Opinion Piece Author: Kris Russo, NBC25 Account Executive
Phone
The Verizon Wireless Samsung Galaxy Nexus has its phone icon at the bottom of the home screen similar to that of the various Droid models. The Nexus also has phone, contacts, applications, messages, and web search at a permanent part of the phones home screen for easy access, however this buttons are able to be customized, which is a nice feature.
The Nexus will link Facebook data (contact’s photo and profile info). The phone uses more of a tab system to help keep things organized. The favorites list has been moved into the phone button under its own tab. The other tabs include the phone pad for dialing and most recent calls tabs.
The clarity of the phone is good there no problems with people being able to hear.
Design
The Verizon Wireless Samsung Galaxy Nexus s powered by a 1.2GHz Dual-Core processor which is extremely fast not to mention the 4G LTE network behind it. It does have 1GB of RAM and a full 32GB of on-board storage which is great seeing how there is no spot for removable storage in this Nexus.
This phone is easy to type on but depending on what the user is used too, the keyboard is the Samsung keyboard and is set up differently and does take some getting used too. Swype also comes standard on this devise as well as the android stock keyboard which is a nice feature, because other Droid users may not like the layout of the Samsung keyboard.
The power toggle/sleep button is on the upper right hand side of the device. The volume rocker is almost centered on the left side. There’s a 3.5mm headphone jack on the bottom as well as a charging port and speaker/microphone.
There are actual physical quick launch buttons for back, home and a quick launch type of button that will give a quick look at the last few programs that have been used on the phone and the option to select it and use it with one click. The menu button is very inconvenient spot, the upper right hand side of the screen; it is set as three little dots. This is not good for ease of use and moving through the phone quickly.
Display
The screen on the Verizon Wireless Samsung Galaxy Nexus is a 4.65-inch, 1280-by-720 16M HD AMOLED Plus display, which is brighter and more battery-friendly than LCD and can support up to 16M of color. The amazing display makes everything seem more vivid and bright and has amazing color and clarity.
The Nexus screen tends to get a little on the warm side when the phone is being used and can catch the user off guard.
Camera
The camera is a 5 megapixel on the rear of the devise with a 1080p recording capabilities and a 1.3 front-facing camera on the front of the phone.
It took bright, vivid pictures in natural light. But, in low light, the LED flash washed out most photos – especially objects that were close to the camera. When taking indoor pictures with the camera the quality depending on the lighting that was available. There was not much of a difference when the flash was used when the flash was not used. The pictures both ways still seemed dark and slightly washed out. Although on a positive note it does have a “zero lag” shutter feature which is awesome.
The Samsung Galaxy Nexus also includes a 1.3 MP front facing camera it makes it simple to take pictures as well as video chat with your friends.
Battery Life
Most smart-phone users have concluded by now that no matter the phone in use it will have to charge every day.
The Verizon Wireless Samsung Galaxy Nexus has a 1780 mAh battery which is good as far as a battery goes. Anyone who has the joy of having the 4G LTE phone knows that the LTE drains the battery faster then the speed of lighting, so keep this in mind.
Interface
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on the Nexus runs five home screens. It can run over 150,000 apps that are available on the Android market. Also, Samsung, gives you access to the Samsung Media Hub for other unique items. The fact that the Verizon Wireless Samsung Galaxy Nexus does not come loaded down with a bunch of junk apps from Verizon that can not be removed unless the phone is rooted is a great thing. The phone moves with lighting speed and never slowed and scrolling between pages or up and down long lists happened without hesitation. The user interface is wickedly fast and responsive. Now if Ice Cream Sandwich would be updated and released out to the other Droid users removing these unwanted apps it would be a dream comes true for the users who are not rooted.
Web
It has a full HTML browser. It is integrated with Flash 10.1 for web browsing so viewing most sites with flash files is not a problem.
Pinch-zoom pages in as far as needed get a nice screen shot of bookmarked pages, and they can all be viewed in landscape or vertical configurations.
Conclusion
This is a nice phone and Ice Cream Sandwich is stripped down and that is really nice not having all those unwanted apps clogging up the space and slowing down the speed on the phone. For seasoned Droid users it may be an adjustment on button placement and keyboard features. No phone is ever perfect but there are some features that make this phone very nice and other features that are more frustrating to get used too and seem to out weigh the nice features.
Specs
Processor: 32GB onboard internal storage + 1GB RAM / 1.2 GHz Dual-Core Processor
Screen: 4.65-inch AMOLED Plus Display (Supporting up to 16M color)
Camera: 5MP rear with LED flash with 1080p HD recording and 1.3 megapixel front facing camera
Audio: 3.5mm headset jack
Connectivity: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS
Weight: 5.1 ounces
