JUNK July 30, 2012

Reviewer:  amanda 

Thank god for Amazon customer service! The phone is amazing and it works perfectly for everything, except making phone calls. Almost every single call I make is cut off because the person on the other line cannot hear me. I can hear just fine but all they hear is clicking. I sent the first phone back thinking it was a fluke and the second phone did the same exact thing. What is the point of having a phone that doesn't make phone calls?

"Pure Crap" March 12, 2012

Reviewer:  Strong05 

This is my 2nd smart/Android phone. My first phone was a Motorola Droid and I was pretty happy with it. I got this phone with high hopes and instead of a lengthy write up I'm just going to list pro's and cons.

Pro's:
-Screen size
-Screen resolution
-Aesthetics (to me)
-Phone size; fits well in my pockets and hands (although I'm a 6' guy)

Cons:
-Worst looking LCD screen I've ever seen (despite the resolution)
-Phone randomly crashes and restarts
-Worst reception I've ever had on a phone (this is a real problem and don't believe the articles saying the software update fixed the problem, all they did was change the program to show more bars even when the reception is crap) the phone is better suited as a paper weight indoors as it seldom has reception good enough to use 3 or 4g (where I had no problems with my old droid).
-Speaker phone volume is to low and is basically unusable
-The normal headset speaker isn't loud enough and cannot be heard in such settings as a restaurant.
-Google has not supported this phone
-Virtual keyboard lags when typing
-Poor battery life (with lite use it's dead by the end of the day where as my Droid had no problems and that's using 3g on both phones)
-OEM browser crashes and/or becomes unresponsive on a regular basis
-Volume/power button locations; easy to accidently push

I read a lot of articles about how this is the best phone for Android... If that's the truth then I should have gotten an iphone or at the very least the new razor. That's a big deal coming from a guy that's never owned a mac product before. I would return the phone, but I waited too long in the hopes that google would update and fix at least some of the issues.

Update:

Finally got Jelly bean. Phone ran smoother for a day or two then it was back to normal. Phone still restarts randomly and it lag's doing just about everything. Phone still has reception problems. Easily the worst phone I've ever had.

Horrible Signal March 1, 2012

Reviewer:  Rebecca 

The Ice Cream Sandwich looks great, however the phone has major signal issues. The 4g drops and the 3g does not take over right away. There is a delay of sometimes several minutes with no data or voice options. Had to return the phones.

Pretty good but still disappointing February 1, 2012

Reviewer:  Johnny Five 

This is supposed to be the flagship Google phone and while pretty cool, it's no iPhone killer. The screen is pretty awesome but has weird effects when the screen is grey and there are reports of burn in. The battery life is absolutely abominable. I'm getting 6 hours with an extended battery. Unacceptable. Ice cream sandwich is a big jump but still not near as smooth as IOS. LTE speeds are pretty great but that's about it. Oh and the sound is so low you can't hear it. This is a known bug that can be helped with a third party app, but the fact they let this phone released like this is pretty sorry. I would go with the Droid Razr Maxx instead of this.

Great tool, not so great phone December 26, 2011

Reviewer:  Bill 

Excellent OS upgrades, and the 20GB verizon data plan gets closer to what a data plan should be (unlimited).
While $80.00 per phone for data is many times what it is worth, I guess we are stuck. But this is a review of the device, not the carrier.
Almost everything about this device is near perfect, so you may ask why 3 stars? Compared to the Samsung Galaxy S that this replaces the Nexus
is almost impossible to hear from more than a few feet away and the speaker is completely worthless. I used to listen to the public radio stream
on my old phone and it worked great even at half volume. I need to turn the Nexus up to max to even make out the audio, and hearing a phone call
unless you are holding it is nearly impossible.

Great work on the OS features and improvements, but some of us still want to use a phone as a phone.

Be warned - Early adopter woes December 17, 2011

Reviewer:  alltheusernamesaretaken 

=== Brief update, 9/15/2012 ===
Many of the issues with this phone on Verizon still stand. I hate to say "I told you so", but a year later, Verizon has proven quite clearly that they're willing to backstab or at least slap in the face every Nexus owner of theirs.

* In an utter upset of the whole point of the Nexus, Verizon is now several months late in releasing their version of the Android Jelly Bean update. The GSM Nexus got it on Day 1 months ago, Sprint got it eventually, but Verizon hasn't even so much as mentioned it. There is no longer any reason to believe that Nexus phones on Verizon will receive updates sooner than any other Android smartphone, if ever.

* The car dock issue never got fixed; unlike the GSM version, the Verizon version of the dock still does not have integrated charging, audio, or car mode.

* Google Wallet still does not work on Verizon

On the positive side...

* Facebook contact syncing is now available through free third-party apps

* The phone has gotten somewhat cheaper

* The phone can now tether without root, thanks to newly-enforced FCC regulations upon Verizon

=== Original review follows ===

(Updated 12/19/11 to correct misinformation about Google Wallet)

Intro & Disclaimer
------------------
This is an early adopter's review intended to point out a few issues that weren't mentioned in most of the pre-release reviews. I'm leaving out the good aspects because you can find positive, glowing reviews just about everywhere else and there's no reason for me to be redundant.

I received my Galaxy Nexus today and I'm sad to say the phone is not as polished as I was led by the hype to believe.

General issues
--------------
* No Facebook contact syncing. Due to a dispute between Google and Facebook about the Android Contacts API, Facebook contact syncing is currently broken. That means you can't easily call/email/text your Facebook friends, see their photos, etc. from anywhere in your phone EXCEPT for within the Facebook app itself. (According to Engadget, this is an issue with Nexus-branded phones from the Nexus S onwards.)

* No Google Wallet - Sadly, Google Wallet is not officially available due to technical complications. You can add it back with a rooted phone and a custom ROM if you really want it.

* Non-vanilla Android - In a slap to the entire Nexus philosophy of "pure Google", Verizon pre-loaded their own "My Verizon" and "VZ Backup Assistant" apps. You can disable them, but you cannot uninstall them without rooting your phone. It remains to be seen whether this will affect future updates from Google. Minor version updates (to 4.0.3) have come without any problems, but it's unclear how major new versions will be affected.

* Google Voice voicemail setup process is broken - The app tells you that voicemail configuration is not available for your current network. I skipped the setup process and my GV voicemail continued to work, strangely, but this might be because I already set it up with my Verizon account in the past (on my old Android phone). I'm not sure if first-time Android users will be able to set this up under a Galaxy Nexus. (I was informed this may be the case with all Verizon Android phones, but my memory suggests otherwise. I'm not sure who's correct.)

* Hidden Menu button - I was surprised and annoyed to see that the Menu button has been replaced by a task switcher button in most situations. The menu button in Ice Cream Sandwich is now a context-sensitive button that only appears in certain situations, and while in theory that sounds fine, in practice this means there is no consistent place for it and different apps will have it hidden in different places. In some apps, it even changes places depending on which screen you're on... making configuration way more of a hassle than it really needs to be.

* Buggy Font Size settings - Although ICS now allows you to change the default font size, setting it larger than normal (to make it easier to read) is currently buggy. It works, but sometimes text gets cut off mid-line at the bottom.

* Non-removable Google search bar at the top of every home screen - The new launcher/home screen is nice (almost as powerful as LauncherPro), but the Google bar takes up the top row of every screen. Personally, I consider this a waste of valuable icon space when the old Search button worked just fine.

* Apps launcher no longer scrolls vertically - Google has copied Apple's apps launcher design, forcing you to scroll left and right one screen at a time to find your app. If you have a lot of programs, this becomes a lot slower than the old vertical scrolling. (I was told this has been here since Gingerbread, but it nonetheless remains an issue in ICS, so I'm leaving it in the review.)

* "Fake" tabbed browsing - The reviewers calling the browser "tabbed" seemingly have never used an actual tabbed browser. There are no tabs in the ICS browser, only windows as before. There is now a drop-down button that shows you all the open windows, each with a thumbnail, but that's still not the same thing as a row of immediately-switchable tabs. Additionally, it takes an annoying swipe+click+click to close the current tab and go to the next one. And when you open a tab in the background, its thumbnail isn't properly rendered, so you're left with a long list of blank windows in the window switchers.

* New Gmail and Calendar interfaces - They look prettier, but they're harder to use now because the old text-based buttons have been replaced by smaller, icon-only ones. It wasn't immediately obvious what "half open envelope", "three dots", "two boxes", "miniature calendar", etc. meant.

* Between the Menu button changes and the app-specific interfaces, a lot of big buttons have been replaced by either tiny icons or text-only menus in a long list. This makes it a lot harder to, for example, archive Gmail messages or exit the Navigation app if you have bigger, imprecise fingers like mine. Definitely a step back in usability.

* No SD card slot means there's no easy way to transfer old app settings from an old phone to this phone.

Driving/car mode issues
-----------------------
To my surprise, the Galaxy Nexus is pretty much unusable while driving. Google and Samsung completely butchered the car usage scenario with this phone:

* The launcher/home and voice search screens no longer rotate with your display. If you have your phone in horizontal (wide) rotation for use as a GPS, all text and menus are sideways until you actually get into an app. Needless to say, this makes it hard to launch apps while you're on the road.

* With the new virtual buttons, one of the most useful shortcuts -- Voice Search, previously activated by holding down the Search button -- is altogether gone. Now you have to go to the home screen and try to hit the tiny, tiny microphone on the Google search bar (while it's rotated the wrong way, thanks to the above issue). Want to dictate a new song or navigation destination while you're driving? Good luck hitting that tiny mic button without crashing.

* Unbelievably, there is no included Car Mode functionality. Not only does the phone not rotate, it doesn't launch Car Home and also doesn't stay on with the power connected. To make it even worse, the Car Home app on the market isn't compatible with ICS.

And guess what... the official Samsung car dock (officially called a "Navigation Mount") doesn't trigger dock mode either. It also has no integrated charging or headset adapter, meaning you have to manually connect the charger and headset cable every time you get into or out of the car. My years-old, much cheaper, Droid X car dock did this so much better. And if you think you can get around these issues by simply rotating the mount to portrait view, well, guess what... its mobility is limited in that direction, so you can't really tilt it very much towards the driver. One aggravating oversight after another... was there not a single driver on their entire QA team, or what? (Update: Apparently, it's only the Verizon-Samsung car dock that has this issue. The international version has integrated charging and audio and presumably functions better. I can't help but wonder if Verizon is deliberately sabotaging the Nexus brand to spite Google.)

True, the Tasker app and third-party car docks can help alleviate this, but a 2011 flagship phone that doesn't take drivers into account by default? That's just inexcusable.

Conclusion
----------

I don't want to sound overly negative, but I wanted to let people know about these issues so they can decide for themselves before they order a Galaxy Nexus. I certainly wish somebody told me beforehand, especially about the Facebook thing and car issues. I'm going to give the phone a week or so and see if I can work around these issues, but if not, I'm probably going to return it.

Maybe I'm just an old fart resistant to change, but the old tech adage of "never buy a first-generation product" sadly holds true here. I was expecting a massive improvement over my Droid X, but overall, I'm sad to say that this phone has become a slight disappointment in just two days. I can only hope software updates will fix some of these problems, but there are certain things -- like the physical Menu and Search buttons -- that I will forever miss.

Battery lasts 5 hrs, with gps turned off, unusable, returning February 4, 2012

Reviewer:  Unsavory Character  (San Francisco) -

I have a motorola atrix and can leave overnight or a day or so
google battery probs for the nexus, everyone gets about 5 hrs or so
I've turned everything off
for the ms, this is a deal breaker
trying the droid razr max

Phone brick on the 16th day January 12, 2012

Reviewer:  Sam Fisher "Sam"  (Chicago) -

It lasted 16 days and brick. Don't get me wrong the phone is good, like screen and software usability. I was on the android market viewing the default Verizon apps when my phone just hang for a few seconds then rebooted on it's own. Didn't had to press the power button at all, and this is while the cable is plugin on the outlet, so the battery is not a factor. Now it boots up only to the "Google" splash screen and stays there. So basically I'm reporting a lemon so that is why I gave it only a 1 star rating.

Battery life is expected as any smart phone. Without actually using it, it can go as long as 30 hours. With minimal use, 14 hours. When I use this to call and use the data, expect 9 hours at a maximum or less if you watch video. (If you factor in the signal strength - I get about 2 bars on the LTE 4G Verizon network at home, and full bars in the office).

Unfortunately you can only cancel without termination fee from the Verizon if you do it within 14 days. Verizon will be sending me a replacement via overnight FedEx. Just to be fair, Verizon has good customer service and isn't really at fault here. Just stating facts about the policy that's all.

Too many issues and compromises. February 19, 2012

Reviewer:  Book buyer  (Nowhere) -

Poor quality camera.
Terrible battery life.
Cheap plasticky feel with buttons that are not very responsive and feel like they could come off.
Signal issues.

Best Android Phone to date. December 31, 2011

Reviewer:  B. B. Burdette  (Pittsburgh, PA) -

I've had about 6 different smartphones ranging from Blackberry's to iPhones to PalmPre's to Androids. Of all the phones I've had this is by far the best one.

Google has hit a home run with Ice Cream Sandwich and Samsung has made a device that puts all other android phones to shame.

I could go on and on about how awesome this phone is, but I won't as I'm sure others will get into the details. Just take it from someone that works in the industry that this is the Android we've been waiting on. Congrats Google!

Great Phone with Nothing to Wear!!!! December 19, 2011

Reviewer:  GlockNinja 

Executives at Samsung and Google need a kick in their pants. There were hardly no accessories or cases for this phone at the Verizon dealership where I got this phone, and at the Verizon stores. I've had this phone for 4 days now naked and unprotected. The executives at Samsung and Google should have sent Ninja assassins to Body Glove for the ugly case they made for this phone. I lost all respect for Body Glove. Tough Case made an okay looking case but the buttons didn't work well with the case on. TPU also made a ugly cheap color me purple condom. I rather just break my phone than put that crap on. The only option left was Otterbox, but Otterbox didn't even have pictures of the case on their website until a day after the launch of the Nexus.

Samsung and Google have done a lot of web ads on the phone before its release. But they must have done next to nothing to get the industry to get behind and support this device. This phone beats the iPhone to death and then some, but without support for accessories..well....no wonder iPhone is top dog. Great phone but it has nothing to wear to a party. Very poor presentation Samsung!!!! very poor. Take it from a Korean customer....if we were in Korea, I'd be cursing out the store manager all the way up to the board of directors. Lucky for you that Americans don't eat kimchi and don't have hot tempers.

Go check out my unboxing video and a rant video on youtube. Its under the "GlockNinja" channel.
[...]

Pretty Screen, Poorly-Configured OS & Bad UI June 8, 2012

Reviewer:  Edward R. O'Neill "edwardoneill"  (Los Angeles, CA) -

I suppose they think the Android marketplace--you know, that app store that's a shadow of Apple's-is all you need. Because Android or Samsung or Verizon--I don't know who's to blame--omitted as many apps as possible from the phone. What was standard before is now DIY.-

1. MISSING VISUAL VOICEMAIL.

Two Verizon sales reps told me it was there. Looked for it. Looked for it. Looked for it.

A third Verizon sales rep told me there was no such thing--"It's a patented Apple product"--then offered to add it. I passed.

Verizon sent me three text messages telling me to access an app that was not on the phone.

Finally, yet another Verizon sales rep volunteered to install it. The Verizon visual voicemail app in the Android store? It's one of the worst-rated apps I've ever been forced to put on a device.

When the visual voicemail app was finally installed? I tried deleting old messages, and the OS gave me a message saying the deletion hadn't worked and why didn't I call the voicemail number and delete those messages manually. So the app that doesn't exist doesn't actually work either.

2. MISSING STOPWATCH & TIMER. They're no longer part of the clock--as they were before.

3. GODAWFUL MP3 PLAYER.

You turned shuffle play on? Good, because good luck turning it off. The shuffle button is hidden in most views.

You started a playlist? Good luck figuring out how to add songs to it. (It's not the way you did it before: you make the playlist and then go to the songs and then choose which playlist to add to.)

You'd like to go back to where you were before? It's the tiniest button in the upper right. You'll hit the wrong thing 90% of the time.

4. YOU CAN'T SEARCH THE PHONE. Can't find something? Too bad!

5. THE BROWSER WON'T OPEN PDF'S. I'm not kidding. It starts to open-then disappears. Some pdf's show up in a separate app, but the connection doesn't always get made. Get this: freaking Google can't even make a phone that opens a pdf!

6. DEFAULTS TO DRIVING DIRECTIONS. I must have touched the wrong thing: when I ask the Google Maps for directions? It gives me audio turn-by-turn. You can't just SEE the directions--it wants to tell it to you, like it's a freaking bedtime story. I can't find where to change the default.

7. AMAZON MP3 PLAYER FAILS. I asked the Amazon MP3 app to download some songs. It didn't. The mp3 player shows you songs you can't play. (Who thought of this?)

8. STUTTERING APPS. The voice on my running app (CardioTrainer) stutters when the mp3 player is playing. You can't even understand it.

9. STUTTERING PHONE CALLS. The phone calls stutter! Yes. The voice quality on phone calls is marred by dropouts. That's right, friends. They couldn't even make a phone that makes a decent phone call.

10. POOR SPEED ON THE FB APP. Two bars of "4G" signal, and the Facebook app can't load a page. I'm sure this one is on Facebook, because--well-they're clearly dumbasses. But you don't expect a 4G phone to have such problems.

There's actually a manual. Why is this weird? Because you're not supposed to need one. That's the whole UX thing: it should be intuitive.

11. DISORGANIZED SUPPORT. I tweeted about my issues-which are really with the configuration of the OS, not the hardware. The Verizon support folks then message you back. But they never follow-through. No problems were solved. I had tweets from six people: ^AE, ^CB, ^EW, ^CM, ^AH, ^MS. No resolution. No one could even keep track of what was wrong.

I wanted to love this phone: FAIL March 13, 2012

Reviewer:  franciscodanconia "franciscodanconia"  (Pacific Palisades, CA) -

I really wanted to love this phone, as I'm standardized on Google products including Google Music, but Samsung really didn't dogfood this design before releasing it, and it shows. Also, Google's OS 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) REALLY disappoints as the tauted features only sound good but don't perform.

What I WANTED to like about this phone:
#1 no verizon-ware. on this the Nexus delivers.
#2 Fast Camera: again, it delivers here too.
#3 Google Music: again, pretty good here to, altho the UI is not terribly intuitive, try to find "play all shuffle" isn't obvious. but I'll allow they get some time to work out kinks.
#4 Software buttons that move and change. This was the biggest disappointment. sure, when you go from vertical to horizontal the buttons move. Big whoop, it's not that big of a deal. What SOUNDED like it was going to be cool, was each app being able to manipulate the buttons into whatever was most useful for that app. In theory great, in practise not a single app changed anything. Hey Google, where the heck is your search button? Wasn't that the best thing about your phones from day one, the ability to search the entire device plus the internet from any app at any time? No. no, there's nothing easy about search on an Android these days, it's always been a disappointment actually. if you want a really awesome search function, get Siri, it's awesome. Long press the main button on any iphone, even pre-siri, and you can talk to your phone and have it call anyone in your phonebook.
Not so with Android phones, it's always been buggy, but with OS 4 ICS it's not just buggy but UNUSABLE.
#5 Google Finance: can't really get on iphone, but seriously google, put some effort into this app, it SUCKS. I can only access ONE of my portfolios, what good is that. the app tells you it's updated ALL of your portfolios, but good luck finding them.
#5

Oh, and the following critiques of this phones problems are not in order of importance, the fact that the glass is easily cracked is the LEAST of my worries, altho incredibly telling of Samsung design.

#1 Screen FAIL
What SOUNDS cool? A curved piece of glass fronting this phone. What's NOT cool? A curved piece of glass which cracks because you keep the phone in your front pocket and laid down on the floor to play with baby but since the phone is curved it puts torque on the phone and cracks the screen. Not once have I dropped it, yet on day two I have a cracked screen for the next two years. I've owned about 4 different blackberries (many of which I've dropped multiple times on concrete), and 3 different iphones, and an android by HTC and only once have a I cracked a screen, but never from having it in my pocket (iPhone 1 cracked cuz it got hit by a door, totally legit).
The screen is nice if you love a big screen (i do), but it's slow and obviously flawed in construction. Nice try, but I'll never buy a curved piece of glass again and you shouldn't either.

The phone still works, but you have to admit that a curved screen is just dumb design. Even HTC with the "chins" on their phones knows not to curve the glass. Nice try Samsung, I supposed it's good marketing that suckered me into buying this phone, but if this phone ever has a small amount of wieght on it in any way, the screen is donesky.

#2 Turn-on FAIL
Like ALL Samsung products, you can never really tell if you've turned it on-- same with their TV sets. I guess Koreans have a different idea of what constitutes ON. I like something that at least tells me to wait, a light going on, something. you can click the power button several times before you realize that the phone isn't turning on. Then you can sometimes hold it down for what feels like an entire minute before you feel a haptic response that something is happening, but even with that you're not sure because it can take another 15 seconds before "google" comes onto the screen, and then more blackness that makes you think it died again, then a crazy collage of color that keeps turning on and off for far too long. Turning on this phone takes FORVER. Once you have it on, don't let the battery get < 50% or else...

#3 Battery FAIL
Once less than 50% battery life, the phone MAY start turning itself on after you turn it off. This happens frequently, a miserable bug that google hasn't fixed, and the screen then causes the battery to wear down in less than an hour. Oh, and once you get about to a third of batter life left, the software can also bug-out and give you the battery-low warning every 5 seconds which makes you want to throw the phone into a brick wall after trying to do something simple. This was the real dealbreaker for me, the bugginess of android 4.0. If you really MUST have android, do yourself a favor and wait until 5.0, cuz 4.0 is nothing but confusion, soft buttons that don't help, and really awkward application manipulations especially MAPS.
I'm really glad Google is demanding a spamware-free phone in the Nexus, but ICS android 4 just ruins any benefit by screwing up the battery mgt and making the entire experience cumbersome.

#4 Voice operations FAIL Double FAIL
Google, you're supposed to be a leader here, and you even have your own technology, unlike Apple who must cobble together 3 or 4 different services to make siri work; yet, the voice operations on your phone just ROT. All the microphone buttons available to access things like voice search or voice-to-type are tiny, hard to find, and that's on top of the technology barely being usable. Think you're going to press a button and voice dial a friend? WRONG. If that's your goal, get an iphone, even an old one without Siri. I can't even describe how horribly integrated voice technology is for this OS and phone. To top it all off, google got rid of their dedicated search button, clearly a mistake now that Apple has made this function front-and-center with the main button long-press.
So goog luck even FINDING an opportunity to use voice controls.

#5 LAG. FAIL.
They still haven't fixed the lagginess of the OS yet. I know this is the 4th OS, but maybe 5th time's a charm? Obviously, what ails Android is DEEP deep issue, and will require a massive changeovver, or maybe the OS is hampered by patents. I don't know or care, but the finger/touch response of android is still crud. I wish this weren't so, but I'm afraid after using this phone for 2 months now, it's painfully true.

I want to LOVE this phone, but instead I LOATHE having to use it, and I'm stuck with it for 1.75 more years and VERY not happy about it. I should have just gotten an iphone 4S until Android at LEAST produces a phone without lag. As for Samsung, never again. My TV, my laptop, and my phone are all Samsung now, and I hate each and every one of them, especially the TV which I can't even successfully turn on because it's so wierd. Google will one day get thru the patent and basic OS issues, even if they just copy a lot of the successes of Apple (big reason apple is a pain, is really cost, cost of hardware, cost of music, etc....), but I don't think Samsung ever will. If you're dying to own something Korean that's made well, try buying a Hyundai, let Samsung have it's wierd user-unfriendly interfaces. I also own a Sony Google TV, and while it has some bugs more due to the software, at least I know when the thing turns on, and the speakers are decent quality. Samsung smells.

Great ICS system, poor build quality, bad signal reception and battery life, terrible customer service. January 6, 2012

Reviewer:  XIAO-MI  (NJ USA) -

Beware, their build quality is NOT consistent, and consider other brand of Android phone if you can!

I got a Verizon version galaxy nexus. It had two major defects:

1. The battery life is only about five to six hours stand-by from a full charge, and I feel the phone is always warm.
2. It's very hard to get any verizon signal. Sometimes, like a few minutes each hour, it gives me many bars, but most of the time, it's just showing nothing or one bar. Of course, I am talking about the place where the verizon coverage is known to be very very good. There seem to be a lot of discussions online about it, just google for "Galaxy Nexus Verizon Signal Problem".

Samsung's customer service was terrible terrible. I waited for 13 days for the repaired. I had to escalate three times to get the repair shipped back using express mail. They had planned to ship back using regular ground mail again if I didn't call again on the day it was repairing!

The repaired unit is still defective. I found the LED notifier does not work for me while my friends att phone does (I did turn the "Setting -> Display -> Pulse notification light" on by default and tried to send messages/emails to my phone).

Anyway, regarding the fixed new unit:

+ The most shining thing about this phone is the ICS Android system. It's beautifully built by Google and works fantastically. Please refer to other ICS reviews regarding this part. I want to focus the review on the phone itself. It was great that you can track your data usage, beam your friends phone, etc etc...

+ The screen is beautiful. The high definition certainly makes viewing experience fantastic. Thanks to the hardware acceleration, everything runs smoothly including gaming, and surfing/browsing feels a lot nicer.

+ Nice form factor. It's thin and light, and bigger as the screen gets, it fits in my hand perfectly and exactly about right.

That's the end of the good story. Now come the parts I don't like.

- The build quality is pretty cheap. When looking at it closely, I found the rounding of the top left and top right not entirely symmetric. And the upper-right corner of the phone has paint chipped off (just several hours normal use). Another design flaw is the screen rim. The joint between the screen and the base collects dust really easily.

- The speaker is still bad. I feel it's actually worse than the previous Nexus S somehow... The sound quality is embarrassing when you use GPS, and the maximized volume should be higher - at least as high as the iphone 4.

- Samsung's stock software is done very rough. Their email app is totally redundant and doesn't integrate the rest of the software package well enough, plus, its desktop widget doesn't fits with other gadgets and icons well on the screen well either.

- Samsung Kies is useless, at least for me. You don't even need this to root your phone.

Android has been out for years and it's this bad? January 6, 2012

Reviewer:  Fleon 

Not impressed with this phone or ICS. I have encountered all the "textbook" problems with this phone: bad signal strength, incompatible apps (a lot of them), and the multitouch doesn't work a fair amount of the time.

Phone is going back. I'm going with an HTC Titan.

Does not live up to my expectations December 22, 2011

Reviewer:  ambnt  (Pacific Grove, CA United States) -

I bought this 3 days ago, upgrading from a Droid X. I loved the X.

The good: 4G is at least 10 time as fast as 3G: a page that took 20 seconds to load now loads in ~ 2 seconds, in addition to much snappier response from apps and games that connect to the Internet. The dual core provides a markedly smoother experience interacting with the device. Ice Cream Sandwich: seems more intuitive. The camera responds almost instantaneously.

The bad:
* Battery life is a joke. I installed the extended battery right off the bat. With the device set to dimmest brightness and regular usage, battery gauge goes south much quicker than what I'm used to on the DroidX.
* The display: at the dimmest brightness is simply unappealing and grainy, killing any joy of the super AMOLED.
* The speaker: weak. At the highest volume, it is not as clear as the DroidX's. It also reverberates whether I'm listening to people on the other end or music; I think the fact that the shell overall and the snap-on back cover are made of plastic contributes to this problem.
* ICS is not as refined as its predecessor. One aspect that's already annoying: the dial pad; the digits are too big making holding and dialing with one hand cumbersome - inadvertently touching lower digits when aiming for the upper row of digits.
* Snap-on back cover: the fact that the battery drains so fast means I'd have to have a backup battery ready for duty by mid-day, every day. I wonder how long before the daily snapping of the back wears it till it doesn't snap.
* The micro USB port: at the bottom is an inconvenient location, especially if I am to use the device while it is plugged in for charging.

The overall feel of the device is crude. Aside from 4G, it quickly proved to be not as functional as my DroidX

I will return this and get a Razr.

Edit 2011-12-22: I cannot navigate through any voice menu options in a call as the system on the other end of the call does not recognize what I pressed. This was never a problem with DroidX. As a phone, this device is crippled.

catlover959 June 8, 2012

Reviewer:  Brenda Henson "catlover959"  (doniphan,mo) -

I had everything ready to purchase this phone then I realized that nowhere does it mention an HDMI cable. How can I hook it to my t.v. id there isn't an availbale port? I really wanted to buy this phone, very disappointed and hoping I just overlooked the HDMI connection somewhere. If not, it is useless to me.

Should've got an iPhone 4S February 22, 2012

Reviewer:  Elliot 

I thought I was getting a big upgrade when I bought the Galaxy Nexus rather than the iPhone 4S. They both would've cost me the same, I chose the Nexus after reading an incredibly large about of reviews. I extremely regret purchasing this phone over the 4S, mainly because Verizon or Samsung wont take credibility for the overheated charging port, something that Apple would clearly do.

So what I love about this phone:
- The screen is slightly larger
- I love having 4G internet
- Navigation slightly better than iPhone

What I hate about this phone:
- battery port overheated one day with original charger, now the phone does not charge properly. I literally have to have my phone propped up against something to get it at the perfect angle to charge. Verizon and Samsung wont replace this clear manufacture defect issue. Apple store clearly would have replaced the phone with no questions asked.
- it crashes a ton - camera, apps, everything
- it restarts for no reason, sometime at really inopportune times - like driving with the navigation on
- everything that can easily be done on apple takes a little more time on Android (especially the poorly laid out settings, and inability to sync my phone easily with my computer)
- battery cover is extremely flimsy, replaced it twice so far. Overall build quality is low, the outside edges easily get scratched by things in my pocket, after 6 months this phone just looks plain shitty and worn. I have broken the screen once (it cost $163 from Samsung to replace, Apple replaced two of my iPhone 4 screens for no charge under the warranty).

Price Match December 15, 2011

Reviewer:  Travis Harris "TMH"  (San Diego) -

Dont have a review yet considering i just walked out the store with it. Just didnt want people to miss out on the deal or have to wait for it. Bestbuy just price matched amazons $150 price tag if you dont want to wait for the back order. Put a big smile on my face.

No car dock available February 6, 2012

Reviewer:  Smokin' Leather  (Richmond, CA United States) -

Until a car dock is available for the Verizon LTE version of this phone, they get one star (Samsung is charging $50 for a piece of plastic that holds your phone *only* - no docking capabilities - what do you think those three pogo pins on the side are for!). It is ridiculous that they've let the accessories lag way behind the production of the device. No other phone unveiling has had such blatant lack of support for accessories. I'd wait for the next ICS phone if you're considering buying. Personally, I won't buy Samsung again.