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An Android fan's take on the Galaxy Nexus

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Re: An Android fan's take on the Galaxy Nexus

#11

Post by richworks »

ben1040 wrote: post #6

I've had a Nexus for two months now (since launch day on Verizon) and I have only two real gripes about it. Otherwise, performance has been good, the screen is gorgeous, and I've been happy with ICS. The camera quality is really bad. When using the flash indoors, the colors seem to be off by a mile. You can turn off the flash but then images are (obviously) dark and blurry. It's disappointing because things like the…

Screen size is a matter of personal preference. Few people like yourself fancy small screen sizes like that of the iPhone.. but for me, 4" screens have proven ideal and ergonomically the best of the many. Having different screen sizes is good because it offers the consumer the choice of choosing what he/she might feel best..

Having said that, I do agree with you on the GNexus screen size. 4.65" seems a little over the top..

Re: An Android fan's take on the Galaxy Nexus

#12

Post by jared314 »

ben1040 wrote: post #6

I've had a Nexus for two months now (since launch day on Verizon) and I have only two real gripes about it. Otherwise, performance has been good, the screen is gorgeous, and I've been happy with ICS. The camera quality is really bad. When using the flash indoors, the colors seem to be off by a mile. You can turn off the flash but then images are (obviously) dark and blurry. It's disappointing because things like the…

There was a theory floating around that the device had to be physically larger because of the 4g chip size and battery size, and the screen was just there to compensate.

Re: An Android fan's take on the Galaxy Nexus

#13

Post by CrazedGeek »

richworks wrote: post #11
ben1040 wrote: post #6

I've had a Nexus for two months now (since launch day on Verizon) and I have only two real gripes about it. Otherwise, performance has been good, the screen is gorgeous, and I've been happy with ICS. The camera quality is really bad. When using the flash indoors, the colors seem to be off by a mile. You can turn off the flash but then images are (obviously) dark and blurry. It's disappointing because things like the…

Screen size is a matter of personal preference. Few people like yourself fancy small screen sizes like that of the iPhone.. but for me, 4" screens have proven ideal and ergonomically the best of the many. Having different screen sizes is good because it offers the consumer the choice of choosing what he/she might feel best.. Having said that, I do agree with you on the GNexus screen size. 4.65" seems a little over th…

For me, I actually think 4.65" is still a little small -- 5" would be best for me. Much to my very slight irritation, the only 5" phone currently is the Galaxy Note, which doesn't use T-Mobile US's 3G or 4G bands.

I do know a few people who prefer smaller screens, but it does seem that 4" is around the sweet spot for most people.

Re: An Android fan's take on the Galaxy Nexus

#14

Post by jonstjohn »

stanleydrew wrote: post #9
jonstjohn wrote: post #8

I bought the Nexus One for AT&T about 2 years ago, am totally contract free, and even grandfathered in on an unlimited data plan at AT&T. I do some develop on Android, as well as iPhone, and have been trying to figure out what the best Android developer phone would be to upgrade to in the next 6 months or so. Preferably, I'd have something like the Nexus One that I can just buy outright and plug into my unlimited dat…

An unlocked GSM Nexus S or Galaxy Nexus is really the only way to go.

I was somehow under the (mistaken?) impression that the unlocked Galaxy Nexus would not work on AT&T or at least not work on AT&T 3G. A bit of research suggests this is not the case.

Re: An Android fan's take on the Galaxy Nexus

#15

Post by JshWright »

djhworld wrote: post #7

It's upgrade time for me and I'm debating whether to stick with iOS or wait out for the Galaxy S3. A lot of people have recommended the S2 but I'd prefer to have the latest model before getting in to a contract for another 2 years

I'm a current Galaxy S user, with an upgrade available. I'm holding out to see what HTC announces at MWC, and comparing that to the S3.

If HTC really does come out with a Tegra 3, LTE phone, that's gonna be hard to pass up. Especially when you add in the HTC build quality and unlocked bootloader advantages.

Re: An Android fan's take on the Galaxy Nexus

#16

Post by chimeracoder »

ben1040 wrote: post #6

I've had a Nexus for two months now (since launch day on Verizon) and I have only two real gripes about it. Otherwise, performance has been good, the screen is gorgeous, and I've been happy with ICS. The camera quality is really bad. When using the flash indoors, the colors seem to be off by a mile. You can turn off the flash but then images are (obviously) dark and blurry. It's disappointing because things like the…

The camera quality is probably a function of the 'zero-lag'.

I haven't laid hands on a Nexus yet, but I'm speaking from experience with my digital camera (not quite professional quality, but maybe one step down - still a very good camera). It has a similar mode (ISO-3200), which takes pictures instantaneously (no lag). The quality is dramatically lower with this mode, though, even though the camera takes beautiful pictures otherwise. I can speculate as to what causes this at the hardware level - it's not hard to imagine - but I'm not well-versed enough in digital photography to explain it.

What I'm curious to know before buying a Nexus is whether this can be turned off, or if it's built into the hardware. If the former, then flashing a custom ROM (or even a different camera application) could solve the problems.

Re: An Android fan's take on the Galaxy Nexus

#17

Post by chimeracoder »

Symmetry wrote: post #5
mdwrigh2 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, he's still using Android, he's just underwhelmed by the Galaxy Nexus.

I was a bit underwhelmed too. Both because the menu button isn't always in the same place anymore, and because the back button doesn't interact in the expected way with the new way of switching apps.

Could you elaborate on the latter?

I'm currently on an Incredible (CM 7 - so Gingerbread), and the back button is the third from left (home, menu, back, search), and the back button has unpredictable functionality (depending on the application).

Re: An Android fan's take on the Galaxy Nexus

#18

Post by ben1040 »

chimeracoder wrote: post #16
ben1040 wrote: post #6

I've had a Nexus for two months now (since launch day on Verizon) and I have only two real gripes about it. Otherwise, performance has been good, the screen is gorgeous, and I've been happy with ICS. The camera quality is really bad. When using the flash indoors, the colors seem to be off by a mile. You can turn off the flash but then images are (obviously) dark and blurry. It's disappointing because things like the…

The camera quality is probably a function of the 'zero-lag'. I haven't laid hands on a Nexus yet, but I'm speaking from experience with my digital camera (not quite professional quality, but maybe one step down - still a very good camera). It has a similar mode (ISO-3200), which takes pictures instantaneously (no lag). The quality is dramatically lower with this mode, though, even though the camera takes beautiful pi…

I would totally buy this theory.

I think that tradeoff with the zero-shutter-lag feature is that the phone does a cursory attempt at focus/metering/white-balance (if it does one at all) and totally misses it most of the time.

You can try to focus by tapping the screen first, but it still doesn't quite get it right in my experience.

Re: An Android fan's take on the Galaxy Nexus

#19

Post by Symmetry »

chimeracoder wrote: post #17
Symmetry wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was a bit underwhelmed too. Both because the menu button isn't always in the same place anymore, and because the back button doesn't interact in the expected way with the new way of switching apps.

Could you elaborate on the latter? I'm currently on an Incredible (CM 7 - so Gingerbread), and the back button is the third from left (home, menu, back, search), and the back button has unpredictable functionality (depending on the application).

Lets say I open up the web browser, then I use the application selector to go to my Twitter app. If I hit back I'll go to the homescreen, rather than the web browser. The app selection button somehow flushes out the entire back stack, which is really, really annoying. As to unpredictability regarding views within apps, its a bit worse but not hugely different.

Re: An Android fan's take on the Galaxy Nexus

#20

Post by chimeracoder »

Symmetry wrote: post #19
chimeracoder wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you elaborate on the latter? I'm currently on an Incredible (CM 7 - so Gingerbread), and the back button is the third from left (home, menu, back, search), and the back button has unpredictable functionality (depending on the application).

Lets say I open up the web browser, then I use the application selector to go to my Twitter app. If I hit back I'll go to the homescreen, rather than the web browser. The app selection button somehow flushes out the entire back stack, which is really, really annoying. As to unpredictability regarding views within apps, its a bit worse but not hugely different.

I'm confused - I thought they were trying to get devs to standardize that, and that they also changed things in ICS?

The way it currently is (for me on Gingerbread) that some apps have the back button go back to the previous view, but some go to the homescreen. And if I (say) open a browser link in an app, the back button will take me back to the application. (That may also be app-specific, but I just tried it out with one app).

So what's different on the Nexus, and what part of that is ICS-specific changes (as opposed to things that app developers have to implement independently)?

(Apologies for the confusion, but I still haven't seen an ICS device, and I don't develop for Android, so my knowledge of this is fairly passive, as a consumer).

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