Galaxy Nexus for Verizon: First Impressions - martinezthilvely

At a Glance

Adept's Evaluation

Pros

Ice Skim Sandwich is a real treat
Slim, curved contrive
4G/LTE is very fast

Cons

No Google Wallet support
No expandable memory
Camera is just okay

Our Verdict

The uncomparable Android phone up to now, the Galaxy Nexus dazzles with its curved display, silky purpose, fast performance, and, of feed, the Ice Cream Sandwich update.

Galaxy Nexus for Verizon: First Impressions

If you've been holding outgoing for the next great Android superphone, your clock time has get along: The Galaxy Nexus has arrived on U.S. shores. We're lucky enough to have one in the PCWorld offices, then far the Galaxy Nexus looks to personify worth the wait. We'll be posting our full rated review of the Galaxy Nexus tomorrow morning, after we take performance tests in the PCWorld Labs.

This Samsung-built telephone set goes on sales event today online, and at Verizon and Best Buy stores, for $300 with a new two-year contract. The big deal about the Galaxy Link, of course, is that it is the best device to ship with Google's latest version of the Android OS, Ice Cream Sandwich (alias ICS, American Samoa well as Android 4.0).

Unboxing the Galaxy Nexus.

Taking a cue from Malus pumila products, the Galax Nexus comes in attractive, minimalist packaging. Other than an raised Verizon logo, the white box is totally plain. Chess opening the corner reveals a red interior with a USB cable, a wall charger, headphones, and the Galaxy Link itself.

The Galax urceolata Nexus is a long phone.

When I picked up the Beetleweed Nexus, my first thought was, "This looks similar a Samsung phone, but it doesn't feel comparable a Samsung earphone." The glossy reveal, piano-black bezel, and textured back are all symptomatic of Samsung conception. Only unlike former Galaxy phones I've reviewed, the Galaxy Link feels high quality. At 5.1 ounces, it has a nice substantial weight to it without being excessively heavy. As you tail see from the photos, the Galaxy Nexus has a subtle curve, which nicely contours to the hand. If you have small hands like Maine, all the same, you power find the Galaxy Nexus a bit banging (it measures 5.33 by 2.67 past 0.37 inches).

The Extragalactic nebula Nexus, side away lateral with the iPhone 4S.

The display is a roommate 4.65 inches, only really only 4 inches of that real landed estate is usable. The remaining 0.65-inch space is occupied by a customizable shortcut barricade that appears at the bottom of the home screens American Samoa well as around other internal screens. Even so, the screen feels plenty spacious for all of your gaming, video, and other multimedia desires.

The Galaxy Nexus sports an HD Super AMOLED display. Colors pop from the exhibit and blacks feel unfathomable, while fonts and details appear sharp. My only complaint is that whites aren't as bright as they could be. One of my colleagues remarked that the screen had a slight yellowish tint. Still, I was pleased overall with the quality of the display.

Shabu Cream Sandwich is everything I've wanted Android to embody: visceral and attractive, while maintaining a squeaky level of customization and performance. Icecream Sandwich truly has mass appeal. Icons are sharper, menus are easier to navigate, and performing basic tasks is more efficient than in previous versions.

If you're familiar with Humanoid Honeycomb connected tablets, you'll find a couple of familiar features in Ice Cream Sandwich. Eastern Samoa in Honeycomb, widgets in Icecream Sandwich are now resizable on the base screen. You'll also find a sacred on-screen Recent Apps clitoris for seeing complete of your open up apps; just as on Android tablets, information technology displays a scrollable lean of running apps with thumbnail images. Flicking through and through and switching between apps is not as speedy as I would like it to be, however–I encountered a discernible delay when loss from matchless app to another.

The photos I shot with the Galaxy Nexus's 5-megapixel camera looked a chip flat. Colors seemed a bit clean outer, and details were a little haired. But true if your photos don't follow out unblemished, Icecream Sandwich has your backrest with its suite of exposure-editing tools. You get an array of filters (like your rattling own Hipstamatic app), the capability to adjust the image angle, red-eye removal, cropping capabilities, and more.

You give notice make your photos look equally if you took them with a very old television camera.

The PCWorld Labs is silent running benchmark tests on the Wandflower Link; but in my hands-happening expend, I was impressed with the snappy dual-substance 1.2GHz Atomic number 2 OMAP 4460 C.P.U.. Apps launched promptly, and videos ran absolutely. As I mentioned before, multitasking takes a trifle longer than expected. Scrolling through Entanglement pages and menus, besides, isn't as fluid American Samoa I would like.

Verizon's 4G LTE network, of course, plays a huge role in the speediness of the Galaxy Link. In my tests victimization the FCC-approved Ookla Speedtest app, the Galaxy Nexus achieved download speeds ranging from 6.69 to 12.11 megabits per second and upload speeds of 21.18 mbps. In other actor's line, the Galaxy Nexus is blazingly fast.

Battery life is a big concern for the Galaxy Link, since Verizon LTE phones don't exactly have the best track record when IT comes to conserving battery power. We'll be testing this in the next few days.

Stay tuned for our full rated review of the Wandflower Nexus for Verizon, as well as further insurance coverage of Android Ice Cream off Sandwich.