GNex: Nothing but problems. Cheap hardware

[Andrew Martonik]

I can also say that Best phone I've ever had. If I had to name one thing I really hate about the phone it is the lack of a removable SDCARD and the decision to use MTP because of that.

Well adding an SDcard just to get back UMS is a bit shortsighted, as it brings in a lot of its own problems when you go back to having partitions.

 

[dbareis]

Well adding an SDcard just to get back UMS is a bit shortsighted, as it brings in a lot of its own problems when you go back to having partitions.

Google not architecting a better solution in the first place is the basic problem. Them removing the sdcard I can live with and more so in future as phones get more internal memory anyway . I was not proposing adding sdcard back although all things being equal I will buy a phone with an sdcard over one without.

Google used the excuse of the removal of the sdcard requiring them to use MTP so that Android and a PC could have concurrent access to the filesystem (the psueuo sdcard). MTP doesn't work (or at least it doesn't work when attached to Windows 7 64 bit).

 

[Andrew Martonik]

Google not architecting a better solution in the first place is the basic problem. Them removing the sdcard I can live with and more so in future as phones get more internal memory anyway . I was not proposing adding sdcard back although all things being equal I will buy a phone with an sdcard over one without.

Google used the excuse of the removal of the sdcard requiring them to use MTP so that Android and a PC could have concurrent access to the filesystem (the psueuo sdcard). MTP doesn't work (or at least it doesn't work when attached to Windows 7 64 bit).

Well, they didn't go to MTP because they removed the SDcard, they went to MTP because when they removed the SDcard they also chose to not partition the internal storage.

MTP comes out of necessity because in order for UMS to work, you'd have to either have the phone's internal storage partitioned (which creates the same issues we had before), or have the phone be off and in some kind of recovery state that doesn't need the OS to be running. I'd greatly prefer to have to deal with MTP for those few times a month I need to connect to my PC for transfer, and have the vast benefits of not having to worry about partition schemes or running out of storage for particular types of files the other 99% of the time my phone isn't connected to a PC.

People beg for SDcards... but then complain when they can't install big apps, run out of storage for particular types of media, or can't install updates because their /cache partition isn't big enough. All of these problems are solved when you stop accepting SDcards and use a single unpartitioned internal storage scheme. I'm not being a defender of MTP, but it's worth dealing with.

 

[Zeinzu]

Works fine for me. Windows 7 64bit. Not sure how you came to the conclusion that it doesn't. You're doing something wrong. Just sayin.

Sent from my Stock AOSP Android 4.1.1 Galaxy Nexus

 

[dbareis]

Works fine for me. Windows 7 64bit. Not sure how you came to the conclusion that it doesn't. You're doing something wrong. Just sayin.

It works well enough (apart from the major pain of there being no driver letter) to look like its working well. In the mean time there have been many instances where not all files are being displayed.

Reasonably often I'll know a file should exist (either created or updated) and if created will not appear in Explorer and if updated it won't update the file details. Refreshing Explorer and even removing and reconnecting the GNEX USB doesn't make it current.

If I use Astro to browse the filesystem then I can see the missing file or updated timestamps and file sizes. Go back to Explorer try again, still not there, just sayin...

My Solution is has been to sync the "sdcard" via a windows share, very slow but at least I can get to the files.

 

[Reno Skyy]

I get good battery life on CDMA nexus working perfect best phone I ever owned

sent from The Leaf Village

 

[snookiesnoo]

You are the one who is crying not able to face facts. The Verizon and GSM nexus forums are full of people with issues. This is typical Samsung quality control and Google can't or doesn't care enough to make them live up to their own standards for a Nexus device.

>join forum of what you should assume are happy users looking for/giving advice
>forum for arguably the best phone on the market
>write long post about how you have had a bad experience
>but ask for no help or make any profound statements
>possibly expect sympathy

sucks for you, but you are in the minority. cry somewhere else.

 

[snookiesnoo]

Exactly why so many Android phones are coming without SD cards these days. SD cards in Android suck plus your average user never buys one.

Well, they didn't go to MTP because they removed the SDcard, they went to MTP because when they removed the SDcard they also chose to not partition the internal storage.

MTP comes out of necessity because in order for UMS to work, you'd have to either have the phone's internal storage partitioned (which creates the same issues we had before), or have the phone be off and in some kind of recovery state that doesn't need the OS to be running. I'd greatly prefer to have to deal with MTP for those few times a month I need to connect to my PC for transfer, and have the vast benefits of not having to worry about partition schemes or running out of storage for particular types of files the other 99% of the time my phone isn't connected to a PC.

People beg for SDcards... but then complain when they can't install big apps, run out of storage for particular types of media, or can't install updates because their /cache partition isn't big enough. All of these problems are solved when you stop accepting SDcards and use a single unpartitioned internal storage scheme. I'm not being a defender of MTP, but it's worth dealing with.

 

[The Hustleman]

Well, they didn't go to MTP because they removed the SDcard, they went to MTP because when they removed the SDcard they also chose to not partition the internal storage.

MTP comes out of necessity because in order for UMS to work, you'd have to either have the phone's internal storage partitioned (which creates the same issues we had before), or have the phone be off and in some kind of recovery state that doesn't need the OS to be running. I'd greatly prefer to have to deal with MTP for those few times a month I need to connect to my PC for transfer, and have the vast benefits of not having to worry about partition schemes or running out of storage for particular types of files the other 99% of the time my phone isn't connected to a PC.

People beg for SDcards... but then complain when they can't install big apps, run out of storage for particular types of media, or can't install updates because their /cache partition isn't big enough. All of these problems are solved when you stop accepting SDcards and use a single unpartitioned internal storage scheme. I'm not being a defender of MTP, but it's worth dealing with.

But that creates a whole new problem!

Now you have to connect the phone to the pc, you can't see thumbnails of pictures you've taken, and the storage is limited to what's in the phone. With the sd card you can simply add more storage and keep it moving.

Removing the sd card is a major deal breaker on a phone for me because sometimes I want to transfer things to my computer.

The carriers have gotten greedy , they promote smartphones, buy phones from manufacturers that get rid of sd card then promote apps that can do the same tasks via the net, but you're using data and they've gotten rid of unlimited data (except for Sprint) so that they can charge you extra.


Sd cards have been a part of android since the beginning, why take a step backwards and remove them?

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Andrew Martonik]

Exactly why so many Android phones are coming without SD cards these days. SD cards in Android suck plus your average user never buys one.

Well unfortunately, all of the manufacturers who have removed SDcard storage (like the HTC One X) kept the partition schemes so that they can offer UMS and not use MTP. So they really got the worst of both worlds. They don't get expandable storage and they still have partition problems.

But that creates a whole new problem!

Now you have to connect the phone to the pc, you can't see thumbnails of pictures you've taken, and the storage is limited to what's in the phone. With the sd card you can simply add more storage and keep it moving.

Removing the sd card is a major deal breaker on a phone for me because sometimes I want to transfer things to my computer.

You can still transfer things though. The way you're wording it, you make it sound like the phone no longer connects to a PC. Yes, MTP is not the best, but it does work. If you need to put something on the phone or take something off, you can do so.

As far as expanding storage in the future, you've got to realize how little space the average user needs. Internal storage of 16GB - 32GB (13.5GB - 29.5GB free) is plenty plenty plenty of storage for about 95% of people (or more). My GSM Galaxy Nexus has 7.72GB free and I'd consider myself quite a heavy user.

My solution? Simply use dropbox. All of my photos are uploaded automatically (only on WiFi, no data usage) and if I ever need to throw a wallpaper, .apk or something on my phone I can do that the same way. Using the Dropbox app on the phone and my laptop is literally faster than finding a cable, pluggin in and transferring. If I need to transfer something large, MTP works and I'll use the USB cable.

The carriers have gotten greedy , they promote smartphones, buy phones from manufacturers that get rid of sd card then promote apps that can do the same tasks via the net, but you're using data and they've gotten rid of unlimited data (except for Sprint) so that they can charge you extra.

As I noted above, you can still connect to a PC and transfer if you need to, and the other services that allow you to transfer wirelessly don't need to be done over cellular data. If you are concerned about data usage and want to have media available for your consumption, I think you can survive with 13.5GB free on a 16GB Galaxy Nexus until you're on WiFi again. Google isn't getting rid of SDcards in order to give carriers more $$ on data plans, they're doing it because it's a better user experience.

Sd cards have been a part of android since the beginning, why take a step backwards and remove them?

Because SDcards are no longer necessary. We can fit plenty of storage on the phone without SDcards and not feel constrained. SDcards are not the best solution for internal storage, and as I continually point out, they add plenty of complications that users have always complained about. Just because it was a valid way to run a phone in 2008 doesn't mean it should be used today.

This is a step forward.

 

[The Hustleman]

Well unfortunately, all of the manufacturers who have removed SDcard storage (like the HTC One X) kept the partition schemes so that they can offer UMS and not use MTP. So they really got the worst of both worlds. They don't get expandable storage and they still have partition problems.



You can still transfer things though. The way you're wording it, you make it sound like the phone no longer connects to a PC. Yes, MTP is not the best, but it does work. If you need to put something on the phone or take something off, you can do so.

As far as expanding storage in the future, you've got to realize how little space the average user needs. Internal storage of 16GB - 32GB (13.5GB - 29.5GB free) is plenty plenty plenty of storage for about 95% of people (or more). My GSM Galaxy Nexus has 7.72GB free and I'd consider myself quite a heavy user.

My solution? Simply use dropbox. All of my photos are uploaded automatically (only on WiFi, no data usage) and if I ever need to throw a wallpaper, .apk or something on my phone I can do that the same way. Using the Dropbox app on the phone and my laptop is literally faster than finding a cable, pluggin in and transferring. If I need to transfer something large, MTP works and I'll use the USB cable.



As I noted above, you can still connect to a PC and transfer if you need to, and the other services that allow you to transfer wirelessly don't need to be done over cellular data. If you are concerned about data usage and want to have media available for your consumption, I think you can survive with 13.5GB free on a 16GB Galaxy Nexus until you're on WiFi again. Google isn't getting rid of SDcards in order to give carriers more $$ on data plans, they're doing it because it's a better user experience.



Because SDcards are no longer necessary. We can fit plenty of storage on the phone without SDcards and not feel constrained. SDcards are not the best solution for internal storage, and as I continually point out, they add plenty of complications that users have always complained about. Just because it was a valid way to run a phone in 2008 doesn't mean it should be used today.

This is a step forward.

I completely disagree.

Micro sd is definitely a step BACKWARDS!

Let's say you're phone gets damaged, you can't simply remove the sd card, you have to replace the phone and lose everything on that phone!

Oh and what issues do they cause?

I've NEVER had a problem with an ad card.



Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Andrew Martonik]

Let's say you're phone gets damaged, you can't simply remove the sd card, you have to replace the phone and lose everything on that phone!

If your phone gets damaged, the SDcard will also often be damaged or unremovable. Not to mention that the SDcard in your phone should never ever (ever ever!) be your single backup of any data you think is important to you. That's just common sense when it comes to backup and data security.

But that's not what I'm talking about here...

Oh and what issues do they cause?

I've NEVER had a problem with an ad card.

I think you're missing the point here. My problem isn't with SDcards themselves (they're great in my camera), it's the sacrifices you have to make on the phone in order to accept and use SDcards (and by proxy, UMS) in the device.

You create a partition scheme for the internal storage that creates the issues. You have to have predefined unchangeable (without serious hacking and risk) partitions for the system, cache, apps, app data, media and the SDcard. The device manufacturer sets it up for you at the start what they think you will want for each of the areas even if you don't want them that way. Maybe you use a ton of apps, but they've not given you enough room in the phone for apps and you have gigabytes upon gigabytes of wasted "media" storage that you can't use for your apps. The opposite is also true, maybe you want all of your storage for music and only have 5 apps installed, you now have partitioned storage sitting empty waiting for apps that will never be used and you'd prefer it was used for media.

This is why users of the Desire HD (and many other devices) are mad because they can't receive an OTA. Their phone is partitioned to use an SDcard and UMS, and can't be repartitioned to fit and expand an OTA package in /cache or have enough /system area to install ICS. People forget that this is one of the main reasons why updates and OTAs can't be pushed to phones.

Go take an original Galaxy S and try to download a new game that's 150mb (into a /cache partition that's too small), then you'll understand why it's a bad idea to keep putting these arbitrary partition restrictions on devices. If you would just deal with not having removable storage, you eliminate every single one of the problems listed above, and have 1 solid partition that can be used for whatever you want. The Galaxy Nexus will never have a partition problem when receiving an OTA or installing apps.

 

[Zeinzu]

SD cards. Performance degradation and stability issues. Internal storage ftw.

Sent from my Stock AOSP Android 4.1.1 Galaxy Nexus

 

[anon(1835107)]

=====
I've always loved the gnex but I two have grown tired of its issues. I've had all the following problems on multiple devices:

1. Bad signal strength
2. Over heating with minimal use and when charging
3. Case is overly easy to scratch
4. Weird dark gray lines on white backgrounds
5. Non working notifications tones or vibrate.

Its sad since its my favorite android phone but I've now moved onto the s3.
=====

Are all of those issues resolved with the S3 for AT&T?
I have exactly the same issues with my Nexus and had to return 4 of them and stick with the iPhone.

 

[abtxpress]

Relaying my experiences, for what it's worth....

Had an HTC One X, really liked it but was constantly annoyed with all the ATT crap that comes loaded in it you can't get rid of. I know you can root the phone to get rid of them but I am always hesitant to do things that can void warranty, that's just me.

Anyways, got the Nexus 7 tablet and liked it so much, I wanted my phone to be the same simple experience with Google Now and without other things I didn't want. Have had my GNex for about a week and it has been pretty much flawless. I don't see any kind of a measurable performance difference between this phone and my recently Ebayed away One X. I don't know if I am the lucky one or the exception to the rule or whatever but so far My GNex has been a lot of fun.

Mine and my wife's work flawlessly. We have the toro's, unlocked n rooted with jelly on them.

 

[bunique4life05]

I am thinking about getting a the GN but I want to know if the case is prone to scratch easily? I ask I don't plan to use a case.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums