Samsung Galaxy Nexus Review

As the current Google flagship smartphone, the Galaxy Nexus by Samsung is the first device to run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The version for Verizon's LTE network in the U.S. is slightly thicker than the European model, but it also gets a larger battery and, of course, the 15Mbps 4G downloads on Verizon's network, otherwise they're functionally the same.
The super large, super high-resolution display on the Galaxy Nexus is a dream to look at, and the new Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system gives users something very new and interesting to work with. It's a good combination.
Unfortunately the phone does seem to carry a flaw from scratch, though. Reception, especially on 4G, can be a problem. Not everybody seems to experience this, only showing itself in weaker signal areas. Apart from that, the Galaxy Nexus is every bit the hero smartphone that Google needs it to be to move Android to the next stage of its evolution.

Hardware

The Samsung-built Google Galaxy Nexus shows off an interesting design without being groundbreaking. It features a subtly curved front glass panel that protects the 720p resolution (720 x 1280) Super AMOLED HD touchscreen display. There are few exterior controls on the phone: a volume control on the left edge and a power switch on the right. The phone feels to be solidly constructed and its 146.2g (5.2oz) weight gives it a nice amount of heft.

The Galaxy Nexus' 136mm x 68mm x 10.0mm (5.4in x 2.7in x .4in) dimensions can make it a bit of a handful, though. It's longer and significantly thicker than the Motorola Droid Razr, but fits in the hand a bit better since it is narrower, even when the Razr has a smaller screen. There are no dedicated touch sensitive controls on the phone, which is a feature of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, but it still takes a pretty long reach to get to the upper edge of the display when using the phone one-handed.
The display is absolutely brilliant. It is sharp, bright, and colorful, and its 4.65-inch diagonal size is amongst the largest in the smartphone world. It is my favorite smartphone display on the market today, even though it uses the much-derided Pentile sub-pixel arrangement. Without magnification, I don't think a normal person will notice the difference and that is what matters in the end.

Removing the Galaxy Nexus' somewhat thin rear cover reveals the micro-SIM card and slot required for LTE service on Verizon as well as the battery. There's no microSD memory card slot on the phone, as was the case on the Nexus S, but the Galaxy Nexus does come equipped with 32GB of internal storage. Also found on the back are the 5 megapixel camera and flash. A secondary 1.3 megapixel camera can be found on the front of the phone, and there is also a large, hidden notification light resting beneath the display near the bottom edge of the phone.

Usability

With the arrival of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, Google's OS finally appears to be growing out of its somewhat awkward childhood years and approaching maturity. While Ice Cream Sandwich uses many of the UI themes first introduced in Android 3.x Honeycomb (for tablets), they have been refined and now make better sense. Google has even introduced a new font for the operating system called Roboto. But while Android is a visually changed OS, it still offers the same basic functionality that it always has.
The Galaxy Nexus offers 5 home screens that you can configure. Users still swipe left and right to switch between them, and they can be configured with shortcuts and widgets as before - though all of these features are now accessed from the Widgets tab of the main menu where one previously only found apps. Since there are no hardware keys beneath the display, the main navigation controls are now drawn on the bottom of the touchscreen, which allows them to be more visually appealing and adjusted at times, as needed.
Home and back functions remain, but search and menu are gone. Search is replaced by in-app functionality and the search bar found on every home screen panel. Menu is replaced by an on-screen control made up of three vertically aligned dots that can appear at the top of an app, the bottom of an app, or to the right of the third, and new, main control at the bottom of the screen.

That new control is the task switcher, which is inherited from Android Honeycomb. Tapping on that control brings up a visual history of applications that are running or have recently been used on the phone. One scrolls up and down through the list, switches to an app with a tap, or removes it from the list with a swipe left or right. I was unimpressed by it on a tablet, but love it on a smartphone.
The swipe-to-remove gesture can also be used in the updated notification area at the top of the screen, making it now possible to remove individual or all notifications as desired - something all prior versions of Android lacked. A convenient link to the phone's Settings app is also found there.

Android still has no proper ringer profile support, but now it allows to toggle between normal, vibrate, and truly silent ringer settings using the volume control. A tap on the on-screen volume will do the trick, as will pressing up or down repeatedly on the volume key on the side of the phone. The Android keyboard has been updated, and features a much larger space key. Voice input on the keyboard, when enabled, is fantastic. It inputs words in near real-time as you speak them when you have a fast enough data connection.
While there's no built-in support for social networking on the phone, Google provides an API that allows third party apps to integrate not only contacts with the phone, but to also show status updates in a contact record. The new contacts app features an oddball color scheme that doesn't match that of the rest of Ice Cream Sandwich, though. It's pretty, but inconsistent with the electric blue on black leanings of the OS as a whole.
Overall, though, I can't put into proper words just how happy and pleasantly surprised I am about how Android 4.0 operates. There's a learning curve for new users, but it's not a particularly steep one, and the rewards in the end are worth it.

Calling / Data, Messaging, Browser

Calling / Data

Samsung's Google Galaxy Nexus for Verizon offers pretty reasonable audio quality during voice calls. Inbound sound is quite pleasant, and outbound audio is acceptable. As an LTE 4G equipped phone, the Galaxy Nexus is capable of some extreme data speeds. When in stronger signal areas, 15Mbps downloads and 9 Mbps uploads were common. However, when signal strength dropped, I found that the Galaxy Nexus had a much harder time with data than other Verizon LTE devices that we sitting right next to it, such as the Motorola Droid Razr. When the signal is not so strong, the Galaxy Nexus can have trouble maintaining a data connection, flip-flopping back and forth between 3G and 4G, and sometimes just getting stuck.

While I don't expect a firmware update to improve the phone's reception abilities, I do expect that a future update could make it behave better with lower strength signals. Verizon says a related update is in the works. In addition to 3G and 4G connectivity, the Galaxy Nexus also support Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n and Bluetooth. The phone can also tether over USB or share its connectivity though its Wi-Fi hotspot mode support.

Messaging

Like any Android phone, the Google Galaxy Nexus offers up a fine suite of messaging capabilities. The built-in Gmail and standard email apps, which were beefed up and polished as part of the Ice Cream Sandwich update, handle multiple accounts with ease. The new text messaging app is very nice to look at and functional as well. Instant Messaging is limited to Google Talk out of the box, but there are plenty of third party solutions available from the Android Market. Social networking apps will also need to be found in the Android Market, as none come pre-installed. The new Twitter client does integrate tweets with the contacts application, though, which is cool.

Apps / App Store

While application support for Android 3.x Honeycomb tablets was a real sore spot, smartphones running Android 4 don't seem to have any large hurdles to overcome. Almost all of the apps I tested performed exactly as I expected, which speaks well for the Galaxy Nexus user when it comes to the other couple of hundred thousand apps offered in the Market. Apart from a few Verizon-branded services like VZ Backup Assistant and My Verizon Mobile, you'll find no real bloat on the Galaxy Nexus; just a ton of pre-installed Google apps that now includes Google+ right out of the box. The core Android apps have all been refreshed as part of the OS update, so you will find a new calendar, calculator, and clock app - among others - on the Galaxy Nexus.

Browser

One of the core components of Android to get a major upgrade is the browser, which is now based upon the same browser found in Android 3.x Honeycomb. Like Google's Chrome desktop browser, the Android 4 browser supports tabbed browsing and WebKit-based rendering extensions. While I approve of the new interface and find the browser to be stable and quite functional, it's not as smooth as it should be.
Even with the phone's 1.2GHz dual-core processor, there's still a slight lag when you start to pan or scroll complex pages (even with Adobe Flash support disabled). It's not a huge deal, and the browser is very smooth otherwise, but it is a minor distraction that should not be there.

I also find that the browser doesn't render pages quite as accurately as the old browser did, in that it appears to shrink columns of text down more than it often should, which can result in misplaced ads and such. Usability has taken a solid step forward, for sure, but at the cost of some accuracy it seems.

Camera, Battery Life, Conclusion

Camera

The camera app in Android also received a major update, even if the Galaxy Nexus camera only features a 5 megapixel sensor. The camera is super fast, making it possible to fire off shots in rapid succession as long as the phone's decent built-in flash is not being used. Images look quite good, and there's a built-in panorama mode. In camcorder mode, the camera can record 1080p Full HD video, but the video can become a bit choppy. It also offers a number of cool effects that can be used in videos, such as "big eyes."

The forward-facing 1.3 megapixel camera, which lacks autofocus and flash, can record its own 720p HD videos. All of this functionality is controlled through a new user interface that is a vast improvement over the old one, and the photos and videos the phone creates are of good quality.

What more could you ask for, really? Oh, an HD video editing app. You could ask for one of those, and you'd get it, too. It's a little awkward to edit video on a phone and the rendering can take its time, but having the ability to do it is cool no matter how you look at it. All that's left to ask for is more resolution, and Google's partners will certainly fill that gap when they release their own Ice Cream Sandwich smartphones.

Music

The Galaxy Nexus features an Ice Cream Sandwich version of the Google Music app, which supports Google's cloud music service. It lacks the fancy 3D rendered look of the Honeycomb app, but it is otherwise very similar in look and function. It offers music controls in the notification area and lock screen, and comes with home screen widgets as well. Audio quality is outstanding with a good set of headphones, and exactly what you'd expect without. Enabling the 5-band graphic equalizer, let's you tweak the sound the way you like. Users have the ability to mark a track as liked or disliked and there's a convenient link into the Android Market's music store (which is somewhat limited at this time).

Battery

The Google Galaxy Nexus features a high-capacity Samsung 1850mAh battery that includes an NFC antenna. In spite of the reception issues people are experiencing with the phone, I still managed to get an easy work day out of a full charge as long as I wasn't goofing off too much and kept the screen's brightness set to automatic. That is, quite honestly, much better than I expected. Verizon claims that the phone's battery is capable of powering it through up to 12 hours of talk time or 6.25 days of standby time.

Final Thoughts

While all of the early reviews of the GSM/UMTS version of the Google Galaxy Nexus out of Europe were full of superlatives and the written equivalent of high-fives, I had only modest expectations for the Galaxy Nexus on Verizon. I dislike Android 3.x Honeycomb that much, but I'm floored by Ice Cream Sandwich, to be honest.
I'm also in love with the the HD resolution display on the Galaxy Nexus. I could certainly do with better reception, but I have some hope that Verizon's promised software update will deal with that. I'm also pleased that the battery life seems to be basically as good as most non-4G Android smartphones, even if that still falls somewhat short of what I really desire.
At $299.99 on contract, it's a pricey affair and the reception issues bug me a bit, but I have not had so much fun playing with a smartphone in a long, long time.

90

Pros: Big and beautiful display, slick new user interface, fast camera with good effects, LTE data speeds.
Cons: Quite large, LTE reception issues, relatively low resolution camera.