Galaxy Nexus Review Rev.B

Once again, happy Friday ya’ll.

Last week I posted my review on the Galaxy Nexus. Within that review I also compared it to my previous Galaxy S II LTE from Rogers. If you missed that review, you can find it here. 

The Galaxy Nexus got a couple bad marks in my books at the time of testing. With recent patches and app updates, I figured it would be fair to give it a 2nd go.

Some of the issues I had were the following:

• Low speaker volume
• Low brightness/dull colors
• Poor picture quality when uploading to G+
• Lack of MicroSD and LTE
• Signal drops
• Music duplication bug
• Poor battery/Battery drain.

The list seems pretty big for just one phone. I got this phone early, about two weeks before it went on sale in Canada. Since then, I have tweaked a few things. I either fixed my own issues or google updated apps to resolve issues.

Low Speaker Volume: It is true that the Galaxy Nexus speaker is extremely weak, but there are ways to help people like me who rely on a loud speaker. There is a free app on the market called ‘Volume+’ which will allow tweak the equalizer built within your phone to make the volume appear louder. This of course sacrifies a little bit of quality, as the sound often comes out more tinny if set incorrectly. It’s not a fix for the poor speaker, but at least we have an option to try and put a bandaid on it. There are other apps as well that advertise that same volume boosting options, but none that I found have really done as good of a job as Volume+.

Another alternative that I have started doing, is I edit my sound files in GarageBand or other MP3 editor and then boosting the volume to about 160%. This has made my notifications hearable in a moderately noisy environment.  If anyone knows of a better app, feel free to share within the comments.

Low Brightness/Dull Colors: I personally had a problem with the very low ‘auto-brightness’ the Galaxy Nexus has. Quite often I find the screen is too dark, when I really wanted it to be brighter. I’m too lazy to keep adjusting the brightness slider or grab and widget/tool from the marker. I believe this issue comes from the fact that my previous phone is the Galaxy S II LTE. This phone has a very high brightness and the difference was night and day. After using the Galaxy Nexus for a little while longer, it started to grow on me. I didn’t really notice the dull colors or brightness anymore. I still would like to see it a little brighter, but it’s not too terribly bad. I know others prefer the darker screen over the bright vivid screen.

Poor Picture Quality When Uploading to Google+: I can’t recall how many discussions I had about this issue. I primarily use Google+ as my social media app, so having poor picture uploads were a big issue for me. Myself, as well as all other Galaxy Nexus owners were suffering from this issue. We were only able to upload picture from our phones at about 320 x 320 pixels, 16kb size, that’s nearly thumbnail size. Thankfully Google updated Google+ for support of high resolution pictures. My pictures from Galaxy Nexus now upload to nearly 2024 x 2024 and 1.5MB. Picture quality is now and once again outstanding. Thanks Google!

Lack of MicroSD and LTE:   The lack of MicroSD is something I have had a hard time dealing with during my two weeks of play. I was forced to slim down my music collection by about 25%. MicroSD isn’t something I absolutely need, but it’s defiantly something I really enjoy having.

LTE is also something I really miss. Those who have actually used LTE will know what I’m talking about here. Going from LTE back to HSPA+ is like going from Cable Internet back to the old 56K Fax dial up modem, you really feel the difference. If you have never used LTE, you may not see it as clearly as we do. Sadly, I’m still disappointed in the Nexus for not including these features in our Canadian release.

Signal Drops: When I initially got my Galaxy Nexus, it was loaded with the baseband ‘I9250XXKK1′. I flashed the recently leaked radio ‘I9250XXKK6′ which has fixed all my signal related issues. Note that not everyone will suffer from signal drops on the stock ‘I9250XXKK1′ baseband, as it preforms differently from region to region.

Music Duplication Bug: The music duplication is something that haunted me for a while. When I would play my music through bluetooth headphones, that’s when it really effected me. When I would stop my music and continue playing a short time later, it would start in the wrong spot or even play an incorrect song. This was easily fixed by disabling the stock Google Music app and replacing it with an Android Market music player of my choice.

Poor Battery/Battery Drain: A large portion of my battery drain was caused from the music duplication bug described above. When I disabled the stock music app, I noticed a substancial battery gain during music playback. Doing a couple other minor things such as, turning off live wallpapers, turning off GPS and disabling background data access for certain apps. The stock music app was the major culprit in my battery drain.

Rooting: Since my initial review, I have rooted my Galaxy Nexus. Aside from using Adfree ad blocker and Titanium backup, I still don’t see a big deal about rooting at this point in time. Although, with many custom roms on the way, that could change very quickly.

I posted a couple days ago how to root your Galaxy Nexus. If you want to find that post, you can find it here.

Final Thoughts: Since the first review I did, many things have been fixed. I have either found a way to fix them myself, or Google has released updates to address the issues. Learning that most of my issues have been resolved, I’m starting to have a new found respect for the Galaxy Nexus. As my Galaxy S II LTE and Galaxy Nexus sit side by side on their respective chargers, I often find myself reaching for the Galaxy Nexus more often.

The Galaxy Nexus has the possibility of being my premier phone for a while. I’m pretty sure Google will also help this along by providing constant support. With the Galaxy Nexus being released internationally, we will have many custom roms to look forward to in the future as well.