Tuesday, March 27, 2012

I just got a Galaxy Nexus (Review)

 I have graciously owned a Galaxy Nexus for the better part of a month now, moving from the DROID Incredible and immediately bought the extended battery from Big Red for the discounted $25 price; not too shabby.

The first thing you will notice is the form-factor; this beast is big, yet light (similar to a pint of your favorite lager). Gripping the phone, it does have that woft of cheap-plastic, but keep in mind if you drop this thing it should fare better than dropping i-nother phone (see what I did there?).

As you hit the power button and that beautiful 4.65" display gets illuminated, you are instantly absorbed into it. Let's be honest, you won't want to put the phone down and will be tempted to slap on NetFlix and watch some HD content. I don't blame you; games look phenomenal, HD videos look superb. My only gripe is the colors aren't really true and may look a tad 'cartoony' to some (easily remedied with root and color hacks).

Typical of nearly every 4G phone I have had the pleasure to repair or mess with, there is some sort of 'bug' going around with 4G/3G enabled phones where you lose data connection. With a little research I found out that this is apparently due to Verizon's current authentication method that gets tripped up and lose data for awhile then magically get re-authenticated; annoying. Other than that, I haven't really had problems in my area.

Battery life, battery life; this is usually where critics of this phone attack this phone the most (and with good reason). The stock battery-life is typical of what you would expect a phone with this size screen to have. With that said, I implore you to unlock, root slap a third-party ROM, and a third-party kernel on this phone to maximize the battery-life. Currently, I can get 14h with 10% left; not bad considering I have the extended battery.

Ok, so I downgraded from an 8MP camera to a 5MP; honestly I have not noticed any difference when viewed on my phone, but when viewed on my TV the GNex takes better low-light pictures, but the Inc's camera pulled off better pictures in light (go figure). Overall regular users (non-photo geeks) will do just fine with 5MP and 1080p video.

If you need a daily driver that can deliver your content wither it be HD movies, HD Video, Games, Email etc. in a timely manner with little-to-no lag, this is the phone for you. This phone does everything I need it too and more no thanks in-part to the beefy specs (1.2ghz processor with 1gb ram). As it stands, I give this phone (stock) and 4.5 and a 5.0 (Unlocked).

Display - 5
Reception & Call Quality - 4
Battery Life - 4
Design/Form Factor - 5
Apps& Media Support - 5
Overall - 4.5