Questions on Buying an Galaxy Nexus

[chrisinsocalif]

I would like to buy the Galaxy Nexus unlocked to use on T-mobile network (Southern California) but unsure on what to look for. It seems there are different "nexus yakju" builds for these devices. My questions are:
-Are these builds updated at different times?
-If i buy the Galaxy Nexus off Amazon.com or Expansys, will they get the regular google updates?
-If not, will it require me to unlock the bootloader to get prompt updates or would I have to use 3rd party builds?

I would like to buy a phone from either of these 2 Amazon sellers:
Galaxy Nexus Fulfilled by Global Mobiles
Fulfilled by Yapper Wireless
or from Expansys
Expansys

The reason i like the Google Nexus phone is because it gets updated quickly. If there is anything i should know, feel free to comment.
Thank you for your input.

 

[ZeroOne]

I know you can not go wrong with a Gnexus. There is a lot of roms and support here and i am sure if you google your thoughts your answers will be there around the corner.

 

[stenzor]

Buy whichever GSM Galaxy Nexus you want. All I9250 (GSM) Galaxy Nexii have the same hardware. The only way they vary is by software. Some are yakju, some yakjuux, some yakjuxw, etc.

-Yes these builds are updated at different times. yakju is updated the fastest and by Google, all the other variants are updated by Samsung; the reason?: they have region-specific radio software (baseband).

-They will all get the same OS updates, if it's yakju you will get them faster, you'll have to wait longer for the variants.

-Yes, you just unlock the bootloader and flash the official Google yakju build available on Google's site. You can mix and match parts of the build (mix bootloaders, basebands, etc). I suggest the UGKL1 radio if you're in North America (this is not the one that comes with the yakju build, but it's available on the xda forums). Some people have had no problems using the radio that comes with the yakju build though.

Hope that helps

 

[chrisinsocalif]

Great, I think i will buy one soon, after my paycheck. I wasn't sure if there was different versions but you cleared up the confusion. I appreciate the reply.

 

[stenzor]

Enjoy!

One thing to keep in mind though is that while virtually any software issue is fixable on the GN, if you have a hardware defect and want to send your phone in, Samsung should honor your warranty (if you re-lock the bootloader before sending it in) even if it's a yakju build since it's an official Google build, but if you want to be extra-careful and restore your phone to exactly how it was when you bought it if you get a yakju** variant you'll have to:

-make sure you flash yakju manually with fastboot
-keep the bootloader that came with the phone as there is no yakju** bootloaders that you can download as far as I know
-make a nandroid backup of everything you can as soon as you get your phone (but there are yakju** images floating around so you don't really have to)

This way, by keeping your bootloader the same, you will always be able to revert back to the original state you got your phone in. If you got a yakju phone, then you have nothing to worry about.