Awesome. Where'd you get it?

I pre-ordered it from Negri. I bought my grey-market Canadian Nexus S from them as well. I paid $765 + shipping from Las Vegas. They included the Android figurine and US Samsung-branded charger. The phone came sealed with UK charger.

Sweet! Are your first impressions favorable? Clearly they are as far as cellular data speed is concerned...

I've read a few rumors today that Verizon preorders might start tomorrow. I'm really sick of Verizon's lack of communication about this phone.

The screen is stunning. Before this, I was using a Galaxy S II as my daily driver. That screen was really great, but this one blows it away. It's like seeing the iPhone 4 for the first time again. The screen is just huge, smooth, and bright. Photos look fantastic on it.

I liked the old Android gallery app a lot. I was concerned about the change there, but the new one is more responsive and looks a lot better.

The stock apps (gmail, maps, etc.) are all Ice Cream Sandwich-ized. They look very spiffy.

The stock calendar app is still inferior to the iPhone by a large degree. I have a license for Business Calendar which works fine on ICS.

I used the browser only minimally so far, but pinch to zoom is a lot smoother. The higher resolution of the Galaxy Nexus is also a clear advantage here.

I'm still at work, so I can't play with the phone all day. I will run it through its paces later. I will note that ICS is a lot more polished than Gingerbread. I think it would be hard for anyone to buy a Droid Rarz with 2.3 on it when a Galaxy Nexus with ICS is on the same display. Perhaps this is why Verizon is dragging their feet?

Part of me says "hey, I can wait two weeks" and the other part of me says if I can wait a few more months, I can break my contract with Verizon and switch to T-Mobile. I'll probably stick with Verizon, since their 4G network really is a great thing.

Sigh.

Verizon LTE is nothing to sneeze at. I'm envious of it and I'm slightly concerned with breaking my AT&T contract now that LTE is rolling out, but they've been getting $101 per month from me for way too long. The T-Mobile $30 "Walmart" plan is tailor-made for me. I rarely use more than 100 minutes of cellular voice per month. Even if I were to go over by 200 minutes, the cost is still half of my AT&T contract plan. As far as I can tell, T-Mobile's HSPA+ is faster than AT&T's.

I've had every iPhone with the exception of the 4S. Apple's first mistake was their policy of not unlocking US phones which forced me to pick up an unlocked G1 for an extended trip to Germany. This gave me a taste of android with its relative freedom of wifi tethering, non-market apps, and deep Google services integration. I've been fiddling with Android and Windows Phone 7 for the past year or so after selling my iPhone 4 on eBay for a tidy profit. Apple's second mistake was not releasing an iPhone 5, which was what I was anticipating coming back to.

So, this is how I find myself with a Galaxy Nexus. Its pentaband radio is a substantial feature for the short while I'm keeping AT&T and T-Mobile service active. I can evaluate T-Mobile, and if it doesn't work out, the AT&T SIM will work just fine.

Anyway, the Galaxy Nexus is a tremendous phone. Ice Cream Sandwich and the gorgeous screen are what make it. ICS is clearly Google's smoothest, most polished mobile OS yet. It's barely recognizable as a descendant of Cupcake. I couldn't really say the same for Gingerbread.

Saying ICS is an iOS killer is pointless since some people think the earliest versions of Android already accomplished that. But, it's clear that Google is paying attention to what makes iOS so appealing. ICS is fantastic. Any die-hard iOS fan would have to admit it. It's too bad Sense and TouchWiz will probably ruin it for the majority of devices.

Wow, I'm happy to hear your reports, Rob. Everything I'm hearing is saying the phone is pretty spectacular.

Well, I'd be interested in hearing what you think of the camera, which is the biggest critical hit it's been taking in all the reviews out there.

Agreed, LTE is quite nice, and one reason I'll be slightly envious of the Galaxy Nexus on Verizon. Though for now, I'm fine with waiting a little bit for battery life concerns of LTE chipsets to be addressed. AT&T 3G speeds are usually pretty good in areas where their network isn't swamped. If I were a Verizon or Sprint 3G customer, I'd be eagerly looking to get to a proper 4G device.


This is the one plan I had really wanted to jump to with the unlocked 4S, but with no pentaband radio, I'd be stuck on edge. For now, I am sticking with my base AT&T plan, which works out to $50ish a month between my family plan and discount. If the next iPhone goes LTE, I'll reevaluate then.


I do like how AT&T likes to point the finger at Apple, and Apple points the finger back to AT&T regarding unlocking. I have to wonder if this was some weird concession during the exclusivity period. Really stupid policy in any case, whoever is ultimately behind it.


Not to derail the thread too much, but what about a so called iPhone 5 had you interested above the 4S? As far as I can tell, the iPhone 5 rumors started with a baseless "I heard from a friend" and were amplified into near "fact" by the internet echo chamber, with no real basis in reality. I pay very little attention to Apple rumors these days, since most seem to be link bait to ensure ad views on an otherwise slow news day.


I am glad to see the improvements, as Android really didn't interest me much when I tried it out with the Captivate. ICS does interest me more, but I don't see myself switching over it. The Google ecosystem simply doesn't interest me, especially after my Google account pretty much imploded earlier this year with the release of Google Plus. With no one to contact for assistance, and no way to easily fix the issue, I nuked it and moved on. I've had MobileMe quirks, but I've also had support to contact, and never faced a situation (yet) that required a restart from scratch.

Hopefully with Google's more focused approach in general, they will continue to improve across the board. Their products up till now outside the core search have all very much felt like engineers gone wild, with no design sense to them. I do find it interesting that ICS is basically 3.0 for the phone side. Makes me wonder if Google is going to turn out similar to Microsoft, where it took until the 3rd major revision of a product for it to start turning into something really interesting.

I probably could have been swayed by a larger screen, better camera, and more RAM.

My first phone with a screen larger than the iPhone was a Dell Venue. It was a really eye-opening experience. Since that point, iPhones look too small to me.

RAM is important for multiple Safari tabs/windows. It drove me crazy on the iPad 1 and it's better on the iPad 2, but is still an annoyance.

I guess we got a better camera, but the Galaxy S II camera was pretty fantastic in my opinion. The iPhone 4S camera seems to be lacking the special sauce that made the iPhone 4 camera stand out in its time.

A big downside to the iPhone is having to jailbreak to make it do what I want. I don't mind doing it if the exploits come out quick enough, but it's still annoying and easier just to pick up an unlocked Android phone.

I will post some Galaxy Nexus camera samples tomorrow. I'm one of those jerks that takes photos of food at restaurants. The Galaxy Nexus does a good job of taking photos in low light. However, the jpegs are about 1.3MB which seems small for 5MP photos. I think the (un-selectable) compression might be too high for my liking. I'll have to scrutinize the pics later. On the up-side you can snap pics at an astonishing rate. If iPhone and Galaxy Nexus both claim zero shutter lag, Google's definition of "zero" feels quicker.

The Galaxy Nexus camera is inferior to the Galaxy S II. It could be due to the JPEG compression, but it doesn't really matter since I can't change that.

Attached to this post is a sample from the Galaxy S II (which I don't own anymore). The text on the DIMMs is crisp even through the packaging.

I will add Galaxy Nexus samples to the next post.

It's a gloomy day here, so outdoor shots might have to wait a while. I have some pics taken at my desk this morning and taken in a restaurant last night.

My overall impression of the camera is that it's mediocre. The Galaxy S II's camera was surprisingly good. The Nexus is just blah. It's not terrible, but it's definitely a downgrade. I will survive since I don't rely on my telephone to be my primary shooter. It will do just fine for quick pics.

All this talk of gingerbread and ice cream, and now pictures of sushi - you're making me hungry!

This made me actually LOL.

If you decide you don't like it, I'd be happy to dispose of it for you.

Did you happen to get a docking station for it? That's the one thing that makes me curious. I really like just being able to plop my N1 in its stand and not have to worry about lining up a connector. I got the impression that the Galaxy Nexus would be this way, too.

I'm extremely curious about this as well. I also have a Nexus One dock, and I love it. It always surprises me how unpopular phone docks have been in general.

It looks like the Galaxy Nexus has contacts similar to the N1, but on the side. I don't mind docking it in a different orientation, I just want to doc it the same way I do with my N1.

I was surprised when the Galaxy Nexus debuted in the UK and yet had no accessories released alongside it. The thing that worries me about the accessories is that there are two physical sizes of the Galaxy Nexus, with the LTE version being slightly thicker, so most accessories will have to be made in two sizes...

Yeah, I'm also confused by the relative lack of popularity of phone docks. Samsung offers a Nexus S dock for the home, but in the car, all they offer is a GPS mount that you have to plug in a separate charger for (there are a couple of aftermarket products, but no really good ones that I've seen.)

This might be a case of that dreaded Android "f-word" problem rearing its head again -- because there are so many different phones with different form factors, nobody bothers making docks when they won't sell enough of them before people move on to a new phone with a slightly different positioning of the microUSB port or whatever. (Even the Nexus series all have different shapes, sizes, etc.) I was hoping that the L-shaped Nexus S dock might make it possible for future Nexus phones (at least ones from Samsung) to re-use the same dock, but that appears to not be the case from eyeballing the Galxy Nexus hardware.

I'm even more shocked that nobody's really copied or licensed the Touchstone idea from HP. What I wouldn't give for an induction-charging magnetic dock for my Nexus S...

I plan to get a home dock like in this photo which appears to make use of the side contacts. Expansys is offering another type that I could live with, but it's not exactly what you and I are looking for. It's also terribly expensive. I'm sure dealextreme and ebay will be flooded with cheap docks soon.

That reminds me... If anyone has an HTC Liberty/Aria, I have a stand-up dock for it. If you want it, send me a PM. I'll cover the postage as long as it's no more than a couple bucks.

Cool, thanks.

Tony, while I definitely agree that the number of handset form factors is a big contributor to the lack of docks, I don't think that's the only reason. I just don't think docks are very popular, though I don't know why.

Even for the iPhone, there's a universal dock, but it's certainly not pushed very hard and it's always an afterthought. I'd be willing to bet the iHome dock is even more popular, which bothers me because all I want is a simple no-frills dock.

One possible reason for the lack of popularity might be due to smartphone cases. They all change the shape of the phone in question in different ways, so they would all have to ship with their own dock adapters (in the case of the iPhone). With my wife's 3GS, the case she liked happened to come with its own dock adapter, and that was great. However, just try to look for any iPhone 4S cases that come with an adapter for the universal dock. I couldn't find any, and I think it's because, as "universal" as the dock may be, they didn't anticipate that the iPhone 4 with a case would be wider than their previous phones (at least it looks that way to me, is that right?), so it wouldn't fit! Eventually I just took the adapter out and she plugs her phone in without it. It works but it's certainly not as attractive (and Steve wouldn't like it).


That really is the solution, isn't it? I'd LOVE to have inductive charging, even if it made the phone a little thicker. The next best thing, though, is the method the Nexus One and the Galaxy Nexus are employing. It's very nearly like inductive charging, because when I put my N1 in the dock, it's not like I'm plugging it in or making sure it's clicking into any kind of microUSB connector. I'm simply setting the phone down, and that makes a surprisingly large difference in the long run.

I think you'll be satisfied with how the Galaxy Nexus charges. It won't be your inductive charging, but it should be pretty close...

Speaking of inductive charging, I think the killer app for that would be for the batteries themselves to have inductive charging coils in them. I don't know how much electronics is required to support that — if it's a lot, that may make this unfeasible — but having it built directly into the power system instead of it being a feature of the phone would be awesome. That said, if a single standard becomes popular, that would work just as well. It would just be neat if it were an addon that could be swapped in with a new battery. (Well, ignoring the waste that might incur.)

An unpleasant surprise has surfaced with the Galaxy Nexus. It appears the bluetooth stack doesn't support AVRCP 1.3. In my post-empeg life, I've been relying on a JVC KW-NT50HDT for automotive entertainment. One of the features is A2DP audio, but the nice double-DIN display can also show track data in addition to simple control of tracks.

With the Galaxy Nexus, I just get audio control (play, pause, skip, etc.) without the track data. Lame-o.

This is what the JVC looked like with Windows Phone 7 (mango):


This is the Galaxy S II running CM7 nightlies based on Android 2.3.7:


I'd be interested to know if Cyanogenmod was actually responsible for the added AVRCP functionality or if it's something that hasn't been merged from Android 2.3.x into ICS yet. Seems very odd, but it's not enough for me to start putting custom ROMs on my lovely Nexus. As I understand it, iOS 5 introduced this ability to iDevices. Oh well.

Have you tried different music playing apps? Do they all have the same issue?

I can try other apps, but I'm only really interested in using the stock Google Music 4 app. This is what was working on the Galaxy S II.

Hmmm, I personally think the 4->4S camera improvement is bigger than the 3GS->4. The 4S camera is pretty amazing in my experience - low light performance is exceptional and the sharpness is great.

From an Arstechnica article "Can the iPhone 4S replace a "real" digital camera?"


They use some images from a How does the iPhone 4S camera stack-up against other cameras? article elsewhere which also includes comparison shots with a Canon S95 and a 5D MkII.

The 4S definitely has a great camera for a phone, but she really should have left out the specious comparisons to the larger dedicated cameras.

I was watching that video of the HDMI dock this morning. I'm a little sad that the contacts on the bottom of the N1 aren't on the bottom of the GN, but I'm fine if they're on the side. It makes it possible to do the HDMI through the micro USB port, I guess, so that's fine.

I'm hoping that the horizontal dock will bring up the clock app, like it does with the N1. It's one of the many things that helps make my phone my alarm clock. Oh well, if it doesn't I'm sure I can program Tasker to do it for me.

Anyway, I'm hope these accessories follow the GN soon after release. I need that dock

I'm still worried by the lack of communication from Verizon. We're four or five days from the next rumored date of Dec 8th, and another rumor today said Dec 9th. At this point I can't think of what the holdup could be. People know about this phone, even some non-techie people. The RAZR has had as much time at the top of the hill as any Android phone usually gets. The volume bug is worked out (and wasn't that big a deal to begin with). What the hell is big red doing?

HDMI through microusb? Is that possible? Seems like most of the things which appear to be HDMI over microUSB are MHL links (less wires) which means you need a converter - much like the iPhone's displayport over the dock connector.

I was wondering about that too. All I know is that the dock appears to only connect over micro USB. Perhaps there are additional contact on the bottom of the phone, but that still wouldn't seem to be enough to trasmit. I guess we'll see when the phone is released. I wasn't planning on getting the HDMI dock, but I might after all.

HDMI output on the phone is supported by using an MHL adapter, as seen in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENdJv_AI5vU

I've attached a panorama I made this weekend using the built-in capability. Not too bad.