Almost Incredible April 29, 2012

Reviewer:  K. Hole "Subassy"  (Sacramento, CA USA) -

I bought this in early march as soon as I qualified for an upgrade from Verizon. I have not rooted, modded or otherwise re-ROMed it so far as I wanted to use it like some kind of normal for a while (perspective is sometimes good for a power user/geek).

My prior phone was an HTC incredible, purchased in July 2010 so that is the main Android phone I have to compare this to. I never owned an iPhone or other smart phone (unless you count blackberry but lets not count that).

OS/Software:
I actually do enjoy Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) complete with "soft buttons". As with my Incredible I don't think I have really utilized every possible feature of the OS, only the essentials of what I use on a daily basis. Which, thanks to converting my old Incredible into a ancillary device, is relatively little. I have actually had some issues getting this thing to switch to landscape view for whatever reason. Seems to take some patients. Not sure if that is a hardware thing or a software thing. When it does finally switch orientations the soft buttons actually shift to the side and then move back when I switch back to portrait (I was entertained by this for some reason). There is this little task list feature that shows all the most recently opened apps kind like a 2D version of Expose or that 3D thing that Windows 7 has. As with prior versions of Android it has "live wall paper" which I never saw the point of and widgets which are probably useful but never seem to remember to use. The on widget I did try to use was the weather one and even that won't work unless GPS is turned on and getting a signal. Being in a basement all day I have relatively little use for a location-dependent-anything.

This phone came with remarkably little non-removable OEM software. Personally I don't much care about that since I am planning to install a new ROM anyway but I'm glad to see so little of it.

Use Case...
Possibly the most significant thing I did with my Incredible was use one location tracking app or another to track my progress/distance while bike riding or walking (right now Allsport GPS is my app of choice for this). In the two years of Incredible ownership and year+ of using Allsport the Incredible never shutdown or rebooted itself while that app was running. Yet for whatever reason the Nexus Galaxy very consistently reboots itself while using Allsport. I even took off the rubber case and tried, thinking maybe the case was causing the unit to over-heat but it still rebooted itself. So either I have a lemon or it just can't handle running GPS for more than 45 minutes or so. I haven't tested this with Google Navigator yet to really conclusively say it's the phone as root of the issue (since the incredible is still running it perfectly I'm fairly certain it is a Nexus issue).

Network Speed...
One funny thing about me personally: I have left the LTE/4G toggled off for as long as I have had it:
- I have read the hand off between 3G/4G can be less-than-smooth(haven't come across it myself since I leave LTE disabled),
- I have also read LTE really drains the battery (again, haven't run into this first-hand)
- Finally, I work in the basement of a hospital which already has little to no signal so there's really no reason to let it sit there and try to get an LTE signal if there's no signal to get (presumably this would further drain the battery as well).

Besides all that I have never really run into any issues with the speed of 3G and downloading (and don't really have any need to legitimately/not legitimately tether anything to my phone). 3G has always been fine for Pandora and google navigator for instance. I did do some 4G speed tests in the nearest big city (Sacramento, CA) and got up to 10Mbps down, though that obviously will vary widely (still impressive). For comparison the local AT&T DSL at best gets 6.5Mbps (though with much better latency).

The "Phone Part"
Since this incredible piece of technology apparently also doubles as a phone I should probably mention my experience with that: as mentioned I work in a basement and almost always have between no bars and two bars, which is pretty impressive as I would expect it to always be zero. I have noticed callers seem quite annoyed with the call quality when I put them speaker phone (but don't complain when off speaker). Perhaps that can be fixed with a firmware update/alternate ROM/next minor update to ICS (at least I'm hoping).

The Hardware:
I have really large hands or at least larger than average. The HTC Incredible, a great phone, is too small for clown hands so I was happy to get something so much larger. It still fits some-what comfortably in my jean pockets though you can tell I've got a big phone in my pocket. Web browsing is finally readable, my thumbs can reach across the screen comfortable, I really have no complaints.

The battery:
I should perhaps mention first thing I ordered with this phone was an extended life battery as that is what I do with all my phones now. Some people instead just have six batteries with them at all times, but I get an extended one and hope for the best. In fact I never even took the stock battery out of the packaging. With that in mind...
I have yet to completely drain the battery to zero but then I have yet to spend two hours using Google navigator while listen to Pandora and talking to someone over Bluetooth for multiple hours at a time (I wouldn't recommend this anyway). I try to leave services I know I'm not going to use disabled to try and get as much battery as I can, as general rule. I charge it over night and it always lasts the whole day, using it relatively little.

The Camera(s):
I have yet to fully utilize the camera on this thing but of the few I've taken they have looked worlds more sharp then that of the Incredible. I also quite enjoy the non-existent pause between pictures (I can rapidly tap the take picture button to get almost little 1 fps thing going for those toddlers who won't hold still). I haven't used the front facing camera yet as I have never needed to make that kind of a call before (and of the few people I know who also have front-facing cameras I don't think any of them would want to try it).

Overall:
When I was trying to decide on phone it came down to the Galaxy Nexus and the Droid Razr Maxx and I think I'm glad I went with this one. It would be nice to not have to depend on my old Incredible for tracking bike riding distance but I have it with my anyway as an mp3 player. I went with the Galaxy over the Razr because I liked the idea of native ICS support and being the current flagship Android phone (at least when I bought it) the assumption was the updates would continue to roll out to this device before all others.

Update July 2012:
Since writing this review I have added the [[ASIN:B0057WWK5E Samsung Stereo Clip-On Bluetooth Headset for Samsung HS3000 - Retail Packaging - Black]] for listening to podcasts and answering calls. I also started listening to podcasts, and have switched to Endomondo for tracking my bike riding and walking (just today I listened to iheartradio over bluetooth with GPS going for two hours: the battery was around 17%...which I think is impressive). In other words I have effectively turned this into the all-in-device I have always wanted.
One note: Endomondo does not reboot the phone after extended lengths of time (I've used for 3+ hours straight) so I'm concluding the issue mentioned above was with the Allsport GPS, not with the phone.

Its good, but my 3GS was about perfect April 18, 2012

Reviewer:  mintreview 

I think my review will be most helpful.

I had the 3gs, contract was up so I decide to live wild and get new bigger phone, as the only thing I didn't like was the small IPHONE screen.

G Nexus is a good phone, however there are many things that annoy me about the phone. The Tilt function is kinda slow when turning the phone and having the screen adjust, the LED alerts are better on the IPHONE, the music Player is better on the IPHONE( thats a big one for me as it sucks loading new music onto the Nexus), the Battery on the Nexus is HORRIBLE, totally horrible, constantly have to charge it (blame 4g, yes i know u can turn 4g off), i find the clock/alarm clock on the iphone better, I had the buttons to wake up the nexus, and I hate the volumn contorls on the NExus. Also bookmarks suck on Nexus.
Another big one, VoiceMail and the Phone Dialing app sucks on the Nexus in my opinion.

Ok i am getting tired

The Nexus good- Larger screen, 4g is super fast, bright.

After 3 months, I honestly plan on breaking my contract and getting the new iphone ( assuming they add a 4in screen and 4G) and I hate the idea of paying money to break a contract, but I just might.

I would wait for the next IPHONE if I was you reading this review.

Love this phone April 10, 2012

Reviewer:  D. Sin 

Had a Galaxy S before. Do not even consider Apple...i guess it's a personal thing. I was playing with a 4S the other day and the screen felt too small.
Need to admit the battery last very short time but got used to it.

Best Phone Currently Available March 17, 2012

Reviewer:  A. Sentell 

I have owned the Droid 2, Droid X2, Droid Bionic, and the Nexus. The Nexus is by far the best device currently available. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. However, the radios in the device are not perfect. I'm running the 4.0.4 update that should be delivered shortly, and it fixes those issues. :) Grab it: You won't be sorry. Stock Android is gorgeous.

Best smartphone for rough users. March 16, 2012

Reviewer:  Thiru 

Anything that has tag Google is always reliable (Except Google+ though ;) )

I started using Nexus one after iPhone 3gs, the most reliable phone i ever had. I usually dont handle phone's softly.. use to drop my phone frequently. Have fixed the iPhone screen 3 times, and i almost paid double the time of what i paid for the phone. But Nexus one have'nt had a single issue so far. And its almost looks like new even after many drop's on the floor.

Recently moved to Galaxy Nexus, and this one is almost the same reliability as NexusOne. Also the technology and quality at its peak. There are few software glitche's which is understandable due to the new os release. Otherwise its the best Competator for iphone, also its way ahead of iphone when comes to tough handling. But yet to beat the touch screen of iphone though.

This is the Future. February 2, 2012

Reviewer:  Will Kennedy 

Let's get to the point here. This is the Phone. The Epitome. I've got 3 devices I connect to it, XBOX 360, Ipad 2, and my PC... it trumps them. It provides them internet. It does everything a phone is suppose to do perfectly, and whatever the hell else you want it to do. Great for a developer like me, and entertainment along with camera are superb. Hands down the best phone you can buy. Crushes the Razr. Period.

Android at its finest January 29, 2012

Reviewer:  Isaac 

This phone rocks especially when it's rooted with cm9 the signal is kinda bad but I just use copper sheeting to the lte antenna and it works better besides that it's a perfect phone for people who have big hands. I can't wait for the docking stations to be available. Can't believe this thing has a 720p screen but I wish there was netflix in hd since I have unlimited data. Also this could be useful you can get an extended battery for $25 at Verizon and it doesn't give to much bulk.

Great screen, fast phone if you disable 4G. January 21, 2012

Reviewer:  B. Welch  (Midwest USA) -

With 4G disabled, this phone is nice. Much like my previous HTC Incredible, the Nexus has a beautiful screen and is quite fast.

If I enable 4G, most applications fail due to 'no connection', phone service goes away completely where the HTC phone ran perfectly, and the battery lasts only five hours.

Awesome software, poor hardware January 18, 2012

Reviewer:  fernano 

The good: I'm a fist time android consumer and I love the software on this phone. The screen is also very good. Also liked the phone size, which is probably a little bit too big for the pocket (got a pouch for it).

The bad: phone died on the second week. Sansung took 3 weeks to fix it. Meanwhile no updates were available, and at the end no explanation is provided about what was wrong with it. Terrible customer support they have.

I'm also disappointed by the accessories availability, mainly the car dock that does not use the 3-pin charging capability (witch is available for the European version).

{BEWARE}Do yourself a favor and avoid paying the $50 bucks its not worth it!!! ): April 20, 2012

Reviewer:  A. Solano "iben07"  (San Diego, CA) -

As far as the phone like all user mention it is very nice,the bugs are what will make me return this as I write this.

Pros: Screen but also a con
Navigation
and Ice Cream Sandwhich

Cons: Battery my battery dies in 6 hours without even grabbing my phone
Signal is horrible and i know its not my area or Verizon, i mean cmon its VERIZON!
Glitches in almost all apps
REEBOOTS!! had it reebot at least once a day
PHONE GETS HOT!! it gets so hot it make uncomfortable even grabbing it,on the top corner
Screen is way too big to use one handed ,I have large male hands and cant use the phone with one hand comfortably
Feels super light it will slip from your hands trust me
Cheap Plastic
there is No SD card slot
5 megapixel camera with mediocre pictures low color very grany
Super slow rotation like 4 seconds to landscape mode
Speaker is so low, it will not wake you up if you set it as your alarm

I actually bought the external battery of 2100mhz which honestly is a waste of money and samsung should have added this battery for free. it adds about an hour extra of usage from 1850mhz to 2100mhz. In my opinion is not worth the 40 or 30 dollars unless you are set on keeping the phone the next two years after all these issues.

I really wanted to like this phone, I was super excited even dumped my old carrier when I saw this deal. so do your self a favor and AVOID this, waste the extra 150 for a phone that will last the next two years. Doid razr MAXX or sad to say since I hate Apple, iPhone 4.

Dont believe me? go ahead take ur chance, why you think its $50 dollars in the first place cuz its such a good phone? lol

Good Luck People

horrible phone April 20, 2012

Reviewer:  connie vinasco 

I changed my initial new Motorola Droid Razz MXX for this horrible smart phone just for a small connectivity issues with my corporate email. I got this phone only for ONE DAY! IT GOT SO HOT WITHIN 2-3 HOURS AND BATTERY LIFE 2-4 HRS. I SENT IT BACK SAME SAME EVENING AND I DECIDED TO KEEP THE MOTOROLA DROID RAZZ MAXX! IT IS THE BEST PHONE I HAVE SEEN!
This Samsung is just nice looking screen and bla bla bla....................

An Amazing device but a complete fail as a phone. August 3, 2012

Reviewer:  Jeremy Thompson 

This phone is so bad that I feel compelled to write a full and detailed review on it to help warn any potential buyers of its serious problems.

Let me start off by saying, this phone was a very great device. I was extremely impressed with the features of it especially after updating from an outdated flip phone. The OS is even better than my Ipod 4g in my opinion but as time went on, I started noticing problems with it. Keep in mind, this happened over the course of only 2 days. In this case, 2 days is more than enough time to see what this phone has to offer.

First problem i noticed, the phone tends to become extremely hot when charging almost to the point of burning. This didn't bother me too much so I ignored it.

Second problem was much more serious. The phone has an atrocious battery life. It could only last a few hours on STANDBY mode. I barely even touch the phone for the whole day and I come back to it later to find that it has about 30% battery left. What gives? So this problem is pretty bad. I won't be able to play with the phone too much on the go just in case I need to make an emergency call. But this brings us to the third and final problem which ultimately makes this phone virtually useless.

Final problem, the connection. This phone suffers from a product breaking defect that causes it to lose connection COMPLETELY. I'm in the middle of a call with my friend and all of a sudden the call abruptly ends. I brush it off and talk to him again in a few seconds only to have the same thing happen again. The same thing happens with texts. It can take me up to 4 tries just to send a text over to my friend. A phone that can't send calls or texts nor receive them is completely unacceptable. What would I do in an emergency? The connection spends more time being gone than working. I searched the internet for a possible fix to this problem to only to come up with nothing so I have no choice but to return the phone. It's a shame because the software on the phone is excellent. But what use is it if I can't make calls? I can't even search the web when the connection goes either.

After doing much research, I found out that this is a VERY common problem so please think twice before buying this phone. The only reason I'm giving this 2 stars is because of the amazing software that the phone offers but the connection makes it an utterly useless brick of plastic. Please don't become a victim of this phone.

Thank you for reading and I hope this helped.

This phone should never been released to the public. Horrible! June 25, 2012

Reviewer:  R. Neuman "rneuman"  (MN USA) -

Worst cell phone I have ever had. Drops calls up to 25% of the time. Battery drains in less then 4 hours. Speaker - can't hear people talking on the phone. Can't access my e-mail and facebook about 33% of the time -network not available messages all the time. Taking this 'brick' back to Verizon!

You gotta be kiddin me May 7, 2012

Reviewer:  Francis V. Flores 

Whether this is a good phone or not, this phone has the crappiest case ever made on a phone. No matter how careful you are , you run the chance of bending the back cover when trying to remove it. Once the back cover is bent, it will not seat right back on the phone. Also, every time I answered a call my ear will touch the phone and hang up the call. Once I returned the phone the Amazon representative said that I was banned from choosing another phone for one year. So if you don't chose to stay with the crap, they try to punish you for it. Wow that is sure good business. Verizon is also charging me 60 dollars for 3 calls even though I canceled within the 14 days. I hope your experience is better than mine.

Is Google Afraid to use only the best Hardware?? April 22, 2012

Reviewer:  Lance J. Miller 

I so wish that Google would produce a phone that uses all the best hardware & just blows everything else away. It's like they were afraid to set the bar to high & purposely used some cheap hardware. Unfortunately, I can't justify the purchase of this for several reasons. The fact that they used a 5mb camera is something that has me shaking my head. Then add in the fact that they they didn't include an external storage slot & I'm left wondering if they realize that some of us don't have data plans that can support the constant use of cloud storage / retrieval. Finally, it appears that they thought that just because it has ICS they can cheapen the hardware & it will still sell, I guess they were right but it sure reminds me of Apple with their refusal to finally throw everything but the kitchen sink at one of their phones.

4.0 is great but phone hardware is not so great January 25, 2012

Reviewer:  technofollower 

THE GOOD...
Excellent HD display, colors really pop. Very good for video viewing and to view pictures.
Impressive Android 4.0 features. The new font really stands when you are browsing your emails or when you are interacting with any of the OS's apps (Calendar, browsers, youtube, maps etc.).
With the good display and nice 4.0 performance phone interaction has nice buttery smooth flow.

THE BAD...
Phone does not feel sturdy. You will most likely be handling the device like a tablet. You probably will be hesitant to throw even on your bed. Battery cover on the back does not fit perfectly, especially around the camera it dangles.

Camera's indoor performance is very poor.

Music player quality is not up to the mark.

Placement of the contextual menu moves around. If it stays within your thumb reach you are ok. Considering its big size it should stay within your thumb reach otherwise it makes it harder to use the phone. Probably Google guys didn't think about this.

THE UGLY...
Call quality on the receiving end is very low in volume. You would be struggling to hear by pressing the phone to your ear, especially when you are talking outside. You really need super quiet room to hear clearly. And also phone seems to demand very high single to improve the call quality any better.

I heard static many times.

Also had couple of dropped calls.

External volume on the phone is also not so strong. You probably will have many missed calls by not hearing the ring tone.

BOTTOM LINE...
I switched from AT&T to Verizon just to get this phone. In the end I was very disappointed and had to return the phone and get Droid RAZR. I am very glad that I did this. RAZR feels very sturdy, and feels like a phone fit for your daily use. I don't see any of the BAD or UGLYs I saw with nexus. I am hoping that some of the nexus's goods will come to RAZR when they do the OS update.

Excellent Phone but Battery is an issue January 20, 2012

Reviewer:  Ashutosh Sharma 

Pros:
1) Very large and crisp screen-website, videos and everything looks great. Text looks very good due to 720p resolution.
2) 4G/LTE speed is very very good in good reception areas.
3) Very fast processor and stable device
4) Very good Google integration. It can do a very good sync with google apps. Moving contacts is really good.
5) Don't worry too much about the bars-i think it's not representing it properly.

Cons:
1) Verizon 4G/LTE is in it's early stages. Battery doesn't last for full 4 hours after heavy use. You have to keep your charger with you forever. I believe there are some tweaks possible(reduce screen brightness, switch off un-necessary data hungry apps, Wifi etc...). I got various responses from Customer service that due to dual core the power consumption is on higher side. But i think it keep on searching the 4G and 3G signal-plus bad overall kernel for Android Ice cream sandwich, very large screen could be culprit for that. Just the way Motorola came up with Droid Razr Maxx with >3000 battery - Samsung needs to do something to save this product.
2) Signal also fluctuates. My colleagues - simple verizon phone has better signal than this one at the same location. I have lost signal few times.
3) For me Camera is not an issue. I should have appreciated if they have extended capacity for this phone via micro SD card.
4) Sound is average though speaker voice is not loud enough. As and when i set alarm on this device-i could never wake up. Missed few calls also as the speaker voice is low.
5) To preserve battery life - i have to reduce the screen brightness, check the apps which is not required, shutdown the phone also....but is it the way one should be using the phone.
6) Transition from landscape to portrait mode doesn't happen instantaneously.
7) Phone really gets hot while charging, while talking....

Anybody who purchases a cell phone should think of that at least the basics are right-it should have the right signal, good battery life, ring volume and the call quality is good. Rest of the features like big screen comes later. If i talk continuously on this phone for 1.5 hours...battery will drain away...1850 extended battery is joke...anything less than 3000 battery won't save this device.

My advice - stay away from this device unless Samsung/Google/Verizon fix the issues and provide the extended battery by default. If Samsung/Veizon fix the above two issues-many iPhone lovers would like to switch to this device. Verizon Customer service has tried all possible explanations...but i am over 14 days so i can't return this equipment back.

I have spent close to 4 hours - spanning across some 6 sessions with Verizon Technical Support to fine tune my battery. They provided some tips but at the end of the day - it can make my phone battery last for 4 hrs and 30 minutes-making sleep time 5 seconds and reducing screen brightness to the lowest possible range. Went to Veizon wireless retail store but the same response. Now all of them shamelessly says - but the extended battery(another $50- i heard verizon offered at the discount of $25). It's just too much-the phone with all the taxes comes out to be some $340 plus essential accessories making it almost $375. After buying the extended battery - it will be around $425. 3300 mAH battery is coming out to be around $60 with all the features and making this phone really bulky. Can Verizon/Samsung has the guts to advertize all about extended battery and the actual cost of this phone?

Revising the review on 7th Feb 2012
Within a month - i tried two Samsung Galaxy Nexus from Verizon and returned both of them. Going for Motorola Droid Razr Maxx.

Hello, hello? September 11, 2012

Reviewer:  EWilliams  (nyc) -

I agree with everyone who does not like this phone. The things I liked about it were: big enough for me to hold on to, the screen large enough for me to see when dialing, and the sales guy was cute! Yet 15 days afterwards (too late to return now) it all went down hill. 1. My friend and I would play phone tag due to dropped calls. 2. Charging was a constant even when I had it on standby mode. 3. Trying to save photos was a hassle because you would have to "edit " them in order to save them in the camera roll. I so wanted to not become one of those "I" people but after this phone experience I see myself going into that light.

terrible battery life July 18, 2012

Reviewer:  Felix Wazlib 

great phone and all... nice, sleek, speedy, and rather attractive phone... however that battery life is just plain atrocious... it's just as bad as the droid bionic and it gets only about 4.5 hours of battery life at the most when browsing 4g

New customer vs. Old customer May 8, 2012

Reviewer:  Carrie L. Bell  (Springdale Ar) -

Why is it that new customers get this phone for $100 cheaper then old loyal customers. Verizon needs to reward its loyal customers rather than pander to the new ones. I have been a loyal Verizon since the Alltel days, yet I have to may more for renewing my contract and upgrading my phone. Not fair Verizon, not fair. I may go to ATT or Spring this time.