Verizon Galaxy nexus not as fast as expected??

Rmattar23 · Jan 31, 2012

so i got my verizon galaxy nexus around new years time and though this phone is fast, i feel kind of disappointed. Anybody feel the same way? For example even with wifi on or 4g things such as youtube videos or certain apps like facebook etc take long to load. Videos on youtube will play and then pause and load in the middle of the video and facebook sometimes takes a while to load the statuses. Could this be problems with the phone or just is it because ice cream sandwich needs to get improved to all these apps? Also i notice that when the phone is doing something like updating apps that it is slow doing other stuff and the multitask button lags when you press it but i heard that is common. On the speed test app though 4g scoring is fast, it is not as fast as i thought. wifi beats it as well. Also, does a difference 4g bars make a big difference in speeds? like would 1 bar of 4g compared to 2 bars make a difference in speed? Are you guys having the same problems? thanks

hurricane630 · Jan 31, 2012

My ONLY complaint about this phone is that. I had the bionic and had constant 4 bars at my house. I could watch an HD YouTube video with no mid video pause for buffering. On my gnex(got a week ago) I always get mid video pause for buffering. The signal strength isn't as strong, but the 4.03 update will hopefully help in this category.

trophynuts · Feb 1, 2012

moving thread to the VZW Galaxy Nexus Sub forum
reason: This thread is specific to the VZW version of the Galaxy Nexus

thank you for your understanding.

jamisont · Feb 1, 2012

its depends on quality of video and your internet connection speed.
if u have high quality on mobile checked in setting on youtube, u need about 5mbps to watch 720p video(HD quality) without interruption.

Tim K · Feb 1, 2012

The GN seems blazing fast to me. That said, I think that there may be some radio issues with the 4G signal. Supposedly the 4.0.3 radios will improve that. As for the bars, the explanation is that the GN more accurately displays the signal strength in the bars and that people are just used to their phones over-reporting the signal strength.

When I am in a strong 4G area pages and videos load super fast. When my 4G signal is iffy it might as well be on 3G.

Real world speeds on 4G LTE according to VZW should be between 5-12 Mbps which is about what I get...though I have hit 14.5 Mbps.

On 3G they should be between 500 Kbps - 3Mbps but probably will be in the 1 Mbps range.

Wifi speeds will really depend on the technology (b, g, n)
b: 5-6 Mbps
g: 20-25 Mbps
n: probably in the 100 Mbps area

So unless you are on an 802.11 b network, Wifi will almost always best 4G speeds.

dhworph · Feb 1, 2012

I find that on 3G usually, webpages load equally fast as compared to 4G. Multitasking causes some general system lag, but that is expected. Streaming youtube 'HQ' usually causes no problem on 4G (2-4 bars). On my tethered laptop, I find youtube 1080p inconsistent and choppy, often having to pause and load, especially at peak times, 720p is usually doable without pausing, and everything below that streams fine always. Surfing the web tethered, webpages load much faster than mobile.

I often find little difference in speeds between 2 bars and above (on 4G). Often 1 bar is enough to give near optimal speeds. In terms of webpage loads, ***edit: strike this statement: I find super-high-speed wifi (100Mbps down, 50Mbps up) to be no different than strong 4G (20-40 Mbps down, 10-20 Mbps up)., wifi network was actually slower than 4G according to speedtest! I'll have to do some more tests though on different connections and with different apps, like youtube.

I do notice a lag often when pressing the back/home/recent system bar buttons. Generally there is some lag with the phone/OS --- as compared to an expectation 100% perfect smoothness.

I think one key is that 4G is very inconsistent, speeds jump all over the place in a short interval of time. This is just my guestimation though.

xCirca · Feb 1, 2012

I've noticed the same thing with videos. But I nitpick things. I have however hit 33mps on 4g

truelove79 · Feb 1, 2012

Facebook is an awful awful app. Don't knock the phone, or any phone, for running the facebook app horribly.

jinwons · Feb 1, 2012

I think 4G radio in Nexus has some bug to be fixed in ICS update. It's working fine in good or strong LTE area. But in other areas, the 4G connection stability is somewhat iffy. It looks like nexus just likes to go back in 3G when it can't hold fast enough (>5Mbps) speed stably though other 4G phones would stay in 4G almost down to 2Mbps. Practically low speed 4G and high speed 3G is virtually the same for internet use. But this makes Nexus seem like radio is weak because 3G/4G hand off is often not smooth either.

So I keep mine in 3G and WiFi most of time unless I'm in good 4G area. It's pretty fast on browsing, youtube with WiFi 3~4 bars, feeling virtually no difference from good 4G connection. Even 3G is more than enough for SNS, browsing news sites. I'm just awaiting the update to fix buggy 4G connection problem. Right now other 4G phones with GB seem more stable, but I think they might also have radio issue initially when upgraded ICS.

Turdbogls · Feb 1, 2012

everyone needs to stop worrying about the radios. they will be fixed. the Thunderbolt and the Bionic had loads of issues when they first came out...after a few software updates, they are good.

you have to realize, you have the very first android 4.0 phone on a fairly new technology (4g LTE) things take time.

FWIW, i usually dont have any issues no matter how many bars i have loading HQ youtube videos without buffering.
but even with 1 bar i will get over 10 mbps, with 4 bars I am in the 18-20 mbps range.

rexdog1888 · Feb 1, 2012

4G LTE changes a lot based on location and other factors. Ex: these are the speeds I get in two cities I spend a lot of time in:
Downtown Houston(4b)- 30-60 Mbps
Outskirts of Houston(3b)- 10-25 Mbps
Downtown San Francisco(3b)- 10-25 Mbps
Outskirts of San Francisco(2b)-5-15 Mbps
The (xb) means x number of bars

VoidedSaint · Feb 1, 2012

i love my GN, i just had 2 complaints with it

signal is not as strong as it should be, and can sometimes take a while to regain data when coming off wifi

and the microphone bug that seems to have hit mine, that turns my voice into a robot sound, however that might have been the Apex rom, so we shall see if that continues for me

CharlzO · Feb 1, 2012

Tim K said:
Wifi speeds will really depend on the technology (b, g, n)
b: 5-6 Mbps
g: 20-25 Mbps
n: probably in the 100 Mbps area

So unless you are on an 802.11 b network, Wifi will almost always best 4G speeds.

Just to add for anyone not well-versed, is that this all depends on the speed of your broadband internet connection. You're only as fast as your slowest link, so if you have a slow DSL connection, it doesn't matter how fast your router can handle. However, if you have FIOS or something snappy like that, then you'll notice that WiFi might be faster than your network data, and is definitely worth a try.

dhworph · Feb 1, 2012

rexdog1888 said:
4G LTE changes a lot based on location and other factors. Ex: these are the speeds I get in two cities I spend a lot of time in:
Downtown Houston(4b)- 30-60 Mbps
Outskirts of Houston(3b)- 10-25 Mbps
Downtown San Francisco(3b)- 10-25 Mbps
Outskirts of San Francisco(2b)-5-15 Mbps
The (xb) means x number of bars

Gives me a good reason to visit houston!

BubbaNexus · Feb 1, 2012

Rmattar23 said:
so i got my verizon galaxy nexus around new years time and though this phone is fast, i feel kind of disappointed. Anybody feel the same way?

nope. mine's been great. :cool:

truelove79 · Feb 3, 2012

Turdbogls said:
everyone needs to stop worrying about the radios. they will be fixed. the Thunderbolt and the Bionic had loads of issues when they first came out...after a few software updates, they are good.

QFT!!!!!!!!!!! Hear, hear!!!!

Verizon Galaxy nexus not as fast as expected??

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