Chris Leckness » Google

Verizon Galaxy Nexus First Impressions

Chris — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 07:03:32 +0000

I am currently reviewing the Samsung Galaxy Nexus along with 5 other writers on GottaBeMobile. Yes, 6 writers from 1 site are collaborating on a review of the Verizon version of the Nexus. I actually purchased my Galaxy Nexus today rather than getting my hands on a demo later. So far, I love it. We’ve posted a good amount of goodness over on GBM so far, including Adam Mill’s First Impressions. I decided to go ahead an give my little love to the device over here for now. I have some other posts in line over there on the subject.

The Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus

That’s a mouthful there! The Galaxy Nexus landed in Verizon stores on December 15th, 2011 after a ton of delays. Some gave up waiting, some didn’t. The awesomeness everyone was waiting for was a phone with the newest version of Android dubbed Ice Cream Sandwich on a well built phone. It was worth the wait in my opinion!

1st Impressions

Hardware

The hardware is absolutely to die for. Perfect size for big hands like mine. It feels very similar in the hand to the HTC Titan I love so much. The weight of the device isn’t too heavy, but it’s just heavy enough that you know it’s there. The screen is so close to the edges of the device that it feels like it’s much smaller than a phone with a whopping 4.65″ screen.

The screen is 4.65″ of full HD goodness. The resolution is a true 720p (1280×720). It’s bright and very sharp. Icons and graphics are crystal clear.
The body of the Galaxy Nexus feels really solid considering the materials used to build it. The body feels plastic, but not cheap.
All the buttons are well made but I don’t care much for the placement. The volume buttons are on the left side, right where my thumb rests when I am talking on the phone. The power button is fine on the right side, but I would prefer it on the top of the unit. The sync/charge port and 3.5mm headset jack are on the bottom edge of the device.
The rear battery cover is a pretty thin plastic that feels really cheap. I hope I don’t have to take it on/off often. I am afraid it might break. The surface of this cover has a kind of non skid coating to aid in grip.

The Camera - Although it’s only a 5 megapixel camera, shoots decent photos and full HD video (1080p). See my post on GBM for some sample images and videos.

Call Quality – I had a good 20 minute phone call with Matt Miller in Seattle. He was on a GSM Galaxy Nexus and I was on the Verizon Galaxy Nexus. We both commented on how great the call clarity was. He has an issue with his speaker phone where the volume is very low but the Verizon version of the Galaxy Nexus I have is plenty loud outside, even with an air conditioner running behind me.

Device performance – No troubles at all. The only hang ups I had with the Android 4 stumbling was when I was downloading dozens of apps. Once I was done adding apps, I did a restart on the phone and ever since then, flawless. Navigating through the OS is fast and I haven’t encountered any hiccups.

Battery Life - The Galaxy Nexus battery life in my 1st day of use was rough. I went through a couple charges throughout the day. I have to give forgivnes to the Nexus though. It never left my hands for more than the time to charge up a little from the time it arrived. I was very rough on it and ran the screen brightness full blast. After realizing that the screen was eating up 62% of my charges, I changed the settings to auto-brightness. This was not enabled by default and I think it should be. Once I adjusted this setting, battery life has gotten much better.

Software

This is the bigger draw of the Galaxy Nexus. I know the hardware and big beautiful screen are desirable, but the big reason the Galaxy Nexus is flying off Verizon’s shelves is Ice Cream Sandwich. ICS aka Android 4 is the latest and greatest from Google. The Galaxy Nexus is the 1st device to run this new OS. You can also be assured that it will be the 1st to get future upgrade since it’s Google’s flagship device for ICS.

There are a ton of improvements and added features with this release, so many that I can’t list them all. You can check out another one of my posts over at GBM for some of the coolest tips and tricks I’ve discovered so far in my 1 day journey with this phone.

I’ve had a blast today taking the time to learn the new features and how to get around in ICS. I will share more about the software experience at a later date.

Conclusion

It’s way to early to form a overall, lasting opinion of the Galaxy Nexus right now. So far, I feel it’s the #1 Android Device on Earth currently. I could see a case being made for some other current Android phones like the Rezound, Droid Razr, Galaxy S II Skyrocket, and others if they were running ICS already, but they aren’t and this hardware is pretty hot. I have it neck and neck with the iPhone 4S and HTC Titan.

I plan to use this one as my DAILY DRIVER for a good amount of time.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus VS. HTC Titan

Specifications

Screen

4.65″ HD(1280 x 720) Super AMOLED
Contour Display (curved glass)

Size (mm)

67.94 X 135.5 X 9.47 (LTE)

Weight

145.5 g (5.1 OZ)

Data

LTE/CDMA
WIFI
BLUETOOTH

Memory

Storage: 32GB
Memory: 1GB RAM

Camera

5MP continuous auto focus
1.3MP Front
LED Flash
Zero shutter lag
Video recording in 1080p

Network

Varies

USB

Micro USB

Features

BATTERY: 1850mAh
OS: Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0)
CPU: 1.2 GHZ dual core processor
NOTIFICATION: 3 color LED
MICS: 2 Mics
BUTTONLESS
NFC
ACCELEROMETER
GYRO
COMPASS
PROXIMITY/LIGHT
BAROMETER

More Nexus on GBM (Links)

Here are some articles that we’ve posted at GottaBeMobile already for further reading:

Google Nexus S and the State of Mobile Operating Systems

Chris — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 03:57:45 +0000

Today, Google announced the Nexus S and Android 2.3 Gingerbread. There were lots of cheers and jeers all over Twitter today. None any better or more entertaining that Noah Kravitz out look on the mobile OS world. Noah single handedly brought PhoneDog.com to fame with his entertaining video reviews. I really loved the work he did over there before walking away to pursue other opportunities a couple months ago. To get more of what you are about to read, just subscribe to him on Twitter, in fact that is exactly what Sydney Arnold suggested after Noah’s barrage of tweets…

Shall we begin? Remember, this string of tweets came shortly after Google announced the Nexus S, which is basically the Galaxy S with Android 2.3.

New cell phone came out today. It’s exactly the same as every other cell phone. Really, think about it. Just kidding. No I’m not.

Dogging Android:

what if android and symbian had one tenth the visual appeal of iOS, windows phone 7 or webOS?

On iOS:

iOS is the most insanely stupid operating system. I can’t customize the home page. I can’t upload photos in the background. No SD slot.

Apple won’t let me get an iPhone on my choice of carriers in the US. WTF is that? What a backwards, reductionist approach to the future.

There’s only one iOS form factor available? What is that? What am I, a sheep? And no widgets? And notifications grind everything to a halt?

Now, it’s Palm’s Turn:

Palm would have the best mobile phones in the world. If only they had any clue about build quality, business deals, or marketing.

I mean seriously, Palm, you staked your comeback on a portrait slider made from 2nd rate plastic that’s a Sprint exclusive? GENIUS. Really.

I know. Let’s build the best mobile OS in the word. And then let’s launch it on the freakin’ Pre. What’s not right there? Jeez.

Next up, Nokia:

Nokia is the most clueless, dinosaur-like company in the tech world. It’s like they actively chose not ban the word “future” at HQ.

Q: What do you call a company who rules a marketplace and then takes four years off to see if they can self-destruct? A: Nokia, duh.

and finally, some WP7 Bashing:

Hey, I know! Let’s launch a brand-new mobile platform. In 2010. And NOT give it copy and paste! That’ll sell billions! Nice work, MSFT.

And his commentary has concluded:

Okay, that’s all folks. Thanks for coming, try the Chicken Kiev, and be sure to tip your servers! See ya next time …

or has it?

Dear Apple, We TOTALLY ripped you guys off in every way possible with our Nexus S page. Eat it, Google. http://bit.ly/eX4eqn <– referring to the Apple-like page Google put up to show off this Nexus S.

What do you think? He’s got plenty right there, I don’t think I would argue with a single point. He’s put out there what most are thinking but don’t have the balls to say.

Here is a look at the webpage that Google apparently got inspiration from Apple on:

About that Nexus S, I have to agree, it’s really nothing special aside from a new version of an OS I am not too fond of personally. If you check out Kent German’s comparison chart, you will see that there isn’t much difference in the hardware between the Nexus One and the Nexus S. To top this off, the phone is not capable of HSPA+ and doesn’t have a MicroSD slot. Wow!

Twitter Pages Have Varied Google Page Ranks.

Chris — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:33:44 +0000

I noticed something interesting today while checking out a couple Twitter profiles. The page ranks are different depending on the user. That’s quite interesting. I realize that Google is now indexing Twitter, but I figured the site would have a unified PR across the site. How important is your “Twitter Page Rank” going to be, or is that going to be useless?

Oprah and Scoble are PR 7…

I am a PR5, Mobilitysite is PR4, and iPhoneMVP is PR0…

I use Google’s bar in FF to watch page ranks for my sites and just happened to notice this. New, I don’t know. Interesting, yes.