Debating whether to exchange my Galaxy Nexus or not ...

[albertsm]

Just to comment on battery life, ever since I flashed the EK06 radio I've been getting MUCH better battery life. For example, right now i'm at 45% with a little over 10 hours use. On the older radio it would be dead by now.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[chriskidwell]

Mine is going back to VZW soon. To me the radio issue is not a small issue, this isnt a tablet its a phone, I love ICS, my battery life is decent and I dont notice the build quality issue because my phone has been wrapped up in my otterbox since purchase.

I owned the og droid and loved the customization and was always flashing new roms and so forth. To me thats the awesomeness of android. As far.as the radio issue goes I'm calling bs that its only the ways bars are showing. My last phone, iphone 4, was always able to stay connected to 3g services. My gn cannot connect to 3g anywhere in the building I work and I have dropped calls in my living room. I hate not having widgets, a smaller screen, no removable battery and VERY limited customization options with an iPhone, but I love having great mobile service practically everywhere I go and being able to depend on it.

I love android and ios both for very different reasons, I just wish samsung would have tested this phone and its radio more prior to release. I am disappointed to exchange this phone for another iphone, however I only want vanilla android and there is no other android phone I want right now. I would be on an iphone 4s now but the vzw stores are sold out until around the 4th.

I'm not a fanboy for either os and please don't take this response in that manner.

 

[Premium1]

Mine is going back to VZW soon. To me the radio issue is not a small issue, this isnt a tablet its a phone, I love ICS, my battery life is decent and I dont notice the build quality issue because my phone has been wrapped up in my otterbox since purchase.

I owned the og droid and loved the customization and was always flashing new roms and so forth. To me thats the awesomeness of android. As far.as the radio issue goes I'm calling bs that its only the ways bars are showing. My last phone, iphone 4, was always able to stay connected to 3g services. My gn cannot connect to 3g anywhere in the building I work and I have dropped calls in my living room. I hate not having widgets, a smaller screen, no removable battery and VERY limited customization options with an iPhone, but I love having great mobile service practically everywhere I go and being able to depend on it.

I love android and ios both for very different reasons, I just wish samsung would have tested this phone and its radio more prior to release. I am disappointed to exchange this phone for another iphone, however I only want vanilla android and there is no other android phone I want right now. I would be on an iphone 4s now but the vzw stores are sold out until around the 4th.

I'm not a fanboy for either os and please don't take this response in that manner.

It sounds like you got a lemon. Did you try getting a new sim card or exchanging the phone? I know a few people with a nexus(myself included) and none of them have data issues like you are experiencing. Did you try a factory reset? Or talking to verizon?

 

[davidnc]

As I stated in other post Im keeping mine ,I still think it the best phone on vzw.
Before the GN or even before the Razor came out I look at other phones being released.
To me the Bionic was cheap looking and was plastic ,same with the Razr thin , cheap feeling and again plastic,non removeable battery. Both the Bionic and Razr have the locked bootoader.Having had the DX(rooted) I wasnt wanting another locked down phone.

I did consider the Rezound IF I didnt want the GN or if the GN just wasnt for me I would have gotten that phone.I had the Incredible (amoled screen version and rooted) tweaked and battery isue wasnt a problem for me on it so fiqured I could do the same with Rezound if I had gotten it.

The battery life on the GN is geting me though the day EZ actually getting better life now then I did when I first got it on launch day and better then I expected

The radio issue for me around home and my travel area is great to good for the most part.The only time it is weak is at work but still I havent had a dropped call,and have data connection .I feel that future updates will make it better .

I am unlocked and rooted and understand how to get back to factory status,

Again Im loving this phone .
PS:
If anyone wants my used DX I will trade ya even up for your GN ,,,, if you no longer want the GN

 

[chriskidwell]

I havent talked to verizon. I work in a fairly large county jail. 4 floors and 900 beds and I think to get good data service inside you have to have very good radios in the phone. Another coworker exchanged his gn for the same reason. I dont use my phone at work much but occassionaly my wife will send me a photo or I will want to check a game score and just cant do it with this phone.

 

[bigcatman]

I don't understand how people think this phone feels cheap. It feels the same as every other phone of its weight and thickness. I think people are just looking for excuses to return it because they bought it thinking they were going to root/unlock and got too scared. I have ZERO issues with the radios as well, and I live in the ing WOODS. I get the SAME exact signal as my Droid X2 and my old HTC Rezound. Srsly people, if you want to return it, do us a favor: stop ing and return it for your white razr.

 

[JeffDenver]

Is this phone worth keeping for the next two years?

Short answer: Yeah, probably.

It was not my first choice for the following reasons: No SD expandability. If you have the 16 gig version, I would at least exchange it for the 32 gig version, since you will not be able to upgrade it again. And 32 gigs total is the most you will ever get on this phone. If space is really an issue for you, I would exchange it. Also, I was not thrilled with the lack of hardware Nav buttons. The Software ones take up screen real estate (so it isnt really a 720p phone, since part of that 720 is used for navigation icons that are normally separate on other phones).

Yeah, samsung has crappy build quality compared to other vendors. That is not necessarily a deal killer though IMO. Just make sure you have your warranty terms memorized and get insurance if you can. I did that even on my Droid 1 (never used it, but the peace of mind was worth the price). I personally think the "build quality" argument on Samsung phones is exaggerated, but I can understand the concern with it.

If you can live with the SD limitation, I think it is a great phone, and will hold up well. I dont think it is the best phone out right now, but it definitely doesnt suck. The only phones that can compete with it at all are the Razr and Rezound.

This is the only phone I'm liking in VZW's 4G LTE lineup aside from the Motorola Droid RAZR. Only reason I wanna stay away from the RAZR is because the battery is not removable, I'm spoiled with ICS right now, and I hate the skin (motoblur) since I already dealt with it from the Droid 2, Droid X, and Droid X2.

IMO no SD expansion is worse than no removable battery. And technically, you can remove the battery on the Razr...it is just an involved process. But you will never have SD expansion on the Nexus.

The Razr will get ICS eventually and will be rooted (if it isnt already). Motoblur can go away just by installing LauncherPro. I have LauncherPro on my Rezound right now, because I dont like Sense.

I've been reading many threads on the forum about this. I suppose Samsung lacks making phones with strong radios? Never had such problem with my Motorola phones. I am aware of VZW making a software update of the Galaxy Nexus showing the wrong number of bars, but that still doesn't explain why I'm experiencing weak 3G signal, slow data speeds, etc. (I don't live in a 4G area, so I set it to CDMA only)

On average the nexus seems to have a weaker radio than the Razr or Rezound. There are Nexus users on here who claim they are getting great signal though. So it isnt universal.

I would also test your GPS and see how good it is as well, as I have seen people having issues with that also on the Nexus. I dont know about the Razr, but the Rezound has the best GPS I have ever seen on a phone. Google maps locks my location almost immediately, every time, even indoors. Never had that on the Droid 1.

This phone feels cheap in the hands and slippery too. Which is why I got a case. I realize it doesn't have gorilla glass either. Hope it'll be good on the long run.

Doesnt it have that special glass that resists fingerprints? That is a nifty feature IMO.

Dont get too hung up on Gorilla Glass. This isnt 2009. The glass is comparable on all three major phones. "Gorilla Glass" is just the Corning product.

Frankly, I think the Kevlar back on the Razr is cooler than the Gorilla Glass. You basically dont need a case for it.

With the standard battery, I would barely get 5-7 hours a day with minimal use! Like seriously, wtf? I understand the 4.65 inch will use up a lot of battery, but not like that. Had to go with the extended battery and noticed improvements. Just enough to get through a whole day with moderate use.

IMO, that is probably going to be normal for this generation of smartphones. I am sure they will sell extended batteries for it.

All in all, I'm just debating if this is worth keeping for the next 2 years (20 months actually). I like it because of it's beautiful HD display. Also the fact it's a NEXUS, so Google will roll out updates to us first before anybody else. Camera is disappointing too. Doesn't even focus unless you keep the phone still for a good 10-15 seconds.

IMO, they are all great phones. I would rank the Nexus as third after the Rezound and Razr though. The Nexus has the following things going for it: Vanilla Android (and ICS right now), best Super AMOLED display, NFC and Fingerprint resistant screen. If you cant live without those features, I'd keep it. Otherwise, I'd trade it for one of the other two.

 

[dannymac77]

Just my 2 cents on battery life, I came from the moto bionic to the gal nexus 2, and both are LTE devices. With my Bionic, I could literally sit there and watch the battery drain when it was on LTE, getting in comparison fantastic battery from the Nexus. I agree, for such a cutting edge flagship phone, was put off on the cheap plastic battery cover that snaps in place. Not using a cover yet but do see that likely failing before the contract is up. my biggest bum out is the fact that i can't seem to change from the default keyboard. specifically the fantastically made thumb keyboard will install and let me adjust settings but cannot tap and hold to change input method. I like ics and see where they have tried to make the GUI alot more accessible to the ios rehabbers but I think time will tell about its long term impact

I need opinions.

Can't really return my phone anymore because I sold my Droid X2 already for $250.

Is this phone worth keeping for the next two years? This is the only phone I'm liking in VZW's 4G LTE lineup aside from the Motorola Droid RAZR. Only reason I wanna stay away from the RAZR is because the battery is not removable, I'm spoiled with ICS right now, and I hate the skin (motoblur) since I already dealt with it from the Droid 2, Droid X, and Droid X2.

The Galaxy Nexus is a great phone, hands down. But here are the things that is making me wonder if it's worth keeping.

• Radio Signal

I've been reading many threads on the forum about this. I suppose Samsung lacks making phones with strong radios? Never had such problem with my Motorola phones. I am aware of VZW making a software update of the Galaxy Nexus showing the wrong number of bars, but that still doesn't explain why I'm experiencing weak 3G signal, slow data speeds, etc. (I don't live in a 4G area, so I set it to CDMA only)

• Built quality

This phone feels cheap in the hands and slippery too. Which is why I got a case. I realize it doesn't have gorilla glass either. Hope it'll be good on the long run.

• Battery life?

With the standard battery, I would barely get 5-7 hours a day with minimal use! Like seriously, wtf? I understand the 4.65 inch will use up a lot of battery, but not like that. Had to go with the extended battery and noticed improvements. Just enough to get through a whole day with moderate use.


All in all, I'm just debating if this is worth keeping for the next 2 years (20 months actually).

I like it because of it's beautiful HD display. Also the fact it's a NEXUS, so Google will roll out updates to us first before anybody else. Camera is disappointing too. Doesn't even focus unless you keep the phone still for a good 10-15 seconds.