60 mins with Gnex

[cubus]

I spent 2 hours at the store last night waiting for Verizon to straight their stuff out. I got Razr as a in between device until Gnex _finally_ comes out. So I played with Gnex. Here are my observations.

1. Build quality
The battery cover was secured with 4 strips of electrical tape. I joked and asked the rep if the electrical tape is included in the box. He didn't find it funny and told me that the security thingy they attach to the cover would constantly pull it off. Oops

2. Heat
I thought Razr heats up but boy is that Gnex running hot. With Razr I'd need to run some flash webs for a unit to warm up but Gnex would get hot while flipping home screens.

3. Screen
15" and more away from my face i thought that Razr screen is nicer: brighter and whites were more white and blacks were black. Only when inches away from my face I'd notice higher resolution on Gnex.

4. Lte/3g speed
So Gnex had about 20 entries in the Speedtest and only one was above 10mbps. I run Razr, Gnex and bionic and Razr was 14, bionic 9 and Gnex 7.5 mbps. While browsing history I was also amazed how may tests were in 3g and well below 1mbps. That's when I started comparing bars.
Gnex had hands down the worst reception out of all devices on the display. 4 lte bars on Razr, 1 on Gnex. Gnex also was flipping between 3g and lte all the time and the speed on 3g was about half that on Razr.

5. Call quality
It was very good but there was a clear lag while punching numbers in. Weird.

6. UI
I REALLY didn't like the on screen buttons. They kept on disappearing all the time and menu button was weirdly stuffed in the right corner of the button bar. Sometimes it is there sometimes not.
Edit:
I didn't like how hone screens transition. When I was flipping them slow it was kind of fun to see how the next screen appears from the back. Flipping fast, it was somewhat disorienting and just seemed messy (I thought that a new screen is getting superimposed). Just my preference I guess.

7. Speakerphone
It is not a loudspeaker, it just makes the sound comes out from a different hole.

8. Car dock
I LOVE Razr car dock. Gnex car dock (Verizon version). Lol, lets just leave it without a comment.

At that point I had enough and I spent another hour playing with Xyboard.

I am keeping the Razr.

 

[paul-c]

What did you think of the Xyboard?

 

[elvisgp]

Well everyone has their own preferences. Although I have to admit that when I was buying my gnex, I took a little time to play with the razor. And and it was pretty fast and had a good, solid feel to it. It was also way thinner than i thought. But the galaxy nexus appealed to ME more than the razor did. So here I am now.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[elvisgp]

What did you think of the Xyboard?

The xyboards felt a little laggy to me. They both lagged when switching homescreens. The galaxy tab seemed smoother, faster and more responsive. I don't know if the op had the same issue. Let's see what he says.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[cubus]

What did you think of the Xyboard?

Same as elvisgb said, felt laggy in home screens. Otherwise very decent and I loved the build quality.

 

[androidatic]

I really hope Google ditches Samsung for the next Nexus because I'd really like to get one some day.

BTW, be prepared to be flamed for this thread and the Nexus defense force to be in full onslaught mode.

 

[cubus]

I really hope Google ditches Samsung for the next Nexus because I'd really like to get one some day.

I'm on the same boat, I really wanted a Nexus, but I just couldn't spend $300 for that piece of plastic, pure vanilla or not.

BTW, be prepared to be flamed for this thread and the Nexus defense force to be in full onslaught mode.

I'm sorry if I upset anyone, not my intention and I didn't post it in Gnex forum, cuz I'm not a troll. I just had that opportunity to spend some time with this device.
As I said these were my observations and I hoped that my post would help some people in their decisions or point them to things to look out for when they go to see one.

 

[milesmcever]

Having the phone for a day now I have to respectively disagree with you views of the phone. Coming from a moto bionic and a thunderbolt before that then a Droid x before that then the og Droid before that I love this phone. Since I don't have anything glued to my back cover I don't need to tape it. The heat deal I agree with and disagree with just flipping home screens won't heat it up but using it for 10 mins + it will heat up but no different than any of my past phones. Now the interface is the biggest thing I was unsure about but the more I use it the better I like it and now my other phones seem sub par to this one. I just want to say this phone is sweet and my first impression of this phone was near how you guys fell but after more time it has really changes. Again I just want to say I am not trolling and please don't take it that way everyone has different preferences in phones which is why android rules with the many different phones.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[brackett5]

To each his own. I think thats what it will come down to. I am going back to play with the Gnex and give it a chance, but I am so loving my RAZR right now and I never thought i would be loving this phone.