the best Android version ever. Its STILL not iOS smooth, but its close. Everything looks clean and polished, it's pretty fluid, and overall its a pleasant experience. I am missing a few things from previous versions though. For example, when sending a mass text, gingerbread would separate the message into individual threads for each person. I liked this, because when each person replied, the content of the original message would be visible. ICS behaves like the iPhone now in this regard, where it just shows the mass text, and when each person replies, their reply is the only thing you see (not the original message). This can be fixed with something like handcent, but everything Ive read so far indicates that handcent is not ready for ICS yet.

I've noticed this with several apps, but I imagine in time this will change. Beautiful Widgets look bad on this phone compared to my DX. Another element I'm missing is in the call menu. In GB, when you started to dial a number it would start popping up contacts that matched the letters or numbers you were dialing, so that if you knew part of a number or name you could quickly find it. This seems to be omitted in ICS.

Email is much improved, but I use IMAP for work, and my DX had an option to never delete from server. This option also seems to be missing from ICS. I prefer to not worry that an email I delete on my phone will be missing from my desktop when I return to the office. I prefer to manage everything from the office when it comes to deleting messages.

There's also a little annoyance with the speaker, most notable when tapping buttons and the 'click' sound. After the 'click' sound (and any sound for that matter) the speaker makes a low 'tick' sort of like the speaker is clicking off. It's low, but certainly audible and a little annoying.

The screen is very nice, but it's still not on par with the iPhone. Anyone who says otherwise is delusional. I have an issue with my screen where on the top I have a light blue band. It is noticeable mostly when in landscape mode browsing. I am going to try to have verizon replace this unit for another because of this. The notification light kind of sucks and doesnt blink fast enough. Also I'd like more colors for various things, but Im sure there are apps for this. Also the ring tone selection sucks balls.

Ive come to the conclusion that anything with 4G is going to have horrible battery life. With 4g and the phone just sitting there idle the battery was draining like no other.

So those are my complaints. May seem nitpicky but I'm extremely anal when it comes to these things. I know some people will cry but I still havent been satisfied by a phone 100% besides the iPhone. It is still the best out there. The Nexus is by far the best Android device I've used though. Whether or not I'll keep it, or grab an iPhone or maybe even a Razr remains to be seen. It's tough to tell if the phone feels good because of the phone, or because of ICS. I'm sure when the Razr gets ICS it will be right up there with the GNex.

4G on this phone has been nothing short of incredible. I have been getting speeds of 20+mbps down consistently. Faster than my home internet. I happen to be one of the lucky ones with grandfathered unlimited, but I cant imagine how anyone would even WANT 4g with a 2G limit. I did 600mb in the first day.

We'll see how it goes but so far it's a really solid phone.
 
Hi.
Love the Gnex. Great phone experience!
I have but one problem. I am receiving text messages with the wrong caller id on them.
Result being repies going to the wrtong place.
Emabarring when it's your boss or ex wife.
Anyone elsse had this issue or know a fix.
Only other alterntive is to replace phone.
Thank in advance.
 
I'm going to give this phone a few days.... But so far I think that my Inc2 with go launcher is much smoother, snappier, and overall better. The camera on the Inc2 takes nicer photos, and scrolling is never choppy, as it is on the gnex.

I like the fact that in ice cream sandwich I can finally make the fonts bigger!! I will try to work with this for that reason only

No 4g where I am, so that is meaningless to me.
 
Took me a few days to get all acclimated to the new phone experience, but everything seems to be really great. Highlights:

-It's fast. On 4G, the browsing flies. On WiFi as well. All apps open very quickly and moving between screens is a joy. ICS is fantastic so far.

-I love the build. Some people whined about the plastic, but in all honesty, it makes this thing so light and easy to use. I have smaller hands and I can use it one-handed. No problem.

-Signal/Radios. I am happy to say that I have no issues to report here. GPS locks almost instantly and has better coverage indoors than my Droid X did. About the only issue I have had here was when I turned 4G off and it took about 45 seconds to lock into 3G. Not a huge deal.

-Battery Life. The battery life is not spectacular. I did not have high expectations in this area though. I figured out how to turn 4G off...I only use it for tethering anyways. If you do this, your battery will last a LOT longer. 4G is great, but it should be used in moderation. On 3G last night, I drilled the Nexus with Untappd checkins, web browsing, constant texting, Foursquare, and Google+. Happy to say that from 5:30pm til midnight, I was still at 45%. I did buy the portable charger (Motorola P793) just in case.

-LED alerts. I downloaded Light Flow. Works great. Nice feature to add.

-Screen. The screen is beautiful. I am bewildered by people who seem to think their device should have the same picture as a 55" LEDTV. It's an insane picture for a phone. No complaints.

-Camera. Only took a few pics so far, but the instant shutter is phenomenal. Luckily, I only consider a phone camera an add-on feature and not a primary one, so I am not let down that it doesn't take the same pics as my DSLR. It takes great phone pictures and videos.

Overall, I am very happy with the experience. It has just about everything I could want in a phone/portable device. I am extremely happy with it and anyone on the fence should be, too.
 
Verizon Company Stores offer FREE instructional classes in my area. Classes are for Android or iPhone. They offer a one hour class for "beginner" or "advanced." I attended the Advanced Android class this morning and felt that it was very helpfull. They included detailed handouts and hands-on guidance that included several good "hints". At the end of presentation they spent less than a minute to encourage sales of other products or accesories. If you are NOT an experienced Android user I'd recommend the class.
 
Got my GNex last night and Best Buy and here are my impressions so far:

Screen: Holy cow! This thing is beautiful. I was captivated as I sat there and watched the boot screen animation. I'm coming from an HTC Droid Eris so of course there's no comparison between the two, but still, the visual display is very crisp and vibrant. Plus how can you not love how freaking huge the screen is?

Software: Again, coming from the Eris the response in moving between apps and screens is incredibly quick and snappy. It's going to take some time to get used to ICS coming from Sense, but I like it so far. I do miss having a dedicated Search button at the bottom and really wish that ICS had this, but it's a minor complaint and I'm sure the more I get used to ICS I won't notice it as much.

The keyboard is very responsive and typing on it is a breeze.

The only place I've experienced sluggishness or lag is when I'm browsing the Market. Other than that everything runs great. Haven't experienced any apps force closing or hanging, but I'm still in the process of adding apps that I had on my old phone so perhaps that's yet to come.

Oh yeah, one more thing... how the hell does Verizon get off telling me I'll get NFL Mobile for free if I upgrade to 4G and then I find out that the NFL Mobile app isn't compatible with the GNex???? :mad::mad::mad: Typical Big Red for ya. Hopefully this gets sorted out soon.

Hardware: The phone itself is a behemoth. Holding it to talk is not a problem and it fits nicely in my hands when I hold it up to my face. Using it to browse or text might require two hands at times and those with smaller hands might find it to be just a bit too big at times. I will say that pulling it out of my pocket makes me nervous of dropping it simply because of how large it is, it would be easy for it to inadvertently slip out of your hands in the process. Maybe a case would make it easier to grip but I decided to forego that in favor of not making it bulkier (plus I bought Best Buy's accident insurance, which I think should be a must for any smart phone owner)

A couple things that I am disappointed with: The back cover does feel like very cheap plastic to me, but meh, who cares... I didn't buy the phone for the feel of the material. Also, the loud speaker is a little disappointing and could be louder when watching videos (nothing that headphones can't fix though).

Battery: I've seen a lot of people complaining about the battery, but in the time I've had it it's held up just as I expected. Granted, I've been at home and on wifi most of the time so we'll see how it goes when I'm out and about using 4G. I've been up for about 4 hours playing with the phone most of the time after a full night's charge and its at 75% which I think is pretty good. A car charger and and extra cord for the office will help mitigate any battery issues.

Connectivity: Again, heard alot of people complaining about the phone not staying connected to the mobile network... haven't experienced any of those issues. When I was at the store activating the phone I had 4G the entire time. Like I said earlier, I've been connected to wifi most of the past 24 hours, but when I was using 4G it had no problem staying connected. 4G is crazy fast, definitely worth the upgrade IMO.

Overall: So far I'm very very happy. I think I'll end up staying with this phone unless I come across something that's a huge sticking point, but I don't see that happening. I think I'll fall even more in love with it once I get used to ICS and all the things it can do. :D
 
Got my GNex last night and Best Buy and here are my impressions so far:

Screen: Holy cow! This thing is beautiful. I was captivated as I sat there and watched the boot screen animation. I'm coming from an HTC Droid Eris so of course there's no comparison between the two, but still, the visual display is very crisp and vibrant. Plus how can you not love how freaking huge the screen is?

Software: Again, coming from the Eris the response in moving between apps and screens is incredibly quick and snappy. It's going to take some time to get used to ICS coming from Sense, but I like it so far. I do miss having a dedicated Search button at the bottom and really wish that ICS had this, but it's a minor complaint and I'm sure the more I get used to ICS I won't notice it as much.

The keyboard is very responsive and typing on it is a breeze.

The only place I've experienced sluggishness or lag is when I'm browsing the Market. Other than that everything runs great. Haven't experienced any apps force closing or hanging, but I'm still in the process of adding apps that I had on my old phone so perhaps that's yet to come.

Oh yeah, one more thing... how the hell does Verizon get off telling me I'll get NFL Mobile for free if I upgrade to 4G and then I find out that the NFL Mobile app isn't compatible with the GNex???? :mad::mad::mad: Typical Big Red for ya. Hopefully this gets sorted out soon.

Hardware: The phone itself is a behemoth. Holding it to talk is not a problem and it fits nicely in my hands when I hold it up to my face. Using it to browse or text might require two hands at times and those with smaller hands might find it to be just a bit too big at times. I will say that pulling it out of my pocket makes me nervous of dropping it simply because of how large it is, it would be easy for it to inadvertently slip out of your hands in the process. Maybe a case would make it easier to grip but I decided to forego that in favor of not making it bulkier (plus I bought Best Buy's accident insurance, which I think should be a must for any smart phone owner)

A couple things that I am disappointed with: The back cover does feel like very cheap plastic to me, but meh, who cares... I didn't buy the phone for the feel of the material. Also, the loud speaker is a little disappointing and could be louder when watching videos (nothing that headphones can't fix though).

Battery: I've seen a lot of people complaining about the battery, but in the time I've had it it's held up just as I expected. Granted, I've been at home and on wifi most of the time so we'll see how it goes when I'm out and about using 4G. I've been up for about 4 hours playing with the phone most of the time after a full night's charge and its at 75% which I think is pretty good. A car charger and and extra cord for the office will help mitigate any battery issues.

Connectivity: Again, heard alot of people complaining about the phone not staying connected to the mobile network... haven't experienced any of those issues. When I was at the store activating the phone I had 4G the entire time. Like I said earlier, I've been connected to wifi most of the past 24 hours, but when I was using 4G it had no problem staying connected. 4G is crazy fast, definitely worth the upgrade IMO.

Overall: So far I'm very very happy. I think I'll end up staying with this phone unless I come across something that's a huge sticking point, but I don't see that happening. I think I'll fall even more in love with it once I get used to ICS and all the things it can do. :D


Nice review I can't wait mine will be here tomorrow
 
Mine is arriving tomorrow, but I went to the Verizon store to play with one.

My very first thought was: wow, this thing is big--almost to the point of being a joke. This definitely looks and feels substantially bigger than any of the 4.3 inch phones I've used in the past, despite what people have said or what the actual dimensions are.

However, that is just the first impression. By the time I was done playing with the phone, I was used to it already.

The very next thing I noticed was how bad it lagged, but realized it was due to one of the live wallpapers. Once I switched it out to a static wallpaper, it was very fast and responsive. I wouldn't say it's leaps and bounds better than my ROM'd charge, but I would say it's better than any stock Android phone out there.

I compared it side-by-side to an HTC Rezound and Droid RAZR, and those just felt silly next to the Nexus. Personally, I thought the RAZR looked better: it was the only phone out of the bunch that grabbed my attention. But after handling them all, it was clear that the nexus was the best.

I was pretty disappointed with the camera. Even the 1080p video looked pretty average at best in the store, and while lighting isn't optimal in there, i feel that it is pretty representative of most indoor lighting camera opportunities.

The screen was really impressive! Cannot believe this is a pentile screen, because I saw ZERO pixelation. I zoomed it, dimmed the brightness, and held it up to my eyes. I saw NO pixelation at all. I will do a more in depth test when I get my actual phone, but the first impression was great. Everything looked beautiful, and browsing web pages was delightful.

The only complaint I could have is that the screen is pretty dim even on the brightest setting. But it's not really too big a problem. I think this is pretty common for AMOLED screens, and once you get used to it, it shouldn't be a problem.

Everything seemed really nice, but I couldn't get into the details as it wasn't signed into any account and i couldn't use any of the apps I usually do. I think it absolutely is the best Android phone out there. The soft keys were really nice, but I wish they had a search button instead of a multitasking one.

Here is an idea: have the multitasking button bring up the search entry field (with the cursor already in there) AND the multitasking windows. That way you get both, and you can either type/speak to search or thumb through the windows for multitasking.
 
That was one of the things I first noticed, a live wallpaper makes a noticeable difference in performance, especially the Microbes lwp. Similar wallpapers don't slow down my Incredible...
 
After 3 days of owning this phone, I love it. Definitely a big step up from the Droid X.

Pros:
Camera
Speed
Recent Apps
Easier access to widgets
Screen
ICS
Screen shots

Cons:
Battery life
Lack of a menu button
Google search bar taking up screen real estate.
 
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