Galaxy Nexus Watering Hole

[RazorSharp]

Got my extended battery yesterday, charged all night with the phone off. Took it off the charger at 7:10 this morning and at 10:45 I am down to 70%. I guess I am just going to have to accept that the 4G phones will just suck battery.

As jbdan noted, don't forget that you need to cycle the battery a couple times before it will get its full life. I'll be following the steps outlined here to make sure my extended battery is properly calibrated.

 

[Ninjak]

Hey, gang. Sorry I've been away a little bit, but I've been busy fighting my GNex and the Gnex won. I'm sorry to say that this has to go back to the store in exchange for another Rezound. My main problems:

#1: Signal dropping out completely, even on CDMA, in places I should have full coverage and have had with previous phones. I got to my metro station this morning and had nothing but grey bars with no 3G/4G beside it. A phone's useless to me if i can't make and receive calls in reasonable places.

#2: GPS signal/radio is horrid. I know software patches can fix this and the prior complaint, but i don't have time to sit around and wait for one with no ETA. On two commutes in a row to work, the GPS couldn't lock in on me for the entire 20 minute trip. D1, D2, Bionic, and Rezound could do so in seconds. My wife's TomTom takes less time to get a lock when she's driving, and I'm out in the open on public transit in a full coverage area without going into any tunnels etc.

#3: The rear speaker is too low and, although I could shove Volume+ on to fix it, I really don't want to tweak that until Samsung or someone can confirm it won't shorten the lifespan of the speaker. However, I don't believe this volume level was intentional and believe the speaker can handle the boost, within reason. Ringtone volume can be fixed a bit just by using others instead of the low stock ones.

#4: The notification LED is one of the most important features in a phone for me. I knew it didn't work like my other phones, but thought I'd give it a shot. I'd rather not have to manage every single thing through Light Flow, but admit it's doable if need be.

#5: The audio quality I get from people on calls hasn't been the best even when they've been in quiet environments. When my brother phoned me and I could barely make out what he was saying half the time, I asked if he was in a store on his cell. He was home where he gets perfect signal, and I was home where I get a decent one.

#6: Abysmal battery life even after conditioning, primarily due to reasons 1 and 2 above.

The rest are just little things:

- The back is too slick. I had no intention of rocking a case on my Nexus, but the thing slips off of every surface I place it on unless it's perfectly flat. And even then, vibrate can send it on its merry way. This is then sole advantage of the vibrate setting being so weak. I miss the Droid 1 quaking.

-USB OTG. I know it can be unlocked somehow with the right drivers. This is a must for me with no SD slot. Would love to be able to slap a short USB cable onto the Nexus with a flash drive full of music so as not to waste internal space when I don't have access to or want to access the cloud.

The long and the short of it is that I love the phone specs, but I can't use it in its current state. ICS issues don't bother me at all. Those are growing pains we all went into this phone expecting to run into and knowing they'd be patched quickly. But a phone, no matter how fun and high tech, has to be a reliable phone first. Could it be that mine is a lemon, or at least just a bit worse than others out there? Perhaps. But i see way too many people reporting the same issues for me to think that simply exchanging it will solve my woes. It's difficult when looking upon it to imagine parting with it. Last night the plan was to simply exchange it for another GNex. But I have to confirm with a manager that I could even swap it out again in Jan for a Rezound if the problems persisted. If there's even the slightest doubt that's possible when i speak to a manager today, then it's the Rezound for me, which may be my decision anyhow. On the bright side, at least this Rezound ought have crimson keys as opposed to the pink ones on my first unit. Argh, this is so frustrating. Both are great phones, so I'll be happy either way. But I hate to see the condition the GNex launched in after the long wait.

 

[RazorSharp]

You, sir, are really tempting me.
Do you happen to know how long the sale would be?

Hmm, I don't. :/ Could be some sort of holiday promotion. Verizon's website currently says the extended battery is out of stock, however.

 

[jbdan]

I believe you have to be rooted to do that, right? I am not rooted but I will keep running the battery down and charging while off for a few more days.

Yeah rooted sorry about that thought you were. Let us know how it improves over the coming days I bet it will.

After downloading widget if I look for it in the market it only gives me the option to uninstall.
Caches were cleared, fixed permissions. Was on stock but moved to Fab's deodexed 4. 02. No need for data wipe. Wondering if it's just my device or another glitch.

I see. So it doesn't show in your widget list, but going to market says you have it installed and you can only uninstall it (from the market view) from there. Until a reboot. Wierd.

So you fixed permissions. I've never had a fix permissions do squat for me, only mess things up even more. And I've done it too many times to know this. ymmv obviously.

The only way to know for sure if it is a glitch is to troubleshoot it by doing a full wipe and re-flashing albeit a pain, I know, for some.

EDIT: btw were you having this issue before you flashed bigxie's 4.0.2 (or fab same person)?

 

[jbdan]

Hey, gang.

Thx for sharing. It won't be for everyone. Here is to hoping you find the right phone for you!

 

[RazorSharp]

Any football fans?

Super Bowl to be streamed online and to Verizon phones for the first time -- Engadget

 

[Stigy]

BTW if anyone has time please check out this thread and if you can perform the test in there: http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-nexus/467668-battery-life-test-android-os.html

Hey, gang. Sorry I've been away a little bit, but I've been busy fighting my GNex and the Gnex won. I'm sorry to say that this has to go back to the store in exchange for another Rezound. My main problems:

#1: Signal dropping out completely, even on CDMA, in places I should have full coverage and have had with previous phones. I got to my metro station this morning and had nothing but grey bars with no 3G/4G beside it. A phone's useless to me if i can't make and receive calls in reasonable places.

#2: GPS signal/radio is horrid. I know software patches can fix this and the prior complaint, but i don't have time to sit around and wait for one with no ETA. On two commutes in a row to work, the GPS couldn't lock in on me for the entire 20 minute trip. D1, D2, Bionic, and Rezound could do so in seconds. My wife's TomTom takes less time to get a lock when she's driving, and I'm out in the open on public transit in a full coverage area without going into any tunnels etc.

#4: The notification LED is one of the most important features in a phone for me. I knew it didn't work like my other phones, but thought I'd give it a shot. I'd rather not have to manage every single thing through Light Flow, but admit it's doable if need be.

-USB OTG. I know it can be unlocked somehow with the right drivers. This is a must for me with no SD slot. Would love to be able to slab a short USB cable onto the Nexus with a flash drive full of music so as not to waste internal space when I don't have access to or want to access the cloud.

1. You read the Anandtech article regarding signal right?

2. My GPS gets instant locks -- your phone sounds wonky to me. I have no problem getting a lock as soon as I step outside my apartment.

3. USB OTG works with root and I am pretty positive with the right software or flag in the kernel it will work without it. I have it working 100% right now and I am rooted without any ROM or kernel changes. Plug in flash drive and mount it using the StickWatcher app I have.

Sorry to see the phone go -- I didn't have all the issues you are seeing, but this is my dream device. I've waited for this since it was rumored so I will grin and bear the smaller things.

 

[RadYOacTiVe]

Does the NFL app work on the Gnex yet?

Any football fans?

Super Bowl to be streamed online and to Verizon phones for the first time -- Engadget

 

[RazorSharp]

Does the NFL app work on the Gnex yet?

The Market page says I can install it to my Nexus. Was there an issue of the app not working?

 

[Ninjak]

BTW if anyone has time please check out this thread and if you can perform the test in there: http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-nexus/467668-battery-life-test-android-os.html



1. You read the Anandtech article regarding signal right?

2. My GPS gets instant locks -- your phone sounds wonky to me. I have no problem getting a lock as soon as I step outside my apartment.

3. USB OTG works with root and I am pretty positive with the right software or flag in the kernel it will work without it. I have it working 100% right now and I am rooted without any ROM or kernel changes. Plug in flash drive and mount it using the StickWatcher app I have.

Sorry to see the phone go -- I didn't have all the issues you are seeing, but this is my dream device. I've waited for this since it was rumored so I will grin and bear the smaller things.

Yeah, I read that article, Stigy. Unfortunately, doesn't explain why I get completely coverage loss regularly. And thanks for keeping tabs on the USB OTG. I didn't want to root the phone until I was certain I was keeping it, but will do so if something impels me to change my mind tonight, for sure. If I can get an exchange with the assurance that I can swap it out again if need be, I'll likely give it another shot. Lemons happen. But if Verizon tells me this swap tonight will be for the phone I'm "stuck" with, I have to take the Rezound. If not for the complete coverage outages, I'd have held onto it til mid Jan before doing this, giving Google/Verizon more time to work on this.

 

[jasaero]

The answer behind the Nexus' reception issues: AnandTech - Investigating the Galaxy Nexus LTE Signal Issue

I contend this is only a partial answer as my wife has the charge and we have hung out in a fringe 4G area. I got that her bars were laughably exaggerated, but she actually held 4G while I did not. Now this could be further dishonest on Samsungs part as they could be claiming a held 4G connection after it's technically lost if they have some sorta actual signal, but no actual 4G connection or something weird as we did not do speed tests to confirm a variation in bandwidth. But I know for a fact my Nexus was losing and picking up 4g, while mostly just missing it while my wifes Charge was claiming to still have 4G the whole time.

I also pointed out last night that the Charge seems to be capable of higher top end WiFi throughput than the Nexus. Not that that matters to most of us who just need better than our home internet speeds through the wifi. Particularly when I was getting better throughput with the charge as I moved farther from my Access point. Basically I think Samsung and Google do have some room to improve even if it seems in most respects the Charge and Nexus are comparable.

As an aside I tend to wonder if some of this is being caused by battery life concerns in fringe areas and is the reason it seems the Nexus struggles more than other phones in fringe areas??

 

[Ninjak]

Thx for sharing. It won't be for everyone. Here is to hoping you find the right phone for you!

I was hoping and fully expecting that it would be the right phone for me, is the tragedy. That's why I returned my first Rezound to begin with, despite liking it. I hate that it's come to this.

 

[altimax98]

Does the NFL app work on the Gnex yet?

Nope... but Verizon said expect it to be out by the end of next year.... that means we will be able to stream the 2013 Superbowl ;-)

J/k of course. They are playing it off as someone else's problem right now. So don't hold your breath

 

[RazorSharp]

I contend this is only a partial answer as my wife has the charge and we have hung out in a fringe 4G area. [...] Basically I think Samsung and Google do have some room to improve even if it seems in most respects the Charge and Nexus are comparable.

Well, keep in mind that Verizon/Google has confirmed that there is some sort of fix in the works. Even though the AnandTech article claims it's not needed, I think enough people have reported the issue that it's worth some investigation.

 

[sgrinavi]

You, sir, are really tempting me.
Do you happen to know how long the sale would be?

All Verizon 4G batteries 50% off, standard and extended thru 12/31 - Slickdeals.net

All Verizon 4G batteries 50% off, standard and extended thru 12/31
I have seen a few different threads showing 4G extended batteries for a specific phone with 50% off and decided to make a thread that actually showed the entire sale.

Thru the end of the year, Verizon is selling all standard and extended batteries at this price. Extended batteries are $24.99 and regular batteries are $19.99. This promotion is valid via customer service over the phone, online at verizonwireless.com, and at all CORPORATE owned Verizon stores. The best advice I can give to you is that there are a lot of errors that occur when you order multiple accessories on the same order. The system has issues because they have different accessory promotions going on and sometimes it will try and run a different promo with multiple accessories (buy 3 get 20% off, buy 5 get 30% off, 25% company discount). If you try and buy two batteries in the same order, it will only give you the 50% off of one of the batteries but if you do two seperate orders it will give you the 50% off on both batteries. I am a manager for verizon and have to remind my employees to ring these out seperately every day due to it not bringing the price down to 50% off.

 

[jasaero]

Well, keep in mind that Verizon/Google has confirmed that there is some sort of fix in the works. Even though the AnandTech article claims it's not needed, I think enough people have reported the issue that it's worth some investigation.

That was basically my point and I added an edit with a guess our fringe reception issues could be difference in how aggressive radios are being shutdown in fringe areas.

To me in fringe areas there should be a radio button/toggle sorta way to force a signal search and lock more or less ignoring juice required to make it happen so that this kind of battery optimization can be employed if you are someone that isn't concerned with incoming calls while you are in a fringe area or are someone that HAS to have coverage even if it means you need to carry 3 extended batteries.

 

[chanop]

Got extended battery yesterday. Stats so far:

Spoiler

I've got sunday ticket through direct tv on my phone but it wont let me watch certain games due to "NFL rules with non sold-out games". It also only uses 1/4 of the screen. I ended up watching through "illegal streaming sites".

 

[IndecisiveElle]

Hmm just had a random reboot. I'm not rooted either.

 

[jasaero]

BTW, I am pretty sure Moto has some sorta IP related to just this issue of fringe coverage and battery optimization as Moto phones seem to hold signals farther into fringe without extremely adverse battery drain effect due to it. Not sure how this is accomplished, but wish it could proliferate.

 

[Stigy]

The Rezound should have ICS by next year so if you like ICS and you like the Rezound and can wait a bit for software then I see no reason to stick with the Nexus, in your case.

Some people will bear the troubles of the Nexus and wait for updates and ROMs to fix it -- I know I will, but some just can't and we are not going to bash you for it. Although I will try to convince you to stay with the Nexus anyway.

So I am flying out to Arizona with the girlfriend on Friday to surprise her grandparents for Christmas. They have NO idea we're coming -- I am really excited for this.

 

[RazorSharp]

Got extended battery yesterday. Stats so far:

Spoiler

Wow! Very impressive. Though it looks like you're having trouble with the Android OS taking up all your battery. Stigy, have you seen this? Also, chanop, can you post a screenshot of your "Keep Awake" time? Press the Android OS in your battery menu to see it.

So I am flying out to Arizona with the girlfriend on Friday to surprise her grandparents for Christmas. They have NO idea we're coming -- I am really excited for this.

Awesome. Have a great time.

 

[vandyman]

I order an extra extended battery on 12/16 and I guess I should be getting it soon. The reason I said guess, is because there is no way for me to check on my order via VZWs web site for some odd reason. The page has been down for a few days now.


PS; What is an iPhone, I see peeps mention it in there post once in awhile?

 

[woodstorm]

Yeah rooted sorry about that thought you were. Let us know how it improves over the coming days I bet it will.



I see. So it doesn't show in your widget list, but going to market says you have it installed and you can only uninstall it (from the market view) from there. Until a reboot. Wierd.

So you fixed permissions. I've never had a fix permissions do squat for me, only mess things up even more. And I've done it too many times to know this. ymmv obviously.

The only way to know for sure if it is a glitch is to troubleshoot it by doing a full wipe and re-flashing albeit a pain, I know, for some.

EDIT: btw were you having this issue before you flashed bigxie's 4.0.2 (or fab same person)?

Yessir. Thought maybe flashing would fix issue. It's not important enough of an issue for me to a full wipe right now but will see if the next update changes it.
Really just wanted to see if anyone could reproduce this before I went wiping and restoring the Damn thing.

 

[IndecisiveElle]

I order an extra extended battery on 12/16 and I guess I should be getting it soon. The reason I said guess, is because there is no way for me to check on my order via VZWs web site for some odd reason. The page has been down for a few days now.


PS; What is an iPhone, I see peeps mention it in there post once in awhile?

I ordered mine Friday as well. Haven't been able to check site and haven't gotten a shipping confirmation

 

[halon]

Anyone that uses an macbook please pm me.