VZ Galaxy Nexus finally!!! 12/15

I use it for free internet while on the road or at school

 

I purchased the phone on the day of its release so I've had it long enough to give it an honest review.

HARDWARE DESIGN
The phone feels ok in my small adult hands, but it did take a while to get used to. The phone is slightly bottom heavy, enough to be noticeable. While the backing has gotten some criticism for being plastic-y, if fits solid on the back and there is zero looseness or places you can dent in with your finger. The overall build of the phone is very nice. One of the best things about the phone is the face. There’s no Verizon logo, no capacitive button icons, just a sexy pitch-black face from top to bottom. I have no problems with the placement of the volume rocker, head jack, or other physical connections/buttons on the phone. The face of the phone is curved, but not the whole face, only the bottom half.

BATTERY LIFE
It’s pretty short, which was expected, but not this short. With only moderate use, I’m lucky to get through my work day without recharging, and that’s in a 3G zone with the Bluetooth and wifi turned off, and screen brightness on automatic.

CALL QUALITY
It is disappointing. The ear piece vibrates (buzzy) and calls aren’t as clear as other phones I’ve had. I use my Bluetooth most of the time because this drives me mad. The speaker phone is underpowered as well. The reception can be bad, but no lost calls yet.

SOFTWARE/OS
Most of the bloatware is non-existent, and what is there that you don’t want to see can be hidden from the applications menu. ICS is a nice OS as it has some additional customizations and buttons and whistles that make the mobile phone life a little better. The addition to some settings options like data usage monitor is nice, but if you’re grandfathered in with unlimited data like me it’s not needed. Things like facial recognition are nice, but it takes a moment for it to recognize your face. I used it for the first 4 weeks then got tired of waiting every time, so I just went to another unlock option. It’s more of a novelty. It does work pretty well though. It wouldn’t unlock the phone if I was wearing sunglasses, and it wouldn’t unlock if I held up a picture of myself. I would also like to punch Google in the face for no longer allowing us to synch our Facebook contacts (they want us to use Google+ instead).

DISPLAY
The display is beautiful, but it’s not one of the best out there. IMO, phones like the Samsung Focus or LG Nitro have better displays.

CAMERA/VIDEO
While some complain that it only has a 5mp camera, it takes better pictures than the normal 5mp camera because it has better optics and photo processing software. However, if you aren’t perfectly still while taking a picture it will be blurry. That part really sucks. A perk is that the shutter speed is very quick. Video quality is great, and can be taken in either 720p or 1080p.


PERFORMANCE
Overall phone performance is good. Most of the time it’s nice and snappy, and scrolling is smooth, as expected. The display orientation to landscape (and back) is HORRIBLE. It sometimes takes up to 4 seconds for the phone to redisplay in landscape. My Droid (2009) was better than this!!!!! There is also very bad keyboard lag when typing in landscape. If you’re a person who likes a lot of widgets on your phone you may want to prepare for performance lag. While the phone has ample storage, the 700Mb of available RAM can go pretty quickly.


NETWORK CONNECTIVITY
When on a solid 4G network, the phone screams. It’s so fast. The thing is, it’s hard to keep it on 4G if the 4G is weak, and when it does switch other to 3G, there is latency. When on the 3G network, it’s ok, but there are times when I lose signal altogether. I have yet to drop a call, but I’ve experienced several instances of doing other things (like web browsing) then loosing my 3G signal. It’s absurd.

For the $$, I would not recommend this phone to the friend. 2/5 stars.
Interestingly enough, Verizon didn't post my review on their website. Shocker. Bastards.

 

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I'll look into this. Thanks.

 

seriously your not running a custom rom? i thought thats why everyone rushed out for this? unlocked bootloader and all

 

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meh, verizon still has a say in releases besides the cdma is no longer supported from google..........



















































jk it is kinda ha ha

 

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