Galaxy Nexus experience ... Thoughts?

[mikeyDroids]

Hello there - I'm here to share my subpar Galaxy Nexus story and I'd like to see how many of you guys agree.

I came from an OG, bought a Razr when Verizon extended their return policy, then swapped for my Nexus as soon as it was available.

I must say - the Razr did not disappoint me at all, well minus the camera somewhat and the form factor / build quality was truly amazing. The only real negative to the thing, was motoskinblurcrap.

Now I get the Galaxy, and I'm wishing it was as responsive as the Razr. It's not nearly as quick, smooth, or generally snappy. Sure it has NFC (which is 90% useless to me), a bit nicer screen which I appreciate and understand it needs to render more, and ICS.. which to be honest doesn't impress me overall..

My Galaxy stutters all over throughout the UI - Yes I'm pretty picky when it comes to UI lag. Most transitions are not smooth, and it really hurts the "experience"... The facial unlock is cool, but to be honest the camera takes a bit longer than it should to activate to make facial unlock even worth it..

Linkpack (though it's not all about these shitty benchmark programs, I know.. ) is noticably lower than the Razr(which multithreads in the 80s), and I was even stuck around 40-50mflops when using multi thread. I had to reboot in order for it to jump back up to around 75mflops...

I'm just generally unimpressed by the whole experience by the Galaxy and to be honest, think the Razr is a substantially better phone...

Now I ask - Shall I have some patience for the Nexus and ICS to 'come around' .. or what? Right now I'm very tempted to return it for the Razr, and root that and be happy. I'm just curious as to what other people think about this and if anyone else has a "REAL" comparison. I don't care what blogs say and reviews say, please only respond with real life experiences.

Oh and the time between LED notification blinks sucks too!

 

[Shocky]

Galaxy Nexus is overated as is the pure google experience, I've tried it myself and I also experienced lag.

Nexus devices always have the latest versions of Android, this is not always a good thing imo. I'm starting to think of the Nexus devices as the beta testing phones, everybody else gets the updates later when the manufacturers have had time to tweak them.

Have you tried the Galaxy S II? Razr is a decent phone though but I have to agree the interface is pretty horrible, also uses the PenTile matrix which isnt something I would want without a very high resolution to offset it somewhat.

 

[dcarney999]

I bought mine 2 days after launch (saturday). I love it. there is however one spot, it hangs up when I am in my apps and go to the home screen. This is a huge jump from the Eris though.

I also almost bricked it first day trying to root, just cant figure it out. and hey it works so im not complaining.

All Im trying to say I really do like it. If you don't thats fine, just get a different one.

 

[A.Nonymous]

I actually held one in my hand today. Hated it. I can't reach my thumb directly across the screen. I'm not talking about reaching diagnally or top to bottom, I'm just talking about reaching from one end to the other. It's way, way too big. If I was on a ship and got tossed overboard, I could paddle home on that thing.

 

[BlackHawk1776]

I only buy new phones every two years when my contract is up as I don't feel the need to always buy the latest and greatest phone off of contract. I've been using Blackberries for the past several years as well as some windows phones and for work I've worked with for at least few minutes dozens of other phones and very notably all of the different iPhones. For me the Galaxy Nexus in my 4-ish days of using it has been far and away the best experience and most usable for things other than making phone calls. I've not used my tablet much lately because the screen on the Galaxy Nexus is big enough that I can really work with it. Keep in mind that even though the measurement is larger, it isn't actually larger because the measurement now includes the on screen button area whereas other phones with a 4.x" screen aren't counting that.

My only issue is battery life; I was lucky my first day using it that when I killed the battery by 10am I was going to be at the same location for several hours and was able to recharge my phone. This isn't a huge problem only a minor to mid-level and the reason it's not major is because the phone boots fast and the spare battery kit comes with a dock allowing the idle battery to be charged outside of the phone. This gives me just under 3700mah of battery to sue per day and I can swap out the battery when needed (and since my car has a USB port that supplies power even when the car is off, I can charge my spare battery on the go.) On my last phone (BlackBerry Tour) the phone was god awful slow, boot time was literally 10+ minutes and if I had one or two apps running it would make a notable change in phone responsiveness.

On *MY* Galaxy Nexus I haven't seen any notable lag and it seems to respond as fast as any other phone I've worked with so I've got nothing but positives aside from the battery. (Samsung / Verizon REALLY should have made the 2100mah battery standard, that said it's no worth the extra cash since it is only 250mah extra.)

A.Nonymous,

What are you reaching across the phone one handed for anyhow? If you do that while driving they'll toss you in the jail most places (and if they don't have that law now, they probably will soon.) My hands are easily big enough to reach across the phone (size XXL gloves) but I rarely use it that way - I like to be very conscious about what I'm doing on the phone and I usually hold it two handed.

 

[vikingjunior]

The fact that Android wasn't originally designed for touchscreens is one of the reasons why NO android device is as smooth as a iphone or Windows Phone. Google and manufactures is just going to keep throwing hardware at these devices and it's not going to work.

I have been waiting and waiting for a buttery smooth Android and the happy day has not arrived. I think Windows phone is starting to look good.

 

[Bnice]

If this buttery smoothness was the determining factor for smartphones, why are Windows and Webos not dominating the market? I have friends that own iphones and windows phone and guess what? they all experience some lag.

 

[Adauth]

Played with the Nexus and Razr. Ended up getting the Razr.

 

[mikeyDroids]

Played with the Nexus and Razr. Ended up getting the Razr.

Damn you. I may go back to the Razr. Still trying to like this Nexus.

 

[Crashdamage]

The fact that Android wasn't originally designed for touchscreens...

Off topic, but where did you ever get that idea?

 

[mikeyDroids]

Most of the hardcore android users have already read the UI lag articles and all that nonsense. That's not the point of this post. Its a gneral, I'm shocked I like the razr better and what does everyone else think? ..... stay on target! As my nexus keyboard lags to keep up typing this in landscape mode.

 

[Flavoristic]

splendid phone, I fell in love as soon as I unlock it. Smooth, fast, brillant UI, and pure Google. The only issue is that it needs a couple of updates to be fully compatible.

 

[almorsol]

The fact that Android wasn't originally designed for touchscreens is one of the reasons why NO android device is as smooth as a iphone or Windows Phone. Google and manufactures is just going to keep throwing hardware at these devices and it's not going to work.

I have been waiting and waiting for a buttery smooth Android and the happy day has not arrived. I think Windows phone is starting to look good.

Have you ever try the galaxy S2?
I was afraid about the lag as well and got th GS2 and got no complains at all. As smooth as the iphone 4 I tested it with.

 

[AndroidSPCS]

The fact that Android wasn't originally designed for touchscreens is one of the reasons why NO android device is as smooth as a iphone or Windows Phone. Google and manufactures is just going to keep throwing hardware at these devices and it's not going to work.

I have been waiting and waiting for a buttery smooth Android and the happy day has not arrived. I think Windows phone is starting to look good.

I'm sorry but I disagree with your opinion 100% right there.

I have the iPhone 4S, had Win Mobile 6.5, will never use WP7 because the UI looks very bad imho.

The best phones I've personally used are Android phones. They are very smooth and very easy to use.

iPhone 4S is NOT that easy to use, despite the hype. Windows Phone 7...well I won't even give it a chance, but a friend who works at Microsoft secretly carries an Android phone because he can't stand the WP7 UI at all.

Maybe you've had a bad experience with a starter Android phone that had sub-par harrdware. But the Evo 3D, Galaxy S2, and many current gen Android phones have amazingly smooth interfaces.