[Verizon] Why did you pick the Galaxy Nexus?

Ask both camps, you'll get different answers from both. I, myself am a Razr user. Reasons: beautiful hardware, battery life, tight nit community and plenty of development to suit me.the galaxy people will tell you how awesome the open bootloader is, how it has no bloat nor blur and how there's ample development. It depends on what you want really? Is the hardware or the software more important to you, really? That's the only question you need to answer for yourself.

Hardware: Moto
Software: Galaxy

This is the honest, non partisan truth.

Look at the GNex screen. Look at the RAZR screen.

Decision made.

I would not consider any MOTO after my terrible Droid 2 experience.

OG Droid - loved (Came from a WinMo phone)
Dinc - Loved.
Droid 2 - HATED and went back to Dinc!
GNEX - LOVE IT!

I would never do I MOTO again thus Gnex was my choice given the superior specs compared to any HTC phone (at least when I purchased my Gnex).

I think at least half of those almost 158,000 posts were in the pre-release thread for the nexus and a lot of the others are posts from people who are unhappy and don't think the phone met their high expectations. With that being said, I have both of these phones and I am going to be keeping the Nexus. Here are some of the major differences that were important for me:

Maxx: The screen isn't as good as the nexus but it isn't bad at all, I would be happy with it. Battery is phenomenal. I wanted to keep the phone just for that reason. Gingerbread is a little stale to me but it is also very smooth and I had zero problems. Signal is great. Lots of accessories and docks to choose from. Form factor is nice but not as good as the nexus. One of the biggest issues for me is just the visual. To me the maxx doesn't look nearly as nice with the giant VERIZON and MOTOROLA on the front. I feel like they should be paying me for advertising.

Nexus: Beautiful screen. Battery is not good, coming back from the Maxx I find myself obsessing over it. ICS is great when everything is working. Unfortunately there are still lots of little bugs with reboots and keyboard lag etc. Signal for me travelling between 2 smaller cities is not good. It's been 5 months and there is still not a single dock that I can use with my pogo pins. Still no software update. The nexus looks almost exactly how I would design a phone and feels great.

For me the nexus won out by a very slim margin and I think some of it may have been for potential. For you it sounds like the modding might be a bigger factor so I would lean toward the nexus. If you're in a strong verizon signal area then I'd say definitely nexus.

Why did I pick it?

Development is #1 for me. Then it's pure sexiness

Very fair AL!

ALurker said:

I think at least half of those almost 158,000 posts were in the pre-release thread for the nexus

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Sadly, that prerelease thread is gone, so it doesn't account for any of the posts.

dreadnatty08 said:

Sadly, that prerelease thread is gone, so it doesn't account for any of the posts.

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That is sad, I was actually planning on going back to read some of those paranoid/angry/excited ramblings at some point.

The gnex does have a ton of buzz and activity on the forums and that is definitely a help. I think many people were expecting a once-in-a-lifetime phone but are a little disappointed with how things are turning out. I still think it stacks up pretty well with other current phones even with all its (temporary) flaws.

My previous phone was the Droid X as well. In fact, it's still sitting on my desk, factory reset, as I'm going to give it to my mom (and teach her to use it) when she visits soon.

I loved it, but I have zero regrets going from that to the Nexus. For one thing, I've been lucky enough not to experience the problems some are having - my signal is functionally the same as it was on the X. I can always make/receive calls when I want to, except the exact same stretch of highway where I always lost signal with the X too. I don't obsess over dbm because my phone does what I want it to.

I unlocked and rooted the first day, tried out a couple of ROMs until I found AOKP, and I'm still on that because I think it's excellent, especially with leankernel.

Honestly, I bought the Nexus for the openness, but as far as build quality goes - I've dropped it naked from chest height on ceramic tile without a scratch, and I dropped it a couple more times from waist height with one of the tpu cases I bought on it, still no harm done. I do envy the battery life of the Maxx, but so do all other smartphone owners, really. I have the 2100 mAh battery, and I never have to charge it more than the usual every-night routine.

And while I am expecting the Nexus to see updates for a long time, even if it doesn't, with an unlocked bootloader, I can find them elsewhere.

I'm not saying the Razr is a bad phone (and I will never understand the flame wars between owners of different phones), I'm just saying that the Nexus was the phone for me.

dreadnatty08 said:

Sadly, that prerelease thread is gone, so it doesn't account for any of the posts.

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Wait....then why do I still see it



Edit: won't show for some reason https://www.dropbox.com/s/lf8xv65jtp1p485/Screenshot_2012-05-07-11-29-58.png

quiklives said:

I unlocked and rooted the first day, tried out a couple of ROMs until I found AOKP, and I'm still on that because I think it's excellent, especially with leankernel.

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To the OP:

If you're planning on rooting your phone and installing custom ROMs and Kernels, the battery life issue becomes moot IMO. I have this exact setup (AOKP M5, LeanKernel M3) and couldn't be happier with the battery life. Before I was rooted, I was happy to just make it through the work day, and if I did, I was charging right when I got home at 4pm. Now, the only time I don't make it through an ENTIRE day (morning to bedtime) is when I am extra heavy on 4G and/or GPS Navigation. Couldn't be happier.

It simply is a better phone. Updates straight from Google if you want to stay stock. Super moddable if you don't. Screen is superior.

NSutherl said:

To the OP:

If you're planning on rooting your phone and installing custom ROMs and Kernels, the battery life issue becomes moot IMO. I have this exact setup (AOKP M5, LeanKernel M3) and couldn't be happier with the battery life. Before I was rooted, I was happy to just make it through the work day, and if I did, I was charging right when I got home at 4pm. Now, the only time I don't make it through an ENTIRE day (morning to bedtime) is when I am extra heavy on 4G and/or GPS Navigation. Couldn't be happier.

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Thanks for the info. I've seen that setup recommended a lot in these forums but I had not tried it yet. Flashed them last night and so far it looks like a winner, smooth and fast with better battery.

To OP: This is a good example of one of biggest reasons to go nexus - the amazing developer support and the number of forum participants and people willing to help out and make recommendations.

jasondhsd said:

I'm a torn between the Galaxy Nexus and Razr Maxx. My previous phone was a DroidX very popular and got a ton of support from developers I'm rooted, overclocked, etc. Judging by the post totals about 20,000 posts of Razr and Razr Maxx forums combined and Galaxy Nexus has 158k total posts it's obvious I lot of people are abandoning Motorola. Is it primarily because Motorola insistence on trying to block root every chance they get or something else? To my the Razr feels like it's built much better but I love the ability to customize and tweak my phone.

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The customization options. I have no desire to ever own a locked bootloader or have RIL trouble running AOSP ROMs. IMO, the Gnex is the best phone on Verizon without a doubt.