Honest review from a critical nerd.

[TheBoyPat]

Edit: Keep in mind that this review is from the UK, and also a lot of these "issues" are with ICS and not the Nexus itself.

Taken from XDA forums

Honest review from a critical nerd (me) - xda-developers

I've has my Galaxy Nexus for almost a day now, on Three UK.

I hate how most people rave about phones when they have just forked out for them, and fail to mention any real negatives. When you buy one and it's missing features, it's very annoying than no-one mentioned it.

Here's my thoughts so far. I consider myself a power-user, and have tested almost everything. Overall, people are right. This is the best phone I've touched. I think once devs start making their apps work properly on ICS it'll be much better. Fingers crossed that Cyanogen will fix lots of the annoyances below.

I hope this is useful for someone

The Good:

Feels much more complete and unified.

It's lightening fast.

Most of the best bits of Android have transferred.

Screen looks great.

Face unlock works much better than I thought. Even in low light.

I've only had one crash despite installing a tonne of apps and testing every feature. [EDIT: loads of FCs today. Stay away from the pre-installed Google Earth).

Radio seems to work fine on Three UK, unlike the SGS II which has data issues due to fast dormancy. Data speeds are great.

Browser generally much better.

Text input much better, but editing is a little confusing and seems to vary depending on app.

Screen size is great for me, as I use my phones as mini-tablets. Doesn't feel bulky in my pocket at all.

BLUETOOTH STEREO FINALLY DOESN'T DISTORT

- I can hear hi-hats again instead of just distortion. There is a bit of constant crackling though.

Screen remains responsive when charging. I have had an issue where it wasn't registering touch properly when charging on my Milestone, Desire and SGSII so this is really nice.

The Bad:

The 'menu' button is unpredictable. For example, in most apps it appears at the bottom with the softkeys. In Market it's up at the top, near the search button. In some apps, it has gone. Seems to vary and is confusing.

You're stuck with the Google search box on you home screen. I hate this.

Now the button has gone, if an app doesn't have a search icon, you've lost the ability to search.

Also means no long press search, so you have to go back to the home screen for voice commands. This also means that regardless of what launcher you use, if you want voice search, you NEED to have the Google search widget on your home screen.

No USB Mass Storage – they've opted for media device profile instead. My Xbox recognises it but can't play any content. It doesn't work with my car stereo. It doesn't work with my TV. My laptop will see it, but I can't see certain hidden folders. This has just removed a huge aspect of flexibility from Android. It's no longer universal, and more like an iPhone now in that respect.

Icons are as ugly in real life as everyone expected.

Blue theme clashes with everything except blue. Blue icons on blue background feels very bland.

Speech to text seems to dislike my English accent, whereas the old version worked fine.

No longer accepts certain file formats over Bluetooth.

Camera seems buggy when reviewing photos. It works confusingly.

Gallery is not very intuitive at all.

Browser doesn't display Javascript animations properly.

Dropped a few calls.

Wifi range isn't as good as my other Androids

Front facing camera doesn't aim inwards towards your face. It points straight forward at 90 degrees, but it's positioned on the right of the device, so your face isn't central unless you hold the phone at a bit of an angle facing away from you. [EDIT - this is getting very annoying now. You have to have the phone scren pointing almost away from you to video call]

Bluetooth calls don't seem to work. Caller can't hear what I'm saying.

Bluetooth music has a constant crackling behind it, but it's barely noticeable in loud music.

All albumart appears in the phone gallery.



Apps - If you can't live without these, I'd recommend waiting to buy until they're fixed

No menu button is shown on Facebook, so there's no way to set it up to sync contacts or notifications. This means no contact photos for now.

Twitter on the other hand syncs all my contacts, despite me telling it not to.

Doesn't support Swype as yet.

Doesn't support MX Video Player.

iPlayer not available in the Market.

and another furthur down the page.

The Good

ICS is very polished, much more so than any other version of android, it tries to stay consistent through the whole phone where as in previous versions it was one of my main annoyances.

The device looks fantastic.

The speed is very good, I wouldn't say it is any faster than a SGS2 with a custom rom IMO but it is a lot smother in animation etc. so it feels a lot faster.

The screen is very nice, playing videos when the screen is set up to an acceptable brightness are amazing with colours a lot more natural than the SGS2 or the yellow tint of the iphone 4.

Radio is very good also, getting full signal in my house where as before i would only receive 2-3 bars.

Text input is a lot better although i have found it is unable to keep up with my typing, although it is putting the letters down it almost seems like there is a little delay in the animation of them magnifying.

Notification light is back and I am glad, as I missed that feature on my SGS2.

Has everything, NFC, noise cancelling mic, 720p display and ICS. Its pretty much future proof (in terms of the next few years)

Zero shutter lag is a very good feature

Bad Points

The screen although very nice on full or half brightness is not very good on auto brightness. It is so much lower compared to all my other smart phones it is almost unusable I find so I have had to manually set the brightness.

Auto rotate as I have mentioned in another thread is very inconsistent, very fast in some apps nearly non existent in others.

Sound quality is quiet, not poor quality but very quiet. My SGS2 and iPhone 4 over power it when playing videos.

The browser is fast but it is not as fast as my SGS2 running Check Rom Revolution HD. It is deffo faster than the iPhone 4.

The camera is not great, its not bad but the quality feels like it is from a year old device. Quite grainy, not as good as the SGS2 or the iphone 4s unfortunately.

And lastly a few quirks which I am sure will be sorted out with an over the air update, occasional stutter when opening app draw, gallery doesn't seem terribly smooth when going through photos and the auto rotate is just annoying me.

Other than the above I don't want people to read this and think it is doom and gloom because it isn't. This is a very very good device, I am glad I purchased it because it is still the best phone on the market in my opinion.

Every phone has its niggles but that is why this forum is so great, I am looking forward to the community baked roms which always make a device go from very good to just awesome.

To answer some question, you can't resize the search bar. Its not really a widget its sort of like the controls at the bottom, permanently there.

Thoughts?

 

[DesktopDevin]

Looks like this made up my mind. I will still wait for this to come out only for the fact that it will drop the price on the razr. Hopefully costco will still have the bundle available when they do.

 

[Larry Mahnken]

If you read the thread, the guys with these criticisms repeatedly say that the Nexus is the best Android phone ever. And some of these "bads" will no doubt be improved up on in future ICS updates.

Considering that the Razr and Rezound will be getting ICS next year, having the phone that gets the updates first will be a bonus.

 

[TheBoyPat]

If you read the thread, the guys with these criticisms repeatedly say that the Nexus is the best Android phone ever. And some of these "bads" will no doubt be improved up on in future ICS updates.

Considering that the Razr and Rezound will be getting ICS next year, having the phone that gets the updates first will be a bonus.

Exactly, a lot of this will be patched. Also this guy is extremely critical by his own admission. A lot of us won't notice these issues. It's just nice to see a honest layout.

 

[Larry Mahnken]

That front-facing camera thing might be an issue. I don't really do video calling anyway, but that seems like a dumb engineering mistake.

 

[Liderc]

He may have some faulty hardware with that FFC. In videos I haven't noticed people having to turn the camera away to do the facial recognition, so it's possible his FFC is just not centered.

 

[DesktopDevin]

I am really trying to keep an open mind about it, but the more I am hearing the more I am starting to dislike it.

I understand that a lot of the problems described can be patched, but if the ffc, sound quality and bluetooth problems are true we are talking more than a SW patch.

Like I said I think I have made up my mind but I will also wait and see what people say once they get it in their hands, it's either this or the razr and I have been sitting on my upgrade since July.

It's more than past my time to pull the trigger on something.

In the meantime my OG is still a rocking.

 

[Crankintopwater69]

I am really trying to keep an open mind about it, but the more I am hearing the more I am starting to dislike it.

I understand that a lot of the problems described can be patched, but if the ffc, sound quality and bluetooth problems are true we are talking more than a SW patch.

Like I said I think I have made up my mind but I will also wait and see what people say once they get it in their hands, it's either this or the razr and I have been sitting on my upgrade since July.

It's more than past my time to pull the trigger on something.

In the meantime my OG is still a rocking.

My God,Im so ready to pull the trigger and just get a phone,I mean those of us(like myself)have been waitin since we first heard about the bionic,Ill tell you guys-Im losen it over here!!!!!

 

[Felix 222]

I'm disappointed by the search button situation.

Also, I'm sure that google search bar can be removed once rooted, right?

 

[Preach2k]

My God,Im so ready to pull the trigger and just get a phone,I mean those of us(like myself)have been waitin since we first heard about the bionic,Ill tell you guys-Im losen it over here!!!!!

Today I was so close to getting the RazR. I just want to see if this phone will come with 32GB or not..

 

[Crankintopwater69]

Today I was so close to getting the RazR. I just want to see if this phone will come with 32GB or not..

Dont do it Preach,FIGHT!!!!

 

[Crankintopwater69]

Today I was so close to getting the RazR. I just want to see if this phone will come with 32GB or not..

All jokes aside though,Lord I feel you,but then I go 2 utube and get reenergized,man shes so beautiful.I just went 2 youtube and went through all the videos that showed me how to use this phone and i put them in my favs and Ill look at them from time to time and learn as much as I can about her,so all Ill have to do is fight off the savages as I leave the store.

 

[Liderc]

I've tested the Razr twice now and it just doesn't give me that excited feeling like when I watch a Nexus review, not sure what it is. I think a lot of it may be ICS, it changes the phone so much that it really feels like a completely new experience.

 

[Crankintopwater69]

I'm disappointed by the search button situation.

Also, I'm sure that google search bar can be removed once rooted, right?

And Ill say it again,Im just crazy enuff 2 say-I havnt seen anything yet i dont like about this phone,other then shes not in my arms where i can keep her warm and protect her and provide for her and put a roof over her head---wait!!!--what was the question?

 

[Rayv]

I've tested the Razr twice now and it just doesn't give me that excited feeling like when I watch a Nexus review, not sure what it is. I think a lot of may be ICS, it changes the phone so much that it really feels like a completely new experience.

I've done the same this weekend. Just trying to convince myself that it will be good enough. That screen just isn't for me though >< The more time I spend with it the more I dislike it. I love the look when its turned off though