January 15th- Deadline mass exodus

[Bartles]

I am coming off an HTC Incredible which I loved. I have been reading and waiting with huge anticipation for this Galaxy Nexus. I even made sure I watched the live presentation from Hong Kong when they unveiled the phone.

I am extremely disappointed with the phone. The one issue I have that I have not heard mentioned yet is when you call a business, they instruct you press 3 for tech support lets say...you pull up the numbers and press 3...put it back up to your ear to continue listening, but the proximity sensor is not doing its job and keeps the screen lit, and you wind up hitting other buttons or hanging up.

But the thing that completely discounts and discredits this phone is the horrendous lack of connectivity!!! Its a total crap shoot whether you can get online or not, 3G, 4G, or wifi even. Its truly maddening. I have read every post on here in regards to this issue. It seems like the smarter members are leaning toward a hardware issue, but Im praying its a correctable software issue. There not much worse than my brother sitting next to me on my couch
with his 4S and we try to compare hd youtube videos and I cant connect with all 3 of my available choices! This was not during any of the 3 verizon outages either.

If I could get a better signal and connectivity, I would stay for sure. The subpar camera, poor speaker phone, and some other hiccups are no big deal to me. This is my mini tablet which I had intended for heavy web browsing. Thus far that has yet to be a seamless effort.

Since we all fall under the Verizon holiday return policy, which states any phone purchased between November 15th and December 28th can be returned up until January 15th. If they dont correct this signal/connectivity/radio receptor/hardware/software nonsense then we should all return our units en masse. Let verizon have one huge smoldering pile of Nexus returns to learn how to update phone in a more timely manner.

 

[Premium1]

I'm not returning mine, I have no issues with connectivity or anything...

 

[xliderider]

Yep, definitely keeping mine. Loving it on a custom 4.03 rom.

 

[Bartles]

Yep, definitely keeping mine. Loving it on a custom 4.03 rom.

Im an amateur in a sense, since I am unsure how to root and all that to get the 4.03. Can a layman root a phone safely? Ill try anything.What is the main benefactor of 4.03? What do you rooters have that my lonely 4.02 doesnt?

 

[pool_shark]

I have no signal issues, I work from home Wed-Fri so I'm connected to wifi most of the time and have no problems with that.

I use a BT headset when I'm on the phone, so I don't know if I have a problem with the proximity sensor or not.
My external speaker works fine, USB transfers worked out of the box, and I've gotten better with the camera.

 

[xliderider]

Im an amateur in a sense, since I am unsure how to root and all that to get the 4.03. Can a layman root a phone safely? Ill try anything.What is the main benefactor of 4.03? What do you rooters have that my lonely 4.02 doesnt?

Sorry, but I'd rather not encourage you to do something that voids your warranty and can mess up your device. Especially if you admit to being an "amateur" to the root/romming world.

Just saying that the device was good on stock ICS, but on a custom rom/undervolted kernel, the phone is much better, especially in the battery department.

 

[Premium1]

Im an amateur in a sense, since I am unsure how to root and all that to get the 4.03. Can a layman root a phone safely? Ill try anything.What is the main benefactor of 4.03? What do you rooters have that my lonely 4.02 doesnt?

HOW TO ROOT SAMSUNG GALAXY NEXUS - YouTube
[GUIDE] How To Unlock Bootloader and Root Verizon Galaxy Nexus - Page 21 - Android Forums at AndroidCentral.com
How to Unlock the Galaxy Nexus Bootloader - YouTube

 

[kidtronic]

Have you tried to exchange it? They're not all having connectivity issues so it may just be a bad device.

 

[Caveman419]

Im an amateur in a sense, since I am unsure how to root and all that to get the 4.03. Can a layman root a phone safely? Ill try anything.What is the main benefactor of 4.03? What do you rooters have that my lonely 4.02 doesnt?

Good Links above, but I would recommend that you do lots of research first. Find out all of the scenarios that you could face and how to recover from them. When I rooted my first phone (OG Droid), I read the forums for over a month to make sure that I knew what to expect. This is a great phone out of the box and should last a long time that way. Be patient, soak up the knowledge and ask questions (I still have lots too).

 

[BubbaNexus]

I am coming off an HTC Incredible which I loved. I have been reading and waiting with huge anticipation for this Galaxy Nexus. I even made sure I watched the live presentation from Hong Kong when they unveiled the phone.

I am extremely disappointed with the phone. The one issue I have that I have not heard mentioned yet is when you call a business, they instruct you press 3 for tech support lets say...you pull up the numbers and press 3...put it back up to your ear to continue listening, but the proximity sensor is not doing its job and keeps the screen lit, and you wind up hitting other buttons or hanging up.

But the thing that completely discounts and discredits this phone is the horrendous lack of connectivity!!! Its a total crap shoot whether you can get online or not, 3G, 4G, or wifi even. Its truly maddening. I have read every post on here in regards to this issue. It seems like the smarter members are leaning toward a hardware issue, but Im praying its a correctable software issue. There not much worse than my brother sitting next to me on my couch
with his 4S and we try to compare hd youtube videos and I cant connect with all 3 of my available choices! This was not during any of the 3 verizon outages either.

If I could get a better signal and connectivity, I would stay for sure. The subpar camera, poor speaker phone, and some other hiccups are no big deal to me. This is my mini tablet which I had intended for heavy web browsing. Thus far that has yet to be a seamless effort.

Since we all fall under the Verizon holiday return policy, which states any phone purchased between November 15th and December 28th can be returned up until January 15th. If they dont correct this signal/connectivity/radio receptor/hardware/software nonsense then we should all return our units en masse. Let verizon have one huge smoldering pile of Nexus returns to learn how to update phone in a more timely manner.

 

[tarponbeach]

I've had similar issues with 3g/4g, but I'm chalking those up to Verizon's recent outages. I do agree that Verizon/Google would be smart to send out an OTA soon, to address many of the issues that some users are experiencing. It would also help if Verizon was more forthcoming with information, but I doubt that is ever going to happen. Verizon seems to follow the CIA business model, of total silence.

 

[VTjlee]

No connectivity issues here. Great device that I use mainly as a mini tablet as the OP said. Won't be returning mine.

 

[BLD]

Have you tried to exchange it? They're not all having connectivity issues so it may just be a bad device.

Or it could be that in spite of Verizon constantly telling us how great their network is that the network really sucks. The network has been down 3-4 times just this month alone and twice since the release of the GNex.

 

[jdavis37]

Got my Gnex on Christmas.. first smart phone for me. Loved the hardware, screen, ICS, speed, etc. My previous phone I had for 3+ years was a Samsung, no issues with it. I don't need Kevlar, steel, etc as it is a phone not a hammer.

2 days after Christmas we took a 2 hr trip west of here ( and back). Around Charlotte NC (even in my home) the 4G signal is pretty good. as we left Charlotte area, however, I started noticing rapid shift sin the signal . First on the bars then the actual dbm values. 100% then grayed out. The Droid Global in the car never lost signal or data connectivity whereas my Gnex lost if quite frequently.

That would have been December 27th which could have been part of the Verizon 4G outages. battery life that day was horrible but am assuming that was due to signal searching. Will be returning probably weekend after next and will see how it goes then.

Speaker loudness in my opinion isn't God horrible but it certainly is not very good. I can speaker phone talk without any issues but many ringtones, alarm tones, etc are very faint. They did not do a good job here though overall it is liveable (if this were the only issue I wouldn't fret much).

I am undecided at present time on keeping/returning. I love ICS love the large screen. Data downloads are fast when connected to 4G. 4g signal strength averages close to -100 dbm for most part, sometimes a little better.

Just not sure I trust the "fixes" yet. if it is an authenticate issue that should be software fixable. If I have better connectivity next time I travel i'l probably write off previous experience as Verizon's network. Around home it works fine thougn signal at work is really BAD... may consider the rezound before this is over with though that thing is beastly thick and not sure I care much for Sense. The RAZR for me is out due to the sealed battery. Just see bad things with that!

 

[rushmore]

Folks, there are two issues and some people still seem to be mixing them both.

1. Problem = VZW network issues due to 4G upgrade to network. Impacts 3G and 4g devices and is a random event that usually results in showing signal bars and decent dBm signal, but zero data connectivity.

2. Problem (perhaps "issue" is better word) = Users are noticing their previous device had better signal and this results in less coverage for 4G and also 3G. It is not a data interpretation issue, as proposed.

Some people are assuming it is item one, but the issues could be item two, with no guarantee it can be fixed. If the radio design is simply weaker than other current devices, there may not be anything to fix and is what it is.

I have posted this a few times, but still seems the network issue is giving some people a false assumption. To people having no issue- good, but others that notice it and want better signal, it might not get much better, if any.

BTW, screwing around with signal bars is nothing but a sugar pill, so IF that is the fix, it is not really.

 

[Connectz]

I've had absolutely no issues with connectivity either. Im loving this phone and do not plan on returning it at all! I still have my EVO running the latest MIUI and it irritated me to no end! MIUI is great to look at but is unstable and buggy as hell. I will NOT root my Gnex unless I have its replacement in hand. My only issues are the super quiet ringtones and notification sounds. I installed Volume+Free but it doesn't do the best job.

 

[Crude]

A few observations: This is a samsung phone, their radios suck, their quality control sucks too.
This phone is on Verizon, while they may have the best coverage it still has terrible penetration. If you're not next to a tower then being indoors is going to cause you to notice samsungs weak radio.
That being said I had to return my nexus 2 times to get one with a working speaker (not speakphone). The first two had a loose membrane or something. This leads me to believe some have a bad antenna or even radio. The one upside here is that a weak 4g signal is better then a great 3g signal.

If you want a terrible phone you should look at the fascinate. No 4g, even worse radio. A mediocre screen at best. Verizon's STDs all over the phone and BING. All in all it was barely usable. The nexus could be better, but on Verizon...this is as good as it's going to get for ~6 months and even then you won't get another nexus. The next best thing will be loaded with Verizons STDs again.

My $.02

 

[Ed5275]

I am finding that even with zero bars I am still able to connect to the internet. No problems here.

 

[chrisexv6]

A few observations: This is a samsung phone, their radios suck, their quality control sucks too.
This phone is on Verizon, while they may have the best coverage it still has terrible penetration. If you're not next to a tower then being indoors is going to cause you to notice samsungs weak radio.
That being said I had to return my nexus 2 times to get one with a working speaker (not speakphone). The first two had a loose membrane or something. This leads me to believe some have a bad antenna or even radio. The one upside here is that a weak 4g signal is better then a great 3g signal.

If you want a terrible phone you should look at the fascinate. No 4g, even worse radio. A mediocre screen at best. Verizon's STDs all over the phone and BING. All in all it was barely usable. The nexus could be better, but on Verizon...this is as good as it's going to get for ~6 months and even then you won't get another nexus. The next best thing will be loaded with Verizons STDs again.

My $.02

I agree on the GNex, disagree on the Fascinate. I currently have a Fascinate and I have to say with a custom ROM (rooted, yes, but just as easy and safe as the GNex), this thing rocks. Fast, smooth, can even overclock and undervolt. The fact that it performs so well (even radio wise) is what has me on the fence about upgrading to a GNex. And mediocre screen? Really? I look at a Bionic and it makes me wanna puke.

I just got the Stratosphere (basically a Fascinate with 4G) for my wife, and its not even close. yeah her download speeds are better, but thats about it. Granted they are both Samsungs, but Id rather have a Samsung with a weak radio that can be hacked vs. a Motorola with a "strong" radio (in quotes because Ive read of some issues with theirs too) thats completely locked down. Basically I have more faith in the non-official-dev community than I have in the manufacturers themselves. Dont even get me started with what Verizon would do with any updates from the manufacturer.

 

[Helicrewchief]

A few observations: This is a samsung phone, their radios suck, their quality control sucks too.
This phone is on Verizon, while they may have the best coverage it still has terrible penetration. If you're not next to a tower then being indoors is going to cause you to notice samsungs weak radio.
That being said I had to return my nexus 2 times to get one with a working speaker (not speakphone). The first two had a loose membrane or something. This leads me to believe some have a bad antenna or even radio. The one upside here is that a weak 4g signal is better then a great 3g signal.

If you want a terrible phone you should look at the fascinate. No 4g, even worse radio. A mediocre screen at best. Verizon's STDs all over the phone and BING. All in all it was barely usable. The nexus could be better, but on Verizon...this is as good as it's going to get for ~6 months and even then you won't get another nexus. The next best thing will be loaded with Verizons STDs again.

My $.02

To the OP hate to see you go. With some software upgrades this phone will please many. Just be patient. Droid X was on eclair and was buggy as hell. IMO it turned out to he a awesome phone when some maintenance updates came out. That buggy pos droid X that people hated is 1000x better than the Storm.

Good luck on finding the perfect phone that makes you happy. Even the beloved fruit phone that people just adore has problems. Best part of android is the different manufactures and you have options. Just know you will have some sort of "skin" bogging it down.

Im not sure why people downgrade the Fascinate so much. It os a good phone. My wife has the fascinate and loves it. She is running stock gingerbread gets 3-4 bars constantly and gets 20-24 hours battery life with moderate use. She has no complaints with the screen. I personally think that the screen is better than any Moto Droid out there.

 

[jdavis37]

Forums are great tools and I use them often to get answers, help if needed, and just information, especially before buying. That said, one has to exercise some caution in reading since every person has their own unique interpretations of what "acceptable" is, what "great" is and so on.

For anyone not having issues with their GNex phone it is a really wonderful phone.I love my phone and am having trouble finding a replacement that I will enjoy as much, IF I decide to return it. Current issues I have had with mine:

- speaker volume - this is fairly well documented and affects mostly ringtones and the like (alarms for example). Speaker phone is loud enough for me. This is NOT a fatal error for me.

- battery life - isn't that great. Keep a charger handy, use wi fi when it is available, turn screen off when not in use among other things. extended battery (I have one) is really almost a panacea since the change is like 13% of an increase. Not a fatal error for me but somewhat of an issue when it starts searching for a 4G signal.

- radio issues

This one seems a bit more complex:

- Signal bar display - does not seem to really be a true issue since the bars displayed truthfully are no indicator of the signal/connectivity. Software can be altered to make this phone display bars similar to other phones (right,wrong, or otherwise). In doing so, people will stop comparing their GNex to their friend's motos, etc and seeing a weaker signal.

- Weaker signal in dbm - not sure what to think here. If the GNex is the only phone that displays signal in terms of LTE strength, again we may be comparing apples and oranges. The signal displayed MAY always be LTE strength even when phone is turnded to CDMA only (someone would need to research that). Bottom line the number matters little as long as one has connectivity.

- My home has a good 4G signal as does my surrounding nearby area. My work place is heavily shielded, some phones do well with the signal, others do not. I'll be back next week to see how the GNex does. if I cannot get any signal at all, it goes back. One reason I wanted a smart phone was to have access to my personal email while at work (our work computers don't allow personal email).

- My trip from home to near Asheville NC on December 27th had me losing connectivity/signal very often once I left the Charlotte area. Was that a GNex issue or was that a Verizon network issue? Hard to say though I should be making same trip in the next week. Would other phones have done better regardless? Perhaps.

Bottom line is we each have to determine if any particular phone works for our particular circumstances. It would appear in present form the GNex has either a weaker radio or has software settings that are causing the authenticate part to fail. The latter should be either software fixable or Verizon network fixable. The former is what it is.

Overall, I love the phone and want to keep it but only if I can use it where I travel/work. If it doesn't work, I'll probably try the Rezound given reports it has a better radio. I won't like the phone as well but a phone is only a phone if it works where I am

I think in the long run for many if not most people the Gnex will be just fine but for those with weaker signals, etc it may not be the optimum phone.

 

[Sandroidfan]

This one seems a bit more complex:

- Signal bar display - does not seem to really be a true issue since the bars displayed truthfully are no indicator of the signal/connectivity. Software can be altered to make this phone display bars similar to other phones (right,wrong, or otherwise). In doing so, people will stop comparing their GNex to their friend's motos, etc and seeing a weaker signal.

- Weaker signal in dbm - not sure what to think here. If the GNex is the only phone that displays signal in terms of LTE strength, again we may be comparing apples and oranges. The signal displayed MAY always be LTE strength even when phone is turnded to CDMA only (someone would need to research that). Bottom line the number matters little as long as one has connectivity.

- My home has a good 4G signal as does my surrounding nearby area. My work place is heavily shielded, some phones do well with the signal, others do not. I'll be back next week to see how the GNex does. if I cannot get any signal at all, it goes back. One reason I wanted a smart phone was to have access to my personal email while at work (our work computers don't allow personal email).

- My trip from home to near Asheville NC on December 27th had me losing connectivity/signal very often once I left the Charlotte area. Was that a GNex issue or was that a Verizon network issue? Hard to say though I should be making same trip in the next week. Would other phones have done better regardless? Perhaps.

Bottom line is we each have to determine if any particular phone works for our particular circumstances. It would appear in present form the GNex has either a weaker radio or has software settings that are causing the authenticate part to fail. The latter should be either software fixable or Verizon network fixable. The former is what it is.

Overall, I love the phone and want to keep it but only if I can use it where I travel/work. If it doesn't work, I'll probably try the Rezound given reports it has a better radio. I won't like the phone as well but a phone is only a phone if it works where I am

I think in the long run for many if not most people the Gnex will be just fine but for those with weaker signals, etc it may not be the optimum phone.

I suspect it was verizon network issue that affected your Gnex on 12/27 trip. How would it do inside heavily shielded building is different story though.

I was nervous on getting Gnex after seeing some horror stories for a week since release. But knowing my area is under good 3G, medium 4G coverage, I gave it try and glad I did. I don't have any major reception issue and it works just as well as other phones I used before. I still believe it's LTE radio software issue in ICS that's giving trouble to some in weak areas and it will get fixed.

But if Gnex doesn't work where you live, work right now, and you can't deal with it or can't wait for fix, then you need to get other phone that work for you.

 

[jdavis37]

I suspect it was verizon network issue that affected your Gnex on 12/27 trip. How would it do inside heavily shielded building is different story though.

I was nervous on getting Gnex after seeing some horror stories for a week since release. But knowing my area is under good 3G, medium 4G coverage, I gave it try and glad I did. I don't have any major reception issue and it works just as well as other phones I used before. I still believe it's LTE radio software issue in ICS that's giving trouble to some in weak areas and it will get fixed.

But if Gnex doesn't work where you live, work right now, and you can't deal with it or can't wait for fix, then you need to get other phone that work for you.

Is good to bring a little balance to things.. forums in general collect negative dust ( happy campers are simply enjoying their devices and unhappy ones are either seeking help on complaining). If more happy campers were posting it might make others feel safer about buying.

No matter what we buy there more than likely will be issues. Buy the Rezound and you end up hating Sense, it may be a while before ICS is out, etc.

For me, the trip to work with phone will be the determining factor I think. If I cant get to my email and/or text messages, I'll return it for the rezound. same thing is true about my return trip to near Asheville. I don't anticipate either happening but know what it will mean if it does.

I think Verizon will eventually fix via software many of the connection issues. radio issues however are a different story. its a great piece of hardware for sure. Love the phone hardware/ICS.

 

[chrisexv6]

...... knowing my area is under good 3G, medium 4G coverage, I gave it try and glad I did. I don't have any major reception issue and it works just as well as other phones I used before........

I think this is the key. While there are TONS of signal complaints in this and other forums, most of them arent specifying their exact locations. Why does this matter? Because my guess is that the northeast in general probably has a higher quality signal (3G and 4G) than, say, areas in the midwest. Not putting anyone down because of where they live, but its just the way technology seems to be.

Im about 1 hour north of NYC, so I get excellent 3G coverage. My wife just got a 4G phone and the coverage there seems to be excellent as well. I may just order up a GNex and hope that my normally strong signal works out even in a building (sure it may weaken, but at least it will still be there). If not, thats what the return policy is for I guess. Or if I can at least get decent 3G coverage no matter where I am, Ill hold onto it in the hopes Verizon/Samsung/3rd party devs. will fix it.

 

[zerocool79346]

I've posted this many times but I'll do it once more. If you are having LTE problems, you can chalk it up o bad software integration and VZWs continued network ******ation, if youre having wifi problems and 3g problems or voice problems, return for a swap. That's likely a hardware issue and one you shouldn't deal with. My nexus has been better than my Eris, Inc, and Continuum are as far as those three connectivities are concerned.