Glad I chose Gnex over Razr

Good call and valid points.

Im not sure I share your opinion..

My signal sucks...no google wallet... have yet to beam anyone..even though its stupid facial recognition doesnt work..speaker sucks...call quality sucks...proximity sensor is possessed and has its own little flickering party..there appears to be no developer support now..did I mention my signal sucks.. and Apple is hell bent on taking this phone off the market. I would love to return this thing for the Razr Maxx

Bartles said:

Im not sure I share your opinion..

My signal sucks...no google wallet... have yet to beam anyone..even though its stupid facial recognition doesnt work..speaker sucks...call quality sucks...proximity sensor is possessed and has its own little flickering party..there appears to be no developer support now..did I mention my signal sucks.. and Apple is hell bent on taking this phone off the market. I would love to return this thing for the Razr Maxx

Click to expand...

Just because you didn't put google wallet on it and you have no one to beam with is not the fault of the phone. I have never seen or had any problems with the facial recognition, call quality is fine and its no fault of the phone that the apple people want to be douche bags about it. Yes the signal isn't that great but I have yet to have any issues because of it. I will agree 100% about the speaker but volume+ is a nice band aid to the problem.

Bartles said:

Im not sure I share your opinion..

My signal sucks...no google wallet... have yet to beam anyone..even though its stupid facial recognition doesnt work..speaker sucks...call quality sucks...proximity sensor is possessed and has its own little flickering party..there appears to be no developer support now..did I mention my signal sucks.. and Apple is hell bent on taking this phone off the market. I would love to return this thing for the Razr Maxx

Click to expand...

You should have returned your phone for a new one. I've had none of those issues.

Bartles said:

Im not sure I share your opinion..

My signal sucks...no google wallet... have yet to beam anyone..even though its stupid facial recognition doesnt work..speaker sucks...call quality sucks...proximity sensor is possessed and has its own little flickering party..there appears to be no developer support now..did I mention my signal sucks.. and Apple is hell bent on taking this phone off the market. I would love to return this thing for the Razr Maxx

Click to expand...

No developer support? What are you smoking?

Sounds like you got a crap phone

Bartles said:

Im not sure I share your opinion..

My signal sucks...no google wallet... have yet to beam anyone..even though its stupid facial recognition doesnt work..speaker sucks...call quality sucks...proximity sensor is possessed and has its own little flickering party..there appears to be no developer support now..did I mention my signal sucks.. and Apple is hell bent on taking this phone off the market. I would love to return this thing for the Razr Maxx

Click to expand...

U mad bro?

Seriously if you're having all these issues you should seek out a warranty replacement with Samsung/Verizon, and once you get a replacement, sell it on eBay. You might get ~$400-450, then turn that around and get whatever phone you want off-contract. It might be a $200 hit but at least you'd rid yourself of the worst phone ever made in the history of smartphones

Cincybearcatfan said:

Anyone that bought the Razr expecting Moto to be true to their word either lives in a dream world or are naive. When I bought my Xoom on launch day we were promised a 4G upgrade shortly after purchase. I sold it 30 day in but as I recall those upgrades came last fall about 6 months AFTER it was released.

Now the promised ICS upgrade will be out Q2 not in January as promised. Locked bootloader and no upgrade = over paying for old technology. (if you buy the Q2 lie I have some swampland I'd like to sell you as well. You're dreaming if you think it will be here before August).

Once they have your money from their promises, there is no motivation to keep their word.

Motorola provides update on Ice Cream Sandwich upgrades

Click to expand...

Motorola never promised any kind of date what so ever for ICS

Bartles said:

Im not sure I share your opinion..

My signal sucks...no google wallet... have yet to beam anyone..even though its stupid facial recognition doesnt work..speaker sucks...call quality sucks...proximity sensor is possessed and has its own little flickering party..there appears to be no developer support now..did I mention my signal sucks.. and Apple is hell bent on taking this phone off the market. I would love to return this thing for the Razr Maxx

Click to expand...

Yeah, get a warranty replacement. Google Wallet is definitely an option. Not sure why you're saying it's not. My facial recognition works flawlessly. But maybe that's because I have a beard. Who cares what Apple is doing. Even if by some miracle they got Samsung to stop selling this phone, they aren't gonna come to my house and take it outta my hand... I already have it and love it.

Yeah, I find that "upgrade schedule" right here: https://forums.motorola.com/pages/00add97d6c

A shock. My sister has a bionic, I have a Xoom (silly me thinking they would actually support the thing) we almost went and picked up two razr maxx's but thankfully the internet cut out right as we submitted the order.

I may have some issues with my Nexus, but at least I know there is some support. My Xoom is a 3/4g device, with the 4g radio and as a developer device I was shocked to learn that there was hardly any roms for it. Honeycomb is basically android vista I was getting tired of it, tied to a contract I was ready to pull my hair out.

I AM running ICS on my Xoom now, but its a rom, built by EOS, my radios work and everything. Thank goodness for independent developers.

So, I learned a few things:
Don't buy a tablet with a 4g radio / on contract (just tether to my phone)
Don't buy or recommend anything with a locked boot loader unless that person don't care about updates or support at all.

One thing I am confused about is why the iPhones have NO bloat or skins on them and almost every android phone does!?

By the time ICS comes out for her bionic, jelly bean will be out, or announced and her contract will be close to being up. I may just help her buy another iPhone. At least it may receive support, and it will come with less crap on it. Or perhaps a nexus for her.

Bartles said:

Im not sure I share your opinion..

My signal sucks...no google wallet... have yet to beam anyone..even though its stupid facial recognition doesnt work..speaker sucks...call quality sucks...proximity sensor is possessed and has its own little flickering party..there appears to be no developer support now..did I mention my signal sucks.. and Apple is hell bent on taking this phone off the market. I would love to return this thing for the Razr Maxx

Click to expand...

Answer to your signal problem.


AnandTech - Investigating the Galaxy Nexus LTE Signal Issue

I've been blown away by call quality. This is the first VZW phone I've used that sounds as good as my wife's 4S.

Yes. Speaker volume is low. It doesn't bother me. Get Volume+ from the market.

I have Google Wallet. Works fine.

Bad proximity sensor? Get a replacement.

If anyone was under the impression that any phones were going to be released or updated to ICS within a month of the GNex releasing on Verizon, I submit for evidence the Froyo and Gingerbread roll-outs, and add in ICS is way more ambitious than those two versions.

As far as unlocked bootloaders, this is Verizon's doing. With CDMA networks, carriers are king. Verizon doesn't want them on their networked unlocked, as they feel it drives up their warranty costs (since most people know how to return to stock and get it honored), and allows people to use services (such as free tethering) that Verizon wants you to pay for. Now our amazing development community has figured out how to get around this on every major phone I can think of anyways, but Verizon doesn't want it to be easy.

I am glad you are happy with your choice Cincy!

Cincybearcatfan said:

Now the promised ICS upgrade will be out Q2 not in January as promised. Locked bootloader and no upgrade = over paying for old technology. (if you buy the Q2 lie I have some swampland I'd like to sell you as well. You're dreaming if you think it will be here before August).

Click to expand...

Q2? Motorola isn't even saying Q2. They are saying "someday". Their roadmap doesn't give ANY dates for the US versions of the Razr or Razr Maxx....rather they state that both are in the "evaluation and planning" process - that's their "stage 1".... not even in development.

Good move getting the Nexus.

Razr is pretty decent phone but I agree that ICS upgrade on it won't go very easy. By that time, Jelly Bean on Nexus will be in sight I guess.

The signal strength issue on Nexus is almost beaten to death, but now I'm inclined to believing it's mostly display thing other than data outage due to VZW or SIM authentication issues. I visited my local VZW store yesterday to check out Droid 4 for friend who wants keyboard phone. 4G signal there was pretty strong. Signal level on D4 was -57dbm and -75dbm for Nexus. If that signal reading is correct, D4 should blow away Nexus in data speed. But when I updated dozen of apps from market on both phone, Nexus finished nearly twice faster than D4. Browsing was also faster, smoother on Nexus. But it's beyond me why Google made signal reading on ICS maxed at -75dbm.

Outatime said:

Answer to your signal problem.


AnandTech - Investigating the Galaxy Nexus LTE Signal Issue

I've been blown away by call quality. This is the first VZW phone I've used that sounds as good as my wife's 4S.

Yes. Speaker volume is low. It doesn't bother me. Get Volume+ from the market.

I have Google Wallet. Works fine.

Bad proximity sensor? Get a replacement.

Click to expand...

Go read the comments under the Anandtech review. Samsung radios are inferior to Motorola radios. In strong 4g areas they may be comparable, but in bad signal areas, the GNex is inferior. My Razr Maxx gets 4G everywhere in my work buidling while my co-workers GNex only gets 3G. I met up with another friend with a GNex in a building known to be a bad area for Verizon and he had no reception while I had 3G sometimes switching to 1x.

alancorp said:

Go read the comments under the Anandtech review. Samsung radios are inferior to Motorola radios. In strong 4g areas they may be comparable, but in bad signal areas, the GNex is inferior. My Razr Maxx gets 4G everywhere in my work buidling while my co-workers GNex only gets 3G. I met up with another friend with a GNex in a building known to be a bad area for Verizon and he had no reception while I had 3G sometimes switching to 1x.

Click to expand...

i agree about the radio. i have faith that radio updates will put this equal with moto/htc.

my Thunderbolt was absolutely TERRIBLE when i first got it....6 radio versions later is was solid. with my nexus, i ONLY have issues at work where i got -100ish dbm with my Thundrbolt on 4G, now i am getting -110 dbm 4g and on occasion it switches to 3g, but it is probably 10% of the time.

i have never been without cell service.

Turdbogls said:

i agree about the radio. i have faith that radio updates will put this equal with moto/htc.

my Thunderbolt was absolutely TERRIBLE when i first got it....6 radio versions later is was solid. with my nexus, i ONLY have issues at work where i got -100ish dbm with my Thundrbolt on 4G, now i am getting -110 dbm 4g and on occasion it switches to 3g, but it is probably 10% of the time.

i have never been without cell service.

Click to expand...

While I also believe the software updates will improve the radio, there is always hardware limitations. Software can only go so far. I think the GNex is a good phone but we all know the 3 weaknesses have been reception, battery life, and speaker volume. Unfortunately these 3 attributes are IMO the 3 most important functions of a phone. They also happen to be all superior on the Razr Maxx. ICS is nice, but it doesn't add any core functionality that I can't have on GB.

Outatime said:

Answer to your signal problem.


AnandTech - Investigating the Galaxy Nexus LTE Signal Issue

Click to expand...

How exactly does this "answer" the signal problem?

Seems every time someone voices an issue with connectivity/reception, this link to that article gets trotted out, like it ends the discussion... don't understand the logic there.

Simply pointing out that yes, the displayed reporting of the signal differs on the Gnex never did anything to make me less frustrated that neither of my Nexuses could maintain a reliable signal. Reading the article, while informative and interesting, doesn't make any one who owns a Nexus and has experienced the problems feel better about the experience.

Bottom line, the OS can report and display the signal a hundred different ways, but if the thing is dropping calls and cannot maintain data connections, there's a problem. An article discussing how signal values are displayed does absolutely nothing to change that.

Now, if the question was "hey, how come the displayed dbm on my Nexus looks different than on my friend's Thunderbolt?" that article would be very helpful. As an explanation as to why there are so many posts bemoaning signal issues, not so much.

alancorp said:

Go read the comments under the Anandtech review. Samsung radios are inferior to Motorola radios. In strong 4g areas they may be comparable, but in bad signal areas, the GNex is inferior. My Razr Maxx gets 4G everywhere in my work buidling while my co-workers GNex only gets 3G. I met up with another friend with a GNex in a building known to be a bad area for Verizon and he had no reception while I had 3G sometimes switching to 1x.

Click to expand...

The circumstances like what you described is also explained by signal display issue. Because the OS on Nexus will see the signal dbm level closer to the threshold like -120dbm than Razr, it will likely force switching to 3G more often.

Though I agree that Nexus signal needs to be better than it is right now, I don't think it's beyond what software updates can remedy. Improving signal by about 10~15 dbm and adjusting 3G/4G threshold level is achievable.

Yea...

I would only be upset if I bought phones for OS updates. Or if that was one of my main reasons. Never has been, never will be. If I have a phone thats working fine right now....OS updates is a bonus. I had my Rezound since 1-14...and have yet to root it. I have no ROMs on my RAZR. Since the Droid X1....OS updates has been on the back burner for me. The hardware getting better balances it out in my case. For the Droid 1...Froyo was needed IMO to make it a better phone. The RAZR as is is alot better than my Droid 1...just based on hardware. The RAZR as is is better than my Droid X1...just based on hardware.

If OS updates mattered to me...I woulda kept my G Nex. But hey....we all have different wants n needs. Regarding the signal, reception of the G Nex....those of us who have actually compared it to other phones side by side...knows it goes a lil beyond decibels and bars. Its either ...it is what it is....or Samsung needs to do better testing.

OS updates is always Nexus strength. I never expected Moto to match or come close to that vs a Nexus. Maybe for the folks that didnt or dont know this is news.

Bartles said:

there appears to be no developer support now..

Click to expand...

You blind, homey? or just don't know how to read?

Bartles said:

Im not sure I share your opinion..

My signal sucks...no google wallet... have yet to beam anyone..even though its stupid facial recognition doesnt work..speaker sucks...call quality sucks...proximity sensor is possessed and has its own little flickering party..there appears to be no developer support now..did I mention my signal sucks.. and Apple is hell bent on taking this phone off the market. I would love to return this thing for the Razr Maxx

Click to expand...

I have 4 full bars of 4g on my phone, my call quality and speaker are fine they sound very good thanks to an app called volume booster. You might want to root and install a 4.0.4 rom or just manually flash an unrooted upgrade to 4.0.4 for better battery and signal, also there is a lot of development for this phone it IS a developer phone as google intends for the Nexus line to be you may want to try sum of the other sites for more rom selections for this beast of a phone. Or just sell your phone and get a locked down device that is Moto and is bogged down with their crapware (blur) that totally kills the beauty that is vanilla android.

Another happy Galaxy Nexus owner here. The volume is softer than on the previous two HTC Android phones I had, but it's fine (I just have to crank it up to almost full instead of keeping it in the middle). I've had no signal issues at all. In fact, I just recently switched from T-Mobile to Verizon precisely because of signal issues. There are tons of places now I get 4G (and fast 4G, not like the T-Mobile 4G) that I used to get zero signal in. Granted, I live in a major metropolitan area, but I'm seeing about 90% 4G and about 10% 3G. No complaints from me on that front.

Battery life is another issue. I knew going into it the battery sucked on the Galaxy Nexus. I bought a spare battery just in case. I also use a Tasker profile that's very similar to Juice Defender. Since the data turns off and on quite quickly ont he Galaxy Nexus, I don't mind data being off when the screen is off. And I manage to get through the day. If I use the phone heavily, I'll make it to about 8 PM, in which case I'm either home and can charge it, or I'm out and can swap the battery if I run out. If I use it lightly, it lasts me from 7:00 AM to midnight, and I can definitely charge it then.

I love that when the next version of Android comes out, I'll get the update right away. But even before then, I love the kind of support the rom community has behind this phone. It's way more than I experienced with my previous two phones.

I won't say this phone is without flaws. It's up to each consumer to decide for herself what are dealbreakers, though, and what's most important. Galaxy Nexus is definitely the best phone for me right now.