What our readers think of the Galaxy Nexus

2. bbblader posted on 31 Jan 2012, 11:06 3 7

GSII is better,I personally dont like screens that are above 4.3''
and there are more things that i dont like about it
i dont own wone
but a friend gave it to me for a day...
i liked my SGSII and N8 better

3. Bluesky02 posted on 31 Jan 2012, 11:14 1 0

Interesting user reviews, i wish PhoneArena could provide more post like this.

4. Jericho posted on 31 Jan 2012, 11:15 5 10

Ips better than super amoled plus.

5. willardcw4 posted on 31 Jan 2012, 11:37 4 0

"mobileuser" has very bad spelling and grammar... distracts from the review.

6. Andman314 posted on 31 Jan 2012, 11:38 6 1

Best phone EVER!!!!

7. itzmando posted on 31 Jan 2012, 11:39 2 1

So far mine's been great, I thought the 4G issue was a huge disappointment which I get 3 bars consistently when I attend college in San Diego. Compared to my 3G only coverage back in Ventura County which has not yet been deployed with 4G.
3G reception is horrible back home, sure the speaker quality was not the loudest but their is one app that fixes it(Volume+) which if I am locked into a 2yr. contract I best make the best of it. I did not want the Razr due to Moto's pentile qHD display looked worse than the GN. I wanted a large screen coming from a D2Global for txting keyboard purposes and tired of long software updates. So I am more or less think its a great phone, now I should have waited to see if SGlll get picked up by VZW so I couldve got that.

8. jove39 posted on 31 Jan 2012, 11:56 4 0

Google is taking step in right direction by replacing 4460 with 4470 chipset...All they need to do is clock cpu@1.8 and gpu@500 + add a 3500mAh battery :)

11. RolandStone posted on 31 Jan 2012, 12:13 2 1

I loved my OG Droid. I like my Gnex but I have some disappointment:

1) Still running 4.0.2 - I thought updates would be more frequent. Today they announced 4.0.4 for Nexus S. Where are the GNex updates?

2) MUSIC PLAYBACK IS UNACCEPTABLE! Try Googling "Galaxy Nexus Music Glitches" and read all the bad news about this phone being unable to deal with high bit rate streams or lengthy podcasts when the screen is off. There are some marginally effective workarounds, but its simply unacceptable and unbelievable that my GNex should choke on streams that my OG Droid has no problem with!

3) Battery Life is "meh" at best. I sprung for the new Seidio behemoth battery. Now my GNex looks like the hunchback of Notre Dame, and now it finally gets me 12-24 reliable hours of use.

4) I still miss my physical keyboard. If only the Droid 4 had an unlockable bootloader and a changeable battery.

5) The camera is not great. But I was used to that with my OG.

Overall I still like the phone. But I'm already getting phone envy over some other phones like the unlockable Rezound and Razr.

13. micahrahn posted on 31 Jan 2012, 12:55 3 0

For the people adressing the "loss of reception" I can honestly say that my Galaxy Nexus does just as good as the Motorola phones that so many people are bragging about. I live outside of Savannah, GA and spend much of my time in the swamp and woods away from big cities and cell service. The Nexus picks up in the same places as the Motorola devices and the places that Motorola doesn't work the Samsung doesn't work. So I find it hard to believe that people are really complaining about this phone dropping calls and service, because I can truly test that theory and have to say that in my opinion they don't know what they are talking about.

14. The_Miz posted on 31 Jan 2012, 12:58 3 16

Inferior hardware, inferior OS, inferior design, poor data connection, cheap build quality, I would've given the phone a low score. And this is after I actually said I would get the Galaxy Nexus. Not anymore.

16. bigsimpd posted on 31 Jan 2012, 13:03 1 1

I had the Galaxy Nexus also and was not impressed I returned it also the call quality was poor the speaker was too low and the camera was terrib didn't like it at allit a

17. PAPINYC (limited) 7 hours ago posted on 31 Jan 2012, 13:04 2 4

Well, unlike Roland Stone above, I'm not suffering from phone envy because I went with the RAZR™ (after a few comparison tests of my own).

The main reason I didn't choose the Galaxy Nexus was because I needed microSD functionality (I have a 32GB from my CRAPPPY DROID X which is already at "less than 1GB Available") because I knew the GN on-board memory wouldn't be enough. Also, wanted the ability to swap out memory cards.

In all fairness, I went to the Samsung Experience Store here in Manhattan on December 4th to demo' the GN and concluded the following (bear in mind I had already demo'd the RAZR and done a few comparison tests with the RAZR, including against the iPhone 4S):

• Not impressed with the GN design.

• The difference in screen size was insignificant (for me).

• The "alledged" resolution difference was indistinguishable unless you used a magnifying glass.

• Not impressed with the main (rear) camera or the FFC (both cameras on the RAZR are really nice).

• Wanted the Lapdock 100 for the RAZR (demo'd at Verizon a few times: way cool); it's a much cheaper alternative to tether your "Unlimited Data" without having to hack your phone (and, void the warranty).

Did buy Lapdock :)

• HDMI out (which I'm sure the GN has but, wasn't sure of whether or not HDMI out on the GN had any limitations); RAZR completely mirrors display in full landscape screen mode on TV, all apps work with HDMI out function (it's like having a humongous PC monitor).

Glad I didn't go with the GN, I've read too many reports of glitches and bugs. No problems with the RAZR, not even the so called battery issues (I could have returned it wben the MAXX was announced and waited the week and a half but didn't really have a problem with the battery).

Don't get me wrong, nothing against Samsung; I have the Galaxy Tab 7" (T-Mobile) which I've updated to GB (waiting on ICS ROM, if one is ever cooked) but, that also has a MicroSD slot and a SIM slot (for travel outside U.S.).

Even better, Motorola has just announced a RAZR with an unlockable bootloader for developers to be released in Europe in the near future; that development should also make its way to the U.S. RAZR™ (although, as I've stated, don't feel the need to "skin and ROM" this phone).

18. iamcc posted on 31 Jan 2012, 13:19 0 0

Mis-post.

22. SuperAndroidEvo posted on 31 Jan 2012, 13:44 14 0

I couldn't be more happy with my Gnex. It's the best phone I have ever owned. I have it rooted & I am running Codename Android 1.2.0 ROM, with the Cobalt Theme & I am running Franco's nightly Kernel 15 @ 1.35GHz. on interactive governor.

With all that my phone is a completely different beast. It's VERY smooth, there is so much butter that you can get a heart attack. It's so blazingly fast that it is such a pleasure to use. Also with Franco's Kernel set to interactive with the hotplug feature ON from his app I get about 20 to 22 hours of moderate use. (Mostly 30 to 40 work emails, 60 to 70 texts, about 45 min of calls, about 45 min of web, all adding to about 2 hours of actual screen ON time at 40% brightness setting.)

With heavy usage I get about 15 to 16 hours of life. (Heavy to me is watching 3 full episodes of Game of Thrones with the HBO GO app on 4G LTE, playing about 45 min of 9mm & another 45 min of MC3, filming my 1 & 3 year olds playing at the park, sending 60 to 70 texts, 30 to 40 emails, 45 min of calls, & 45 min of web, all adding to about 4 to 5 hours of actual screen ON time at 40% brightness setting.)

With Franco's Kernel you can have it set so the phone can go into a deep sleep mode when the screen is off & shut down one of the cores while the other core is running at about 300 to 450MHz to do any other tasks in the background. When I go to sleep for the night my Gnex is at 100% but when I wake up after 7 to 8 hours of sleep my phone is at 95% or 94 % which is phenomenal & that is with 4G LTE on 24/7.

My Galaxy Nexus is such a perfect phone, the way I have it set up that I would never ever trade it for anything, unless that anything happens to be a quad-core Nexus, you know the one that will be coming out in December of 2012. My Gnex is so customizable that I will never buy a skinned Android phone again. Sorry Samsung TouchWiz, HTC Sense, & everything else. Pure Google ICS is the ONLY WAY TO GO!

If you can follow directions, if you can follow a cook book to cook, & if you have some very basic common sense then I really suggest you root your phone & get the most out of it. All phones have so much potential that you will never truly understand how bad a$s a Razr, Galaxy S II, Evo 3D, Rezound, & all other high end Android phones really are! Plus there is always ways to get the phone back to 100% stock if you don’t want root access anymore so basically there really is no con to rooting at all.

23. dandirk posted on 31 Jan 2012, 13:46 1 1

I recently upgraded my OG droid... from brief usage at verizon store... I was not wow'ed by the GN at least compared the the other phone I was looking at the rezound.

Both seemed smooth, surfing and menu movement.

The GN seemed just a tad too big but that could have been due to the wirelock they put on in the stores, can't hold normally. I generally use my thumb, one handed operation... so that wider screen was sort of a waste and a stretch... personal opinion.

Rezound screen seemed smoother, clearer just by a tad.

Did reading up and found the following which led me to the rezound.

NG, call quality was inferior (didn't test but didn't want to risk it

All battery reports I read said they were similar.

NG had a bar issue, even if just visually not technically.

Overall I am happy with the rezound, it is MUCH snappier then the OG, even 3G browsing is night and day.

Things I am disappointed about the rezound...

Virtually NO accessories at normal stores; no otterbox, little in the way of selection. Seems the rezound is a "small" title and have to order everything off the net.... not a big deal.

Pretty poor rom support... mainly to get rid of sense and Verizon Apps... the Apps and bookmarks, contacts that are hardcoded by VZW is annoying. Would like to try a ROM (only have done so on my nook), but most say phone, data, mms is not working lol.... Would be more comfortable with CM7/9 official support...

Battery does literally last about 10-15 hours of limited use... Still tweaking power settings but I think data always on is really important, I want to be notified when getting contacted, not when I look at my phone.

25. shimmyx20 posted on 31 Jan 2012, 13:59 2 0

I bought the GSM Galaxy Nexus to use on AT&T, and it is a hell of a phone. I came from using the Skyrocket, and this is a huge step up for me. The screen is so much better on the Nexus, despite the downgrade from Super AMOLED Plus to Super AMOLED (Pentile). Some people are stating that the speaker volume is low, and I'll have to agree on that.

ICS takes some getting used to, but I think it is by far the best Android version available yet, and best of all, it is stock! I don't have some s**tty skin over the OS, and I don't have to wait for updates. No more frustration over waiting for manufacturers and carriers to get their s**t in line and get the updates out after long delays. It's been said before: You don't buy a phone on what version of Android it's *going to get*. That's just setting yourself up for disappointment.

I wish it had expandable memory, but it isn't a big deal for me, as all of my music (which used to take the majority of space on my phone) is now on the cloud and can be streamed to me phone.

Overall, I think it is the best choice for any Android user. One cool thing was that when I put my SIM into the phone, it automatically loaded the appropriate internet settings for AT&T, and I was able to browse right away on HSPA+.

28. itiswhatitis posted on 31 Jan 2012, 14:37 4 3

I dont' know if its just me but as soon as i saw the design i was hopelessly disappointed with it apart from the fact that's its got ICS there's nothing better than GSII!!!

31. fatakboy6699 posted on 31 Jan 2012, 15:24 0 3

nice phone but in my opinion razr is better :)

33. trumpet116 posted on 31 Jan 2012, 16:25 0 0

I think they did a pretty bad job with the sizing. The Titan has a bigger screen and hardware buttons and it's smaller. If the fixed that, or maybe made a mini version plus improved the camera, it would be the best Android device, as it should be.

35. oldmandaddy posted on 31 Jan 2012, 16:34 1 4

l owned this phone for ten days then returned and exchanged for i phone4s. The sound ,speaker,battery and camera are bad. ICS android is good. Honestly, the phone only worth not more then$ 99 .

37. remixfa posted on 31 Jan 2012, 17:02 1 0

I live how mobile user only really complains about aesthetics ..... all which were not a surprise... and then gives the phone a horrible review for it. durka durka. did u buy it sight unseen or something? lolol

38. shamu11 posted on 31 Jan 2012, 18:23 1 0

Love my Galaxy Nexus! Can't wait for the next one!

41. TreyTreyTaylor posted on 31 Jan 2012, 19:05 1 0

Love it to death. Wouldn't even trade it for a GS2. My nexus doesnt look like anybody elses. Red softkeys, red battery bar, red clock, this phone is as personal as it gets. Battery isn't the best but i think I'm nexus for life. Unless GS3 comes to Verizon.

42. joey18 posted on 31 Jan 2012, 19:18 0 6

The phone is ugly the ics is too dark the phone reboots alot so not recomend ?

43. u-suck-more posted on 31 Jan 2012, 19:40 2 0

Why is it tt ppl cannot respect other peoples opinion? if someone prefers the razr over the galaxy nexus, so be it. why do u have to 'defend' the nexus? the galaxy nexus is not a perfect device and neither is the razr. Different ppl and have different opinion, there is no need to be a sarcastic little cunt to them just because they prefer IPS panels over super amoled ones or because they prefer some other phone over the nexus

46. redmd posted on 31 Jan 2012, 23:22 1 0

I like the galaxy nexus. but got the note instead. nexus will be my secondary phone.

47. zaryab_hussain77 posted on 01 Feb 2012, 00:19 0 0

i think gs2 is better........and gs3 will be best......the only thing that gs2 needs is ics update

48. zaryab_hussain77 posted on 01 Feb 2012, 00:25 0 1

nexus is a good phone but not available in ua e.......

49. shnibz posted on 01 Feb 2012, 06:37 0 0

All i can say i that I love my Nexus and wouldnt trade it fany other device that Verizon has, its a great phone!.........just wish i could sync my Facebook contcts

55. ChafedBanana posted on 05 Feb 2012, 23:34 1 0

@shnibz: download Friendcaster and use that app to sync your Facebook friends with your contacts. It also gives you audible alerts right away if you get a FB message.