Galaxy Nexus vs. Droid Razr Maxx

[PKayy]

Hey everyone. I'm currently a Blackberry owner and hating it, and it seems like BB is going nowhere now...

So on that note, my upgrade is in 10 days so I'm looking at phones at the moment...

I'm between the Razr MAXX and the GNex. I'm looking for recommendations and personal experiences, problems, outstanding features in your device. (It'd be better if you say stuff and you actually own the device.)


Also, how bad is the GNex stock battery life.

Main uses are watching TV Shows on my device, listening to plenty of music, web browsing and e-mail (Gmail and reg. email from my workplace). And if you say Gnex, do I have to invest in an extended battery and a portable power source? or would you say that's not necessary.

Greatly appreciated.

And also, sorry if this is in the wrong section. Couldn't find a better section for this thread.

 

[Waynerd8]

I have a GNex. Stock battery life was horrible. Now with a custom Rom, it is great. I use Codename. But AOSP also has great battery life. Used them both with Franko kernel.

 

[PKayy]

I have a GNex. Stock battery life was horrible. Now with a custom Rom, it is great. I use Codename. But AOSP also has great battery life. Used them both with Franko kernel.

You have to root to do all this stuff correct? What exactly do those ROM's change? Sorry if these questions are extremely "noobish" but I'm new to this whole Android rooting business.

 

[kil187]

I was in the exact same boat as you 5 months ago. Upgrade was due 5 months ago, so I started shopping and waiting for new phones, Waited on CES also to see what was on the horizon as I was satisfied with my BB for the time being. Also started lurking the forums to do as much research and to get as much info on each phone as I could. SOOO, BB owner, new to Android, stuck between the Gnex, Rezound, and Razr (RazrMaxx because I waited).

After weighing all the pros and cons of all the devices listed above and scouting what was coming up in the next couple of months I decided to go with the RazrMaxx for me and my wife.

While all 3 are pretty much on the same level with each other, the RazrMaxx stuck out for a couple of reasons. One was that huge battery, coming from a BB, I was kinda spoiled not having to worry about battery life and getting a decent runtime with my phone. The Gnex has an extended battery but the cost of 300 more Mah versus the benefits was ridiculous. The Rezound also has and extended battery that made the phone a huge piece of equipment compared to the other 2, add a case to that and you have a literal mini brick in your hands. Second was the SD card slot. I have one and use it on my BB, as do you, I assume. Its convenient and upgradeable and stores a lot of info/music you can move to another phone quickly and easily, provided the other phone has an SD card slot. Third is the location of the headphone jack and the notification light. I do not like the placement of these on the Gnex (they are at the bottom of the phone), I put my phone in the cupholder a lot and listen to music from my phone so this would not work. The notification light placement on the Gnex seemed kind of stupid anyways, but that is my opinion.

The Rezound quickly fell out of the running just based on the fact that I knew I would want a bigger battery and HTC's battery was bulk that I did not want to add to the phone. I'm not too concerned with bulk or "Thinness" but I would like to keep "pocketability" with all my phones. Although the Beats headphones included is added value, for those of you keeping tabs.

This leaves the RazrMaxx and the Gnex. I was initially going to go with the Gnex based off of specs alone. It is a great phone on paper and easily has one of the best screens I have ever seen. 3 of my friends also purchased the Gnex shortly after release and all 3 of them love it, no problems or issues with it what so ever. They did not have any of the issues with it that many were having in the Gnex forums ie: Reception, 3g to 4g switch, speaker quality/sounds being loud, and bugs in ICS. Although there are fixes for most of the issues available in the market and through a custom ROM, I believe the phone has to function properly out of the box and not rely on third party fixes to restore something that should have been there from the beginning (Just my personal belief, especially if I'm going to spend 300 on a phone). There were just TOO many folks complaining about these same things on the boards, too many, and I did not want to take the chance that I would be one of them.

- The Gnex has ICS ---- The RazrMaxx will get ICS, after all the bugs have been worked out, hopefully.
- The Gnex has the huge, really nice screen ---- RazrMaxx has a big screen and not as much PPI, but coming from a BB, ANYTHING is better at this point.
- The Gnex is super customizable ---- Got me on this one, with Moto's locked bootloader and all, but with me being a nub at Android and hacking/ROMS, I don't want to really take a chance at voiding my warranty and screwing up my phone. Although an unlocked/Dev version of the Razr is being released by Moto, so there is some hope for developers and future customizers of this phone...
- The RazrMaxx does NOT have a removable battery ---- Was worried about this until I found out that a hard reset can be performed and in case of a battery failure, everything is on the SD card and the cloud and I have the extended warranty.
- The RazrMaxx and Moto have some of the best accessories around for their phones, the HD dock and the car dock come to mind. Where are those for the Gnex?

I am in no way bashing the Gnex or the Rezound, both are great phones, both just didn't stack up in my comparisons with the RazrMaxx and with what I wanted/needed in a phone/device. Although I will surely miss a lot of the things my BB does so well (BBM, E-mail, and the keyboard) it is time to move on. With me being almost in the same situation as you, hopefully my research and findings will help you out in your choice. Sorry for the long post, just trying to help, Good luck!

-Phil

*edit --- I do own the RazrMaxx, it is quite nice!

 

[PKayy]

I have a GNex. Stock battery life was horrible. Now with a custom Rom, it is great. I use Codename. But AOSP also has great battery life. Used them both with Franko kernel.

I was in the exact same boat as you 5 months ago. Upgrade was due 5 months ago, so I started shopping and waiting for new phones, Waited on CES also to see what was on the horizon as I was satisfied with my BB for the time being. Also started lurking the forums to do as much research and to get as much info on each phone as I could. SOOO, BB owner, new to Android, stuck between the Gnex, Rezound, and Razr (RazrMaxx because I waited).

After weighing all the pros and cons of all the devices listed above and scouting what was coming up in the next couple of months I decided to go with the RazrMaxx for me and my wife.

While all 3 are pretty much on the same level with each other, the RazrMaxx stuck out for a couple of reasons. One was that huge battery, coming from a BB, I was kinda spoiled not having to worry about battery life and getting a decent runtime with my phone. The Gnex has an extended battery but the cost of 300 more Mah versus the benefits was ridiculous. The Rezound also has and extended battery that made the phone a huge piece of equipment compared to the other 2, add a case to that and you have a literal mini brick in your hands. Second was the SD card slot. I have one and use it on my BB, as do you, I assume. Its convenient and upgradeable and stores a lot of info/music you can move to another phone quickly and easily, provided the other phone has an SD card slot. Third is the location of the headphone jack and the notification light. I do not like the placement of these on the Gnex (they are at the bottom of the phone), I put my phone in the cupholder a lot and listen to music from my phone so this would not work. The notification light placement on the Gnex seemed kind of stupid anyways, but that is my opinion.

The Rezound quickly fell out of the running just based on the fact that I knew I would want a bigger battery and HTC's battery was bulk that I did not want to add to the phone. I'm not too concerned with bulk or "Thinness" but I would like to keep "pocketability" with all my phones. Although the Beats headphones included is added value, for those of you keeping tabs.

This leaves the RazrMaxx and the Gnex. I was initially going to go with the Gnex based off of specs alone. It is a great phone on paper and easily has one of the best screens I have ever seen. 3 of my friends also purchased the Gnex shortly after release and all 3 of them love it, no problems or issues with it what so ever. They did not have any of the issues with it that many were having in the Gnex forums ie: Reception, 3g to 4g switch, speaker quality/sounds being loud, and bugs in ICS. Although there are fixes for most of the issues available in the market and through a custom ROM, I believe the phone has to function properly out of the box and not rely on third party fixes to restore something that should have been there from the beginning (Just my personal belief, especially if I'm going to spend 300 on a phone). There were just TOO many folks complaining about these same things on the boards, too many, and I did not want to take the chance that I would be one of them.

- The Gnex has ICS ---- The RazrMaxx will get ICS, after all the bugs have been worked out, hopefully.
- The Gnex has the huge, really nice screen ---- RazrMaxx has a big screen and not as much PPI, but coming from a BB, ANYTHING is better at this point.
- The Gnex is super customizable ---- Got me on this one, with Moto's locked bootloader and all, but with me being a nub at Android and hacking/ROMS, I don't want to really take a chance at voiding my warranty and screwing up my phone. Although an unlocked/Dev version of the Razr is being released by Moto, so there is some hope for developers and future customizers of this phone...
- The RazrMaxx does NOT have a removable battery ---- Was worried about this until I found out that a hard reset can be performed and in case of a battery failure, everything is on the SD card and the cloud and I have the extended warranty.
- The RazrMaxx and Moto have some of the best accessories around for their phones, the HD dock and the car dock come to mind. Where are those for the Gnex?

I am in no way bashing the Gnex or the Rezound, both are great phones, both just didn't stack up in my comparisons with the RazrMaxx and with what I wanted/needed in a phone/device. Although I will surely miss a lot of the things my BB does so well (BBM, E-mail, and the keyboard) it is time to move on. With me being almost in the same situation as you, hopefully my research and findings will help you out in your choice. Sorry for the long post, just trying to help, Good luck!

-Phil

*edit --- I do own the RazrMaxx, it is quite nice!

No need to apologize for the long post! I found this REALLY helpful! Thanks a lot! But is there anything about the interface on the Razr Maxx itself that you don't like? or do you not have any other problems with it?

 

[hmk10974]

Thanks for being so realistic! I'm on an Atrix, from a BB, and I LOVE my phone! My contract is ending with AT&T and my employer gets me a fat discount with Verizon. I need to find a Verizon phone as impressive, reliable and hardcore as my Atrix (i hardly use my desktop pc anymore, I can literally do anything I want on my current phone). I'm leaning toward the RazrMaxx for Motorola sentiment, I think. But with Atrix being my first android, maybe I should give Samsung a chance? Co-worker has HTC Tbolt and has CONSTANT issues...disappearing apps, settings and personalizations randomly (frequently) defaulting. HTC seems...unstable to me.
Anyway, I'm still not 100% on the RazrMaxx, but this definitely helped!

 

[kil187]

No need to apologize for the long post! I found this REALLY helpful! Thanks a lot! But is there anything about the interface on the Razr Maxx itself that you don't like? or do you not have any other problems with it?

I don't have any problems with it as of yet, I'm still getting used to the UI and Android for that matter. Coming from a BB that I set up to be efficient theme-wise (10 micro icons across the bottom) and having access to my most used apps and functions on the main screen, I'm still learning and setting up my phone to be efficient and to my liking. I do like the amount of customization you can do through apps. All in all, I like the UI, as long as I can get it to the way I like it.

I have noticed an issue with the 3g-4g coverage. The phone is picking up and switching from 3g to 4g on a regular basis, no matter the location, moving or stationary. I will investigate this further I'm in an excellent 4g coverage area.

If my post really helped you out please "thank" or "like" it, not quite sure how this will help me out but it seems cool.

Thanks,
-Phil