Honest review I thought that I would Share!!!

[Preach2k]

This is not my Review It comes from an New Nexus Owner in The UK...

Honest review from a critical nerd (me)

I've has my Galaxy Nexus for almost a day now, on Three UK.

I hate how most people rave about phones when they have just forked out for them, and fail to mention any real negatives. When you buy one and it's missing features, it's very annoying than no-one mentioned it.

Here's my thoughts so far. I consider myself a power-user, and have tested almost everything. Overall, people are right. This is the best phone I've touched. I think once devs start making their apps work properly on ICS it'll be much better. Fingers crossed that Cyanogen will fix lots of the annoyances below.

I hope this is useful for someone



The Good:

Feels much more complete and unified.

It's lightening fast.

Most of the best bits of Android have transferred.

Screen looks great.

Face unlock works much better than I thought. Even in low light.

I've only had one crash despite installing a tonne of apps and testing every feature.

Radio seems to work fine on Three UK, unlike the SGS II which has data issues due to fast dormancy. Data speeds are great.

Browser generally much better.

Text input much better, but editing is a little confusing and seems to vary depending on app.

Screen size is great for me, as I use my phones as mini-tablets. Doesn't feel bulky in my pocket at all.

BLUETOOTH STEREO FINALLY DOESN'T CRACKLE - I can hear hi-hats again instead of just distortion.


The Bad:

The 'menu' button is unpredictable. For example, in most apps it appears at the bottom with the softkeys. In Market it's up at the top, near the search button. In some apps, it has gone. Seems to vary and is confusing.

You're stuck with the Google search box on you home screen. I hate this.

Now the button has gone, if an app doesn't have a search icon, you've lost the ability to search.

Also means no long press search, so you have to go back to the home screen for voice commands. This also means that regardless of what launcher you use, if you want voice search, you NEED to have the Google search widget on your home screen.

No USB Mass Storage – they've opted for media device profile instead. My Xbox recognises it but can't play any content. It doesn't work with my car stereo. It doesn't work with my TV. My laptop will see it, but I can't see certain hidden folders. This has just removed a huge aspect of flexibility from Android. It's no longer universal, and more like an iPhone now in that respect.

Icons are as ugly in real life as everyone expected.

Blue theme clashes with everything except blue. Blue icons on blue background feels very bland.

Speech to text seems to dislike my English accent, whereas the old version worked fine.

No longer accepts certain file formats over Bluetooth.

Camera seems buggy when reviewing photos. It works confusingly.

Gallery is not very intuitive at all.

Browser doesn't display Javascript animations properly.

Dropped a few calls.

Wifi range isn't as good as my other Androids

Front facing camera doesn't aim inwards towards your face. It points straight forward at 90 degrees, but it's positioned on the right of the device, so your face isn't central unless you hold the phone at a bit of an angle facing away from you.

Bluetooth calls don't seem to work. Caller can't hear what I'm saying.



Apps - If you can't live without these, I'd recommend waiting to buy until they're fixed

No menu button is shown on Facebook, so there's no way to set it up to sync contacts or notifications. This means no contact photos for now.

Twitter on the other hand syncs all my contacts, despite me telling it not to.

Doesn't support Swype as yet.

Doesn't support MX Video Player.

Honest review from a critical nerd (me) - xda-developers

 

[HES]

Thanks for posting that. I do think it is an honest review . You brought up some great points. The lack of universal search, the some times missing menu button, and the issues with accessing the built in memory to me would be nearly critical in nature

 

[moondrius]

The lack of a search button was one of my main concerns going into ics. Being able to search through any app is valuable and holding search to get to voice commands is a great feature. Losing those 2 are not a huge deal to me but it will be missed.

 

[th0r615]

I have never used the search button on my thunderbolt. Not once.

 

[akhi216]

I'd like to see this guy do a critical review of the iPhone. I also hate it when people act like their phone is the Jesus phone with no flaws.

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk

 

[Mr. Poppalopolis]

That review has basically confirmed a lot of my concerns about ICS, but those could easily be fixed in a software update.

 

[sushiglobster]

This is Google's new baby. I'm sure they'll be all over it with fixes soon.

 

[greydarrah]

I liked this review. The "pros" were all things I love about the phone and the "cons" were things that are attributed to "it's different, so I hate it" (most of us are this way then we get used to it), or "it's a new new OS and there will definitely be some apps that have buggy issues."

 

[qnet]

Seemed like a honest review. I don't do some of the things he's talking about so, it may be different for me. I can't wait to get my hands on one.

 

[dwaynewilliams#WN]

Good review.

 

[nemov]

Swype is working on a beta that will be available soon. That's not really the GN's fault.

 

[Snareman]

They said they got rid of the search button because for the most part no one had a clue what it did throughout the phone and thus didn't use it. I'm in that camp.

 

[labeachdroid]

Good review. Thanks. Does the non-GMail app for Yahoo Mail etc. allow you to change the text size?

 

[Jdm4292]

I wonder if the ffc is as bad as the tbolt

Sent from my ADR6400L

 

[bplewis24]

The lack of a search button was one of my main concerns going into ics. Being able to search through any app is valuable and holding search to get to voice commands is a great feature. Losing those 2 are not a huge deal to me but it will be missed.

These 2 are a huge deal for me.

I remember a while back, when Honeycomb/ICS was rumored to be ditching the Search button, many stated that they didn't care because they never used it. It reminded me of the first 3 months I had my OG D1, and how I never used the search button and thought it was useless.

Then I had an epiphany one day. I don't remember exactly what triggered it, but I realized that the phone is a much more powerful tool when using that search button because of it's universal search capabilities. I can search the web, my phone, or within an app with the touch of a button. Then I found out about Voice Actions, and I used it even more.

I do thank this review because it actually confirms something I was very worried about. I hope there are work-arounds for this or Google communicates to developers how to incorporate search functions into their apps, otherwise I feel like we've taken a step back ...and Google is trying too hard to compete with Apple by becoming like them, instead of outperforming Apple by ignoring their walled-garden.

Brandon

 

[dammitcubs]

whats interesting about this review is that regardless of all the cons. Everyone still says its the best android phone they have ever used despite all their gripes and bug issues.

 

[hyperdude]

These 2 are a huge deal for me.

I remember a while back, when Honeycomb/ICS was rumored to be ditching the Search button, many stated that they didn't care because they never used it. It reminded me of the first 3 months I had my OG D1, and how I never used the search button and thought it was useless.

Then I had an epiphany one day. I don't remember exactly what triggered it, but I realized that the phone is a much more powerful tool when using that search button because of it's universal search capabilities. I can search the web, my phone, or within an app with the touch of a button. Then I found out about Voice Actions, and I used it even more.

I do thank this review because it actually confirms something I was very worried about. I hope there are work-arounds for this or Google communicates to developers how to incorporate search functions into their apps, otherwise I feel like we've taken a step back ...and Google is trying too hard to compete with Apple by becoming like them, instead of outperforming Apple by ignoring their walled-garden.

Brandon

The only way that Google is growing a walled-garden approach to Android is in putting on-screen buttons in ICS (and thus onto the GN), where there are no physical navigation buttons. Yes there's no more direct access to a search function from a hardware button, but that button (ignoring the long-press action) is only useful in contexts where it is put to use - just like the Menu button. What Google is pushing with Honeycomb and ICS is contextual presentation of options and navigation - which cuts down on confusion in the interface as a whole.

And as for incorporating search functions into apps, all developers need to do is to include a search bar onscreen or a search option in the options menu. Which again goes back to the contextual presentation of options, exposing them to the user. For each and every app on your phone, do you KNOW that pressing the Search button will launch a search function in that app? (And same with the menu button, do you know there are options hidden away, waiting to be brought up?)

 

[bulvine420]

No mass storage epic no legendary fail 16gb storage double legendary fail.about. to change my sig and avatar pic.

Sent from my DROID using Tapatalk

 

[Deathshead]

I use the search button everytime I use Navigation in my car on my Droid x.

Long press search, Voice prompt- "Navigate to....."

I think we will see inclusion of a search button on ICS before long.

 

[bplewis24]

For each and every app on your phone, do you KNOW that pressing the Search button will launch a search function in that app? (And same with the menu button, do you know there are options hidden away, waiting to be brought up?)

Are you asking or is that rhetorical?

Of course I know that pressing the search button will launch a search function in that app...that's the whole point: the search button is now gone. Yes, I know there are options hidden away...that's why always having a button to bring it up is so important.

Brandon