Upgrading in 16 days, and the winner is...

My NE2 with Verizon is coming up in 16 days and it's time to finally join the 4G ranks, although my Dinc has been a great phone all along. Narrowing down to the top three choices was pretty easy. Basically it's going to be the Gnex, Razr maxx or htc Rezound. I think I've made my choice and the winner is... Razr maxx. But before I buy it here is my reasoning, what do y'all think?

1. HTC Rezound: This was my first choice based on specs alone. Fastest proc, best display, nicest camera, decent set of headphones and oddly enough - sense UI which I've simply become very accustomed to after almost 2 yrs with the incredible. Unfortunately another thing I've become accustomed to is lousy battery life, and from what I've read the Rezound makes the Dinc look like a marathon runner. I simply can't take another 2 yrs of searching for the next outlet and/or carrying extra batteries. This is a deal breaker for me.

2. Galaxy Nexus: Biggest draw right now of course is ICS, but within the next few months many phones will get it making the Gnex more about temporary bragging rights than anything else. And then there's the hardware itself which is disappointing. Cheap, plastic build quality, voice/data connection issues, mediocre camera (though the zero lag shutter is a nice perk) and again a battery that leaves something to be desired. I'm also not thrilled with lack of USB mass storage. It's really too bad google didn't pick a better flagship for its new android OS, because frankly ICS seems like the only thing this phone has going for it aside from a decent display.

3. So that brings me to the Razr maxx. Obviously battery is king here, meaning that whatever this phone has to offer can at least be enjoyed throughout the day (and the next day) without crapping out. To me that makes up for a lot. The build quality also seems very good in terms of design and materials. Looking at raw specs alone shows it to be second best in many areas, yet somehow it seems like the best of everything when rolled together into one package. For instance:

-While the display can't match the two phones above in ppi, I've seen it in person and it still looks sharp.

-It doesn't come with ICS but the OTA upgrade isn't far off. And yes, it's running "motocrap" and therefore not "pure" android, but as far as skins go it's less invasive than sense. The smart actions feature actually seems somewhat useful, and let's be real - we're talking about a VZW phone so there's no such thing as "pure" android. Even the Gnex is loaded with crappy bloatware that can't be removed without rooting.

-The camera isn't going to replace my DSLR, but at least it has a 8 MP sensor behind the lens, and the shutter lag is very minor if any. It's way better than my current Dinc which has a decent lens for a phone but terrible lag.

-Oh yeah, and did I mention that ridiculous battery yet slim design!! Not to mention basic things like USB mass storage - if I wanted to give that up, I'd get an iPhone.

So that's my take on it and why I've decided on the Razr maxx. But that said, I still have 16 days so I guess anything could happen. Any Rezound or Gnex owners out there who find my criticisms to be too harsh? Anybody have a Razr maxx and wish they'd chosen more wisely? If you made it this far thanks for reading

whisper said:

2. Galaxy Nexus: Biggest draw right now of course is ICS, but within the next few months many phones will get it making the Gnex more about temporary bragging rights than anything else. And then there's the hardware itself which is disappointing. Cheap, plastic build quality, voice/data connection issues, mediocre camera (though the zero lag shutter is a nice perk) and again a battery that leaves something to be desired. I'm also not thrilled with lack of USB mass storage. It's really too bad google didn't pick a better flagship for its new android OS, because frankly ICS seems like the only thing this phone has going for it aside from a decent display.

Click to expand...

Just because it's plastic doesn't mean it's cheap. The GNex feels great in the hand, there's nothing cheap feeling about the build quality except when you are removing the battery cover - but once the cover is on it feels very solid. There also isn't any voice/data connection issues. The "bug" was simply that ICS was the first to show the signal strength correctly (as Anandtech's investigation discovered: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5254/investigating-the-galaxy-nexus-lte-signal-issue ).

As for the lack of USB mass storage, if you are using Windows 7 you won't notice. MTP works great, and you can keep using your phone while copying files to it. No app vs. data vs. media partitioning is also awesome. And best of all is it isn't saddled with FAT32, the file system that refuses to die. The GNex is a really, really good phone - and that isn't just due to ICS. There's a very good reason it was consistently ranked as the best Android phone, if not the best smartphone, when it launched.

and let's be real - we're talking about a VZW phone so there's no such thing as "pure" android. Even the Gnex is loaded with crappy bloatware that can't be removed without rooting.

Click to expand...

That's not true at all. The Gnex isn't loaded with bloatware at all, and the two Verizon apps that do come installed (which are actually useful and don't run in the background) can be removed *without* rooting - that's a feature of ICS. Well, it is of stock ICS - whether or not HTC and Motorola keep that feature around remains to be seen.

With all that said, the Razr Maxx is probably the only phone with a battery big enough to handle LTE. So if that's the most important thing to you, then I'd say you made the right choice. Although I wouldn't hold your breath for a decent ICS ROM coming from Motorola anytime soon.

They all certainly have their trade-offs. It's all about what's important to you.

They Maxx is what the RAZR should have been in the first place because without the outstanding battery life, it doesn't have an advantage over anything else at all. The Rezound has a much better camera, display and is more ergonomic (IMO, the RAZR just felt too thin and wide) in your hand. The Nexus has slightly better internals (OMAP 4460 vs 4430) and direct support from Google while also sporting a much better display. That's one thing I couldn't get over on the RAZR when I sat it side by side with the Rezound and Nexus; it really does look bad, IMO. I honestly thought the display on my OG Droid looked sharper. It was really apparent when looking at text on the phone. Yeah, other phones will get ICS eventually, what what about other minor updates Google pushes out between now and then that may add more functionality? Also, the Nexus is mostly likely to see the next major revision of Android too (rumored "Jellybean"). It's a bit of a gamble as to what other phones will stay updated. Not a big deal though if you're a gadget whore that switches phones every 6-12 months though .

As you can probably tell, I'm a Nexus owner . I've been extremely happy with it so far in all areas with a slight exception in battery life. It's still loads better than the phone it replaced (OG Droid), but it rarely sees over 5 hours of screen-on time under heavy usage and that's with the 2100 mAh OEM extended battery, though I didn't notice much of a difference from the stock 1850 mAh battery. It definitely makes it through my work day though with no issues because I don't stay on my phone that much like I do on the weekends. I also have my stock battery as a spare and keep it in my car in case I need it. So keep in mind that extra batteries are relatively cheap ($25/piece for the extended batteries) and easy to keep on standby. That's one slight advantage other phones have over the RAZR. That and while it seems to hold charge for a long time, that correlates to its charge time too, I think I remember it taking a couple hours at least to fully charge while idle. Another thing I would be somewhat concerned about is battery degradation; hopefully that battery still holds charge well enough after 18 months or so right before you'll be able to upgrade, possibly forcing you to upgrade or replace the phone out of contract.

Also, the Nexus can be used as a mass storage device too, it just uses a different protocol to transfer files. I actually prefer it to having partitioned storage for the OS/apps and everything else since the phone is still fully functional while plugged into a PC and transferring files. There's also no trade-off for app storage and everything else since it's all on the same partition. The signal issues seemed to have been fixed for me with the 4.0.4 update with the new baseband radios. Hand-offs from 3G to 4G and visa-versa have been immediate. My Nexus has also had signal everywhere that my wife's Droid has too. Call quality is almost landline-like and I have yet to drop a call so far unless I travel through a known dead spot.

Not trying to change your mind; as I said, they all have their trade-offs. It sounds like you've read up a lot on the main contenders, but some of the negatives you have on the Nexus aren't entirely accurate.

Edit:

Basically I think it comes down to this:


Galaxy Nexus
Software support
Customization (ROMs)
Excellent display (SAMOLED)


Rezound
Ergonomics
Camera
Excellent display (SLCD)


RAZR Maxx
Battery life
Build quality/durability
Droid branding..? (lol)

Sorry, I couldn't think of a third pro for the RAZR, though I'm sure there is one. Oh, and LOL Spectrum. Just had to get that out of the way in case someone recommends it. LG makes garbage smart phones nowadays compared to the rest of the competition.

How is the hardware for the Nexus disappointing? Its the same thing as the Exynos SoC with the PowerVR 540 with a processor that has open source drivers. In the long run the Nexus will continue growing, where the Exynos powered devices cannot.

Also as has been said as long as you are using Windows it functions near as makes no difference as a mass storage device.

Since I got my Nexus I really have no regrets. Even battery life is just fine with me. I average about 15 hours of battery life with my normal checking/replying of messages and light browsing through my work day. That is with a custom ROM, kernel and the extended battery. I dont have any issues with data/voice.

I'm about to upgrade as well. I am looking at the Droid 4 because I like having a physical keyboard, but I have been considering the RAZR Maxx.

A physical keyboard means I can use the entire screen as a display instead of having to use part of the screen as virtual keyboard. But I figure the Maxx's slightly larger screen makes using a virtual keyboard easier. I don't have much luck with accuracy on my Droid's 3.7" screen.

While I am a GNex fan, the RAZR MAXX's battery really is a huge, huge, huge plus for many people, and as such, its a decision I can respect.

Besides, with Google taking over Motorola, they might actually enforce some decent updating standards for the Razr later this year when the next version of Android rolls out... especially when you consider that the Razr basically runs the same chipset as the Nexus.

Its a good bet to make, and if battery life is important to you, the Razr Maxx is a solid choice. Lastly, I actually am pulling for the Maxx on some level.... I think that a resounding success for Motorola with this phone would send the right message to the other manufacturers: we *all* really care about battery life, so stop fucking around and give us bigger stock batteries!

Someone leaked screenshots of the ICS build for the Razr/Razr MAXX not too long ago:

http://www.droidrzr.com/index.php/topic/1012-vzw-razr-ics-screens/

The mods/admins have said that it's legit. If so, it looks like ICS blur is going to be one of the least invasive skins of any android OEM that's not a nexus. Looks good to me.

All great devices and you really cant go wrong with any of them. Ive tried all the devices and the maxx and rezound were my favorite. I didnt like the lack of sd card slot(i use a 32gb in all my phones) and the horrid battery life with poor volume levels of the nexus. ics didnt seem to add very much real world value for me personally.

Awesome feedback everyone As far as my concerns about the Gnex, I'm certainly willing to step back on my criticism for lack of USB mass storage. I haven't seen MTP in action but it sounds pretty workable, so it's probably no big deal after all. In talking about "cheap" build quality, I didn't mean to say it wasn't a comfortable phone to hold or didn't look attractive. But from everything I've seen, and from holding it myself in the store, it does seem like a "fragile" phone to me. As someone who has a toddler running around at home and occasionally lets her play on my phone, this is actually a much bigger consideration for me than perhaps some others.

The Razr maxx has decent looks, but more importantly it just feels more solid - like the actual materials are of a higher quality and would provide more longevity even under some occasional toddler abuse

I'm curious - for those who are saying you can get a full 12 hour day out of the Gnex stock battery, is this with 4G network access turned on? I'm doubtful but I guess it's possible. I'm excited about upgrading to 4G but if I have to turn it off to make it through the day, it kills some of the fun. Sure, maybe it'll be in my pocket for a lot of the work day, but when I use it at lunch or to check email, etc. I just want 4G to be there. I don't want to deal with switching it on/off and constantly worrying about battery. And if you're going to keep it on CDMA most of the time what's the point!?

Those ICS screenshots for the maxx look extremely encouraging. I can easily deal with the gingerbread/blur OS for the first couple months if that's what's coming around the corner. At that point it'll essentially be a tough-built Gnex with a superior battery, though admittedly the screen will never be as good. I guess there has to be a tradeoff somewhere.

whisper said:

But from everything I've seen, and from holding it myself in the store, it does seem like a "fragile" phone to me. As someone who has a toddler running around at home and occasionally lets her play on my phone, this is actually a much bigger consideration for me than perhaps some others.

Click to expand...

I've dropped mine a handful of times, it's solidly built. I haven't used a Razr Maxx, but the GNex is definitely put together well.

I'm curious - for those who are saying you can get a full 12 hour day out of the Gnex stock battery, is this with 4G network access turned on? I'm doubtful but I guess it's possible. I'm excited about upgrading to 4G but if I have to turn it off to make it through the day, it kills some of the fun. Sure, maybe it'll be in my pocket for a lot of the work day, but when I use it at lunch or to check email, etc. I just want 4G to be there. I don't want to deal with switching it on/off and constantly worrying about battery. And if you're going to keep it on CDMA most of the time what's the point!?

Click to expand...

When talking about GNex do be careful which one you are comparing against. The Verizon LTE GNex's battery isn't so hot. I get a full day out of it without much difficulty, but it cuts it close some days. However, the HSPDA+ one (also "4G") will easily last 2 or even 3 days with light usage, and has no trouble lasting all day.

kllrnohj said:

I've dropped mine a handful of times, it's solidly built. I haven't used a Razr Maxx, but the GNex is definitely put together well.

Click to expand...

I've dropped mine once pretty good. I can attest to this as well. The only thing that surprised me was that the cover and battery fell off when I dropped it. It's a PITA to put on and take off, so I thought it would definitely stay on during a fall.

Funny, everyone told me that the Atrix was a flimsy phone as well (because it was plastic) but I got in anyways and its pretty damn sturdy.

Worst thing that has happened to it was the back cover + battery falling out after a decent toss.

T4rd said:

Edit:

Basically I think it comes down to this:


Galaxy Nexus
Software support
Customization (ROMs)
Excellent display (SAMOLED)


Rezound
Ergonomics
Camera
Excellent display (SLCD)


RAZR Maxx
Battery life
Build quality/durability
Droid branding..? (lol)

Click to expand...

I just thought i would throw these deal breakers out there that i have on each of those 3

Droid razr maxx
battery baked into the phone you cant replace it


Galaxy nexus
Memory card slot is missing guess the bone of it having 32 gig of memory or 16 if your foolish and extremely cheap

rezound
well it is pretty much the incredible 3
i hear the roms you can load on it give it better battery life...


There is a 4th option i have ics on my dinc it runs pretty well needs only a bit more development and it will be really solid i cant wait for the rezound or sensation xl to get the ics sense 4.0 version ported...

Lunas said:

Droid razr maxx
battery baked into the phone you cant replace it

Click to expand...

This is actually one point I glossed over but definitely worth consideration. Some people seem to be worried that the phone will someday lockup and you won't be able to pull the battery, but apparently a soft reset is possible by holding down the volume key and pressing power for ~10 secs. Not that I've tried it since I don't have the phone yet, but I read about it on a forum somewhere. I guess the only real risk is that the battery may dwindle over time and there would be no recourse. Even if you pay for extended warranty and insurance through VZW, I believe batteries are excluded from the coverage. Something to think about but probably not the ultimate deal breaker for me. The battery won't last forever, but for most people myself included the window is ~18-24 months and then it's on to the next great phone. It might hurt resale value though... I usually count on selling my old phone for a little extra cash to put toward the upgrade

whisper said:

This is actually one point I glossed over but definitely worth consideration. Some people seem to be worried that the phone will someday lockup and you won't be able to pull the battery, but apparently a soft reset is possible by holding down the volume key and pressing power for ~10 secs. Not that I've tried it since I don't have the phone yet, but I read about it on a forum somewhere. I guess the only real risk is that the battery may dwindle over time and there would be no recourse. Even if you pay for extended warranty and insurance through VZW, I believe batteries are excluded from the coverage. Something to think about but probably not the ultimate deal breaker for me. The battery won't last forever, but for most people myself included the window is ~18-24 months and then it's on to the next great phone. It might hurt resale value though... I usually count on selling my old phone for a little extra cash to put toward the upgrade

Click to expand...

Iphones been doing it this way for how long? Extended warranty is the exact same thing as a regular warranty, so it would cover battery. Unfortunately the whole phone would be replaced unless they could just swap the battery out?

I went from a Nexus S to the Galaxy Nexus and I'll tell you, it's a good phone. MTP really is nothing to worry about as long as you are using Windows 7 (not sure about other Windows or Macs/Linux). On the Nexus S after I plug in the MicroUSB cable I have to go into the phone and enable the USB mass storage device. It's always annoying to do that to be honest.

Also when UMS is turned on, some apps refuse to run (think music and video player, can't remember exactly ... I'm too into the GNEX now ^^). With MTP, you plug connect it to your PC and then seconds later the device will show up in Explorer. And you can still use the phone normally too, play music or videos that sort of thing. Other thing I have noticed with MTP is that you aren't able to create new folders in the root of the drive, seems to be write protected there. Predefined folders suck when you also want to use the phone as a portable drive. But UMS does allow you to create custom folders.

Have to make it quick ... so some more things I will mention. ICS is not as snappy as what you read/watch. If you're using Live Wallpapers then the phone will lose most of it's snappiness. It's not slow by any means, but it's not as responsive as I'd like or expect. The 720p screen is amazing however. It's not just pixel density, but color reproduction, and viewing angles are way better than my buddies Galaxy S2. One of the biggest turn offs that I seem to have with all Nexus phones is that the screen does not illuminate/activate when you receive a text message. I usually have my phone on my desk and when say I'm listening to music I'll usually never know that I got a text. A lit screen is way better than a small light indicator ... but anyway still better than the Nexus S... that phone I had to put a 5 minute techno song to make sure I never miss any text messages. So the build quality and text notifications are about the only 2 things I miss from my iPhone4.

I don't know about the Rezound, but I do know that the Razr and the Galaxy Nexus are both great phones. My wife has the Razr, the screen looks great (though not as good as the GNex), it has a lot strong build quality than the GNex, and the battery life is amazing. I would also like to point at the Blur has become one of the least invasive, and best OEM skins around. A lot of what you get from Blur is useful, and it makes for a Gingerbread build that is comparable to ICS. The last thing is that Smart Actions are one of the best features I've seen built into the OS.

However, even seeing the Razr, I still picked the GNex. It's got a great screen, and while the build quality isn't quite up to the Razr, it's still not what I'de call a fragile phone. The GNex also has NFC, while it's not used for much now, it is becoming increasingly more useful. The last thing I would like to point out with the GNex, is taht it will recieve updates for two years, so you won't ahve to worry about your phoen falling behind before you contract is up. Google ahs proven with their previous Nexus phones that they are good on keeping the phones up to date. The Razr gets no such guaruntee, and I would be surprised to see it get anything beyond ICS.

Okay, I've been doing some investigating into different options. The Razr Maxx is still a major contender for me but I'm starting to get interested in the Rezound once again. Now I know the battery will be horrible out of the gates, but I'm reading some interesting reports about much improved battery life if you're willing to root and remove some of the bloat. I found this link that makes the process look ridiculously easy and even customizable. I also found a pretty sweet deal for two spare batteries with charger and case, just as a precaution

I guess I still have a couple weeks to decide but certainly more to think about. As I started off saying from the beginning, I do love the hardware on the Rezound including the extremely nice display and camera. I never bothered rooting my Dinc but I'm starting to warm up to the idea.

whisper said:

Now I know the battery will be horrible out of the gates, but I'm reading some interesting reports about much improved battery life if you're willing to root and remove some of the bloat. I found this link that makes the process look ridiculously easy and even customizable. I also found a pretty sweet deal for two spare batteries with charger and case, just as a precaution

Click to expand...

That stuff doesn't really help much. If you care about battery life *AND* want LTE, keep the Razr Maxx.

All these phones are so similar nowadays that I'm just going to go with the one that looks best when it's time to upgrade. They're more powerfull than I need them to be anyway. After all it's just a phone and it's not as big of a deal as some people make it out to be. I mean it's not like you're buying a house..... unless you're an Apple fan in which case buying the new iphone is the most important event of your life even though the decision was made before the device was even announced. I can't wait for the next best thing, smartphones and tablets are getting old.

Harry1969 said:

All these phones are so similar nowadays that I'm just going to go with the one that looks best when it's time to upgrade. They're more powerfull than I need them to be anyway. After all it's just a phone and it's not as big of a deal as some people make it out to be. I mean it's not like you're buying a house..... unless you're an Apple fan in which case buying the new iphone is the most important event of your life even though the decision was made before the device was even announced. I can't wait for the next best thing, smartphones and tablets are getting old.

Click to expand...

I agree that most of the high end phones have more in common than not, but sometimes it's the subtle things that can make a difference. Considering how often I use my phone - which is every day morning, noon and night - and that I'll be stuck with it for at least 18-24 months (unless I buy off contract), I think it's actually a decision worth putting some thought into.

But yeah, I'm not going to camp out for two days in front of a store to buy the next iThing like it's the second coming. And without even knowing/caring what else it out there. I guess the die hard Apple fans are living proof of the company's greater than half billion annual advertising budget.

Back on topic, I'm still leaning Razr maxx. The more user reviews I read, it seems like all the Razr maxx owners are pretty happy And speaking about the next best thing, have you seen this? I found the first comment to be especially amusing.

Posting from my razr maxx now... The battery is a beast even on 4G. I love this phone. Now just need to find a nice case for it.

There isn't an Android phone I'd buy aside from the Galaxy Nexus.

I just opened up two lines with Verizon and was in the same boat as you, so I'll weigh on how I came to the decision I did.

The razr maxx's only appeal was the battery life. I don't know how they crammed such a large battery into a phone that size. It's also got a Super AMOLED display, which is nice. A big factor for me though, was price. It was more than twice as expensive as any other android phone on Verizon. Perhaps this isn't a factor for you, but on Amazon it was $280, where as the next expensive phone (Gnex) was $100. This phone started as a big contender for my wife, but I ultimately skipped it because of the price tag.

The Gnex is the phone I ended up getting for myself. The screen is incredible. The phones design is incredible too. Don't let the plastic body fool you. Construction is solid, and the phone feels great in your hands. The pure, unbranded black front of the phone just looks sleek as hell to me. The screen blends seamlessly with the front of the phone. ICS is great, and more importantly, having a pure vanilla Android phone is great. Rooting the phone is as simple as a click of a button and the dev support for this device is outstanding. You can do some pretty neat shit... with the help of devs the soft buttons are probably my favorite to happen to phones in a while. And being a Nexus phone means for a good while, you will always be the first in line to get the latest updates. So your early ICS "bragging rights" come back every time an update gets released. Battery life on this, while not great, isn't terrible either. I've never seen my battery drop under about 30% by the end of the day. As long as I can use my phone how I want and only have to charge it over night, that's good with me. Also, to comment on the camera, it's not that bad. The comparison of 5MP over 8MP is pointless. All phones have crappy optics, making the amount of megapixels completely irrelevant. I haven't seen pictures taken from the Droid Maxx to know how the actual image quality compares. It might be better on the droid, but don't make that distinction based on MP alone. I will say that I do really like the instant shutter on the Gnex though, and I think that for the role a cell phone camera is meant to fill, this can trump image quality. If I want a quality picture, I'll bring a real camera. This camera is meant to snap quick photos of things I want to share with other people. The instant capture really helps with this.

The rezound I didn't even consider. I've owned several HTC phones and they make good hardware. It's a shame that put sense on everything, because it sucks shit. It will bog your phone down and rape your battery. In the end, I got the Bionic for my wife. I realize this wasn't one of your choices, and I don't recommend it. I chose it because my wife wanted something that was free, and this was the best free phone on Amazon. It's not bad, but it's not great either. I hate the display on it.

In all, I've owed a shitload of android phones (G1, MyTouch Slide, HD2, Evo 4G, Nexus S, Epic, Evo 3D, and now the Bionic and Gnex) and I can unquestionably say that the Gnex is the best phone I've ever owned. I give that my vote.

EDIT: I'd like to add that is rooting and custom rom's is a concern to you, it's a pain in the ass on Motorola phones. Same goes for HTC now, with there locked bootloaders. Sad that that used to not be the case. Samsung phones are pretty easy. Nexus branded phones are a cake walk. Nexus's phones are googles official developer phones, so they are meant to be left unlockable in a very easy fashion. If you're going to be messing with custom roms, there's really no better suited phone than the Gnex.

Viper87227 said:

A big factor for me though, was price. It was more than twice as expensive as any other android phone on Verizon. Perhaps this isn't a factor for you, but on Amazon it was $280, where as the next expensive phone (Gnex) was $100.

Click to expand...

If you're signing onto a new contract, or a new line, you can grab the Gnex from Amazon for $100. I already have service from VZW so it would just be a contract extension to my existing family plan. That means it will be $229 for me, same as the Razr maxx. No difference in price.

Viper87227 said:

ICS is great, and more importantly, having a pure vanilla Android phone is great. Rooting the phone is as simple as a click of a button and the dev support for this device is outstanding. You can do some pretty neat shit... with the help of devs the soft buttons are probably my favorite to happen to phones in a while. And being a Nexus phone means for a good while, you will always be the first in line to get the latest updates. So your early ICS "bragging rights" come back every time an update gets released.

Click to expand...

This seems like the best reason to choose the Gnex over any other Android phone right now. As for rooting and custom roms, to be honest I never tried it with my Dinc because it just seemed like more trouble than it was worth. If it's really that simple on the Gnex, maybe it's something I would get into but it wasn't really a factor in my decision.

Viper87227 said:

Battery life on this, while not great, isn't terrible either. I've never seen my battery drop under about 30% by the end of the day. As long as I can use my phone how I want and only have to charge it over night, that's good with me.

Click to expand...

Do you have 4G network access switched on all day? If I could get through a full day with 4G on, only requiring a charge each night, that would actually be fine with me. But by "full day" I mean 16 hours and no compromising with the 4G - I just can't see buying a 4G phone and then using 3G by choice (seems pointless). I'm still skeptical the Gnex battery will do this but I could be wrong. The extended battery could buy me a little extra time, though I've heard you lose NFC if you remove the stock battery.


Anyway, this is all really good food for thought even though I continue to lean toward the Razr Maxx. I think I'm going to check out the Verizon store so I can do some additional hands on comparisons (screen, camera, etc.) Keep the comments coming it's really helpful

I went with the Nexus because of it's display, clean face (only thing you can see is the ear speaker) and because the Nexus S was and still is one of the biggest and best supported android devices to date (as far as roms go).

I snagged one coming from a Samsung Infuse, and changed carriers since Verizon had a cheaper plan than what I had before. I was looking at the Rezound, read reviews, but holding it and using it didn't "wow" me. The Razr MAXX looks sweet, thin as hell, but I just wish that screen was bigger. The mistake was when I had both devices side by side, instantly fell in love with the Gnex.

When I went home, first thing I did was use Gnex tools, rooted the sucker, flashed AOKP and frank Kernel, then mind = blown. Tossed in Nova launcher and to this day, I don't regret my purchase.

One thing I really hate on it though is the camera, coming from an Infuse which packs the SGSII camera, then using this one was a heart break letting go of the Infuse. $300, the least they could've done is go hardcore camera.

Here's a pic I took at the same time w/ the Infuse and the Gnex:

Infuse:


Gnex:


Some depressing stuff. One thing this phone's camera excels at though is macro shots, it's hardcore good... and I mean GOOD. I would compare it to the Infuse, but the macro focus shots had issues getting that close, so gave up:





The dev community at rootz/xda is huge, and has some of the best dev's around. So maybe we'll see some huge advancements in the camera options in the future.

If Verizon carried the SGSII I would've probably still stayed with the Nexus only because I'm a update freak. I can guarantee when JellyBean releases, the Nexus line will be one of the first to have a fully working build of it.

Also, if you want to see the video quality, here's a YT playlist I did.


Like I said before, everything about the phone is slick, just the camera sucks... so think about that when you buy it lol.

whisper said:

This seems like the best reason to choose the Gnex over any other Android phone right now. As for rooting and custom roms, to be honest I never tried it with my Dinc because it just seemed like more trouble than it was worth. If it's really that simple on the Gnex, maybe it's something I would get into but it wasn't really a factor in my decision.

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With any Nexus branded phone, it's simple as can be. It's one of the rules that Google imposes on the hardware manufacturer to include, and carriers to uphold, in order to be a Nexus phone. Someone wrote a program that is a 1-click operation to unlock, root, and flash a custom recovery. From there, you can flash anything. Certain phones have limitations (Motorola phones have a very odd procedure for flashing, and HTC phones that come with a locked bootloader take a lot of workarounds for proper flashing ROM's after using HTC's unlock tool), the Gnex doesn't. As an example of things I can do with the rom I am using now, I can add/remove soft buttons, rearrange them, recolor them, and resize them to give me more screen real estate. I can also remove them completely on the fly if I want a true full screen setup. I can add toggles for every major phone function in the notification bar. Built in overclocking and voltage control (which, with the right tweaking, can do wonders for your battery life). I can add custom apps to launch from the unlock screen dial. The list goes on... The dev community has really embraced this phone, and it was a massive selling point for me.

whisper said:

Do you have 4G network access switched on all day? If I could get through a full day with 4G on, only requiring a charge each night, that would actually be fine with me. But by "full day" I mean 16 hours and no compromising with the 4G - I just can't see buying a 4G phone and then using 3G by choice (seems pointless). I'm still skeptical the Gnex battery will do this but I could be wrong. The extended battery could buy me a little extra time, though I've heard you lose NFC if you remove the stock battery.

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Nope, I am not in a 4G area, and have LTE off. I don't know how much of an impact that makes on battery. However, if you root, you can add a toggle for LTE to the status bar. I don't know if that is a compromise your willing to make, but I'd be using that myself even if I had 4G. Turn it on when you need it, turn it back off when your done. Oh, and I can tell you that the NFC is built into the battery. So unless you find an extended battery that includes an NFC chip, you will lose that feature. Personally, I don't see NFC as anything relevant quite yet. If Google has their way, that will change, but I'm not expecting much.

you will not got a worth a damn ICS rom from moto, htc, or samsung on any phone that isnt a Nexus anytime in the near future..

I have a Nexus S so its a little behind in hardware for this discussion, but I can tell you that the vanilla ICS rom is pure sex.. There is nothing I want to do that I cant & I dont have to screw with 3rd party rom's..

Viper87227 said:

Nope, I am not in a 4G area, and have LTE off. I don't know how much of an impact that makes on battery. However, if you root, you can add a toggle for LTE to the status bar. I don't know if that is a compromise your willing to make, but I'd be using that myself even if I had 4G. Turn it on when you need it, turn it back off when your done. Oh, and I can tell you that the NFC is built into the battery. So unless you find an extended battery that includes an NFC chip, you will lose that feature. Personally, I don't see NFC as anything relevant quite yet. If Google has their way, that will change, but I'm not expecting much.

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Night and day difference with 3g and 4g. Probably uses about 25-50% more with 4g on.

I snagged this for you today, to try and paint a picture of the battery life I am getting.



I've currently got my phone overclocked to 1350mhz. Phone has been off the charger for nearly 12 hours and the battery is half gone. I've made 5 phone calls today, with a total talk time of probably an hour and a half. I've been playing words with friends on and off basically all day. Little bit of dicking around on the web too. This is at home, on wifi. So, I'm definitely using it, and getting more than enough battery to get me through a day. As has been said, that will change a lot with 4G. If you leave it on 100% of the time, you may run into issues. I think if you toggle it, you will do fine. You can also see some of the nifty notification and button bar mods that are possible. Hope this helps you make a decision...

Viper87227 said:

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Where's the other two screens (screen on time and history details graph)?

My guess seeing that Android OS is using about as much as your display, your screen on time there is no more than 2 hours or so.

I've actually seen a few tests where 4G saves battery life over 3G if you're actually streaming/downloading stuff. Which makes sense to me. But if you're idle or just surfing the web, then it may be beneficial to disable 4G.

http://www.engadget.com/2011editorschoice/

Having had the Galaxy Nexus for a while now I can say without a doubt with medium usage you're going to see about 3 hours screen time on with the standard battery and 3 hours and 30 minutes with the extended battery. That's a 12 hour day. When my phone is on for 24 hours + its more like 2 hours screen on time.

That's with little to no apps sucking data/juice periodically that some people seem to have problems with.

My better half has a Motorola Razr Maxx and there are things it does better.

1. Netflix. Motorola and Netflix apparently teamed up for this and it shows. Watching True Grit side by side the Razr kicks the Gnex's ass. For now hopefully....

2. Music playback.

3. Battery life. About 5+ hours of screen on time.

In dim lit areas like a basement my Gnex takes way better pictures than hers. Strangely... It's something to do with the flash timing and exposure. The Razr seems to take the picture on the lag part of the flash leaving it to look dark, washed out and stale looking...

stoney_titan said:

http://www.engadget.com/2011editorschoice/

Having had the Galaxy Nexus for a while now I can say without a doubt with medium usage you're going to see about 3 hours screen time on with the standard battery and 3 hours and 30 minutes with the extended battery. That's a 12 hour day. When my phone is on for 24 hours + its more like 2 hours screen on time.

That's with little to no apps sucking data/juice periodically that some people seem to have problems with.

My better half has a Motorola Razr Maxx and there are things it does better.

1. Netflix. Motorola and Netflix apparently teamed up for this and it shows. Watching True Grit side by side the Razr kicks the Gnex's ass. For now hopefully....

2. Music playback.

3. Battery life. About 5+ hours of screen on time.

In dim lit areas like a basement my Gnex takes way better pictures than hers. Strangely... It's something to do with the flash timing and exposure. The Razr seems to take the picture on the lag part of the flash leaving it to look dark, washed out and stale looking...

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Just got some comments and questions about your points:

1. That's because Moto ships the Razr with the Netflix HD app instead of the non-HD Netflix app that's in the market. You can find the Netflix HD app with a quick Google and put it on your Nexus to fix that issue. Be aware that it only seems to work with stock 4.0.2 software though and doesn't seem to work with 4.0.3 ROMs. I'm not sure about the stock 4.0.4 ROM that was leaked though.

2. How is music playback better? Have you tried enabling the sound equalizer in the stock music app to make it better? It make a big difference with all the presets as compared to the stock/flat settings.

3. I've gotten more than 5 hours of screen time out of my Nexus several times under constant usage. But away from WiFi, that usually dwindles down to abour 3.5 to 4 at the most depending on what I'm doing.





I have a few more screenshots on my phone like this, just haven't hosted the pics yet. This is with the extended 2100 mAh battery too though.

T4rd said:

Just got some comments and questions about your points:

1. That's because Moto ships the Razr with the Netflix HD app instead of the non-HD Netflix app that's in the market. You can find the Netflix HD app with a quick Google and put it on your Nexus to fix that issue. Be aware that it only seems to work with stock 4.0.2 software though and doesn't seem to work with 4.0.3 ROMs. I'm not sure about the stock 4.0.4 ROM that was leaked though.

2. How is music playback better? Have you tried enabling the sound equalizer in the stock music app to make it better? It make a big difference with all the presets as compared to the stock/flat settings.

3. I've gotten more than 5 hours of screen time out of my Nexus several times under constant usage. But away from WiFi, that usually dwindles down to abour 3.5 to 4 at the most depending on what I'm doing.





I have a few more screenshots on my phone like this, just haven't hosted the pics yet. This is with the extended 2100 mAh battery too though.

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I wish I had the results your getting. I did have a hd netflix app but it flaked out on me like most people when it tried to update about a month ago. And it cut a lot of the screen out to represent a HD aspect ratio.

From my experience on the Gnex forums I have a good battery life. You would be an exception.

Music playback on the gnex compared to the razr is personal opinion. I don't know if it has to do with the loudness of the output, but the razr wins in both speaker and headphones. I equate it to having an mp3 player hooked up to speakers. You want to keep the mp3 player at around half volume and crank up the speaker volume to avoid distortion.

Wow nascasho, those comparison photos are stunning. People often say we shouldn't expect too much from cell phone cameras, but I think HTC is proving that maybe we should. Megapixels aside, I know the camera on the maxx isn't much better/worse than what the Gnex has and can't hold a candle to the infuse. I guess it's just too bad that more manufacturers aren't following HTC's lead and putting better glass into their phones, at least for their flagship models.

Personally, I think my aging Dinc has a decent lens and has given me some nice shots, but the shutter lag is pretty awful. It makes motion shots near impossible at times. I'd be okay trading a little bit on image quality if it means eliminating the lag. Everyone knows about the Gnex's zero shutter lag and the maxx camera is also very quick (this was something I examined closely in the Verizon store). I guess I can't go wrong here as long as I'm realistic about what the image quality will look like.

A 4G toggle is reasonable if it's sitting right on my home screen. A quick switch on or off depending on what I'm doing would be fine. However, am I correct in understanding this is not a feature present in vanilla ICS 4.0.4? I know I can flash a different rom and it's pretty easy on the Gnex, it just seems like this would be such a basic feature. Kind of annoying it's not there to begin with considering the battery life isn't stellar.

I still have a week and I'm planning another trip to the store for a side-by-side, hands on comparison. I was totally sold on the maxx and still think it's a good choice, but I admit it's going to be a touch choice!

Well my renewal date is on Tuesday and I'm considering waiting until the ICS update rolls out to Razr Maxx, or until the end of May, whichever comes first. If I didn't chose the Maxx then the logical choice would be Gnex. I feel like it's actually kind of difficult to compare them until we see what the Razr's ICS looks like (I mean really see it hands on, not just a few screenshots). I'm willing to hold off a couple more months to make sure I like Moto's implementation of ICS before I'm stuck with it. I should also say that ICS was supposed to roll out to Razr phones "early 2012" and Q1 is nearly over, yet still no update. This has me worried that it could stall well into the year, which I would not want to wait for. That battery life is still so tempting though

whisper said:

Wow nascasho, those comparison photos are stunning. People often say we shouldn't expect too much from cell phone cameras, but I think HTC is proving that maybe we should. Megapixels aside, I know the camera on the maxx isn't much better/worse than what the Gnex has and can't hold a candle to the infuse. I guess it's just too bad that more manufacturers aren't following HTC's lead and putting better glass into their phones, at least for their flagship models.

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Samsung actually has the best sensor out there right now (it's actually ranked ever so slightly above even the iP4s). God knows why Google didn't use it.

In fact, the camera is one of the reasons I chose my GS2.

I got my Wife a Rezound today. The RAZR phones and Galaxy Nexus were just too big and uncomfortable for her. She liked the size of the iPhone, but didn't want to go to iOS since she's already bought a bunch of stuff on Android and most apps are free. Also, Navigation and turn-by-turn directions are a big deal for her. She wanted a Droid 4, but the store didn't have them in stock, so me an the rep threw the Rezound at her and she was much more comfortable with it. It didn't take but a few mins for her to realize that a physical keyboard isn't necessary. Also, she wanted a really good camera on the phone and the Rezound probably has the best camera of any phone on Verizon.

Haven't had a chance to test battery much on it. It seems to be better than her old Droid so far at least.

Zurginator said:

Samsung actually has the best sensor out there right now (it's actually ranked ever so slightly above even the iP4s).

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I own a GS2, but I also like facts...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4971/apple-iphone-4s-review-att-verizon/13

The GS2 is ALMOST as good as the 4S' sensor, but to say it's BETTER is simply not true. I also agree with you 100%- I have no idea why Google didn't opt for a better sensor for the Nexus, especially since they went with 5MP.

I fell in love more with my Gnex today when I found out you can set it to tablet mode! Makes good use of that screen, that's for sure.



It works like a tablet should, there's a couple quirks here and there, but when devs start to realize that tablet mode is "off da chain" some changes will happen in future roms.

nothing is cooler than scrolling through the youtube interface next to an iphone user fyi lol