Galaxy Nexus review: the sweetest aftertaste

Tim Schiesser

08 December 2011 - 09:29 Hot!

Software

I was writing the software part of this review and realized I had written an enormous amount of stuff on Android 4.0, so I decided to split it out and dedicate an entire review just to Ice Cream Sandwich. There really are a huge amount of new features included in ICS, so I highly suggest you check that out.

→ Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” review

Here’s a rundown of the new features for those of you who would rather not read another eight-page review:

Brand new, consistent theme/layout/design
On-screen buttons
Action Bar for easy app function access
New widgets, new wallpapers, new apps
Resizable widgets
Improved notification pane; accessible from lockscreen
Face unlock; unlock to camera; lockscreen music controls
New settings layout; data usage graphs and controls
Visually improved Contacts app with large contact images and quick profiles
Respond to a call with a message in Dialer
Improved Messaging layout

New browser design; easy access window manager; offline browsing
Brand new camera app design; zero shutter lag
Panorama, time-lapse and instant effects in the camera app
New Gallery with built in photo editor
Movie Studio app lets you edit movies on your device
New ICS Music app; equalizer settings
Vastly improved Gmail app
Minor updates to Calendar, Maps, YouTube, Google+ and Market
Android Beam for easy sharing over NFC
Native screenshot support
Keyboard improvements; new copy/paste functions; improved spell-checker
New speech-to-text featuring as-you-go style output

See, it’s a lot to cover, so again I highly recommend you check out the full Android 4.0 review for an in-depth look at everything above.

45 Comments

Sorry this is not related but can't seem to go to page 2 onwards.. ? (the article is not displaying anymore)

Samsung is sending over the Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy Note to me to review next week, so I'm excited to read what the phone has to offer

:: Lyon :: said,

Sorry this is not related but can't seem to go to page 2 onwards.. ? (the article is not displaying anymore)

Damn, I thought we fixed that... EDIT: Fixed, again

Edited by Scorpus, 08 December 2011 - 09:58 :

Fixed.

One of the best hardware in the industry. Excluding the back.

Try mx player for videos. I know it's not ics but it plays 1080p encodes on my Desire just fine!

Poor GPU performance from a highend phone.... I don't know the impact this will have with newer games. And this is not something that can be upgraded....

TruckWEB said,

Poor GPU performance from a highend phone.... I don't know the impact this will have with newer games. And this is not something that can be upgraded....

I haven't found it a problem on mine to be honest. Everything feels fast and slick. Lovely phone, very happy with it!

TruckWEB said,

Poor GPU performance from a highend phone.... I don't know the impact this will have with newer games. And this is not something that can be upgraded....

Yeah to be honest the performance graphs don't tell the whole story. For the time it was released around 2 years ago it was way ahead of the competition much like the Galaxy S II's GPU is today, and it keeps its own in current games quite well

I still prefer to read my reviews on one page . Good work though, Tim!

Owen W said,

I still prefer to read my reviews on one page

. Good work though, Tim!

+1.

It's much easier and quicker to browse and skim through and take in everything when it's all there right in front of you. I understand pagination maybe for a mobile device where you don't want to load the whole page at one, but other than that... *shurgs*. (Though I am using the expanded width site)

I've had this phone for about 2 weeks now, and it's an amazing device. The display is great.

Also, I upgraded from an iPhone. This phone is much more fun to use.

OMG! This has become a computer.

Only 1,750 mAh for 1.2 GHz dual-core CPU? No, thanks.

M V E said,

Only 1,750 mAh for 1.2 GHz dual-core CPU? No, thanks.

You can buy a spare battery if your concern is battery life.

jamesyfx said,

You can buy a spare battery if your concern is battery life.

Battery life isn't really a concern. When I was using it for the review I never worried that it would die in a day, because it never did

M V E said,

Only 1,750 mAh for 1.2 GHz dual-core CPU? No, thanks.

That's a very narrow view - mine lasts ages compared to my old Desire - the power management appears to very good in ICS/the hardware in this device. I'd say it seems at least twice as good - and that's with a much higher res screen, dual core etc. I have wifi on all the time too.

As a Nexus S user, when can we expect to have ICS deployed to the device?

este said,

As a Nexus S user, when can we expect to have ICS deployed to the device?

Yes, its a matter of when.

sam232 said,

Yes, its a matter of when.

Lol, I don't think you answered the question...

este said,

As a Nexus S user, when can we expect to have ICS deployed to the device?

It's my understanding you'll be the first legacy device to recieve ICS.

este said,

As a Nexus S user, when can we expect to have ICS deployed to the device?

ICS was pushed to Google Employees Nexus S devices this week. They are dogfooding the update while carriers do their testing. Once that's completed (estimated 2-4 weeks as I read in articles) it'll head out to Nexus S.

cybertimber2008 said,

Good news there. It'd be a nice christmas present for my phone =]

I would like to say, because it wasn't mentioned in the review, that SuperAMOLED HD displays do not use gorilla glass. They use a newer stronger glass which I believe is called Lotus glass.

dotf said,

I would like to say, because it wasn't mentioned in the review, that SuperAMOLED HD displays do not use gorilla glass. They use a newer stronger glass which I believe is called Lotus glass.

GN doesn't use any glass from corning.

I am totally new to android, but I was thinking of switching to this phone!

SURELY the AVI play issue can be fixed through software??? right???

^Yup, easily.

Nice review, but I was expecting a bit more comparison to the Galaxy S2 which would be the logical competitor since the S2 is available globally and the Nexus may not be for some time. Thus in the lead up to Christmas should people just go buy the S2 or wait for the Nexus to release locally?

Pegus said,

Looks pretty cool - but not enough to actually make me want to switch to Android. Next yr will be big with all the platforms going through their big releases.

Good point, and u know, i'm on of these guys.

Still using my iPhone, but was waiting for some good review, but i would like to see with GS II. In the end, i still don't know what to do..

I'll joing android world, just not sure what start to: GS II or Nexus ?

tester.br said,

Good point, and u know, i'm on of these guys.

Still using my iPhone, but was waiting for some good review, but i would like to see with GS II. In the end, i still don't know what to do..

I'll joing android world, just not sure what start to: GS II or Nexus ?

I would go with Nexus!

To anyone saying there is absolutely, definitely no lag; you must be coming from the Android ecosystem and thereby able to overlook lag.

I spent 5 minutes playing with the phone in the store and found lag in several instances. As a WP7 user maybe I have higher expectations.

The first lag I saw was in the app tray where the animation stuttered at around 10fps until it smoothed out towards the end of the animation.

Then I went into the text messaging app to test the keyboard, while much improved I did have situations where key input would lag for almost a full second then quickly throw in all the keys I pressed during the time the keyboard was frozen. The problem was so bad that in some cases I thought I didn't press the key and actually had enough time to go back and press the key a second time so when the keyboard finally became responsive again the word had errors in it.

Finally, I went into the settings menu and flicked up and down a few times. Even there, on a graphicless list, there were a few frames of stutter before the animation smoothed out.

IMO, everyone saying the Galaxy Nexus/Android 4 is completely stutter free is probably a long-time android user who has developed some lower expectations over the years.

Even from the videos you can tell there is lag. Some blind fanbois on gsmarena were even claiming it was not the phone lagging but the computer of the user viewing the video which was very amusing! It seems a lot better than the usual roid response though, which is one of the things that persuaded me to get one.

FATILA said,

i just went to best buy and played with it again. In the SMS app I had absolutely no problem typing faster than the keyboard could keep up (thereby causing characters to get dropped).

Love me new nexus its a great phone.

I dont like the idea that you dont have a memory to change, so for instead, you have to live for the rest of your life with a 16GB or 32GB. And that ****es me off. The same happend to the luminia. I dont like that stupid trend and I wont support it.
I dont like the "protection" that has. What happend to the Corning Gorilla Glass?. What is this **** Oleophobic coating?.
The battery dont last that much, compared to the other version of the phone.
No RADIO?. What the **** with that?.
And the OS, LAAAAAAAAAAAAAGS!. I cant believe with a 1.2Ghz DUAL CORE processor this crap LAGS, I just cant.

Again Neowin please I hate clicking Next 7 times to read a review. Connections and browsers are already fast enough to load the entire review on a single page.

I was going to wait for this phone but after this review I am glad I bought the SGS 2. THe SGS 2 seems more powerful then this phone.

I still thik the phone is overrated. And yes all the reviews ive seen have had lag.

The pictures taken with this phone in the review were done in almost perfect light. Almost every camera can take good photos in these conditions.

When you look at another reviews - for example Gizmodo here (full res images):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gizmodo/sets/72157628251747893

- you can clearly see that camera in Nexus is a crap compared to SGS II. I can't imagine how different the reviews can be. Reading here I'd really think Nexus has a good camera.

piece of sh*t. I was testing this a few moments ago and this sh*t lags. They should optimize their OS or the ppl will move to WP.

Gutierrez said,

piece of sh*t. I was testing this a few moments ago and this sh*t lags. They should optimize their OS or the ppl will move to WP.

yeah right ... stfu

2xSilverKnight said,

yeah right ... stfu

who the **** your?

Gutierrez said,

piece of sh*t. I was testing this a few moments ago and this sh*t lags. They should optimize their OS or the ppl will move to WP.

I had a WP7 and after one week of using it I was happy to get rid of it...I'd honestly prefer going back to an old mobile phone than use it...
And do you really think a store phone is clean? It probably had a lot of programs running in the background...I'm not even saying it doesn't lag, but come on...you just like your WP so go buy one of those...the one thing I liked about the phone I had was that it was solid and had a slider keyboard...

Are you guys using live wallpapers while testing? If so that's your problem. 0 lag when using non-live wallpapers.

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