(VZW) Nexus 4.0.4 Update - First Impressions

Has anyone noticed their screen brightening and dimming after the update? When I do things like open up text messages my screen brightens quickly and then dims to the proper setting.

I also have noticed the screen unlock lag. It only happens sometimes, which is weird. And I am *totally* shocked that this is a "known issue" with auto screen brightness, if that is indeed the issue. WTF did Verizon do with this update for the month they had it and didn't release it? I thought they were testing it?

I've noticed the screen rotation is smoother/quicker, as well as scrolling through the App Drawer. Nice little UI tweaks. Interestingly enough, I didn't notice the imporvements until rebooting the phone. Looks like the keyboard lag with long messages has been fixed as well.

As far as the audio mute issue, I have not had it happen since the update, but I haven't used the phone much since then either. I'm hearing lots of reports of this NOT fixing the issue, which is depressing because that's really the only thing I cared about. Verizon said it was going to be fixed, so I expect it to be fixed. I had this long speech planned when calling Verizon if it happened to me, about how I've had this problem since January, I've tried three replacement devices, I want a premium phone, you've been very helpful, but may I speak to your supervisor? etc., etc., but then Spousal Unit reminded me I'm eligible for an early upgrade in October. Instead of going through the pains of begging Verizon to make it right by me, I'm just going to hang on until October and buy another phone. I've waited this long, and to be honest, I'm tired of worring about it. I'll just deal with it until October.

**edit** Forgot to mention, I did notice that 3G picks up a lot faster than it used to.

for me, the most glorious part is the portrait to landscape timing....its now perfect and will rotate even if I'm walking and shaking the phone around. Before, I'd have to stop and hold it perfectly still before the rotation would take place.

Also, as others have mentioned, Navigation says the street names again.

Time will tell on the mic mute, I think I've spoken for about 2 minutes on the phone since the update so my sample size is still small.

The newer radios are working much better for me. I like JuiceDefender but could never use it with my GNex because the reconnect to the network was too slow. I'd often have to reboot the phone to regain network connectivity. The new radios eliminate this problem.

I usually lose 10% - 12% of my battery overnight but last night I lost only 5%. The only weird thing is waking the phone running JD when on wifi, the wifi symbol in the notification area shows minimal connection yet is fully connected. Doing a quick screen lock / unlock restores the wifi notification so it displays correctly.

Battery life and connection were my main problems with the GNex and it seems the connection has improved. I can't complain.

RRMan03 said:

Low Volume issue the update did not help. It is a damn shame when you can not hear what is supposed to be a phone. I guess it is for use in church or funeral homes. places you need to be real quite when you call or receive a call. Its the only issue I have and its a big one.I tried Volume +. that was a waste of my time also.

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Are you referring to the volume on the ext speaker like when the phone rings or notifies you? Or when in a phone call? Because the earpiece speaker during a call is the loudest I've heard on any phone (Eris, Inc, Bionic) besides an iPhone4.

I just got a reboot! Are you kidding me! Seriously, what is the deal with this phone and reboots. I'm so sick of random reboots on this phone. I got an email notification and I pulled the window down and tapped on it and it froze then rebooted. This phone sucks and is great all at the same time.

I got my 4.0.4 update on Friday night and here's my personal experiences thus far. I feel overall it runs smoother, although under normal uses the differences are rather minor.

I'm having a few issues after the update, most noticeably these two:

1. My phone seems to be running a lot "warmer" than before when in 3G or 4G mode. It is not "hot" per se, but definitely am noticeably warmer than before. When the phone is on wifi it runs cool.

2. Unable to turn bluetooth on after switching to and back from flight mode. (It'll say it's "truning bluetooth on" and stay that way forever.) This was a problem I had even back on 4.0.2, and I've run into this twice already. It seems like the only way is to reboot, just like before...

Personally I don't feel very good about this update... It's been taking forever to get this update to stock users and it doesn't seem to address enough problems...

Rdjr74 said:

I just got a reboot! Are you kidding me! Seriously, what is the deal with this phone and reboots. I'm so sick of random reboots on this phone. I got an email notification and I pulled the window down and tapped on it and it froze then rebooted. This phone sucks and is great all at the same time.

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I had this exact thing happen to me after receiving the update. Still hoping it doesn't crash while streaming Pandora in the car while charging. Got a 1 hr commute to work crash free this morning. Only time will tell.

Ajura, I'm having the same issue with bluetooth. Prior to the update, it worked flawlessly. But now, once I go to airplane mode, I can't get BT to work right. Still trying to fully understand the trouble.

swantonbomboy said:

Has anyone noticed their screen brightening and dimming after the update? When I do things like open up text messages my screen brightens quickly and then dims to the proper setting.

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I've seen this even before the update. I noticed it would happen if I had autobrightness turned on at some point during the day....and then switched back to a set brightness level. After that, it would temporarily brighten and then dim any time I opened an app. It got so annoying that I pretty much never touch autobrightness anymore....not that I thought it was very good anyway.

To 'fix' it I think I had to reboot.... then I never have the problem so long as I don't use autobrightness.

I am very happy with this update....I have stronger signal and 4G in areas I didn't before the 4.04. My battery life has improved by 2 hours, loads of OS improvements...quicker, more responsive. I have never had signal loss issues or the dropped/muted phone calls. The only negative thing I have seen is that since the update, I have some apps that don't seem to play well with it. My xbox app stalls out alot, and pulse news has flashing white screens now when it is loading or I am changing from story to story. I can live with those lol.

I've noticed an issue post-update that is pretty annoying. I don't know for a fact that it's related to the update, but it never happened before the update. I will pick up my phone and press the power button, and the screen will come on but the touchscreen is not responsive at all. I can't slide the unlock thing over to access the phone. I have turned it off and back on a few times and it still doesn't do anything. I have held down the power button, which brings up the menu allowing me to power off, but since the screen doesn't respond I can't do anything with this menu.

This has happened twice since I got the update late Friday night, and the only way I have been able to get it working again is to remove the battery and replace it, re-booting the phone.

Anyone else have this happen? (I am stock, unrooted, by the way.)

Overall I'm pretty happy with this update. UI is faster and more fluid. Battery is easily 30% or more than before. Signal strength is marginally better but 4G is more stable and it handles radio switches better. I think this is what Gnex should have been from get go.

bird jam said:

I've noticed an issue post-update that is pretty annoying. I don't know for a fact that it's related to the update, but it never happened before the update. I will pick up my phone and press the power button, and the screen will come on but the touchscreen is not responsive at all. I can't slide the unlock thing over to access the phone. I have turned it off and back on a few times and it still doesn't do anything. I have held down the power button, which brings up the menu allowing me to power off, but since the screen doesn't respond I can't do anything with this menu.

This has happened twice since I got the update late Friday night, and the only way I have been able to get it working again is to remove the battery and replace it, re-booting the phone.

Anyone else have this happen? (I am stock, unrooted, by the way.)

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This happened to me twice when I was on stock 4.0.2. Not since the update to stock 4.0.4, but it's only been 3 days on 4.0.4.

Sandroidfan said:

Overall I'm pretty happy with this update. UI is faster and more fluid. Battery is easily 30% or more than before..

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I've noticed that things are a bit faster, although the problem I had with the phone showing that it is charging, when in reality it is unplugged is still here.

Can someone verify if you can still turn on wifi hotspot with a widget without setting it up through Verizon?

downside for me, posted in another topic regarding this issue, if you don't screen lock your phone or just use the slider to unlock, then if the phone is sleeping it will wake on volume press.

see this thread for more info and how to fix it:

http://androidforums.com/samsung-ga...0-4-volume-rocker-active-when-screen-off.html

My experience is mostly negative:

Phone is running hotter in some instances, very hot occasionally.

Recharging is taking longer than before.

Opening apps taking much longer and in some cases now freezing.

It appears that the radio is better - getting better streaming experience on Spotify - but a little early to tell on that one.

One of the biggest problems I had was Voice Dialing wouldn't work before. Now the app doesn't just error out like it did before - it sits there "working" but won't respond to voice.

GO SMS Pro won't open and stock Messaging app acting unstable.

Touchdown emails no longer notifying in the bar.

Overall many apps unstable compared to the update.

Pretty underwhelming to concerning at this point.

Facebook not notifying on bar

Jorte pops up on bar, but says, "no subject", click and nothing on alarm screen, and hitting dismiss alarm clears it and it shows right back up in bar.

I was having problems with word prediction on swype prior to pulling the update. I think it was the recent beta update itself. I redownloaded and installed and it seems to be working, even after the 4.04 update.

cccoltsicehockey said:

Can someone verify if you can still turn on wifi hotspot with a widget without setting it up through Verizon?

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I can't possibly be the only person that uses this. I only keep asking csuae the update showed up today for me and I want to.decline upgrade if I lose this feature. Thanks in advance to anyone who is willing to test it.

Got our updates at 10:30 tonight on both my and my wife's phones. First impression, it seems markedly faster when opening apps, especially Gallery is extremely snappy. Also like the icons on the power button dialog. Will spend more time tomorrow to check out other apps.

Finally! What a surprise! Was expecting it to take at least another few months!

Coming from rooted stock 4.0.2:

1) I know I'll probably end up liking it better, but the smooth brightness transition after turning on screen with power button, I don't really like. I like it to turn on immediately! I mean, the smooth transition is a great idea, but it needs to go about twice as fast.

2) 3G/4G handoff is much quicker, still not ideal.

3) Phone seems smoother overall...

4) WiFi hotspot toggle seems a tad slower. There is a lag after hitting the widgetsoid hotspot toggle... I use widgetsoid to toggle my tethering (I pay VZW for tethering, but widgetsoid toggle works whether data is available or not, which is great for SMB filesharing!). This is a huge annoyance for me, but we are talking like a 1-2 second lag. I'll get used to it.

5) I do not like the new signal bars... 4 bars -95dBm?!?!?! I don't know the exact ranges for each bar now, but before, number of bars was a good indicator of speed, and 3 bars was good, 4 bars was awesome, now 4 bars doesn't really mean anything... it could be anything between 3 or 30 Mbps! But I may just be a curmudgeon...

That's all for now...

Got my update last night finally.

Improvements go along mostly with what has been posted so far.

What I haven't seen mentioned yet is that the stock browser quick controls now have more functions, including access to bookmarks.

I also noticed a new menu item under:

settings > system > "dock" that I don't remember seeing before.