Mistake getting the Galaxy Nexus right now?

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jyi786

Supreme [H]ardness
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I've just about had it with AT&T's service, and pricing. I will never buy subsidized again; I am going to go with a GSM unlocked phone that I can use wherever I want, and choose whatever service I want when I like.

Having said that, do you guys think it would be a mistake to get the Galaxy Nexus at this time? With all these new phones coming out, there seems like too many concessions that I have to make.

1. No SD Card slot (admittedly, this is the only thing where the GN falls short).
2. No removable/expandable capacity battery.
3. Pentile crap (was expecting better on the SIII, which I was waiting for, and subsequently got disappointed).

I was considering the HTC One X, but I'd have to get the international version in order to use it on T-Mobile, and the downside to that is poor battery life compared to the AT&T version, which of course is locked to....AT&T. Was considering the HTC One S, but it has Pentile trash (and I can see how poorly it looks compared even to the GN). The SIII completely disappointed me; I was expecting more, IMHO.

Having said that, I can buy the GN from the Google Play store. At least is completely unlocked, I can install whatever custom ROM I want on it, use it on whatever service I want whenever I want, and only concede that it has no SD card slot.

Am I making the right choice here? Any input would be great (to help me see the light :D ).

Thanks!
 
pentile is not crap at 200ppi... unless you stare at your phone screen an inch away from your face.

google phones will always be a step behind since they are usually the first of their kind (i.e. OS) but the tradeoff of getting a unadulterated android experience is worth it.
 
Get an iPhone :rolleyes:. Hey, someone else would've said it so I just thought I'd get it out of the way.

Seriously though, for a pure Android experience (if that's what you want), there's no better phone. However, can you live with it's shortcomings? That's the question you need to answer.

If I were in your shoes, I'd immediately, like this second, scour the internet and find a Note and activate it on Straight Talk (Walmart's service). Unlimited everything for like $45/month with that badass phone would be so worth it. Some people say it's too big. I wholeheartedly disagree with that having messed with it for over an hour at BB. To me, it's the perfect sized device to replace a phone and a tablet.
 
1) Valid, but I personally dont put a whole ton of media on my phone
2) ???? You can remove your battery, and you can also buy an extended one, not sure what you mean
3) I honestly dont notice a issue with it, the screen is great on mine, on par with my SGS2

I would say its the right choice, but I went from my HD2, to a Nexus S, to SGS2, and got fed up with something that wasnt a nexus, so i sold the SGS2 to get the G.Nexus.
 
I don't wanna hijack this thread but does anyone know where I can get information on what bands a phone needs for straight talk? I didn't know we could still get unlimited data in places. I need this! Will the international gs3 and one x work?

I also heard of people having $10 unlimited data through at&t using international phones. Might be worth it to return my one x on at&t and go with one of these plans.
 
In fact the GSM Nexus + a prepaid sim ($30 T-Mobile, StraightTalk etc) is one of the best deals for phones right now, for those who have GSM coverage. You get a great phone which will remain relevant and will save a lot of money compared to a contract.
 
I'm in the exact same situation as you. I can tell you that the Pentile on the GN isn't as bad as you'd expect. By far my biggest hang up is the no SD slot.

All that in mind, I have decided to wait for the Huawei Ascend D quad. It meets all mine (yours) criteria. The only problem is you have to wait until July.
 
My GNex arrived just yesterday from the Play store. Don't let all the talk about pentile displays fool you. Unless you have a microscopic lens in your eyes, you won't even know its there. As someone said above, you CAN remove the battery. The only hangup is 16GB of storage. I would have liked 32GB, but for the price, I can live with it :-D
 
At 400 US dollars contract free for a phone with mostly high end specs at a midrange price and you're still complaining?
 
I'm thinking about a new phone. I really want ICS and the Nexus has it. $400 I can do. But I hear bad things about the camera and battery life. Like the higher resolution screen and notification LED. But weaker processor than the S2.

Or I can get the Galaxy S2 for $370 but doesn't have ICS on AT&T yet. Nor will it come with original packaging at that price. Any idea on when the official ICS update is coming?

Or spend more on the HTC One X but I doubt i'll get wife approval for that. Decisions, decisions.
 
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Love my gnex. Added the extended battery and I get all day performance most days. Heavy use I only need a charger after 5/6 hours. Not bad at all in my opinion. Unlock, root and enjoy. Gingerbread is now unusable for me. ;)
 
I was thinking about getting a Nexus as well, to replace my aging Nokia N8. My main consideration is the pentaband support, which was surprisingly useful on my N8 when I went to vacation in Southeast Asia.

As of right now, the GN is the only pentaband phone that isn't a Nokia.
 
Archer75 said:
I'm thinking about a new phone. I really want ICS and the Nexus has it. $400 I can do. But I hear bad things about the camera and battery life. Like the higher resolution screen and notification LED. But weaker processor than the S2.

Or I can get the Galaxy S2 for $370 but doesn't have ICS on AT&T yet. Nor will it come with original packaging at that price. Any idea on when the official ICS update is coming?

Or spend more on the HTC One X but I doubt i'll get wife approval for that. Decisions, decisions.
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I think the camera is great. It is super fast which is an awesome feature for a camera phone. I much prefer my GNex camera to my iPhone 4S camera.

Battery life could be improved upon. I just have the stock battery though.
 
Heatsinker, plenty of phones have Pentaband support, not just the GN and nokias.

As for buying it now or not, I love my GN. The screen is gorgeous (not a typical Pentile display), the camera is great, the support is awesome. The phone works, and it works well. If you're worried about it being the latest & greatest, just pick one up used for $300 or so and sell it for $200 when the next Nexus comes out. $100 for 6-10 months of use is a good deal to me.
 
entropism said:
Heatsinker, plenty of phones have Pentaband support, not just the GN and nokias.

As for buying it now or not, I love my GN. The screen is gorgeous (not a typical Pentile display), the camera is great, the support is awesome. The phone works, and it works well. If you're worried about it being the latest & greatest, just pick one up used for $300 or so and sell it for $200 when the next Nexus comes out. $100 for 6-10 months of use is a good deal to me.
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Are we talking about smartphones? I was going by what GSMArena had. Granted, one probably doesn't need a smartphone while on vacation, but it was nice having turn by turn directions on a remote island. :)
 
What kind of battery life are we talking on the nexus? I don't talk a lot on it. Most days never. But checking email, apps and web how long are we talking?
 
Archer75 said:
What kind of battery life are we talking on the nexus? I don't talk a lot on it. Most days never. But checking email, apps and web how long are we talking?
Click to expand...

I can get about 4.5 hours of screen time @25% brightness doing major email and web with the extended battery.
 
Archer75 said:
What kind of battery life are we talking on the nexus? I don't talk a lot on it. Most days never. But checking email, apps and web how long are we talking?
Click to expand...
You will more than likely barely get a day's use out of it. The battery life on the GN isn't that great. The camera isn't stellar either but it got better with the last update.

I don't think it was a mistake getting the GN last week. Everything seems to work better on it than any other Android phone I've used. It's smooth, no app problems, awesome GPS, etc. There's something to be said for a phone that actually performs all of its functions properly. That's more than can be said for my original Galaxy...all of the little annoyances from that phone are gone and it's nice.
 
heatsinker said:
Are we talking about smartphones? I was going by what GSMArena had. Granted, one probably doesn't need a smartphone while on vacation, but it was nice having turn by turn directions on a remote island. :)
Click to expand...

Off the top of my head:

AT&T Skyrocket / Rogers Galaxy S 2 LTE
T-Mobile HTC Amaze
T-Mobile HTC Radar
AT&T Galaxy Note
T-Mobile Galaxy S Vibrant/Vibrant 4G (not pentaband, missing the 850Mhz 3G band, but has everything else)
Meizu MX


There's tons more if you want to go into older smartphones, but for now, that's a decent list.
 
ajm786 said:
I've just about had it with AT&T's service, and pricing. I will never buy subsidized again; I am going to go with a GSM unlocked phone that I can use wherever I want, and choose whatever service I want when I like.

Having said that, do you guys think it would be a mistake to get the Galaxy Nexus at this time? With all these new phones coming out, there seems like too many concessions that I have to make.

1. No SD Card slot (admittedly, this is the only thing where the GN falls short).
2. No removable/expandable capacity battery.
3. Pentile crap (was expecting better on the SIII, which I was waiting for, and subsequently got disappointed).

I was considering the HTC One X, but I'd have to get the international version in order to use it on T-Mobile, and the downside to that is poor battery life compared to the AT&T version, which of course is locked to....AT&T. Was considering the HTC One S, but it has Pentile trash (and I can see how poorly it looks compared even to the GN). The SIII completely disappointed me; I was expecting more, IMHO.

Having said that, I can buy the GN from the Google Play store. At least is completely unlocked, I can install whatever custom ROM I want on it, use it on whatever service I want whenever I want, and only concede that it has no SD card slot.

Am I making the right choice here? Any input would be great (to help me see the light :D ).

Thanks!
Click to expand...

The lack of an SD Card is annoying, but not enough for me to care about with 32GB.

The lower resolution camera was unexpected, but it takes pictures so quickly it's quite awesome. Plus, when was the last time you needed more than a 5 MP picture? Unless you're making huge real prints, the amount of Megapixels is almost irrelevant.

Pentile is overblown. You won't notice it on the Galaxy Nexus because of its 1280x720 resolution.


What more were you personally expecting from the SGSIII?



jubrany said:
pentile is not crap at 200ppi... unless you stare at your phone screen an inch away from your face.

google phones will always be a step behind since they are usually the first of their kind (i.e. OS) but the tradeoff of getting a unadulterated android experience is worth it.
Click to expand...

Google Phones a step behind?
The Nexus One was the first android phone with multitouch support and first phone w/ a 1GHz CPU.
The Nexus S was the first smartphone with NFC.
The Nexus Prime was the first smartphone with no buttons on the front.
 
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Sorry guys, my internet was down all of last night, so I couldn't respond to this thread.

I think you guys misunderstood what I wrote, or I didn't write it clear enough. :p

I wasn't complaining about the GN; I was saying all my points were concessions you have to make with all these other phones that are being released. GN is almost perfect, EXCEPT no SD card. I trust you guys, so if you say the Pentile on the GN is indiscernible, that's cool with me.
 
Most HTC phones can be unlocked if you wanted to use the ATT One X on T-Mobile. But that said, I wouldn't go to T-Mobile at this point.

Also, on Verizon you can usually take any phone and have them activate it to your account and LTE does use sim cards as well.
 
ajm786 said:
I will never buy subsidized again
Click to expand...

my advice is to check used sites every day for a few weeks, buy a used galaxy nexus for a good deal, and not worry about it. take the money you saved and replace the galaxy nexus sooner.
 
derek533 said:
As long as it's CDMA of course.;)
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Not only that, but as long as Verizon has sold it from their stores at one point. You can't activate Sprint CDMA phones on Verizon's network ;).

Also, if you're switching from one Verizon LTE phone to another one, all you have to do is switch the SIM cards. No more activating in-store, on their web site or dialing *228 to activate a new phone. Just make sure both phones use the same size SIM cards as some use micro-SIMs like the Gnex. My wife's Rezound uses the regular sized SIM card. I think pretty much all phones up to when the RAZR (which uses a micro-SIM) launched used regular and most phones launched after the RAZR have used Micro-SIMs. But if you have a steady hand, you can cut out the plastic on a regular SIM to turn it into a micro-SIM since the chip itself is the exact same size on both cards.
 
Archer75 said:
What kind of battery life are we talking on the nexus? I don't talk a lot on it. Most days never. But checking email, apps and web how long are we talking?
Click to expand...

Depending which phone you get, the GSM unlocked Nexus gets AMAZING long battery life for a smartphone, the Verizon version not so much.

My two brothers have the GSM unlocked Nexus, they easily get 50% better battery life than my Wife and I on the CDMA Nexus. Tonight for example, my brother and I today planned to use the phone the same amount all day, unplugged for 14 hours I am at 40% battery left on the CDMA Nexus, he is at 65% battery left after 14 hours, with same screen time, same usage, no WiFi, no 4G. The other day he was unplugged for 23 hours at 45% battery left, my Nexus with almost a full day was at 5% in the red.
 
Zorachus said:
Depending which phone you get, the GSM unlocked Nexus gets AMAZING long battery life for a smartphone, the Verizon version not so much.
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So get the 2100mAh extended battery- the phone is virtually the same size with it. I left home this morning at 7AM, and as of now (9PM) it's sitting at exactly 50%. Seems pretty decent to me.
 
marshac said:
So get the 2100mAh extended battery- the phone is virtually the same size with it. I left home this morning at 7AM, and as of now (9PM) it's sitting at exactly 50%. Seems pretty decent to me.
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Wow. On my phone (HTC Inspire), I leave home at 7AM charged 100%, and by the time afternoon hits, I have to charge, and that's WITH me doing all types of acrobatics and gymnastics to save battery power. If I can get battery life like you and this review mentions, I'm sold.

One last question. Any of you have this on T-Mobile? How fast speeds do you get? My buddy (and also one of my co-workers) has the SGS II on Tmo and they both get about 14 down/2 up. Does the GN get those kinds of speeds? That's what I'm shooting for.
 
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Having tried a few Nexuses since Google started selling them direct, I'd say avoid it. There are so many awful screens out there, just zero quality control.
 
@ajm786 - Your speed should be the same as your friends SGS2 on T-Mo, I personally get ~8 down/2 up , but i never got higher when I had an SGS2
 
Zorachus said:
Depending which phone you get, the GSM unlocked Nexus gets AMAZING long battery life for a smartphone, the Verizon version not so much.

My two brothers have the GSM unlocked Nexus, they easily get 50% better battery life than my Wife and I on the CDMA Nexus. Tonight for example, my brother and I today planned to use the phone the same amount all day, unplugged for 14 hours I am at 40% battery left on the CDMA Nexus, he is at 65% battery left after 14 hours, with same screen time, same usage, no WiFi, no 4G. The other day he was unplugged for 23 hours at 45% battery left, my Nexus with almost a full day was at 5% in the red.
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I went ahead and ordered the GSM from google. I have a tracking number already, just waiting for UPS to pick it up. 2nd day air but it's only going from california to oregon so i'm hoping it will arrive tomorrow.
 
Archer75 said:
I went ahead and ordered the GSM from google. I have a tracking number already, just waiting for UPS to pick it up. 2nd day air but it's only going from california to oregon so i'm hoping it will arrive tomorrow.
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Well thats certainly good to hear. Be sure to fill us in on the quality, since someone above just said that there are QC control issues when ordering from Google direct?
 
I recently bought the GSM version, upgrading from a Nexus One. For all the complaints about battery life, my guess is you're on Verizon and calling a fair bit - this phone easily trumps my Nexus One with respect to battery life and I'm running the stock 4.0.4 ROM (versus the undervolted one on my N1). In particular the wifi hotspot capability is now much more usable given the big boost in battery life over the N1. There are also a variety of extended capacity batteries available if you're looking for a bit more juice.

To be honest, I think the phone itself is good - my biggest issue being build quality. It's is a massive step down from the N1 (or any of the HTC phones). The hard glossy plastic and easily dented/scuffed frame just looks and feels very fragile/cheap. Other than that, the screen and responsiveness has been great.

If I'm honest, I would have preferred to buy an unlocked HTC One X *IF* you could completely disable Sense UI and had no problem loading ROMs straight from Google source. I much prefer the build quality/aesthetics of that phone, and (of course) the higher end hardware. I would probably also have taken a look at the Lumia 900, given how impressed I was with my father's HTC Radar.
 
ajm786 said:
Well thats certainly good to hear. Be sure to fill us in on the quality, since someone above just said that there are QC control issues when ordering from Google direct?
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Mine came from Google direct without any issues. I think people are overreacting and abusing Google's return policy about these screens. Some have legitimate issues but most of what I've seen on XDA are people nit-picking.
 
Blown 89 said:
Mine came from Google direct without any issues. I think people are overreacting and abusing Google's return policy about these screens. Some have legitimate issues but most of what I've seen on XDA are people nit-picking.
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Thanks. I've made up my mind and will buy really soon. I'll keep everyone up to date.
 
I went with the Samsung Galaxy S II, seemed like an all around better phone.
 
DJ Big T said:
I went with the Samsung Galaxy S II, seemed like an all around better phone.
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Samsung Galaxy S II is out of the question for me. It's a well known fact that it has a shitty Yamaha audio codec for sound. After owning the Samsung Galaxy S (Captivate) which had a Wolfson audio chip, no way in hell I'm downgrading to the crap that's in the SGS II.

Granted the Galaxy Nexus doesn't have a Wolfson, but the codec is not inherently shitty; it's actually very decent. So since I actually use my phone for music listening (fidelity), SGS II is not being considered.
 
Just picked up my GN a week ago and I can say I love it. Only thing is the no SD slot but i will survive. It is much smoother and runs much better than any other device I've had. I came over from iOS a few years ago and now i cant even imagine going back to a iOS device or at least phone.
 
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