So after returning 2 G-Nexus and buying the Iphone 4s all i can think about is the GN still

[Shockwave78]

Long story short..

1st Galaxy Nexus bought on Launch Day at 9:00am - Battery was horrific, returned it two days later. On the advice of the forum here i found out many things pertaining to battery life and Android so i went and rebought it!

2nd Galaxy Nexus - Worked beautifully in the 8 days or so that i had it...Battery was getting better and better it seemed. Then i went to use the camera and pay more attention to the shots I was taking. Man, what some garbage pictures . I had to return it...just horrible, and yes i know how to take pictures and yes i know these are only phones. But the camera is just junk via a hardware issue or a software issue.

This leads me to my iphone 4s i bought 8 - 10 days ago...Took pictures right away and was extremely impressed, everything is kosher in picture land!. Next up signal! Average DB on the iphone 4s is -57 to -70 seemingly everywhere i go!, extremely impressed as the GN was pulling -84 steady at my house vs the iphone which is -57, the tower is 1/4 mile from my house and i have a direct path to it in the winter as i can see it through the trees (no leaves).

Then over the last few days i am realizing why switched away in the first place....Stale iOS...just getting old after the same damn thing for 4yrs now. The signal on the GN did not bother me even though it obviously has a weaker antenna..I still got service and thats all that counts really, even with my -84 average DB i was pulling 30mb/10mb data speeds.

Big big decisions...The camera is a huge factor, i have already a bunch of pics from Christmas i would never have had with the GN since they all would have been deleted most likely since they would have been garbage. Christmas is over though..How many pics am i really going to be taking now is what my train of thought is..If i am taking them then they will mostly be outside I guess.

Battery life - It was a dream coming back to the 4s, people say it may have bad battery life but that is because maybe they were expecting the 8hrs or so usage they got out of the iphone 4. With the 4s i get 6hrs usage consistently, with the Gnex i believe i was up to about 3.5hrs.

Decisions Decisions...


*EDIT* Woah...Short story was long

 

[ckelly33]

3.5 hours? I never got less than 5. I now use the extended battery and with the extra juice and the adaptations that android makes over the first few days, I was getting 15 hours of moderately heavy use.

I am on Wi-Fi at home and at work and that helps quite a bit, but I charge zero times in 15 hours.

I LOVE this phone. It would be PERFECT with a decent camera, but.....you can't have it all.

I've never owned an iOS product but I really like the hardware they produce but iOS sucks (my kids have iPod touches and I am the house tech guy).

 

[Shockwave78]

3.5 hours? I never got less than 5. I now use the extended battery and with the extra juice and the adaptations that android makes over the first few days, I was getting 15 hours of moderately heavy use.

I am on Wi-Fi at home and at work and that helps quite a bit, but I charge zero times in 15 hours.

I LOVE this phone. It would be PERFECT with a decent camera, but.....you can't have it all.

I've never owned an iOS product but I really like the hardware they produce but iOS sucks (my kids have iPod touches and I am the house tech guy).

Oh yes on WIFI i could get 6hrs usuage..I was on vacation the week i got my second nexus doing work around the house and I had standby times of over 24hrs with 6hrs usage on a few of those days. All on WIFI though.. In the real world when i went back to work and what would be a typical day for me there is no WIFI that we are allowed to use on personal devices(government contractor) So on an average day i would get around 3hrs usage time.

I would not say iOS sucks, its just that i am tired of it. Going back form the GN to the iphone it was easier to use. Everything just seemed to be one or two clicks quicker when iOS. But still its old, i just wanted to get away from it..which i still do.

ah damn..i can see myself returning the iphone for yet another Gnex again. Does best buy have a limit on how many times you can return/exchange stuff

 

[sneakking]

3.5 hours? were you using it as a lighthouse/wifi hotspot?


edit: ah, usage time

 

[Sandroidfan]

3.5 hours? what are you doing with phone?

You will be surprised what kind of battery life is discussed here.

http://androidforums.com/verizon-galaxy-nexus/474670-how-fix-battery-life.html

edit: Ok, I just realized you meant usage time, not full battery time.

 

[Ltgk20]

One thing I've learned about the Gnex camera from this site and others is that its shutter is setup based on release priority. What this means is that the shutter will release whether the camera has focused or not. I started holding the shutter button for a sec or two before taking the picture and the pics got better. I started touching on the screen to identify the point I wanted to have the camera meter and focus on and they got better again. I think in the end this camera may turn out to be much better than what I first thought.

 

[Shockwave78]

One thing I've learned about the Gnex camera from this site and others is that its shutter is setup based on release priority. What this means is that the shutter will release whether the camera has focused or not. I started holding the shutter button for a sec or two before taking the picture and the pics got better. I started touching on the screen to identify the point I wanted to have the camera meter and focus on and they got better again. I think in the end this camera may turn out to be much better than what I first thought.

did that trick the night before i returned the second one...Not much better at all.

 

[bamorris2]

Long story short..

1st Galaxy Nexus bought on Launch Day at 9:00am - Battery was horrific, returned it two days later. On the advice of the forum here i found out many things pertaining to battery life and Android so i went and rebought it!

2nd Galaxy Nexus - Worked beautifully in the 8 days or so that i had it...Battery was getting better and better it seemed. Then i went to use the camera and pay more attention to the shots I was taking. Man, what some garbage pictures . I had to return it...just horrible, and yes i know how to take pictures and yes i know these are only phones. But the camera is just junk via a hardware issue or a software issue.

This leads me to my iphone 4s i bought 8 - 10 days ago...Took pictures right away and was extremely impressed, everything is kosher in picture land!. Next up signal! Average DB on the iphone 4s is -57 to -70 seemingly everywhere i go!, extremely impressed as the GN was pulling -84 steady at my house vs the iphone which is -57, the tower is 1/4 mile from my house and i have a direct path to it in the winter as i can see it through the trees (no leaves).

Then over the last few days i am realizing why switched away in the first place....Stale iOS...just getting old after the same damn thing for 4yrs now. The signal on the GN did not bother me even though it obviously has a weaker antenna..I still got service and thats all that counts really, even with my -84 average DB i was pulling 30mb/10mb data speeds.

Big big decisions...The camera is a huge factor, i have already a bunch of pics from Christmas i would never have had with the GN since they all would have been deleted most likely since they would have been garbage. Christmas is over though..How many pics am i really going to be taking now is what my train of thought is..If i am taking them then they will mostly be outside I guess.

Battery life - It was a dream coming back to the 4s, people say it may have bad battery life but that is because maybe they were expecting the 8hrs or so usage they got out of the iphone 4. With the 4s i get 6hrs usage consistently, with the Gnex i believe i was up to about 3.5hrs.

Decisions Decisions...


*EDIT* Woah...Short story was long

I also got a GNex on launch day. I had it for about 4 days, and then proceed to exchange it for the RAZR (never had an iPhone). I had the RAZR for even less time; 2 days to be exact. And my reason for returning the GNex was also the camera. But the RAZR just didn't "wow" me, and I didn't feel that it would keep me satisfied for the next two years. Aside from the camera, I loved everything else about the GNex. And even though a better camera (than my DX) was my #1 reason for getting a new phone, I once again went back and exchanged the RAZR for another GNex. One thing that I've found is that the camera is a little better using FX Camera (I think that's what it's called). Still not great, but better, and I think I can live with it.

 

[DanDroid]

46% - Discharging

14h 5m 46s on battery

Wi-Fi On and connected to home router. Lots of text's, email, radio streaming, couple of 15 minute phone calls, display is set to auto brightness; Twitter set to sync every 5 minutes along with weather, no Facebook.

Camera takes great pictures for what I'm doing, anything of a higher quality then I will just use my Nikon.

 

[edhgreatone]

same position as the OP... torn between both phones so I kept both... nexus activated and tethering the iphone 4 (not s)...

so I can play with my rooted nexus and whenever I want to play with my jailbroken iphone I simply click the tether widget and walah... iphone 4 on 4g network = great

I stopped saying 1 device is better than the other... I can play both sides of the argument but at the end of the day they make each other a better phone through friendly competition

 

[JoJoCal19]

Shockwave, you and I are in exactly the same boat. I went from my iPhone 4 to the Nexus and LOVED the phone with the exception of the camera. I am very experienced with using cell cameras and I was just constantly disappointed with the pictures in all situations. The signal also started to bother me after a week.

The final straw came when I finally understood the saying "The best camera is the one you have with you." On Christmas afternoon I forgot the camera bag with our DSLR and point and shoot, when we went to my parents house. The next day I went to the Verizon store and returned the Nexus and ordered the iPhone 4S.

It just sucks that Samsung couldn't just throw in the camera from the SGS II or an even better one. Cameras are very important to me and I don't always have the DSLR or P&S handy, so the cell camera needs to be quality.

 

[crankerchick]

Long story short..

This leads me to my iphone 4s i bought 8 - 10 days ago...Took pictures right away and was extremely impressed, everything is kosher in picture land!. Next up signal! Average DB on the iphone 4s is -57 to -70 seemingly everywhere i go!, extremely impressed as the GN was pulling -84 steady at my house vs the iphone which is -57, the tower is 1/4 mile from my house and i have a direct path to it in the winter as i can see it through the trees (no leaves).

The iPhone is 3G and is reporting the 3G signal level. The Nexus, with the speeds you described (30/10 up/down), is reporting LTE strength, which is inherently lower signal than 3G (but more penetrating signal). You aren't comparing like signals with your comparison.

 

[xliderider]

I'm really skeptical of the claim that the iPhone 4S gets signal readings of -57 dBm. You would have to be climbing a cell tower to get that kind of signal.

I have a Verizon network extender in my room, and the best signal I get is in the low -70's.

 

[Sandroidfan]

Software fix can easily revert Gnex to 3G signal reading instead of LTE. That alone will probably reduce switching to 3G along with some other tweaks, IMO. But 4G speed on Nexus in good or excellent 4G area is blazing fast.

 

[Old Member]

I bought a Galaxy Nexus but I ordered my wife an iPhone 4S instead of a Galaxy Nexus. I did so because I love tinkering with my phone, making it my own. I discovered over the past two years of trying to keep up with her rooted Dinc and my rooted Dinc that I didn't love that. She wants a phone that has good battery life, is simple to use and has a good camera. The iPhone 4S is right for her but the Galaxy Nexus is right up my alley. Different strokes for different folks.

For me the iPhone used to be about "status" and that is one of the many things that turned me off about it. Two years ago, even if the iPhone had been on Verizon I wouldn't have allowed on in my home on principal. Now it's just another choice of quality devices. Now I choose based on need. I chose to sell my Xoom and buy an iPad 2. I choose to buy a Galaxy Nexus over an iPhone 4.

 

[Steven58]

Doesn't the iPhone have that new 4s network? Just like the gnex?

(Steven runs)

 

[DroidR]

Long story short..

1st Galaxy Nexus bought on Launch Day at 9:00am - Battery was horrific, returned it two days later. On the advice of the forum here i found out many things pertaining to battery life and Android so i went and rebought it!

2nd Galaxy Nexus - Worked beautifully in the 8 days or so,...

Then over the last few days i am realizing why switched away in the first place....Stale iOS...just getting old

Big big decisions...

Decisions Decisions...


*EDIT* Woah...Short story was long

Yeah, I had a redhead like that once in my life, but at least I can once again have sharp knives in my house, Decisions, decisions,...

 

[BubbaNexus]

i had an iphone. i could never go back to a screen that small.

 

[Shockwave78]

i had an iphone. i could never go back to a screen that small.

Same thing i thought, but went back to it anyway..After a couple days you get used to it again.

Still thinking about the GN though..I am watching the camera threads pretty closely hopping for maybe a tweak of some sorts or a google update that will allow for better low light pictures. If not I will just be waiting for the next best thing...

Although it is nice coming home with still 65% of battery with about 3hrs of usage!

 

[BubbaNexus]

Same thing i thought, but went back to it anyway..After a couple days you get used to it again.

Still thinking about the GN though..I am watching the camera threads pretty closely hopping for maybe a tweak of some sorts or a google update that will allow for better low light pictures. If not I will just be waiting for the next best thing...

Although it is nice coming home with still 65% of battery with about 3hrs of usage!

that's because you need to justify your purchase to yourself.

 

[jkc120]

Same thing i thought, but went back to it anyway..After a couple days you get used to it again.

Still thinking about the GN though..I am watching the camera threads pretty closely hopping for maybe a tweak of some sorts or a google update that will allow for better low light pictures. If not I will just be waiting for the next best thing...

Although it is nice coming home with still 65% of battery with about 3hrs of usage!

I assume you have tried other camera apps from the market? I know there have been a few posts about the camera where folks have said other camera apps make a huge difference with the camera on the Nexus. Perhaps not making it quite as good as the iPhone 4/4s camera, but let's be honest that's a tall order! But perhaps one of these 3rd party camera apps would get close enough for you that you'd be happy enough, given all the other positives the Nexus has going for it?

 

[jkc120]

that's because you need to justify your purchase to yourself.

That's precisely what he's doing, and I see nothing wrong with it. For him, the great camera on the iPhone and a smaller screen outweighs a bigger screen and a worse camera on the Nexus. I don't understand the negative undertone to your post. Just because it isn't the decision you would make doesn't mean it's "wrong" or deserves this sort of comment. They are simply weighing the pros and cons of the two devices to see which meets their needs.

 

[Shockwave78]

That's precisely what he's doing, and I see nothing wrong with it. For him, the great camera on the iPhone and a smaller screen outweighs a bigger screen and a worse camera on the Nexus. I don't understand the negative undertone to your post. Just because it isn't the decision you would make doesn't mean it's "wrong" or deserves this sort of comment. They are simply weighing the pros and cons of the two devices to see which meets their needs.

Ya that pretty much sums it up...

A few others things also..

4G is fast as hell...But other than app downloading or streaming 3g is 90% as fast for web browsing which is primarily what i use any of the phones.

Although the bigger screen was nice to finally have after the puny iphone screen for years it was not a gigantic change overall user experience for me. The biggest change is mobile websites. They look a 100x better on the galaxy since everything is bigger due to the screen (NFL Mobile website for example) That site alone is amazing on the Nexus. But regular full desktop sites i was not impressed with, nothing to do with the nexus really. You still have to zoom into read everything on forums like these and such. In conclusion on that subject the bigger screen is absolutely wonderful on mobile sites, but i did not notice much difference going to full desktop sites since your zooming in anyway as you would on a small screen size.

Signal issues, for the most part i was happy...I had only one spot where my phone lost signal (actually it was a one mile strectch)where any previous phone i had would never lose signal although it would be clenching on at -110db. But i only go that way once a week to to get rid of trash at the dump so no biggy. Other than that i am in 4g heaven around here.


So in conclusion before i came downstairs to browse here once again for a phone i have returned twice i packed up my iphone 4s accessories and they are in the box ready to be returned with the 4s...I just don't know what to do

Pluses of returning iphone 4s!

1. Get $100 back! (paid full retail $749)
2. Drop Comcast and use unlimited tethering and save $35 a month!

Negative -

1. Horrible camera, will be extremely disappointed when i go to take pics again at a family function or something.

2. Have to buy an ipod to replace iphone use with my car stereo(ipod interface)

 

[AppsRUs]

What all were you doing on your Nexus that you were only able to get 3.5 hours?

On average, I can get anywhere between 9 to 16 hours on my phone. I Facebook, Tweet, use GroupMe, text frequently, browse, and Skype. I really think this is an issue of people not knowing how to use their Android device, and I say Android device because 'bad battery life' seems to be a recurring issues with these phones. Not saying that this is YOUR issue, but I've noticed this more than once. Even my Incredible had phenomenal battery life when everyone reported that it was terrible the first few weeks after it had launched.

 

[Shockwave78]

What all were you doing on your Nexus that you were only able to get 3.5 hours?

On average, I can get anywhere between 9 to 16 hours on my phone. I Facebook, Tweet, use GroupMe, text frequently, browse, and Skype. I really think this is an issue of people not knowing how to use their Android device, and I say Android device because 'bad battery life' seems to be a recurring issues with these phones. Not saying that this is YOUR issue, but I've noticed this more than once. Even my Incredible had phenomenal battery life when everyone reported that it was terrible the first few weeks after it had launched.

Your not reading correctly...3.5hrs usage. Your 9-16hrs is Standby Time including usage.

Look at the screen on time for your actually usage time.