***Official G-Nex first impressions thread*** Love it? Hate it?

Checking "bars" for signal strength ( call quality ) vs another phone. Not really a good check because each manufacturer uses different algorithms to paint the bars. A better way is to use an app that shows the db's. As an example a -70db is a really good reception and over -100 borders on almost no signal. I think I used Real Signal when I had my Droid X. Not sure if it is still around. If you are going to do a check, then do it with the other phone in the exact same orientation at the same time. Good luck and post.






Where's Han?

Second day and no regrets here. I did switch over to 3g for most of the day. I'm at 36% battery after 12 and a half hours. Not too bad, similar to my iphone, maybe a little better actually. LTE kills it though. Not a huge deal for me, easy to manage if I know I am going to be away from a charger for a while.

Otherwise, everything is as expected. I wasn't truly expecting this thing to change my life. It does meet my expectations though. Unfortunately, crazy busy weekend with work and a day-trip to Miami, so, I won't get to do a lot of "playing" this weekend. Still learning android and finding new things I can do all the time.

jimbo1mcm said:

Where's Han?

Click to expand...

Right here!

After about two days, I've gotta say the wait was DEFINITELY worth it!

I love this phone. The feel of it, the blazing speed of 4G, the screen, ICS, it's all lived up to the hype.

Only complaints I have are:

1: More app developers need to get moving on optimizing their stuff for ICS.

2. Haven't found an app that will flawlessly play an HD movie without any hiccups.

3. Battery life blows. (But I require full brightness and 4G at all times, so there you go. I picked up an extra battery with its own charger, so that should be fine.)

Other than that, I honestly couldn't be happier. I think I'm more excited about this than I even was with the OG droid when I got that!

I'm at twelve hours off of a charge and at 28% left. The first 7 hours were relatively light use and mostly on WiFi, about an hour of 4G after that followed by heavy texting and playing for the next 4 hours, but using my WiFi at home. All things considered, I'm cool with that.

BabyBlues said:

For those who don't like the notification light I suggest downloading LightFlow from the market.

Click to expand...

Hey BB, I downloaded light flow and am digging it, but now I have a white light constantly on when my phones screen is off. I even uninstalled light flow and it's still doing it...any idea what I did and how I can get rid of it?

jollymon2 said:

Hey BB, I downloaded light flow and am digging it, but now I have a white light constantly on when my phones screen is off. I even uninstalled light flow and it's still doing it...any idea what I did and how I can get rid of it?

Click to expand...

I honestly don't know. I haven't set it up yet so I haven't even looked in the settings. Sorry!

That's it. I tried. I held out as long as I could. But deep down inside my shriveled man-heart, I am going squee over this phone. It is amaaaaazing.

Sparklies and jazz fingers!

Right, back to being a lumberjack.

eedlebop said:

That's it. I tried. I held out as long as I could. But deep down inside my shriveled man-heart, I am going squee over this phone. It is amaaaaazing.

Sparklies and jazz fingers!

Right, back to being a lumberjack.

Click to expand...

Well put, haha.

Will throw in my impression from a 15 minute demo for those with other phones thinking about getting the Nexus can compare. Its a great phone if you are coming from a BB or some ancient Android phone like a Hero or G1. If you already have/had an Evo or an S2 (what I have) your impression will be more, meh. The good of it is the screen is nice and pops, phone is light and it does have ICS. The not so great is it lags in pinch to zoom in the browser, when texting in either orientation (even lags when you use speech to text) no Swype preinstalled, the camera is a step back for Samsung and there is no removable memory.

Signal strength was just fine in the store and the 4G speed on a Speakeasy test killed my Epic on Sprint's network. However, loading up websites didn't show that difference in speed. I tried 5 different sites including Phonedog and other graphics heavy sites. Both phones loaded each site within a second of each other and the Epic was actually faster loading one of them. So I am not sure how useful these speed tests are when it comes to real world things like browsing, emailing, texting...wont notice it really.

Verizon's plans are outrageous to be honest. $50 for 5GB of data and then another $100 for unlimited talk and text..$150? Really? I pay $85 for unlimited everything without a cap on my data from Sprint. So do your research before choosing a plan. Bottom line IMO is this. If you are already on Verizon and have a BB and want to switch to Android or an older (2 year old) Android phone, the GNex is for sure worth a look. If you are on another carrier with a newer Android phone but want ICS, not really worth the increase in price and switching IMO unless you hate your current carrier.

So far, I love the phone overall. I keep having two issues that annoy me:

First, my wifi connection is really inconsistent. I will be sitting in my office, 5ft from my router and the connection will just randomly stop working. I'll be browsing the market and get "no connection" messages a lot. Other times downloads will start and just stop half way. I don't think it's my router because my Macbook works perfectly, as dad my OG Droid.

The other issue is the earpiece on mine gets distorted very easily. I've actually only made two calls on the phone so far - the first one was a little while ago. I couldn't hear the person very well so I turned the volume up. When I did I started getting a lot of "buzzing" in my ear when they were talking, it sounded almost like a "busted" speaker. I had to keep the volume pretty low to keep that from happening. I never had that issue with my Droid. Anyone else have any issues with this? I'm wondering if it could be my particular unit.

jollymon2 said:

Hey BB, I downloaded light flow and am digging it, but now I have a white light constantly on when my phones screen is off. I even uninstalled light flow and it's still doing it...any idea what I did and how I can get rid of it?

Click to expand...

I dont have light flow installed. But yesterday I had the blue led light on constantly when the screen was off. I figured out it was from the messaging app. I had gotten a text msg, which came up in the notification bar. I cleared the notification, but I never read the text in the app. Once I opened the app, and looked at the text the light went out. So you may have an email or missed calll or smthng. Hope that helps.

Oh wow...after a day, all I can say is this thing is amazing. Now granted I'm coming from a 3G phone, but...but...I don't know what is is? The 4g? The Dual Core Proc? ICS? All 3? What an amazing experience. My only complaint (if you want to call it that is battery life, but I have my screen cranked up and 4G on all the time. It's not a big issue since I can charge at work and when I'm home, but I'll probably buy the e tended battery anyway. VERY HAPPY WITH MY PURCHASE!!!

Upgraded today from Droid OG. Wow, what a superb phone! Absolutely love everything about the Gnex. The only slight drawback may be battery life. Even with extended battery its wearing down fast. However, I have been using 4G and high birghtness display settings for hours non stop!

Need to give a few cycles for the battery before definitive conclusions can be drawn.

The display is absolutely stunning, I highly recommend this phone.

Felt like shouting it

Glad you like it, hope you don't mind I moved this to the first impression thread. ;-)

I have been following this phone from it's original announcement....somewhat obsessively some might say. Being a long time, multiple line verizon customer, who is eligible for an upgrade, and signed up for the update notifications as soon as it was offered....I was somewhat surprised to hear NOTHING from verizon until 6pm yesterday, launch day. Also, I only moments ago saw the first tv ad I've seen for it....very unlike the saturation ads for the rezound and especially the razr.
Going into my large, local verizon store this afternoon, I saw plenty of window signage for the iphone 4gs...and of course the razr...nothing for the nexus. They only had one on display, so I of course bened for it. They had it set for face unlock, so obviously it didn't recognize me....lol.
Much to my disappointment, everything I had heard about the "cheap build" looked painfully true to me. The anti-theft device was warping and pulling off the THIN, CHEAP rear cover. I tried to snap it back on, but one side would not latch, period. The size of the phone doesn't bother me, I have large hands.....but the apparent flimsyness of it is very concerning. Add the other things I read in reviews and on forums: battery life-average camera-low external speaker volume-no current swype support-no sd card-no gorilla glass......when I add all those up.....I'm sitting this one out kiddos!

3Oclockslop said:

I have been following this phone from it's original announcement....somewhat obsessively some might say. Being a long time, multiple line verizon customer, who is eligible for an upgrade, and signed up for the update notifications as soon as it was offered....I was somewhat surprised to hear NOTHING from verizon until 6pm yesterday, launch day. Also, I only moments ago saw the first tv ad I've seen for it....very unlike the saturation ads for the rezound and especially the razr.
Going into my large, local verizon store this afternoon, I saw plenty of window signage for the iphone 4gs...and of course the razr...nothing for the nexus. They only had one on display, so I of course bened for it. They had it set for face unlock, so obviously it didn't recognize me....lol.
Much to my disappointment, everything I had heard about the "cheap build" looked painfully true to me. The anti-theft device was warping and pulling off the THIN, CHEAP rear cover. I tried to snap it back on, but one side would not latch, period. The size of the phone doesn't bother me, I have large hands.....but the apparent flimsyness of it is very concerning. Add the other things I read in reviews and on forums: battery life-average camera-low external speaker volume-no current swype support-no sd card-no gorilla glass......when I add all those up.....I'm sitting this one out kiddos!

Click to expand...

I just wanted to comment on the battery cover, I would not worry about that one bit. I had the GS2 before this and it is the same, never once did I have an issue with it or any creaks, it was great.

I have had the Galaxy Nexus for almost a month now and without a case, I have never had an issue with the back, it is very solid when on. The anti-theft device is the culprit there, and I have no doubts that you shouldn't have issues with the back in real world experience.

The other worries are all user dependent and you might have issues with that and that is understandable.

I am liking it. It is the first time I feel like I will be able to keep a phone for the entire 2 years. yes it has some bugs, but most will get fixed soon with an OTA. I no longer will have to root to install the latest os and won't be months behind the latest os and bug fixes.

I'm liking the Nexus so far. Battery life does suck. The camera isn't great but it's not as bad as I thought it would be. The screen is good but not great. Sorry, but I actually think the Rezound has a nicer screen. If you turn the brightness down at all on the Nexus you see banding and it does get a blueish tint when viewed from an angle. Reception and 4G seem to be good so far. Not overly impressed with the speaker or sound quality.

The bottom line is that it's a nice phone and I'm going to stick with it. I just don't think it's the game changing phone everyone thought it would be. Good but not great IMHO. The Rezound will get ICS and there will be other ICS phones early next year. I really don't think the Nexus will be at the top of the heap for that long.

OldMuttonHead said:

Previous phone: Droid Incredible
It's nice having the 32GB of storage. I had to cut down my music library on my Incredible. On this device, everything is back.

So far, I've not noticed horrible battery life, but coming from my pathetic Incredible, anything would be an improvement.

Ok.. that's the good, not the not so good:

Click to expand...

Did you have the AMOLED screen, or the SLCD screen? Mine is the AMOLED screen. Battery life was 2 days average for me. Also, you know the DInc supports 32GB sdcards....

I am loving my phone at the moment. I have been waiting for this phone since the rumors started. I was going to wait for the "Droid HD" aka the RAZR now, but once I heard about this phone I decided I should wait. I'm glad I did too because I love it. I'm coming from a Droid X, and the Droid X sucked imo. Battery sucked on it, the radio sucked in my basement. The nexus has about the same battery for me at the moment, except for the fact the one in my Droid X is the extended and the one in my Nexus is the standard and soon will be the extended. I get 4g in my basement where as the Droid X would get 1x if I was lucky. I'm sorry to hear some people are having bad luck with the Nexus, because it's such a great device for me so far. The only real problem for me is the live wall paper lag. I know everything that bothers me will be fixed, and I expected most of the problems that I had, so it wasn't unexpected knowing it's knew and it would be fixed over time. I love this phone. That is all....

Update after 24 hours of use: almost starting to miss my Incredible.

I feel like I'm pulling a small tablet out of my pocket sometimes.

The more I use the Nexus, the less I like the screen. As I'm reading this thread I'm noticing the background is messing with my eyes. It seems to be very faint greyish/purple, very very faint shimmering effect. Comparing this thread on my DInc and Nexus at the same time, the DInc just looks white, while the GNex looks a little off.

Comparing the DInc screen (the amoled version) to the GNex screen. The DInc screen actually looks superior in contrast. Color accuracy only looks better on the GNex if I look at the screen dead on, a slight angle and the screen gets a slightly colder color tone. I suppose this is one of those things you would have to see in person to understand what I'm talking about.

I actually though I'd have a hard time getting used to the buttons on the screen, the only one that actually bugs me is the recently used (task switcher?) button.

I cannot test 4G still, as I don't live around a 4G area.

3G: My DInc seems to have a stronger signal. At work there is less reception in the parking lot. My DInc always gets service, and I have no trouble with the Internet. The GNex seems to have a tough time getting a signal. Also 3G seems about half the speed my DInc was able to achieve, even in a good reception area. GNex seems to perform like my friend's Moto Droid 1, who is jealous of my DInc's performance when he is sitting next to me.

Battery: I wouldn't expect the GNex to be as good with a larger screen and a more powerful cpu. So far, not horrible, but it's only gone through one full charge (5% to 100%). I wouldn't expect more than a day with this phone.

Performance: Has anyone used a live wallpaper yet? Seems to slow down the Nexus a little.

Camera: Still seems pretty nice. Does better in low light, and had better color accuracy.

My Main Phone I own and will forever love(Until Nokia's Come out) is the HTC Titan, a windows phone 7 device.

As I am a Windows Phone 7 fangirl

However, for my work phone I am using the Nexus and I have to say that I love Android's New ICS update. This updates has definitely made me fall in love with Android all over again. The UI/OS is so much better than any of the previous builds and the UI is definitely on par with Metro UI(Which is the best in my opinion)

I have no complaints about the Software itself and have noticed ZERO problems, battery life is good and signal strength is great.

I've taken like 100 photos with the camera
A) Pictures at a Photo shoot of mine
B) Facebook Profile pictures
C) Pictures at a Nightclub
D) and pictures outdoor

Camera is great

My only major complaint is that I am not that thrilled with the hardware as far as the actual phone itself goes. Idk...I may have been spoiled with the Bionic & Razr(both which I love) but I am just not impressed with the physical hardware.

Overall, the phone is an 8.8 out of 10 to me.

Thanks to the person who suggested the Light Flow app! Anyone know of a flashlight app?

Well, after day 1 with my Nexus, here are my first impressions:

Screen: Holy crap is it amazing. I was already used to AMOLED being an original Galaxy S owner, but it is in every way improved and refined. Gone are the blue-ish whites on lower brightness settings and the cross-hatching, my whites are white and the cross-hatch of PenTile is not noticeable with this resolution at all. Speaking of resolution, it's jaw dropping. First video I looked up on YouTube was the NVIDIA PureVideo HD Test vid. Absolutely stunning. I *do* have a little bit of artifacting happening with an all white or all gray screen at brightness settings below 10 percent, but above that, they vanish, and I have to look VERY closely to see them. This does not bother me in the least as I don't usually hold the phone an inch from my eyes and my brightness level is always above 10 percent.

Feel/Build Quality: Coming from early Samsung to this, I have to say, it is also improved by leaps and bounds. Yes, it is plastic, but you can tell it is high quality plastic. I have the extended battery with the extended battery door in right now, and I actually prefer it to the stock. More comfortable for me. That being said, yes, the phone is a tad slippery still. Easily remedied by the right case though.

Radios/4G/GPS/WIFI: All above average to perfect so far. 0 issues with WIFI. GPS surprised me because of how great it is! They've come a LONG way from the Galaxy S line. As an owner of a Vibrant, in my 18 months of owning it I never once got a GPS lock, even outside. With the Galaxy Nexus, I got a 5m lock in my living room, in about 8 seconds, cold boot. WIFI holds a very strong signal and is very fast. And as for 4G, I know the signal has been an issue for a lot of people, but I have to say mine is great! 3 bars, sometime dropping to 2. Not once have I dropped down to 3G in areas where there is an LTE signal. Speed tests are running so far about 15 down/10 up, and I'm just on the outskirts of my areas LTE coverage. Voice is clear and no dropped calls as of yet. Very happy in this area

ICS/Software/Performance: ICS is a HUGE upgrade over Gingerbread. If you have no experience with Honeycomb, I could see how different and new it must feel to everyone, but it felt very natural having owned a Honeycomb tablet since July. The core Google apps are awesome. Performance is unlike ANY other Android device out there today, I promise. It simply cannot be matched right now. Everything is fluid and smooth. Browser flies. The only issue with performance right now seems to be every other Live Wallpaper that isn't the default Phase Beam one. I can see that some of these wallpapers are directly from the Galaxy S and Galaxy S II line, so perhaps they just have not been properly optimized, or maybe there is a slight tweak or something that is coming. But this is not a huge deal, and I wouldn't even say the other wallpapers "lag", it's more of a noticeable dip in frame rate. It doesn't take any longer to swipe through home screens, it just feels a bit sluggish. Definitely doesn't "stutter" like it does on almost every other Android device.


All in all, I LOVE my Nexus. It will easily last me 24 months and keep me happy. It is 99.5 percent perfect. I have ONE complaint, and one complaint only:

External Speaker: My speaker is plenty loud. I can hear ringtones and notifications just fine, even in noisy environments. Here is my issue, and it is a minor one: like some people have mentioned, I find that there is a very low-volume, but still very audible, "pop" from the external speaker about 2-3 seconds after any sound that comes out stops playing. It is not very loud, but I can still audibly hear it. Now, I'll say this. I'm an audio engineer. I work with and mix audio, and I know general basic audio theory. This "pop" is a normal and it comes from the speaker basically turning itself off when it detects that no sound is currently being pushed through it. Every speaker does this, BUT, on the Galaxy Nexus, it is more audible. And it SHOULDN'T bother me as much as it does, but I guess since I work with audio and I'm programmed to hear and fix these kinds of things, it bothers me 150 times more than it really should.

And it kills me because, aside from this, my device is perfect and defect-free. I see a lot of complaints with the radios, the LTE, the screen, some complaints about performance...I have no issues but this one TINY annoyance. I know I could very easily swap it with another Nexus to try and find one that didn't produce the pop as audibly as mine does, but I'm not sure I want to risk getting one with an LTE or screen issue, as those are more important things.

But other than that this one minor annoyance, this device is great. Battery life is about what I expected with the extended battery. My first charge with moderate to heavy use on mostly LTE lasted me about 12 hours. If I can get 14 hours out of this puppy with light use throughout the day, and 10 hours with moderate usage, I'll be very happy. And there's also the possibility that my issue gets patched with a software fix, as this also was the case with my Galaxy Tab 10.1 when it first came out, but was since fixed.

If I had to rate it on a scale of 1-10 after 24 hours, I'd give it a 9.9. Love it. WIll not even think of trading it for one of the R phones.