***Official G-Nex first impressions thread*** Love it? Hate it?

[Steven58]

We start with our British brethren. Glad you have your phones! Tell us about them!!!

 

[Wilfred B]

Ill start here by posting what i posted in another thread.

Alright, ive been using the phone now for bout an hour and im very impressed. First thing that hit me was the physical size of the device. It is big. Coming from an HTC Desire i can say that its going to take some getting used to. Although it is bulky, it feels light as a feather. Certainly lighter than the Desire.

Turning the phone on, i can honestly say my jaw hit the floor. Crisp, bright and beautiful. Ive watched a few youtube videos, and came away majorly impressed. One thing to note is that video playback on youtube uses the full screen like it would a video that is playing of your internal memory.

Speaking of memory, i bagged the 16GB version, no option for the 32GB. 13GB is free from the get go, and all apps are saved on the internal disc, therefore you do have access it seems to all 13GB for your apps, games etc. USB transfer is a wierd subject, my Mac never recognised the device in MTP or PTP. On Windows however you do get the option of viewing the memory as a normal USB stick.

Not going to bore you with an unboxing as im sure you've all seen the videos around the net. One thing that struck me is the bundled headphones are actually quite decent, though not a par on my Munitios. There is a button on the right wire that im assuming answers calls, but when the phone isn't ringing it stops the song. No option to skip using volume controls unfortunately, as these are used for volume changing funnily enough. You can however change and pause the tracks from the lockscreen. There are music controls in the notification menu, skip forward, pause, and stop track.

So far i've managed to download Facebook and Twitter, and log in sucessfully thus far, and syncing i have to say struck me as very fast. Certainly better than the Desire.

Really impressed so far, though i do have the niggling feeling in the back of my mind about the volume bug. I havent experienced it, but i havent used the phone out in the real world yet. I do plan on rooting just not until this bug is fixed, be it with software or hardware updates.

Some photos:

Excuse the quality, they were taking using a cheap digital camera.

Heres an example of the Nexus camera used straight out of the box indoors. Very impressed.

Honestly is the best phone ive ever used. I can tell that straight away. Hopefully the predicament in the US sorts itself out and you all can get some hands on time of what im calling the beast

Now I've had the phone for a few days i can safely say this is the best phone I've had the pleasure of using. Everything about it, from the hardware right down to the software is brilliant. Not without faults obviously, but what device is?

Ill start with the hardware. Coming from an HTC Desire i thought it would take a bit of getting used to, but the device sits really comfortably in the hand. This is mainly down to how light this phone is. its really deceptive. You never really have to stretch your fingers to reach the hardware buttons, they are placed in natural places. It takes about 2 minutes to get used to the power button on the right side of the phone, but you will wonder why more companies don't position it there more often.

The screen can only be described as gorgeous. It takes up the vast majority of the front of the device, and is ultra responsive. Text appears crisp, even when zoomed in. The high resolution is a godsend here. Watching movies and Youtube is a pleasure, its like your holding a miniature TV in your hand.

The loudspeaker i was disappointed with. Its not as loud as my Desire, and notification sounds are quite low. You will miss calls and messages in a loud area. The saving grace here is that the vibration is adequate enough to compensate in the event you don't hear the speaker.

I think most people were concerned with how the 5 megapixel camera would perform, especially with the iPhones new 8MP sensor winning praise all round. In my view, the Nexus' camera is almost on par with the iPhones. Were it really shines is in low light situations. Panorama mode does work as well as the demos show, and show make for some interesting shots. I haven't got round to testing the video yet so i wont comment on that.

Before anyone says anything about the battery being good or bad, I've found it enough for me. Coming from a device that got around 7 hours on light usage whilst using a power optimized ROM, I'm glad that i can now get through an 8-10 hour work day quite easily and still have enough juice to get home. Heres some stats:

One thing to bear in mind here, i work in a kitchen, its hard to even get a signal let alone a 3G one, therefore the phone constantly looses it and switches between both modes. Also note WiFi is constantly on and i do a lot of web browsing as well as polling from Facebook and Twitter.

Overall im extremely pleased about the hardware on show here. I know this is the first Ice Cream Sandwich device about, and most people will buy this device simply for that fact, but the software needs a device to run on and this is more that capable for now.

One thing to note is the volume bug that seems to be plaguing most if not all UK handsets. Samsung have come out and said that they are aware of the problem and will be pushing an update to fix it quite soon. I'm just hoping it is a software bug, so that I don't have to send the phone back.

And now onto the main attraction. I was somewhat hesitant about Ice Cream Sandwich and all its promises that it would create an Android with a soul, a nice interface that isn't as bland as it once was. The first time you boot up your greeted with a revamped setup menu, giving the option to create or enter an existing Google account, setup WiFi and so on. Right from the start you feel a nice sense of, "yes this looks nice." Get through that and your given a quickstart guide, which is essentially showing you how to get to the app drawer, and place icons on the homescreen. Easy enough if you've used Android before.

Once that's out of the way you will quickly see what Google were talking about when they set about redesigning the UI. Everything here, from the app drawer, widget picker, the clock on the homescreen, the font, everything down to the fluid (and yes they are very fluid, no lag here), animations between screens is a joy to use. Even the notification sounds feel like they belong. This truly is a proper unified OS.

The homescreen setup looks funny when you first start, you have the Google search bar at the top, room for a 4x4 grid underneath, then an app drawer tray. I know a few were concerned about the search bar taking up to much room, but its designed to be neutral, and because you have that massive screen, it stays well out of the way, while retaining the standard Android grid. Also don't fret about the onscreen buttons, they take about 2 minutes getting used to.

I could go on and on about how much of an improvement this is over Gingerbread, but i don't want to bore people. This is miles ahead of anything Android, or any of the skins that manufacturers put on top have done thus far. I honestly don't see a reason to add Sense or Touchwiz to any device now. It isn't iOS polished, but then again, would you rather sit in a walled garden being told what you can or cant do, or would you rather have the freedom to do with your phone what you want? Its by no means perfect, but rest assured this is the best iteration of Android yet.

That being said, there are a few niggles that should be sorted out with future updates. Things like having no dedicated search key, though i understand some crafty devs have managed to shoehorn one into rooted devices. Some apps do need to be updated to add a settings menu like the official Facebook app, and a lot will need to be optimized to support both the dual cores and ICS itself. As has been said, my only concern is that the volume bug is hardware related and software doesn't fix it. Other than that i can find very little to complain about.

So there you have it, i hope i haven't bored you too much. This is with out doubt the best phone on the market. Combining Androids famous high spec hardware, with an OS that rivals Apple in terms of performance, outshines it in the UI department, and creates a near perfect harmony between hardware and software.

Any questions i will try my best to answer, but its safe to say, holding out for this phone will be the best thing you do all year.

 

[Ken7]

Wilfred, sounds great! You mention though about not getting a signal in the kitchen. How does the radio in the Nex compare to other phones you've had? The radio is probably my biggest concern...even though your radio will obviously be different than the LTE version we get in the States.

 

[Steven58]

One word: Jealous.

Enjoy!

 

[mrvirginia]

rooting mine day one, no doubt. this is a developer phone through and through.
the volume bug is supposedly going to be fixed in a software update, confirmed via Google.

great review. my only complaint is that i wish you could've compared it with something newer like an SGS2 which is substantially more on par when concerning the hardware. i have no complaints with hearing mine and it's made by the same company so one would think it would relatively sound the same.

 

[Wilfred B]

Should have made clear that the kitchen i work in has 1 foot think concrete walls and is in the middle of a building. Depending on were I move to in the place, i can get decent 2G signal. As far as radios go, I think its better than my Desire, even though the two devices show the same amount of signal. Browsing was a lot faster, but that may be down to the ICS browser being the best around.

 

[Wilfred B]

rooting mine day one, no doubt. this is a developer phone through and through.
the volume bug is supposedly going to be fixed in a software update, confirmed via Google.

great review. my only complaint is that i wish you could've compared it with something newer like an SGS2 which is substantially more on par when concerning the hardware. i have no complaints with hearing mine and it's made by the same company so one would think it would relatively sound the same.

I dont know anyone who has an SII yet, a mate has ordered one and should be here in a few days. Ill try and get him to compare it with me.

 

[mrvirginia]

oh one other thing i meant to mention. you have some wakelocks going on there. do you have a lot of stuff syncing in the background?

 

[Wilfred B]

Yes, i have Facebook, Friendcaster and Twitter. Twitter is set to update every hour and Facebook and Friendcaster use C2DM so everytime i get a notification it pushes to the phone.

 

[mrvirginia]

I dont know anyone who has an SII yet, a mate has ordered one and should be here in a few days. Ill try and get him to compare it with me.

awesome, thanks!
yeah, even looking at the weight, you say it's really light.
an international SGS2 (like what i have) weighs in at 116g. the GSM GNex is 135g

sizes are similar as well
international SGS2 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5 mm
GNex i9250 135.5 x 67.9 x 8.9 mm

i plan on writing up a pretty good comparison of the two on mon if it gets here by then.

edit: it'll be here sat!

Yes, i have Facebook, Friendcaster and Twitter. Twitter is set to update every hour and Facebook and Friendcaster use C2DM so everytime i get a notification it pushes to the phone.

ahh ha! makes sense now. thank you again.

 

[Zivman]

just got mine and gone through the initial setup...
- phone is big and is all screen!
- Screen is phenomenal
- has a high quality feel, though back cover is a bit slippery
- camera is nice
- UI seems very smooth

I would say the overall feel is better than I expected

 

[greggebhardt]

Just received my i9250 today and am quite impressed.

Coming from the SG2 you notice how the screen is better in quality. While the SG2 colors were punchy and bright the Nexus screen look way better. Fonts are much nicer as are images. the whole front of the phone is screen!

All is good except i am missing the Voice Recorder and Memo. The voice recorder is now replaced but the Notes program synced with outlook and is really missed as I had a lot of information.

Kies, the latest version, does NOT connect to the i9250. I assume that the Nexus is so new that they have not updated it to work with Kies. The driver is there as Windows recognizes it as a Samsung Nexus but Kies just can't connect to it.

 

[jbarrack]

Hi all! I am somewhat new to these forums but not new to forums in general. I have had an iPhone since June 30, 2007 as my main phone. Since then I have had about 7 different android phones I have used on and off trying to get a feel for android and looking to make the switch because I just felt like iOS was getting kinda stale and the hardware in iPhones never seemed to be cutting-edge.

Long story short I've had everything from the G1 to the Dell Streak to the HTC Desire Z. All purchased unlocked and sold on eBay within just a few days of using. Frustrated with this or that in the OS and missing my iPhone.

That being said, this phone will not be getting returned. The OS has changed and improved so much since the last time I used it (which I think was sense 2.3). From the keyboard to navigation, ICS is such an improvement it's remarkable. I cannot being to describe which I am in love with the phone because no one wants to hear paragraphs of me spouting off ...

I'll just say that this is the first Android phone of mine you won't see being resold on eBay.

Thanks guys!

 

[wellred]

Just got mine today and am loving it. A few questions please.

1) Whats the magic combo for taking screen shots of the phone?

2) The 3rd of the buttons brings up a running apps sork of task manager which is handy. But killing something in there doesn't stop it from running the background. So does that mean to fully kill something I need to remove it from there and in settings?

Loving it though so far.

 

[Wilfred B]

1) Press the Power and Volume Down at the same time
2) Some apps do continue to run in the background, but that button isnt really a task killer, more of a switcher.

 

[wellred]

Ok got another one. Where can I specify my mail and gmail to only download new content once an hour? Right now it's pushing all the time which is ok but whilst im at work once an hour is sufficient. I am looking in app settings but can't see anything.

 

[Wilfred B]

You can specify in email, but not Gmail. In email, press the 3 dots on the bottom right and hit "Sync Options". You can set checking frequency in there.

 

[s.m.knipe]

In addition to much of the love spelled out above, I think I will add a (so far at least) feature that I love. I love how the notification light is a throwback to the trackball on the N1- similar relative placement and pulse frequency; it adds a nice tie between "then" and "now." [everyone else has already enumerated the flashy and obvious things to love]

 

[Rogue]

Love
The screen. Looks amazing.
Ics in general
The lack of buttons

Hates
The sound quality on a call. Sounds a bit fuzzy
The annoying volume issue
No facebook intigration. Supposed to have "google connections" but no idea how to add facebook. Im guessing the app needs to be updated?
The indicator light. The flash is way too slow with no option to speed it up.

 

[acrebo]

Long time iphone user trying out android for the 1st time. A pretty steep learning curve but all.good so far!

One question - how do i get rid of the vibrate when using the keyboard?

 

[rexdog1888]

Long time iphone user trying out android for the 1st time. A pretty steep learning curve but all.good so far!

One question - how do i get rid of the vibrate when using the keyboard?

(I'm going off my knowledge of 2.3 here but it should be similar)
Go to settings, language and keyboard settings, somewhere in there or another sub menue should have an option called "Vibrate on Keypress", unchecked it

 

[s.m.knipe]

Long time iphone user trying out android for the 1st time. A pretty steep learning curve but all.good so far!

One question - how do i get rid of the vibrate when using the keyboard?

Settings -> Sound -> Vibrate on Touch (under "system," last option)

I think that's it. If you have a third party keyboard you might need to disable it in the keyboard app's settings as well...

 

[MKeditor]

I received my GSM Galaxy Nexus this morning. LOVE this phone! I have been working with it all day and I am so glad I took the chance ordering from Negrei. I popped my T-Mobile sim in and after a few minutes I was using 4G. ICS is everything you read. It is a fantastic upgrade from gingerbread. All my apps downloaded from the market just fine. The video filters will keep my kids (and me) entertained for hours. I am so pleased I didn't wait for Best Buy.

 

[Rogue]

Question - how do you use the menu button on this phone or does each developer need to update their app to accomodate the lack of menu button on the phone by putting it in the app?

For example, on the facebook home screen you could press mmenu to set your notification options, you can no longer do this. Ive noticed it in a couple of other app as well.

 

[jbarrack]

Question - how do you use the menu button on this phone or does each developer need to update their app to accomodate the lack of menu button on the phone by putting it in the app?

For example, on the facebook home screen you could press mmenu to set your notification options, you can no longer do this. Ive noticed it in a couple of other app as well.

I noticed the same thing as well ... I think it's just a waiting game until the application is updated for complete compatibility with ICS.