7 ms·

Galaxy Nexus Review

174 points by hasanove 15y ago

juliano_q 15y ago
Quite impressive. 10 for performance and software (iPhone 4S received 8 and 9). The device seems to be very good, but ICS is the star here. I am eagerly waiting to receive the update at my Nexus S.
- matheusalmeida 15y ago
  Am I the only one who thinks that a 10/10 is... let's say, hard to believe ? What does that mean? In terms of software, it doesn't have bugs, it's completeley optimized and you have days of battery life and tons of available memory ? Is the integration of all functionalities perfect ? You don't need task managers to kill faulty apps ? Anyhow, we are in a free world where everyone can make reviews and I'm glad we are in that world.
  - eavc 15y ago
    You're not the only one hung up on it, no. But I don't see anything strange about a 10/10 score. It doesn't imply perfection, only relative excellence. This is how it's always been with game reviews, for instance. A video game released in 1996 gets a 10/10 because it's better than other games yet seen. The same game released today would get panned. It doesn't imply any claim to absolute perfection.
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
    - matheusalmeida 15y ago
      You're right about relative excellence. The thing is that a 10/10 implies that it must have a better UI/UX than an Iphone and better looks compared to a Windows Phone 7 (Mango) and better security/encription compared to a Blackberry. I find hard to believe that it will be at least as good as the competitors in a generic term like software. I'm a happy owner of an Android phone that will probably receive an update to ICS so I'm looking forward to it.
  - nextparadigms 15y ago
    Perhaps some more/better features, better e-mail and Calendar apps, better Maps/Navigation...etc. iOS still feels like a MVP when compared to Android. It may work excellent with the features it does have, but that doesn't mean it isn't more limited.
  - InclinedPlane 15y ago
    Grade inflation is rampant in reviews. The dynamic range is really effectively about 6.5/7 to 10. So a 10 actually means something more like 3 stars out of 3.
    - jeffdavis 15y ago
      It might not necessarily be inflation. Those who write extended reviews are likely to have fairly good intuition about which phones are good enough to write about. Nobody is going to spend days writing a review for a phone that someone would only get because it's "free" with a contract.
  - juliano_q 15y ago
    I'm rating this as a 10 in software in the current crop of phones, particularly against other Android offerings. Who knows what this will look like when Windows Phone 8 and iOS 6 are out. -by Joshua Topolsky 6:17 PM I think it makes sense.
  - re_todd 15y ago
    Think of it as a 9.7, rounded up.
- mikeknoop 15y ago
  What's the current rumor for ICS release to other phone/tablet models? Such as the Nexus S?
  - trotsky 15y ago
    nexus s - mid december a few other devices have announce 1Q11 or 2Q11 (mostly the latter)
  - fpgeek 15y ago
    For phones, most of the current "flagship" models (e.g. SGS2, Galaxy Note, Motorola/Droid RAZR, HTC Sensation, Amaze, etc.) have been promised ICS upgrades. The best manufacturer so far is Sony Ericsson, who has promised that their entire 2011 Xperia lineup will get ICS. If only they had some higher-end phones...
  - fpgeek 15y ago
    It looks like many (most / all?) Honeycomb tablets will be upgrading to ICS. I don't find this terribly surprising given (a) the general opinion about Honeycomb (b) that (naturally) Honeycomb is closer to ICS than Gingerbread is. Tablets I've heard about: - ASUS Transformer (and Transformer Prime if necessary) update "soon" after the Transformer Prime launch (possibly before the end of the year) [1] I believe the Slider is also being upgraded, but I'm not sure whether or not it is on the same schedule. - Acer Iconia tablets update January 2012 - Motorola XOOM confirmed (no ETA except for a retracted 6 weeks after source release). Surprisingly (for a launch device), it sounds like the XOOM won't be the first Android tablet to ICS. - Samsung Galaxy Tab - all Honeycomb models are getting ICS (no ETA) - Lenovo's working on a Tegra 3 ICS tablet (rumored to be out late this year), but I haven't seen anything about their existing Honeycomb tablets [1] That probably sounds incredible if you haven't seen ASUS's stunning update history so far (beating the XOOM to worldwide rollouts of new Honeycomb versions and several feature/bugfix upgrades, to boot). I'm one happy ASUS customer.
- ugh 15y ago
  Talking purely about looks: The look is a massive improvement over Honeycomb with its terrible 1980s future look (and quite obviously so much better than anything Android offered before). I still prefer iOS on tablets (I like the changes Apple made for the iPad and I also think that for some strange reason iOS visually works better on tablets than phones) but on smartphones there are now two OS – WP7, too – that look better than iOS†. That’s looks. I’m definitely looking forward to trying ICS out and it looks like Google put a lot of work into fixing many (all?) of the little and big annoyances that previously made me want to throw Android devices at the wall when I used them for longer than ten minutes. It’s nice that Android is shaping up as a real alternative for me. (What’s a bit annoying is that if you want a phone without all the crap you have about as much choice as when you buy an iPhone. I’m not sure whether Google wants to or can change that with ICS.) — † Android still gets details wrong. I can live with that. More or less, I guess.
  - joebadmo 15y ago
    Completely agree that it's a massive improvement over Tron-inspired Honeycomb. Also agree that the UX looks massively improved as well. It always felt like features and ugly shininess took precedence over UX before, but it seems like Duarte is having a good influence here. On crapware, one of the announced features for ICS is that you can disable (meaning stop from running and hide from app drawers and home screens) any app from system settings. The sort of obvious thing (to me) for them to do going forward is to platformize Android better, so that manufacturers/vendors can differentiate by adding UI components, etc. in a modular way that's easy to turn off, and easy to update around. I.e. there should be a big VANILLA ANDROID button in the settings, and they should push updates more aggressively. But ICS definitely looks like a step in the right direction.
- canes123456 15y ago
  In the video the phone looked like there is still some lag compared to an iPhone.
  - drivebyacct2 15y ago
    Where? Given the nature of past Android I'm inclined to believe it's possible, but I didn't see even a flinch in that video...
    - canes123456 15y ago
      The browser looked worse. I suspect that really slow dragging is still an issue in some places. It still is head and shoulders better than old versions and I confused the lack of bouncy scrolling with lag in menus.
nissimk 15y ago
I'm very curious to see hands on reviews of ICS on the tablet form factor. When are the first tablets supposed to ship with or receive the ICS update??
- ConstantineXVI 15y ago
  No proper announcements yet; but Asus seems to be saying early December for the Transformer.
- cowmix 15y ago
  The TouchPad and Nook will be running ICS very soon.
alexholehouse 15y ago
Disappointed by the camera though - 5 MPs is fine if the sensors are up to scratch, but the 4S's camera is just so outstanding (and 8 MPs) that a so-so camera might actually swing it for me.
- deleted 15y ago
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- nextparadigms 15y ago
  I don't think most people will make their decision between an iPhone 4S and a Galaxy Nexus because of a slightly better camera. Sure, it might be even a lot better, but at the end of the day, they are both far from point and shoot quality. I think most people would rather choose between them because of each one's software or even hardware. Company allegiances/principles/beliefs will go a long way in making the decision, too, for some people.
  - joebadmo 15y ago
    I agree. Personally, I don't expect great photos from my phone, but I am really excited about how fast the camera is. (This was one of the things that made me really envious of the iPhone 4S.) Because if I want to take really nice photos, I'll bring my DSLR. But the phone camera is for situations when you want to capture a moment, and speed is more important in that situation than quality, at least for me.
  - alexholehouse 15y ago
    True, but personally, I have no allegiance to either Android nor iOS, although I've used the 4S a lot and really like it. Ultimately both offer a fast OS which does everything you'd expect, and both have drawbacks and advantages, but if your in neither ecosystem then things like the camera do actually become more important than you'd think (especially to the non-tech savvy demograph). [EDIT - I guess, in my original post, "so so camera" is a pretty unfair assessment...] I'd like to try out the nexus and see if the form factor and ICS UI works with me, although it certainly looks lovely!
  - ricw 15y ago
cryptoz 15y ago
For anyone with the Galaxy Nexus here, I'd like to point you in the direction of the pressureNET (https://market.android.com/details?id=ca.cumulonimbus.barometernetwork https://market.android.com/details?id=ca.cumulonimbus.barome...) as you are in a new group of Android users that have barometers! I'm the author of this app, and we're building a crowd-sourced network of live-updating Android barometers in hopes that we can improve short-term weather prediction. The app is open source and free, of course! You can get the code at cumulonimbus.ca </shamelessplug> Edit: Most of our users are on the Xoom (and some other tablets). I have not been able to test on the Galaxy Nexus yet. If you have bug reports, please send them to software@cumulonimbus.ca
- dman 15y ago
  Not in good taste.
  - cryptoz 15y ago
    So, I was nervous of that but decided to post anyway. I think HN seems okay with this post (it currently has 9 points, for full disclosure) but if this type of post isn't welcome here, I will take it down. I'm not profiting off this and the project is entirely open source, so I felt okay about it. Does HN want it deleted?
    - bryanlarsen 15y ago
      In my opinion, it was dman's post that was in poor taste. Hacker news is and should be about people showing off their hacks. Additionally his post adds no content -- a simple click on the downvote button provides all the information and feedback required.
      - dman 15y ago
        I only kept my post brief to be polite. While I agree that Hacker News is the place to show off hacks hijacking threads is not the way to do it. If parent poster has a hack that is worth showing on HN he should submit it as a news item and if there is intrinsic merit the post will attract an audience. Posting self promotional information on threads that are tangentially related is in poor taste in my opinion. Its a slippery slope - if every iphone post here attracted comments by all of us who were building an iphone app then HN would be the worse for it.
awolf 15y ago
While I find Topolsky's ultimate conclusion of a 10/10 a bit hard to believe given the plastic case a mediocre camera sensor, I was impressed with the review. It was very detailed without being excessively long and it was presented in an easy-to-follow manner. Look forward to seeing more from The Verge.
- bryanlarsen 15y ago
  Yes, I've been fairly impressed with the Verge so far, it's quickly becoming my go-to gadget site. My biggest disappointment is that the comments suck already. A good comments section on a popular site requires a lot of work from the moderators, but it is possible. But crappy comments are like weeds -- once you let one or two through, they multiply quickly until they take over the site, which has already happened.
- nextparadigms 15y ago
  The overall score is 8.6/10, not 10/10. They gave it 10/10 on software and performance, which has nothing to do with the plastic case and the camera sensor. FYI the for the camera it got a 7/10.
jbredeche 15y ago
I might missed an announcement here - but will Verizon load their bloatware onto ICS, or has Google managed to get them to ship a clean Android installation on these phones?
- joebadmo 15y ago
  Generally these Google flagship devices have little to no bloatware (depending on what you consider bloatware), and one of the more interesting parts of the ICS announcement was that you can easily disable apps (which stops from running and removes them from home/app screens but not from the device) pretty easily from system settings.
  - jbredeche 15y ago
    Nice. As far as I know, this is the first time that Verizon has one of the flagship devices - so didn't know if they were to give this phone the same bloatware treatment as my Droid X.
    - joebadmo 15y ago
      Well, the original Droid was kind of an almost-flagship. It was marketed in conjunction with Google, and it had an unlocked bootloader, unlike subsequent Verizon Motorola Droids. It also wasn't skinned with MotoBlur. I've owned both the original Droid and the Droid X, and the original one definitely had less crapware, and the vanilla OS was nice, as was the much easier modding. I've actually really liked Motorola hardware, and I like the more angular, more dinstinctive industrial design of the Motorola devices better than Samsung devices, but I have to admit that I'm drooling over this phone. ICS looks amazing, and seems to address almost every complaint I've had about Android so far.
  - lurker17 15y ago
    No Bloatware except Google (many apps), Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter apps.
  - CountSessine 15y ago
glimcat 15y ago
Complains about the camera's sensor, blames the lens. Wait, what? And what is objectively wrong with it? The big red text complains about "color reproduction" - does this guy know anything about photography? Neither camera is color-calibrated, that's what Lightroom is for.
- ugh 15y ago
  I think he means white balance. And since both cameras don’t output raw files Lightroom won’t help you (much) with that. Besides: Consumer cameras should generally have a good automatic white balance since the vast majority of people will never bother to manually tweak. That whole sensor/lens mixup is probably an honest mistake. He was talking about software vs hardware and not really going so much into detail as that making a distinction between sensor and lens would matter. He was talking about the whole sensor and lens package as a whole.
  - glimcat 15y ago
    RAW is good, but you can still get some benefit in crappy cellphone JPGs. I've had to make batches of personnel photos taken with an iPhone look presentable for a web page on several occasions. A few seconds to set the white balance and normalize the orientation and scale makes a significant difference. It doesn't make it into a great photo, but nothing short of going back with an SLR is going to do that. Also part of why I think claims about the awesomeness of the iPhone camera should be taken with a pound of salt. It's a fairly nice cell camera, but it's still a cell camera.
    - ugh 15y ago
      Sure, there is some room to play but with JPG it’s possible that some photos are not recoverable. If you get the raw output auto white balance is basically completely irrelevant (beyond convenience). No matter how badly the white balance screwed up, it’s always possible to recover (since it’s all software and you are working with the original input data). But I don’t think it’s necessary to go that far. Even a budget DSLR that is perfectly capable of shooting raw should have great auto white balance: Most people don’t want to endlessly tweak photos. Better auto white balance means better photos, even if theoretically everything could be fixed in post. Oh, and just because smartphone cameras are nowhere near as good as DSLRs doesn’t mean it’s not meaningful to compare them with each other, doesn’t mean one can’t be much better than another one.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
blinkingled 15y ago
I obviously don't have an actual ICS device to test but - a) The emulator that came with v4.0 platform is more usable due to reasons I am not fully sure of. Previously where I would be spooked out by the thought of launching the browser and loading actual sites - it was much more pleasant this time around. Emulator boot up time for ICS AVD was also much faster. b) The browser has made some forward progress as far as HTML5 is concerned - 2.3 got 177 score on html5test.com - ICS one gets 230. Not sure why the <video> tag support and WebM support are still missing - may be just an emulator thing. [Edit] Boot time improvement are due to SSD - The AVD manager chose my home directory on SSD to create the AVD file - my older ones were on standard HDD. But still the in-emulator navigation is somewhat better. May be improved drawing performance.
ypcx 15y ago
Anyone from EU here with an information which online shop already has them in stock? Amazon.de says 1 to 3 weeks, meh.
- syeren 15y ago
  They arrive in-stock on the 23rd to the majority of online retailers I believe. I bought mine from http://www.unlocked-mobiles.com/sim-free-mobile-phones/samsung-galaxy-nexus-sim-free-unlocked-mobile-phone-p-83950.html http://www.unlocked-mobiles.com/sim-free-mobile-phones/samsu... and I have been told that I will receive it on the 24th.
  - ypcx 15y ago
    Thanks!
polshaw 15y ago
I can't believe how much everything is still framed around the iphone. I think its crazy to call this phone just 'competetive' with the iphone 4S; especially the screen-- it is clearly a significant step up IMO. ICS is surely at a point where it can, currently, safely be considered to be ahead of iOS- especially in its unadulterated 'nexus' form. And whilst pentile isn't perfect, its 720p FFS. If that wasn't enough OLED gives it vastly better blacks, contrast, and potentially power consumption too, not to mention the fact that it's bigger. Unless you happen to have an irrational love for iOS the iphones camera is the single area where the 4S beats out the nexus (perhaps some app availability, but that works both ways). Oh the curse of being one of the 100 phones vs 1.
- joebadmo 15y ago
  That's debatable. I'm an Android fanboy, but the retina display is a year old and is still debatably the best screen out there. 720p is awesome, but pixel density is still not as high as the retina display, and the sub-pixel density is definitely not. Don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to figuring out a way to convince myself it's worth paying full price for this phone, and I love a huge screen (Droid X owner). But AMOLED is a mixed bag. I find it to be a bit over-saturated, and the power savings is only for blacks, and overall, I think AMOLED has been shown to consume more power, not less. But the pentile subpixel arrangement is the biggest thing I'm worried about, being one of those people who wants to vomit when looking at a screen like the EVO 4G's. I'm not saying the retina display is unequivocally better, mind you, I just disagree with you that the NG's screen is "clearly a significant step up."
  - polshaw 15y ago
    You have somewhat proved my point in that some how 'pixel density' is often used as the go-to stat. It makes no sense to hold this in higher standing than the actual pixel count-- nobody is asking for smaller screens with the same resolution. Simply holding your phone further away would have the same effect as a smaller, more pixel-dense screen. Increased pixel density naturally comes with increased resolution, it is great but not the end in of itself. The subpixel count is about the same as the iP4 and the pixel count is quite a bit higher. Pentile isn't ideal, but I'd take a 1280x720 pentile display over a 960x480 RGB. every, single. time. Higher resolution has tangible benefits (like better viewing of desktop websites). I'd have to be being actively picky to have any issue with the screen on my SGS, and it should be much less noticeable on the G Nexus.
icarus_drowning 15y ago
Is it just me, or is anyone else incredibly impressed with The Verge? Their reviews are incredibly detailed, and yet they still manage to make extremely interesting, short, and informative video reviews for many products. Add to that the fact that the site, at least to me, is absolutely gorgeous, and I think I've found my new favorite gadget site.
- justinph 15y ago
  I'm really digging it as well. The layout is pretty great. Whatever the CMS is, they're getting a ton of flexibility out of it. It feels like a more integrated media experience -- typography, video, photography, infographics, user comments, all pretty nicely wound.
  - ugh 15y ago
    I like the content and I like all of their aesthetic decisions but I’m always a bit overwhelmed by their layout. There’s just too much screaming for attention for my taste. The site is obviously great despite that (and certainly also impressive).
  - bkhughes 15y ago
    Their CMS is actually built entirely in-house. They even have version numbers posted somewhere.
    - justinglow 15y ago
      http://www.theverge.com/version-history http://www.theverge.com/version-history
- hansy 15y ago
  Mine used to be Engadget, but the comment quality is simply awful on the website with flame wars springing up every which way. I think some of the top-level editors of Engadget left to start The Verge. Because of this, the actual product reviews on Engadget, which I initially liked, have decreased in robustness as well.
eavc 15y ago
Arrington's view of the original Droid is what tipped me fully into buying the phone. I think Josh's review of this may have cemented me for the Galaxy Nexus.
justinglow 15y ago
Thanks for the kind words about The Verge, everyone! Just a heads up, but we (Vox Media, home of The Verge and SB Nation) are hiring: http://sbnation.theresumator.com/apply http://sbnation.theresumator.com/apply
WildUtah 15y ago
Does anyone know how this compares to the Motorola Razr? Is there a good site comparing different Android hardware?
- vladikoff 15y ago
  Here you go: http://www.theverge.com/products/compare/2946/3581 http://www.theverge.com/products/compare/2946/3581
gcb 15y ago
And if you bought ANY dock (desktop, car) for your other 200 nexus models, get ready to buy a new one for the latest one.
- darshan 15y ago
  This is the third Nexus; there are only two (not 200) other Nexus models. The form factors are quite different between the devices, so I wouldn't expect dock compatibility in any case.
  - gcb 15y ago
    I know but i still have a point. They decided Not to implement USB host. Create a custom dumb one write port. Its so dumb it doesn't last one single generation (all docks had production ceased ... except nexus one's that are back)
moe 15y ago
Yay, a notification LED! This tiny feature alone makes it a serious contender for me. However, I'll definitely wait for the first real-world reviews to learn whether ICS finally does away with the infuriating stalls and input lags that have plagued all of my previous android devices (up to the SGS).
- petedoyle 15y ago
  > However, I'll definitely wait for the first real-world reviews to learn whether ICS finally does away with the infuriating stalls and input lags that have plagued all of my previous android devices ... I'm really hoping the new hardware acceleration stuff will help a lot. I think I read somewhere they also tweaked MotionEvent handling to decrease input latency (though I can't find the link for the life of me). From the review: "As far as phone performance is concerned, however, the Galaxy Nexus feels blazingly, stupidly fast to me. Touch response is excellent on the phone — everything reacts quickly to your movements. Homescreen scrolling was snappy, moving into and out of apps was instantaneous, swiping through long lists was stutter free, and web browsing (even on heavy pages like ours) was super speedy." and... "I want to note that moving around all of these screens is buttery smooth. There's no lag, no stutter. Animations are fluid, and everything feels cohesive and solid."
laserDinosaur 15y ago
As an aside, damn that's a good looking website!
portentint 15y ago
Great. Another blindingly fast phone that sucks batteries dry. I love the zippiness, really, but I need a phone that runs longer than 4 hours, K? I actually use my phone TO MAKE PHONE CALLS.
sssparkkk 15y ago
No USB Mass Storage support on the Galaxy Nexus. Well, for us Linux (and Mac) users that's some bad news.
- joe_fishfish 15y ago
  There's Android File Transfer for Mac users, which supports MTP. Not sure there's anything at all for Linux users. This issue has turned the phone from must-have to never-want for me - it's unbelievably handy to essentially have a 32GB USB hard disk in my pocket wherever I go. Are there any actual advantages to MTP or PTP for end users?
  - bnr 15y ago
    Apps like SSHDroid and SMBDroid can make your phone act as a file server on WiFi. MTP allows the storage to be accessed by the phone and computer at the same time.
- Aissen 15y ago
  Really ? That's your dealbreaker ? MTP has been supported for long time on Linux… Just tried it on gnome and kde, no problem. BTW, MTP has great advantages from an engineering PoV: you don't have to use a crappy FAT filesystem on your eMMC. You don't have to give full control over an essential piece of storage to another OS, so you can continue accessing data/apps installed on the storage.
  - eren-tantekin 15y ago
    I don't know which device you tried with Linux but Galaxy Tab 10.1 is not working on my Linux even though every library and package related to MTP are installed.

174 points by hasanove 15y ago

Quite impressive. 10 for performance and software (iPhone 4S received 8 and 9). The device seems to be very good, but ICS is the star here. I am eagerly waiting to receive the update at my Nexus S.

matheusalmeida 15y ago
Am I the only one who thinks that a 10/10 is... let's say, hard to believe ? What does that mean? In terms of software, it doesn't have bugs, it's completeley optimized and you have days of battery life and tons of available memory ? Is the integration of all functionalities perfect ? You don't need task managers to kill faulty apps ? Anyhow, we are in a free world where everyone can make reviews and I'm glad we are in that world.
- eavc 15y ago
  You're not the only one hung up on it, no. But I don't see anything strange about a 10/10 score. It doesn't imply perfection, only relative excellence. This is how it's always been with game reviews, for instance. A video game released in 1996 gets a 10/10 because it's better than other games yet seen. The same game released today would get panned. It doesn't imply any claim to absolute perfection.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - matheusalmeida 15y ago
    You're right about relative excellence. The thing is that a 10/10 implies that it must have a better UI/UX than an Iphone and better looks compared to a Windows Phone 7 (Mango) and better security/encription compared to a Blackberry. I find hard to believe that it will be at least as good as the competitors in a generic term like software. I'm a happy owner of an Android phone that will probably receive an update to ICS so I'm looking forward to it.
- nextparadigms 15y ago
  Perhaps some more/better features, better e-mail and Calendar apps, better Maps/Navigation...etc. iOS still feels like a MVP when compared to Android. It may work excellent with the features it does have, but that doesn't mean it isn't more limited.
- InclinedPlane 15y ago
  Grade inflation is rampant in reviews. The dynamic range is really effectively about 6.5/7 to 10. So a 10 actually means something more like 3 stars out of 3.
  - jeffdavis 15y ago
    It might not necessarily be inflation. Those who write extended reviews are likely to have fairly good intuition about which phones are good enough to write about. Nobody is going to spend days writing a review for a phone that someone would only get because it's "free" with a contract.
- juliano_q 15y ago
  I'm rating this as a 10 in software in the current crop of phones, particularly against other Android offerings. Who knows what this will look like when Windows Phone 8 and iOS 6 are out. -by Joshua Topolsky 6:17 PM I think it makes sense.
- re_todd 15y ago
  Think of it as a 9.7, rounded up.
mikeknoop 15y ago
What's the current rumor for ICS release to other phone/tablet models? Such as the Nexus S?
- trotsky 15y ago
  nexus s - mid december a few other devices have announce 1Q11 or 2Q11 (mostly the latter)
- fpgeek 15y ago
  For phones, most of the current "flagship" models (e.g. SGS2, Galaxy Note, Motorola/Droid RAZR, HTC Sensation, Amaze, etc.) have been promised ICS upgrades. The best manufacturer so far is Sony Ericsson, who has promised that their entire 2011 Xperia lineup will get ICS. If only they had some higher-end phones...
- fpgeek 15y ago
  It looks like many (most / all?) Honeycomb tablets will be upgrading to ICS. I don't find this terribly surprising given (a) the general opinion about Honeycomb (b) that (naturally) Honeycomb is closer to ICS than Gingerbread is. Tablets I've heard about: - ASUS Transformer (and Transformer Prime if necessary) update "soon" after the Transformer Prime launch (possibly before the end of the year) [1] I believe the Slider is also being upgraded, but I'm not sure whether or not it is on the same schedule. - Acer Iconia tablets update January 2012 - Motorola XOOM confirmed (no ETA except for a retracted 6 weeks after source release). Surprisingly (for a launch device), it sounds like the XOOM won't be the first Android tablet to ICS. - Samsung Galaxy Tab - all Honeycomb models are getting ICS (no ETA) - Lenovo's working on a Tegra 3 ICS tablet (rumored to be out late this year), but I haven't seen anything about their existing Honeycomb tablets [1] That probably sounds incredible if you haven't seen ASUS's stunning update history so far (beating the XOOM to worldwide rollouts of new Honeycomb versions and several feature/bugfix upgrades, to boot). I'm one happy ASUS customer.
ugh 15y ago
Talking purely about looks: The look is a massive improvement over Honeycomb with its terrible 1980s future look (and quite obviously so much better than anything Android offered before). I still prefer iOS on tablets (I like the changes Apple made for the iPad and I also think that for some strange reason iOS visually works better on tablets than phones) but on smartphones there are now two OS – WP7, too – that look better than iOS†. That’s looks. I’m definitely looking forward to trying ICS out and it looks like Google put a lot of work into fixing many (all?) of the little and big annoyances that previously made me want to throw Android devices at the wall when I used them for longer than ten minutes. It’s nice that Android is shaping up as a real alternative for me. (What’s a bit annoying is that if you want a phone without all the crap you have about as much choice as when you buy an iPhone. I’m not sure whether Google wants to or can change that with ICS.) — † Android still gets details wrong. I can live with that. More or less, I guess.
- joebadmo 15y ago
  Completely agree that it's a massive improvement over Tron-inspired Honeycomb. Also agree that the UX looks massively improved as well. It always felt like features and ugly shininess took precedence over UX before, but it seems like Duarte is having a good influence here. On crapware, one of the announced features for ICS is that you can disable (meaning stop from running and hide from app drawers and home screens) any app from system settings. The sort of obvious thing (to me) for them to do going forward is to platformize Android better, so that manufacturers/vendors can differentiate by adding UI components, etc. in a modular way that's easy to turn off, and easy to update around. I.e. there should be a big VANILLA ANDROID button in the settings, and they should push updates more aggressively. But ICS definitely looks like a step in the right direction.
canes123456 15y ago
In the video the phone looked like there is still some lag compared to an iPhone.
- drivebyacct2 15y ago
  Where? Given the nature of past Android I'm inclined to believe it's possible, but I didn't see even a flinch in that video...
  - canes123456 15y ago
    The browser looked worse. I suspect that really slow dragging is still an issue in some places. It still is head and shoulders better than old versions and I confused the lack of bouncy scrolling with lag in menus.

nissimk 15y ago

I'm very curious to see hands on reviews of ICS on the tablet form factor. When are the first tablets supposed to ship with or receive the ICS update??

ConstantineXVI 15y ago
No proper announcements yet; but Asus seems to be saying early December for the Transformer.
cowmix 15y ago
The TouchPad and Nook will be running ICS very soon.

alexholehouse 15y ago

Disappointed by the camera though - 5 MPs is fine if the sensors are up to scratch, but the 4S's camera is just so outstanding (and 8 MPs) that a so-so camera might actually swing it for me.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
nextparadigms 15y ago
I don't think most people will make their decision between an iPhone 4S and a Galaxy Nexus because of a slightly better camera. Sure, it might be even a lot better, but at the end of the day, they are both far from point and shoot quality. I think most people would rather choose between them because of each one's software or even hardware. Company allegiances/principles/beliefs will go a long way in making the decision, too, for some people.
- joebadmo 15y ago
  I agree. Personally, I don't expect great photos from my phone, but I am really excited about how fast the camera is. (This was one of the things that made me really envious of the iPhone 4S.) Because if I want to take really nice photos, I'll bring my DSLR. But the phone camera is for situations when you want to capture a moment, and speed is more important in that situation than quality, at least for me.
- alexholehouse 15y ago
  True, but personally, I have no allegiance to either Android nor iOS, although I've used the 4S a lot and really like it. Ultimately both offer a fast OS which does everything you'd expect, and both have drawbacks and advantages, but if your in neither ecosystem then things like the camera do actually become more important than you'd think (especially to the non-tech savvy demograph). [EDIT - I guess, in my original post, "so so camera" is a pretty unfair assessment...] I'd like to try out the nexus and see if the form factor and ICS UI works with me, although it certainly looks lovely!
- ricw 15y ago

cryptoz 15y ago

For anyone with the Galaxy Nexus here, I'd like to point you in the direction of the pressureNET (https://market.android.com/details?id=ca.cumulonimbus.barometernetwork https://market.android.com/details?id=ca.cumulonimbus.barome...) as you are in a new group of Android users that have barometers! I'm the author of this app, and we're building a crowd-sourced network of live-updating Android barometers in hopes that we can improve short-term weather prediction. The app is open source and free, of course! You can get the code at cumulonimbus.ca </shamelessplug> Edit: Most of our users are on the Xoom (and some other tablets). I have not been able to test on the Galaxy Nexus yet. If you have bug reports, please send them to software@cumulonimbus.ca

dman 15y ago
Not in good taste.
- cryptoz 15y ago
  So, I was nervous of that but decided to post anyway. I think HN seems okay with this post (it currently has 9 points, for full disclosure) but if this type of post isn't welcome here, I will take it down. I'm not profiting off this and the project is entirely open source, so I felt okay about it. Does HN want it deleted?
  - bryanlarsen 15y ago
    In my opinion, it was dman's post that was in poor taste. Hacker news is and should be about people showing off their hacks. Additionally his post adds no content -- a simple click on the downvote button provides all the information and feedback required.
    - dman 15y ago
      I only kept my post brief to be polite. While I agree that Hacker News is the place to show off hacks hijacking threads is not the way to do it. If parent poster has a hack that is worth showing on HN he should submit it as a news item and if there is intrinsic merit the post will attract an audience. Posting self promotional information on threads that are tangentially related is in poor taste in my opinion. Its a slippery slope - if every iphone post here attracted comments by all of us who were building an iphone app then HN would be the worse for it.

awolf 15y ago

While I find Topolsky's ultimate conclusion of a 10/10 a bit hard to believe given the plastic case a mediocre camera sensor, I was impressed with the review. It was very detailed without being excessively long and it was presented in an easy-to-follow manner. Look forward to seeing more from The Verge.

bryanlarsen 15y ago
Yes, I've been fairly impressed with the Verge so far, it's quickly becoming my go-to gadget site. My biggest disappointment is that the comments suck already. A good comments section on a popular site requires a lot of work from the moderators, but it is possible. But crappy comments are like weeds -- once you let one or two through, they multiply quickly until they take over the site, which has already happened.
nextparadigms 15y ago
The overall score is 8.6/10, not 10/10. They gave it 10/10 on software and performance, which has nothing to do with the plastic case and the camera sensor. FYI the for the camera it got a 7/10.

jbredeche 15y ago

I might missed an announcement here - but will Verizon load their bloatware onto ICS, or has Google managed to get them to ship a clean Android installation on these phones?

joebadmo 15y ago
Generally these Google flagship devices have little to no bloatware (depending on what you consider bloatware), and one of the more interesting parts of the ICS announcement was that you can easily disable apps (which stops from running and removes them from home/app screens but not from the device) pretty easily from system settings.
- jbredeche 15y ago
  Nice. As far as I know, this is the first time that Verizon has one of the flagship devices - so didn't know if they were to give this phone the same bloatware treatment as my Droid X.
  - joebadmo 15y ago
    Well, the original Droid was kind of an almost-flagship. It was marketed in conjunction with Google, and it had an unlocked bootloader, unlike subsequent Verizon Motorola Droids. It also wasn't skinned with MotoBlur. I've owned both the original Droid and the Droid X, and the original one definitely had less crapware, and the vanilla OS was nice, as was the much easier modding. I've actually really liked Motorola hardware, and I like the more angular, more dinstinctive industrial design of the Motorola devices better than Samsung devices, but I have to admit that I'm drooling over this phone. ICS looks amazing, and seems to address almost every complaint I've had about Android so far.
- lurker17 15y ago
  No Bloatware except Google (many apps), Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter apps.
- CountSessine 15y ago

glimcat 15y ago

Complains about the camera's sensor, blames the lens. Wait, what? And what is objectively wrong with it? The big red text complains about "color reproduction" - does this guy know anything about photography? Neither camera is color-calibrated, that's what Lightroom is for.

ugh 15y ago
I think he means white balance. And since both cameras don’t output raw files Lightroom won’t help you (much) with that. Besides: Consumer cameras should generally have a good automatic white balance since the vast majority of people will never bother to manually tweak. That whole sensor/lens mixup is probably an honest mistake. He was talking about software vs hardware and not really going so much into detail as that making a distinction between sensor and lens would matter. He was talking about the whole sensor and lens package as a whole.
- glimcat 15y ago
  RAW is good, but you can still get some benefit in crappy cellphone JPGs. I've had to make batches of personnel photos taken with an iPhone look presentable for a web page on several occasions. A few seconds to set the white balance and normalize the orientation and scale makes a significant difference. It doesn't make it into a great photo, but nothing short of going back with an SLR is going to do that. Also part of why I think claims about the awesomeness of the iPhone camera should be taken with a pound of salt. It's a fairly nice cell camera, but it's still a cell camera.
  - ugh 15y ago
    Sure, there is some room to play but with JPG it’s possible that some photos are not recoverable. If you get the raw output auto white balance is basically completely irrelevant (beyond convenience). No matter how badly the white balance screwed up, it’s always possible to recover (since it’s all software and you are working with the original input data). But I don’t think it’s necessary to go that far. Even a budget DSLR that is perfectly capable of shooting raw should have great auto white balance: Most people don’t want to endlessly tweak photos. Better auto white balance means better photos, even if theoretically everything could be fixed in post. Oh, and just because smartphone cameras are nowhere near as good as DSLRs doesn’t mean it’s not meaningful to compare them with each other, doesn’t mean one can’t be much better than another one.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

blinkingled 15y ago

I obviously don't have an actual ICS device to test but - a) The emulator that came with v4.0 platform is more usable due to reasons I am not fully sure of. Previously where I would be spooked out by the thought of launching the browser and loading actual sites - it was much more pleasant this time around. Emulator boot up time for ICS AVD was also much faster. b) The browser has made some forward progress as far as HTML5 is concerned - 2.3 got 177 score on html5test.com - ICS one gets 230. Not sure why the <video> tag support and WebM support are still missing - may be just an emulator thing. [Edit] Boot time improvement are due to SSD - The AVD manager chose my home directory on SSD to create the AVD file - my older ones were on standard HDD. But still the in-emulator navigation is somewhat better. May be improved drawing performance.

ypcx 15y ago

Anyone from EU here with an information which online shop already has them in stock? Amazon.de says 1 to 3 weeks, meh.

syeren 15y ago
They arrive in-stock on the 23rd to the majority of online retailers I believe. I bought mine from http://www.unlocked-mobiles.com/sim-free-mobile-phones/samsung-galaxy-nexus-sim-free-unlocked-mobile-phone-p-83950.html http://www.unlocked-mobiles.com/sim-free-mobile-phones/samsu... and I have been told that I will receive it on the 24th.
- ypcx 15y ago
  Thanks!

polshaw 15y ago

I can't believe how much everything is still framed around the iphone. I think its crazy to call this phone just 'competetive' with the iphone 4S; especially the screen-- it is clearly a significant step up IMO. ICS is surely at a point where it can, currently, safely be considered to be ahead of iOS- especially in its unadulterated 'nexus' form. And whilst pentile isn't perfect, its 720p FFS. If that wasn't enough OLED gives it vastly better blacks, contrast, and potentially power consumption too, not to mention the fact that it's bigger. Unless you happen to have an irrational love for iOS the iphones camera is the single area where the 4S beats out the nexus (perhaps some app availability, but that works both ways). Oh the curse of being one of the 100 phones vs 1.

joebadmo 15y ago
That's debatable. I'm an Android fanboy, but the retina display is a year old and is still debatably the best screen out there. 720p is awesome, but pixel density is still not as high as the retina display, and the sub-pixel density is definitely not. Don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to figuring out a way to convince myself it's worth paying full price for this phone, and I love a huge screen (Droid X owner). But AMOLED is a mixed bag. I find it to be a bit over-saturated, and the power savings is only for blacks, and overall, I think AMOLED has been shown to consume more power, not less. But the pentile subpixel arrangement is the biggest thing I'm worried about, being one of those people who wants to vomit when looking at a screen like the EVO 4G's. I'm not saying the retina display is unequivocally better, mind you, I just disagree with you that the NG's screen is "clearly a significant step up."
- polshaw 15y ago
  You have somewhat proved my point in that some how 'pixel density' is often used as the go-to stat. It makes no sense to hold this in higher standing than the actual pixel count-- nobody is asking for smaller screens with the same resolution. Simply holding your phone further away would have the same effect as a smaller, more pixel-dense screen. Increased pixel density naturally comes with increased resolution, it is great but not the end in of itself. The subpixel count is about the same as the iP4 and the pixel count is quite a bit higher. Pentile isn't ideal, but I'd take a 1280x720 pentile display over a 960x480 RGB. every, single. time. Higher resolution has tangible benefits (like better viewing of desktop websites). I'd have to be being actively picky to have any issue with the screen on my SGS, and it should be much less noticeable on the G Nexus.

icarus_drowning 15y ago

Is it just me, or is anyone else incredibly impressed with The Verge? Their reviews are incredibly detailed, and yet they still manage to make extremely interesting, short, and informative video reviews for many products. Add to that the fact that the site, at least to me, is absolutely gorgeous, and I think I've found my new favorite gadget site.

justinph 15y ago
I'm really digging it as well. The layout is pretty great. Whatever the CMS is, they're getting a ton of flexibility out of it. It feels like a more integrated media experience -- typography, video, photography, infographics, user comments, all pretty nicely wound.
- ugh 15y ago
  I like the content and I like all of their aesthetic decisions but I’m always a bit overwhelmed by their layout. There’s just too much screaming for attention for my taste. The site is obviously great despite that (and certainly also impressive).
- bkhughes 15y ago
  Their CMS is actually built entirely in-house. They even have version numbers posted somewhere.
  - justinglow 15y ago
    http://www.theverge.com/version-history http://www.theverge.com/version-history
hansy 15y ago
Mine used to be Engadget, but the comment quality is simply awful on the website with flame wars springing up every which way. I think some of the top-level editors of Engadget left to start The Verge. Because of this, the actual product reviews on Engadget, which I initially liked, have decreased in robustness as well.

eavc 15y ago

Arrington's view of the original Droid is what tipped me fully into buying the phone. I think Josh's review of this may have cemented me for the Galaxy Nexus.

justinglow 15y ago

Thanks for the kind words about The Verge, everyone! Just a heads up, but we (Vox Media, home of The Verge and SB Nation) are hiring: http://sbnation.theresumator.com/apply http://sbnation.theresumator.com/apply

WildUtah 15y ago

Does anyone know how this compares to the Motorola Razr? Is there a good site comparing different Android hardware?

vladikoff 15y ago
Here you go: http://www.theverge.com/products/compare/2946/3581 http://www.theverge.com/products/compare/2946/3581

gcb 15y ago

And if you bought ANY dock (desktop, car) for your other 200 nexus models, get ready to buy a new one for the latest one.

darshan 15y ago
This is the third Nexus; there are only two (not 200) other Nexus models. The form factors are quite different between the devices, so I wouldn't expect dock compatibility in any case.
- gcb 15y ago
  I know but i still have a point. They decided Not to implement USB host. Create a custom dumb one write port. Its so dumb it doesn't last one single generation (all docks had production ceased ... except nexus one's that are back)

moe 15y ago

Yay, a notification LED! This tiny feature alone makes it a serious contender for me. However, I'll definitely wait for the first real-world reviews to learn whether ICS finally does away with the infuriating stalls and input lags that have plagued all of my previous android devices (up to the SGS).

petedoyle 15y ago
> However, I'll definitely wait for the first real-world reviews to learn whether ICS finally does away with the infuriating stalls and input lags that have plagued all of my previous android devices ... I'm really hoping the new hardware acceleration stuff will help a lot. I think I read somewhere they also tweaked MotionEvent handling to decrease input latency (though I can't find the link for the life of me). From the review: "As far as phone performance is concerned, however, the Galaxy Nexus feels blazingly, stupidly fast to me. Touch response is excellent on the phone — everything reacts quickly to your movements. Homescreen scrolling was snappy, moving into and out of apps was instantaneous, swiping through long lists was stutter free, and web browsing (even on heavy pages like ours) was super speedy." and... "I want to note that moving around all of these screens is buttery smooth. There's no lag, no stutter. Animations are fluid, and everything feels cohesive and solid."

laserDinosaur 15y ago

As an aside, damn that's a good looking website!

portentint 15y ago

Great. Another blindingly fast phone that sucks batteries dry. I love the zippiness, really, but I need a phone that runs longer than 4 hours, K? I actually use my phone TO MAKE PHONE CALLS.

sssparkkk 15y ago

No USB Mass Storage support on the Galaxy Nexus. Well, for us Linux (and Mac) users that's some bad news.

joe_fishfish 15y ago
There's Android File Transfer for Mac users, which supports MTP. Not sure there's anything at all for Linux users. This issue has turned the phone from must-have to never-want for me - it's unbelievably handy to essentially have a 32GB USB hard disk in my pocket wherever I go. Are there any actual advantages to MTP or PTP for end users?
- bnr 15y ago
  Apps like SSHDroid and SMBDroid can make your phone act as a file server on WiFi. MTP allows the storage to be accessed by the phone and computer at the same time.
Aissen 15y ago
Really ? That's your dealbreaker ? MTP has been supported for long time on Linux… Just tried it on gnome and kde, no problem. BTW, MTP has great advantages from an engineering PoV: you don't have to use a crappy FAT filesystem on your eMMC. You don't have to give full control over an essential piece of storage to another OS, so you can continue accessing data/apps installed on the storage.
- eren-tantekin 15y ago
  I don't know which device you tried with Linux but Galaxy Tab 10.1 is not working on my Linux even though every library and package related to MTP are installed.