Trying to love this phone...but not so far.

[Needsdecaf]

So I am a launch day user of this phone. Well, I shouldn't say that. I am on my SECOND Nexus. I returned the first in hopes of improving battery life or signal. In any event, I've had the phones for a while now. This is my third Android PHone (OG Droid, Droid X). I haven't rooted this phone, but I rooted the two previous and have flashed many ROMS and used many alternatives such as Launcher Pro, Miui, etc. The phone is my only phone, and I use it a lot for work. I am in real estate, and on the road a lot. I make anywhere from 5-25 calls / day and receive up to 100 emails in a day. In addition, I use the phone to take business notes and sink with my Evernote account. Finally, the phone is my entertainment (browsing, games, etc.) while on the road and between appointments. In other words, I'm a heavy user who rarely can use wifi. My thoughts:

Pros:

1. ICS
2. Phone Design / form factor
3. Loudness of in-call speaker (not external speaker).
4. Screen size / clarity
5. Quickness / response.

Cons:

1. Battery life
2. Loss of data connectivity at times.
3. Inability to retain phone signal in lower quality areas.
4. Poor camera quality.
5. Lag between screen switching landscape / portrait.
6. Poor keyboard (lag in landscape mode, lack of keystroke accuracy).

Regarding the cons, I feel that I've done all I can to save battery without sacrificing functionality. I have turned off 4G for most of the time, a shame. I've run the battery dry and charged several times. I use wifi when I can. I keep the brightness on auto and never override and I still only get until 1-2 in the afternoon on a business day before the battery is below 10%. Ridiculous compared to my DX under the same circumstances.

Camera quality - well, I've seen the "it's the photographer" posts, but this camera cannot take pictures any better than my DX, and that's only when I try. If I don't fiddle, it takes far worse pictures than the DX, and that's without any changing of the settings.

Keyboard - I've tried a couple of other keyboards - all of them have been no-gos for one reason or another.

I really want to love this phone. I love the pure google experience and the cool factor of ICS. But the battery it killing me. The other things are really annoying. I gave up my DX because it was getting laggy and slow after about a week on any new ROM I would load. Unusably laggy. I waited for the GNex as I was hoping it would be perfect, and it isn't even close.

No way I'm going to defect to a fruit phone. Their app store is nice but I can't stand to be locked down and without my widgets.

I fully intend to keep the phone until the 15th, so I'm not bailing, but man, VZW better come out with some fixes before then.

 

[BlueBiker]

Have you tried the 2100mAh extended battery? I believe it's half off at VZW now. The 13.5% boost isn't a huge increase over stock, but might make you happier, esp. when bringing the original along as a spare.

 

[trophynuts]

I fully intend to keep the phone until the 15th, so I'm not bailing, but man, VZW better come out with some fixes before then.

yeah its more Google/Samsung than VZW that need to get their butt in gear.

I'm having the same issues you are. But i can live with them. I realize that with this phone there is going to be issues. its brand new in every way. Even the fruit phone has issues when it makes a jump to a totally new design and what not. ...ie antenna gate.

If you do swap. what are you thinking of getting. Personally i had the ReZound for 3 weeks and it was a great phone. Just fyi.

 

[pragmatous]

Cons:

1. Battery life
- I'm getting amazing battery life - I'm at 11h 16m 58s with 61% remaining
- You might have a bad phone
2. Loss of data connectivity at times.
- bad phone? exchange for new one
3. Inability to retain phone signal in lower quality areas.
- bad phone?
4. Poor camera quality.
- I dunno I didn't buy the phone for the camera but I think if it autofocused when you touched the button the photos would be better. Probably in a software update.
5. Lag between screen switching landscape / portrait.
- That's software and probably will be fixed in 403
6. Poor keyboard (lag in landscape mode, lack of keystroke accuracy).
- I replaced the google keyboard with swiftkey x and it's great. No problems with keyboard now - but generall speaking thats a software thing too.

Welcome to beta testing ICS thats why the new OS is on a developer nexus phone and not any other phone.

 

[syntrix]

Welcome to beta testing ICS thats why the new OS is on a developer nexus phone and not any other phone.

It's not a developer phone, it's being marketed to consumers in LOTS of VZW commercials as a flagship device.

But ICS is new, we are the first.... gonna be some issues, and someone has to step up with a fix by the end of the year, or especially by the extended return deadline, January 15th.

 

[BubbaNexus]

It's not a developer phone, it's being marketed to consumers in LOTS of VZW commercials as a flagship device.

But ICS is new, we are the first.... gonna be some issues, and someone has to step up with a fix by the end of the year, or especially by the extended return deadline, January 15th.

i haven't seen a single commercial for the GN. i've seen a ton for the SII though.

Welcome to beta testing ICS thats why the new OS is on a developer nexus phone and not any other phone.

all phones have bugs, especially new ones with new operating systems. what did you expect?

 

[memillh]

i haven't seen a single commercial for the GN. i've seen a ton for the SII though.

I saw my first one during the Heat v. Celtics game the other night. Volume was down in the bar where I was, so I couldn't hear it. But, it definitely caught my attention.

 

[rushmore]

Cons:

1. Battery life
- I'm getting amazing battery life - I'm at 11h 16m 58s with 61% remaining
- You might have a bad phone
2. Loss of data connectivity at times.
- bad phone? exchange for new one
3. Inability to retain phone signal in lower quality areas.
- bad phone?
4. Poor camera quality.
- I dunno I didn't buy the phone for the camera but I think if it autofocused when you touched the button the photos would be better. Probably in a software update.
5. Lag between screen switching landscape / portrait.
- That's software and probably will be fixed in 403
6. Poor keyboard (lag in landscape mode, lack of keystroke accuracy).
- I replaced the google keyboard with swiftkey x and it's great. No problems with keyboard now - but generall speaking thats a software thing too.

Welcome to beta testing ICS thats why the new OS is on a developer nexus phone and not any other phone.

1. Battery life is subjective, so more relative to the actual user and their usage habits, compared to their previous device. Your light use might be another's heavy use and vice versa.

2. All 4g devices and even some 3g devices are having issues, due to VZW network issues.

3. There is definitely a reception issue with the Gnex in less than good signal areas. No confirmation this can be fixed, since it could simply be the radio system hardware is weak.

4. Camera is subjective, but IMO the Gnex takes better pictures than the DX.

5. It probably can be fixed, but is this confirmed to be fixed in the update?

6. There are currently touch response issues with the Gnex that others users have reported and has also been shown to happen in games as well. Could be fixed in firmware, but not comfirmed to be an issue being addressed yet.

Seems it is presumptuous to assume the issues above will be fixed, but equally so that they would not be. The one issue (if any) that may be a lost cause though is the signal reception.

 

[pool_shark]

You're in real estate, not sure in what capacity but I'm assuming you're doing work on computers and/or driving. Can't you charge it? I work with computers, I charge mine frequently, even in the car. I have no desire to see how long my battery lasts.

The signal drops are happening to lots of people, but others like myself are not having the problem. Maybe a different one will be better.

I completely agree with you on the camera. I'm using camera zoom fx now. I set the focus to infinity and it's better.

Some people have said the keyboard behaves better if you disable spelling corrections.

 

[BlueBiker]

So I am a launch day user of this phone. Well, I shouldn't say that. I am on my SECOND Nexus. I returned the first in hopes of improving battery life or signal.

1. Battery life
- I'm getting amazing battery life - I'm at 11h 16m 58s with 61% remaining
- You might have a bad phone
2. Loss of data connectivity at times.
- bad phone? exchange for new one
3. Inability to retain phone signal in lower quality areas.
- bad phone?

The signal drops are happening to lots of people, but others like myself are not having the problem. Maybe a different one will be better.

Hello, the OP's already on a 2nd Nexus. How many should it take before you get one that works?

 

[mttfrog13]

There's a pretty easy work around for the lag in landscape mode:
Settings>Language & input> and uncheck the box for “Spelling correction”

For the battery situation, you really shouldn't have expected great battery life on a LTE phone. Turn off lte and you might get relatively good battery life. You should have gotten the extended battery when it was half off. The normal battery is half off right now for $20 right now though.
Settings>"More" under Wireless & Networks>Mobile networks>Network Mode> and check the box for CDMA only

I agree that the gnex gets a slightly worse signal than other verizon phones especially in weak signal areas and its not just because the gnex show the "true" amount of bars as verizon said. The gnex actually does get a worse signal.

I also agree that the delay for switching into landscape mode feels like lag sometimes and not just a normal delay. I also feel like there is a bit of lag when multitasking. Android isn't aggressive enough about closing out programs that have been open in the background for hours.

 

[pool_shark]

Hello, the OP's already on a 2nd Nexus. How many should it take before you get one that works?

Hello,
That would be up to the individual. The OP said they want to love the device, and since not everyone has signal issues it's pretty obvious there are some bad ones.

If the OP doesn't want to try another all they have to do is return it instead of coming here asking for opinions, which we gave.

 

[Crayon]

Sounds like the Nexus isn't for you then. Get another phone.

 

[evrafter]

i haven't seen a single commercial for the GN. i've seen a ton for the SII though.

In the salt lake commercial market, the gnex was being marketed in the Christmas commercials for all of Verizon's 4g phone lineup. But tonight they started showing a cool commercial souly for the gnex. Commercial ends with the narrator saying, "The Galaxy Nexus...the first and only 4g phone running on the new....Pure Android....4.0."

 

[prostang]

I texted my Verizon rep today and was told that they have been suffering outages for a couple of weeks. I was also informed of an upcoming update that is expected to fix signal issues along with another couple of major fixes. He did not know the exact date, but did say it was very soon.

 

[pragmatous]

Then why does it have developer options?

It's not a developer phone, it's being marketed to consumers in LOTS of VZW commercials as a flagship device.

But ICS is new, we are the first.... gonna be some issues, and someone has to step up with a fix by the end of the year, or especially by the extended return deadline, January 15th.

 

[bi0nicman]

i think the signal issues and bad battery for some people probably go hand in hand. i wouldn't be surprised if battery life improved if a GNex update fixed the signal issues ( we can only hope!). personally my battery is fine with moderate use but then again i have pretty decent 4G coverege (decent not great, it does occasionally revert to 3g).

 

[fillyo]

You need to root and install a custom ROM. I am running Axiom, and have been averaging 15-18 hours on light to moderate use, which is far better than what I was getting on stock. I sync a Comcast account, an exchange account, and facebook. Screen is off auto and is about 40%,

 

[jbdan]

You should not "try" to love anything

It's early in the release, only 16 days! If you can't deal with your issues (and I wouldn't as I need a reliable phone 24/7) then at least your on VZ who has a great 4G lineup imo. Go get something that is reliable for you. Or if you can deal, wait it out and see what updates ensue.

 

[BlueBiker]

If the OP doesn't want to try another all they have to do is return it instead of coming here asking for opinions, which we gave.

Okay, that's fair enough. I'm just griping that anybody should have to go through so much trouble to finally have the phone that was advertised.

Then why does it have developer options?

My Rezound and OG Droid have Developer options (under Application settings) and I think the Charge does also. Maybe all Android phones do?

i think the signal issues and bad battery for some people probably go hand in hand. i wouldn't be surprised if battery life improved if a GNex update fixed the signal issues ( we can only hope!).

Yes! A radio that's struggling to maintain a connection is probably burning through a lot more battery. That was definitely the case when I brought my OG out into the back country where it had trouble reaching a 3G signal.

You should not "try" to love anything

Wise words indeed.

 

[Lev16]

You need to root and install a custom ROM. I am running Axiom, and have been averaging 15-18 hours on light to moderate use, which is far better than what I was getting on stock. I sync a Comcast account, an exchange account, and facebook. Screen is off auto and is about 40%,

I'm leaning in that direction currently. 6 hrs of battery life ain't gonna cut it right now. Only on day 3 right now though. Wishful thinking ahead for better results.

You should not "try" to love anything

It's early in the release, only 16 days! If you can't deal with your issues (and I wouldn't as I need a reliable phone 24/7) then at least your on VZ who has a great 4G lineup imo. Go get something that is reliable for you. Or if you can deal, wait it out and see what updates ensue.

Pluses and minuses, always. Once you've tasted ICS, there's no going back IMO. The OS is vastly superior to my prior experiences with Android. I'm just trying to mitigate the whole terrible battery life component right now. Probably need to stop playing with the thing so much, but DAMN that ICS is sweet

 

[jbdan]

I'm leaning in that direction currently. 6 hrs of battery life ain't gonna cut it right now. Only on day 3 right now though. Wishful thinking ahead for better results.


Pluses and minuses, always. Once you've tasted ICS, there's no going back IMO. The OS is vastly superior to my prior experiences with Android. I'm just trying to mitigate the whole terrible battery life component right now. Probably need to stop playing with the thing so much, but DAMN that ICS is sweet

Curious, how do you use your phone and what type of cell signal do you get? Also, what is the typical usage day for you?

My battery life on stock (1st 2 days I had it) was satisfactory for me & what I'd expected 10-12 hours. Now rooted and kernelized I've doubled that, on an easy day more than doubled.

I've been eating the sandwiched cream of Ice since release I'd never go back as well

 

[zerocool79346]

My Rezound and OG Droid have Developer options (under Application settings) and I think the Charge does also. Maybe all Android phones do?

Not to the extent the Nexus does. The Nexus is first and foremost a developer phone and always has been. It is a flagship in that it has the newest OS and best hardware, yes, but with that newest OS comes bugs that plague all new OSes. It is not meant to be a phone that will be 100% perfect software wise like most of the GB phones are at this stage, people who buy thinking that are sorely mistaken. Thus why the Nexus was released with 4.0, but Google isn't allowing manufactures to build off of anything lower than 4.0.3.

 

[BlueBiker]

Not to the extent the Nexus does. The Nexus is first and foremost a developer phone and always has been. It is a flagship in that it has the newest OS and best hardware, yes, but with that newest OS comes bugs that plague all new OSes. It is not meant to be a phone that will be 100% perfect software wise like most of the GB phones are at this stage, people who buy thinking that are sorely mistaken. Thus why the Nexus was released with 4.0, but Google isn't allowing manufactures to build off of anything lower than 4.0.3.

A lot of that is true, but it sure isn't advertised as a beta-quality development phone in commercials or by VZW staff when some random phone buyer walks into a store.

When a buyer walks into that store, they do in fact expect it to work properly and they have a right to be disappointed if the product has rough edges, especially when those rough edges involve vital parts of its functionality: reliable connections, an audible speaker, and a camera that works at least as well as older generation cameras.

It's just not a user's fault if they expect a product to work as advertised. Also, Nexus phones have current but not bleeding edge hardware. I wouldn't mind having that NFC capability on my Rez though!

 

[Needsdecaf]

Thanks to all of those who have posted constructive criticism. Honestly, I was expecting more "see ya" posts!

I have been trolling the root forum a bit but haven't really dug in to see if there are kernels that have helped with battery drain. Perhaps a time to start posting in there and to consider rooting.

A couple of observations:

I don't consider turning off spell correction to be a viable workaround. I have fat thumbs and need all the help I can get.

Also, yes, I expected worse battery life on 4G...but I have disabled it and run 3G almost exclusively. And that data - phone thing is real. Relative to my DX, I drop calls in low quality areas that I rarely did with that one. Places like the elevator lobby at work as well as the parking garage. With the DX, I used to drop a call now and then in those areas. Now it's like throwing a switch.

As for the release, I've had a Verizon corporate insider tell me that they are working on a fix for the battery and signal issues, although this was before Verizon stated on their twitter account about the whole "signal meter" thing and that there wasn't a problem. I predict that there will be an update before 1/15 so that there won't be a glut of returns before then.

We'll see, thanks for the support.