Do noty buy from Amazonwireless December 3, 2012

Reviewer:  Dean Grant Jr. 

The phone is fine. The service plan however... I signed up for a specfic service plan with specfic charges, and the first bill has an additional $50 in monthly recurring charges. Don't do business with Amazonwireless- they are dishonest and deceptive

Underrated Phone November 26, 2012

Reviewer:  CJV 

I personally don't think that this phone gets the recognition it deserves. It's a great looking phone that functions amazingly well.

I purchased this phone when it came on on the Verizon Network and I don't regret it. I guess I would be what you would call an "advance" user as I've rooted and rom'd my phones....and if that's what you're looking to get into, then owning a Nexus phone is the way to go.

Now for the regular users. This phone has almost an infinity look to the front of it, as the bezel is black on top and bottom and runs directly to the screen. Depending on the angle you hold the phone you almost can't tell where the screen starts and ends when it's not on.

It's a great phone to have because you will keep up to date with the Android builds. You were able to take advantage of 4.0, 4.1 and probably 4.2 before most other phones are even considered to have it. Owning this phone means you get the Google Experience. Basically you don't get held down with all of the fancy "bloatware" that motorola, htc or even samsung puts on their phones. A Nexus device is purely stock android and the way it should be.

Now, to the issues which keep me from giving the phone 5 stars. I do believe that the radios (the method your phone gets its wireless signal with) are a beat lackluster. I notice that my signal bars are often lower than most other phones, BUT I have read this is the way the phone interprets it....but I know most of you will just want to look at the bars and judge by that. So an example would be when I have 1 bar 4G LTE my girlfriends Droid Razr generally has 3 bars 4G LTE in the exact same spot.

I'm also not a fan of the back case on the phone. It's built out of plastic and seems a bit slippery, so get a case or you'll be dropping the phone. Also, the case has little plastic tabs that snap into place. If you frequently remove your batter I can see how these plastic tabs can break (1 of mine did, but it took a year)

Finally, the camera. It's fast, it can take amazing pictures. It's only 5MP. It's a bit low in the world of "super phones", but it'll focus and take a picture faster than most of the 8MP cameras out there. So, you have to weigh out the pros and cons of that one for yourself.

fast little bugger, good battery life, and fully unlockable. November 25, 2012

Reviewer:  Antoncheez 

This thing blazes. I couldn't get a nexus 4 because of monetary requirements. This is a great phone. Within 5 minutes of being in the door this sucker was unlocked and running android 4.2 jelly been. Great battery life on 4.2, but on 4.1 it is horrible. Love the features. The camera could use a little work, but it serves its purpose. charges relatively fast. make sure you whip out battery stats when you get it. headphone gain is amazing. This is a phone for those who love to tinker around with android and its sub-systems. i own 2 nexus devices (the galaxy and the 7) and plan on getting a nexus 10 by the end of the year. i could not ask for a better phone.

Great For What It Is November 19, 2012

Reviewer:  A. Netzel 

I've had this phone for about a year now, and after numerous software tweaks, it's turned out to be a great device. Because it's regulated by Verizon, keeping the phone stock is generally a bad idea (they're extremely slow to push updates). However, thanks to it being a Nexus device (though somewhat gimped by Verizon), it's extremely easy to unlock/root which opens the device to flashing numerous custom ROMs (modified operating systems, many of which are as up-to-date as possible and offer a variety of new/different features). In other words, this is not a phone for the average consumer. It's not "top of the line," nor is it really flashy. It's a phone designed for someone who prefers customisation and control of what goes onto the device.

I might grind an axe, but why else would you buy this phone... September 11, 2012

Reviewer:  Jeff Chuang 

I bought this phone when it came out in December, 2011. Love the Nexus experience--I came from a direct-from-Google Nexus One and I really enjoy that ICS goodness. In fact that should be the #1 reason why you want this phone.

However, I recommend AGAINST getting this phone from Verizon Wireless. They were the first-to-market in USA with this device and yet they still have not delivered the latest Android Jelly Bean for this device. It goes against the biggest advantage that makes the Google Nexus program from the consumer perspective, if other devices and carriers are getting the latest Android update before this device, including non-Nexus devices.

Of course, there are other advantages to this phone, such as a healthy support from 3rd party developers who offer ROMs and other ways to tinker with your phone, by rooting it. If you're here because you want to root your phone, then this Nexus phone remains an attractive offer.

If you're not, and you're looking for the latest and greatest updates from Google for Android, DON'T get a Verizon Wireless device. They have shown to be slow and uncommunicative for their new smartphone user base looking to upgrade their phone's software. Crippling Google Wallet has nothing on delaying a relatively small, incremental release like Jelly Bean. God forbid when a major Android release comes out, we'll likely never going to see it released by VZW short of half a year.

I still give this phone 3 stars because it is well-supported by 3rd party, and generally offers adequate set of hardware for today's best apps. I only took one star off for VZW's inadequacies, and one more star for its less-than-ideal build quality and relatively unwieldy size. The front glass is scratch prone, so I recommend some screen protector if you're any sort of rough on your phone. I already have 2 very minor scratches in 7 months, without using any protection.

Would of had a 5 star but..... September 9, 2012

Reviewer:  Jerry G. Guevara "Keep Your Head to the Sky"  (San Jose, CA) -

I originally wanted to get he new Samsung Galaxy SIII phone but when the Nexus was available for 1 penny, I opted for the Nexus. I was very excited about this model as it seemed to have pretty good reviews. But, for the first couple weeks it was awful to deal with, mainly due the bad battery life it seemed to have. Well, long story short, I was able to figure out specifically what the primary problems where draining the battery. 1. 4G/LTE system seems to heavily consume the battery. 2. the brightness on high super drains the phone. I did purchase the larger extended battery as a back up too. As long as 4g/CDMA under network mode is switch to CDMA only AND the brightness mode is down to about a 1/4 then the phone works perfect. I noticed especially the brightness super drained the battery one time I needed the phone in full brightness mode. OUCH! SO, I love the phone and wish I could have read something telling me this before I bought it. For basically free, it has turned out great!!!! 4G/LTE is still not that great right now and 3G actually has MUCH better signal and is consistent. 4g is not.

Great Phone July 25, 2012

Reviewer:  M. Edwards 

I read all of the reviews of this phone before I bought it. There were quite a few reviews noting signal problems and software malfunctions but I was willing to take the chance because it is only a penny. I have had this phone for a while and I have not had any problems whatsoever. The pure android experience without any skins is really different and I really like it. If you have a good Verizon signal in your area get this phone.

Do not buy yourself a trouble July 18, 2012

Reviewer:  C. Xu "stanford scheller"  (CA, USA) -

I get this phone back in March where the price is more than $225. I have been very good experience with HTC incredible, but my wife dropped the HTC and end up with broken screen. That is the reason that I bought GNexus, which end up with a terrible experience. The first phone from Amazon is not able to activate. The second phone does work. However, compared to my HTC incredible, this phone has a very week signal. At my office, I often cannot talk on the phone and missed 40% of them, which have never happened to me with my Htc incredible. I have to use my office phone most of the time. Now, it is about 4 months since I have it. My Galaxy nexus cannot make phone call using the ear speaker. Only back speaker or headphone can be used to make phone calls. When I unplug headphone from the phone, the music does not pause (google music). Instead, it continue to play. Searched online, it looks like that the headphone jack sensor is broken. If I installed a software called Wired Headphone/Headset Fix, it will be able to use ear speaker for phone calls. Looks like the phone always assume that the headphone jack is attached, even actually it is not. Wired Headphone/Headset Fix is not a fix to the hardware (only disable headphone jack by software) and will not be able to automatically detect the headphone jack, and I would like Sumsung to fix my phone. Now it is on this way to Sumsung for repair.

Another thing is that the phone is now extremely slow now. It is not responsive and lags for simple go home button. It is not as smooth as my old HTC incredible even for more than 2 years of use. Galaxy nexus is the worst phone I ever have in my lifetime. Please do not buy it for your own time. Keep it away.

Update:
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The phone is back from Samsung repair, which takes about 2 weeks. The repair does fix the headphone jack. However, the signal at my office is still poor. I cannot make a phone call for >10 minutes, where my old HTC incredible has no problem at all.

Update: Aug 14

The phone is malfunctioned again 2 weeks of repair. The worse experience...%$$$%&...I need to send it back to Samsung again,which takes more than 2 weeks to fix....What a pain. I called Verizon canceled my contract, paying >$300. Totally a nightmare.

Still the best device on VZW July 7, 2012

Reviewer:  teh A7MAN "A7MAN"  (Colorado) -

Despite newer hardware available from Samsung & other manufacturers, this is still the best device available on VZW. It's the only device that ships without a bunch of un-removable bloat/crapware. It's the only one without a resource-hogging skin/UI & the only one with the software buttons intended to work with ICS (and soon to be Jellybean). Furthermore, this device has more community & developer support than any other device currently available, especially on Verizon.

The battery life is not stellar, but an extra battery with external charger is <$30 & well worth it to NEVER have to plug in your phone.

Clean OS, no bloat, 4G, NFC, unencrypted bootloader & unbeliievable community & developer support make this phone unique, if not legendary. 7 months after launch, it's still the best device on Verizon, and now one of the cheapest. Apple seems to agree as they've sued to block sales in the US of this phone. Yesterday it was not available even on Amazon. Today it's back. Get one now before they're gone or pulled from shelves again. There probably won't be another Nexus on VZW anytime soon, which is bad for everyone but Verizon.

If you like Verizon's coverage but hate the company, this is the phone they don't want you to have. How sweet it is!

Poor connectivity June 23, 2012

Reviewer:  Crispy 

The 4G connection rarely works and it gets very hot when running on LTE/CDMA. I am constantly in CDMA only mode. Speaker is dreadful and I cannot do business calls over it. Even for 3G, the signal strength is very poor and call quality is pretty bad.

Other than calling functions, the rest is very good but I really do need to have solid calling on my phone as I do not have a landline. This product should have never been released.

Battery life renders phone unusable June 15, 2012

Reviewer:  Darrel 

I was very excited about this phone and bought it on its release day. I am a huge android fan but this experience 6 months later is really forcing me to consider switching to an iphone or razr maxx.

Let me start off with the good. This phone has a great screen (720p), great processor that rarely lags, and has an unlocked bootloader allowing you to update your phone earlier than verizon's notoriously slow process. 4G, when working, is incredibly fast. ICS is also a huge step up from gingerbread and in many ways superior to iOS.

Now the bad. The phone comes with an 1850 mAh which has atrocious battery life, as has been documented all over the internet. That equated to about 2-3 hours of web surfing before my phone completely died which I didn't think was possible. The 720p screen eats battery like nothing else and the chipset seems to heat up and drain battery life quicker than I have ever seen. I upgraded to the 2100mAh battery which improved my results somewhat. Now with light usage, customized battery saving roms, 4g, bluetooth, and gps all off, I can squeeze out about 12.5 hours of life out of the extended battery. My light usage consists of 30 mins or less of talking on the phone, 30 mins of web browsing, a couple of texts, and occasionally checking widgets. My friend has the same phone and has managed to get his up 15 hours by putting his phone in airplane mode for parts of the day. While the phone has a lot of great features, the battery life makes them borderline unusable and I find myself needing to carry around an extra battery with me to make sure my phone doesn't die before I can get to a charger.

The build quality of the phone is also very low. Samsung's choice of materials for the phone leaves a lot to be desired and I'm sure that some minor drops would be sufficient to break the phone. Im basically trying to get rid of this phone now so that I can get the razr maxx with its inferior gingerbread or i0S with its lack of features because unfortunately having a phone that can last half a day is too important to look over.

Earlier manufactured models were better. Widespread display discolorations June 15, 2012

Reviewer:  Jay 

Android 4.0's user interface uses blacks and grays. The settings screen should be dark gray which fades up into a deep black to blend in with the status bar. The prompts (like when you adjust the volume) should be almost black. Many devices display shades of blue or purple instead.

I've seen literally 12-13 Galaxy Nexus's in the past few months. All of them had this problem at varying degrees.

I had one which I purchased used about six months ago and it showed all accurate colors. I also saw one from a Verizon store manager who got his on launch day, and it also displayed accurate grays and blacks.

The background of the boot animation should be black, not purple. The settings screens should all have gray and black backgrounds, not purple. The prompts should be nearly black.

Samsung changed something in their manufacturing and it sucks... big time. This is the only vanilla Android 4.0 device available and it's ruined by Samsung's crappy Pentile AMOLED display technology.

Not for everyone June 5, 2012

Reviewer:  Mike S. "-Mike"  (Eastern PA) -

I'm a geek and a tweaker and always have been. This phone is perfect for me since it is so easy to root and download custom ROM's. The stock ROM did not impress me. I had similar issues with dropped calls. Once I started using custom ROM's most of my issues have disappeared. The two issues I still have are signal strength and battery life. I'm on the fringe of the 4G network. My signal will go from 4G to 3G and keep going back and forth. When I'm in a solid 4G area I have no signal issues. In fact, when in a solid 3G area I'm fine. The battery life of the original battery is brutal but I got the extended battery and use a product called "Juice Defender" that can get me through a full 12+ hour day without needing to charge. When I first bought the phone I was lucky to get 4 hours. If your not into tweaking your phone and just want to use it for basic phone calls and you are a casual email user, this may not be the right device for you. For me, it's the best phone I have had and I have had a lot of smart phones over the past 4 years.

Dropped calls and very short battery life May 19, 2012

Reviewer:  A. Baker 

This is my third month with this phone and I am experiencing a lot of dropped calls (or calls with static). On the average, I have been making 6 to 7 short calls, with this phone, a day. More than half of the calls got dropped in the middle of the conversation. I live in San Jose, California and according to the sales person at the Verizon store, I should not have any problem with the connection.

The issue with excessive dropped calls alone would have earned only one star from me. And to make the matter worst, the phone has one of the worst batteries. I use this phone on an average of one hour per day and I have to charge it twice a day. I have both of my WI-FI and Bluetooth turned off.

5/27/2012
I had the battery replaced and the new battery, after fully charged overnight, can last me up to about two days. I've also deleted my e-mail account so the phone won't download any e-mail in the backgroud and turned off the'Data Enabled' hence saving the battery (I was told). However, the problem with drop calls has not improved. If I need to access the internet or checking my e-mail, I just turn on the 'Data Enabled'.

11/17/2012
Learned another trick. I found this, on the internet, and decided to give it a try. I set my 'Preferred Network mode' to CDMA instead of LTE/CDMA. After I did this, I have been experiencing fewer drop calls.

Now I am revising the rating and I am giving it a three instead of one star.

Great phone with a couple issues May 11, 2012

Reviewer:  Ben 

The good:
- The phone is light and feels great in your hand. Some people prefer heavier phones but I really love how this phone feels. It also looks great.

- The screen is great. Large and very high-res. (Colors aren't fantastic, though. I stopped noticing after a day or two.)

- The phone is extremely responsive. My big problem with my last Android phone is that it was clunky and unresponsive. Scrolling is smooth and apps are very fast.

- Verizon LTE. Where I live I get about 18 megabits per second consistently. It still amazes me.

The bad:
- My first one had serious signal problems. It lost *all* cell signal for a few minutes at a time at least once every half hour, which killed the battery. This meant I was unable to call, text, or use data (or receive calls and texts) until it picked up again. If this happens to you, take the phone back. The Verizon store swapped mine without hassle and the new one doesn't have this problem at all. Apparently this is a common problem.

- There's an issue with multitouch which can prevent the phone from recognizing two fingers at once. Apparently this is bad for gaming, but it also affects typing, depending on how quickly you type. Letters are occasionally skipped because the phone didn't sense my finger. This is apparently going to be fixed in an upcoming patch, but it's been delayed by Verizon for several months, so who knows when that'll happen.

- The maximum ringer volume is way too low. You're likely to miss it if you're in the other room, and the alarm's not going to wake you up if you're a heavy sleeper. Luckily there's an app called Volume+ on the market that fixes this by increasing the max volume. You don't even have to root your phone.

The three star rating is due to Verizon's slowness in releasing the update. Models of the Galaxy Nexus for other carriers suffered from the same signal and multitouch issues, but they were updated months ago. This phone is pushing 5 months old and still hasn't received an update since launch day, despite major bugs. Samsung did a great job, Google did a great job, but Verizon needs to get its act together.

A great example of Android's advancements May 5, 2012

Reviewer:  hsrob 

I've been an Android user since I switchhed from my iPhone 3G in early 2009. I've been an enthusiastic user of the various custom ROMs and modifications available for these devices. I started with a Nexus One, then moved over to a Droid on Verizon, HTC Incredible, and now the Galaxy Nexus.

Having seen each version of Android from 2.0 to 4.0, I'm extremely impressed with what they've done. This phone really wakes up with a custom kernel (I'm on Franco.kernel nightly) and ROM (AOKP nightly r33, soon to be milestone 5). I also flashed the official 4.0.4 radio, and connectivity and 4G changeover are much better. I get excellent reception everywhere, and 4G is blazing fast and reliable everywhere I use it (greater Los Angeles area, Las Vegas, etc.).

The phone itself has an amazing screen, it's huge and easy to read, and with my huge hands, easy to type on. I love the resolution and color definition.

The performance of the phone is blazing fast. Once you move to the custom ROMs and kernels, you'll see a world's worth of difference in the already impressive performance. I have no complaints about the phone. I got the 2100 mAh extended battery, and it lasts all day with JuiceDefender (free or $2 premium) enabled. My battery stats when it's nearly drained show 1.5+ hours of talk time and 2.5+ hours of the screen being on, with 4G in use some of the time. This is impressive to me, compared to all the other phones I've had.

This may not be the pinnacle of technology or speed, but I highly recommend it for the Android enthusiast.

Best phone on the Verizon market, hands down April 30, 2012

Reviewer:  crawfish963 

I previously had the Galaxy S2 and I did a lot of research before buying this phone. I've had it for about 4 days now and so far I absolutely love it. It's snappy and the battery life is better than it was with my GS2. Also, I find that ICS 4.x runs much better on this phone, which makes since considering the Nexus was made for ICS.

Pros:

-Gorgeous display, very vibrant colors
-Good battery life
-Easy to root (which you should do if you wanna get the most out of your phone)
-Large screen size
-Easy to use

Cons:

-Stock launcher leaves something to be desired. I recommend rooting and using Nova launcher
-LTE not available in all markets
-No gorilla glass

I give the phone a 9/10 rating. I would recommend it to anyone.

Unusable 4G (in Atlanta) April 16, 2012

Reviewer:  Starshiptrooper "Occasional guitar whiz"  (Atlanta, GA USA) -

I got this phone after having an iPhone 3GS on AT&T. I was looking forward to Verizon 4G speed and reliable signal availability. The Nexus had problems right away. If 4G was on, the battery would drain in just a few hours, even if I wasn't actually using the phone for anything. And when I was using it, 4G would drop in and out, and while it was out there was no connection at all. The phone couldn't even be used as an alarm clock if 4G was left on; it would die before morning. Some have said you can't leave 4G on. I reject that position for two reasons. One, I'm paying for 4G. Two, my wife's HTC phone works fine on Verizon 4G. Her battery makes it through the day and she nevers turns 4G off. So a 4G phone should be capable of using 4G all day long.
Amazon Wireless customer support was excellent and sent me a replacement. I used this for a week and through better power management, I was able to make the battery last overnight, but I had to leave 4G off and make sure to shut off wifi and GPS. And, just as before, when I tried to use 4G, it was unreliable.
So while Ice Cream Sandwich is quite nice to use, this phone it not acceptable to me as a useful smartphone.
Amazon Wireless was kind enough to send me a replacement Motorola Razr Maxx, which I'm hopeful will consistently offer me 4G service.

Android 4.0 March 28, 2012

Reviewer:  jeremetron 

I've been using Android devices for over two years now and until Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) I secretly believed iOS was slightly better than Android. I can honestly say that with Android 4.0, there is not one single advantage iOS5 has over Android.

The only thing I was worried about when purchasing this phone was the size. After playing with it for about a day I soon realized that the size wasn't a problem... in fact, I actually like the 4.6 inch screen! It's really thin so it easily fits in a pocket and videos/websites/games look fantastic. The only downside is that it takes a few days to get used to using the phone with one hand because it's so large... and unfortunately it may be difficult or impossible if you have small hands.

Galaxy Nexus
- 4G
- widgets
- ability to customize home screens
- faster processor
- more ram
- 16:9 aspect ratio
- an arguably better screen (slightly less ppi but blacker blacks and brighter colors)
- TRUE multitasking
- ability to use third party keyboards, launchers, sms apps, etc...

iPhone 4s
- smaller phone (but not as thin)
- gorilla glass

Best phone since the OG Droid March 25, 2012

Reviewer:  P. Trappe  (Durham, NH United States) -

I'll keep it brief. This phone is fast, has a great form factor and a sexy screen. Plus, ICS is a very big step forward, and I could not go back to gingerbread, or iOS for that matter, now that I've used it.

Only qualm is that the volume is a little low. "Volume+" rendered that a non-issue, so now we're totally good.