Well, here we go:

http://www.theverge.com/2011/11/17/2...y-nexus-review

- "the Galaxy Nexus feels blazingly, stupidly fast to me"
- "While the screen is a pentile display, the crispness of text and images was far superior to most lower resolution pentile displays I've seen."
- "But while the software is excellent, it can't make up for that so-so sensor. Even though you can get great results with the camera, it's pretty easy to get bad results as well. "
- "Let me just say this — the browser in Ice Cream Sandwich does some serious ass-kicking."

No speed or screen issues, thankfully. The camera is mediocre because of the sensor. Although some of the features, such as the photo filters and the panorama-mode are pretty amazing. I just don't know why Samsung didn't use the SGS II's sensor, which is extremely good.

apart from that: excellent data speeds and reception, external speaker not loud enough, ICS finally makes Android a great OS, "text prediction and auto-correction on par with iOS".


All in all: this phone KICKS A**.


ps: http://www.droid-life.com/2011/11/17...flying-colors/

Although it doesn't pay royalties to Corning, it still has a screen that's at least as scratch-resistant as Gorilla (r) glass. Apparently, the competition has now caught up with Corning.

Speaking of the S2's sensor: I will say that I'm perfectly happy with it, but I have to give Apple their due. If anyone is wondering where Apple made a huge advance with the 4S, try taking a photo with the S2 and 4S next to each other in low-light conditions. The S2 had arguably the best camera on a phone until now and the 4S still completely blows it away. I was stunned. The S2's sensor made things look dark, although you still got good photos with the flash. The 4S sensor is borderline WYSIWYG, and the photos themselves the best I've ever seen on a phone. Just on a completely other level.

TBH, this is the thing I never understood. I own both an SGS II and an iPhone 4S. I do like the iPhone's camera a lot. But overall, I really don't find it better than the SGS II's.

I'm a photographer myself - and looking at the two cameras from a post-processing perspective, I'd say:

1. the iPhone 4S has much better white balance
2. the iPhone 4S has a lot of noise in low-light situations
3. the SGS II underexposes low-light pictures
4. the iPhone 4Ss autofocus is a mess

as for 1: the SGS II's white balance sucks (which, apparently, is the case for the Galaxy Nexus as well). That's a big issue if you use the pictures as they come out of the camera. I realize that that's the case for most people. If you have a photo editor, white balance can be fixed in 10 seconds. no biggie.

as for 2: It's mainly luminance noise, so many pictures can still be used if you convert them to b/w, where this type of noise is perceived as grain. However, overall, the noise is a big problem, because it can't really be dealt with in post-processing. Noise-reduction always leads to image degradation, to some extent.

as for 3: if you crank up the brightness in PP, the pictures look almost identical to the iPhone 4S's (e.g. they also have a lot of noise - I'd say that's why Samsung opted to underexpose)

as for 4: there's really no fix for that. The AF is highly inaccurate and slow - bugs the heck out of me.

Overall, neither camera comes close to even the cheapest big-brand point and shoots (Apple promised the iPhone 4S's would, btw.). So all in all, who cares. I wouldn't use either one for any kind of remotely professional work. For small prints (say, up to 10x15cm), they're both ok as you don't see the noise anyway.

Peter

OK, I just got schooled. I'll look into fixing white balance in photo editors. I just remember being really disheartened and kind of envious of the 4S when a friend and I tried taking comparison photos, and the final images themselves were much better on it. And looking at that list, it's the S2 that needs post-processing, and the 4S's noise is unnoticeable in how most people will use it. I will use the auto-focus as ammunition to bring my friend's pride for his new toy down a notch.

It wasn't my intention to school you. And you're right: out of the box, the iPhone 4S's pictures look better. It's my opinion, however, that this has more to do with the camera software than with the lens and the sensor. If you use apps like Retro Camera, Paper Camera, HDR Camera + etc. the results look great on the SGS 2, without the need to do additional post-processing at all.

Peter

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldu...t-1382932.html

that really blows :-(

"Apparently Samsung did not test the device in regions where 2G connection was run in GSM 900 networks. In GSM 900 networks – which is majority of Europe, Middle East, Africa, Australia and most of Asia – the phone’s 2G radio causes interference with the hardware and makes it think the user is pressing volume buttons, mostly volume down. So, whenever the user is using 2G connectivity for data or phone calls, there is a high chance of volume dropping entirely and phone becoming unresponsive.

This is a problem reported by two thirds of the handset owners in the forum, all of whom have issues like described above. Users have called Samsung customer support and posted on their Facebook wall without any response from Samsung. Users who have replaced their handset have discovered the issue on replacement handsets as well."

I just got my shipping notice from Clove today :-/

How do they come up with these names "Ice cream Sandwich"??

go through sweet things in alphabetical order.

donut
eclair
fro(zen)yo(ghurt)
gingerbread
honeycomb
icecream sandwich

what's next?

I vote for Jujube.

Jalapeno Chocolate Cream Cake.

Ice cream sandwhich was because it is combining the Tablet and phone version into a single OS...whereas honeycomb was specifically for tablets.

Moneygrip, a fix is on the way: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/23/google-responds-to-galaxy-nexus-volume-complaints-says-fix-is-i/

Well, I'm typing this on the Nexus. This phone is absolutely perfect in every way. Haven't been experiencing any issues with the volume key. Still hoping that I might have gotten one that doesn't have the issue.

The screen is INSANE. It's like the iPhone 4's screen for grown ups.

when and where can i buy one in Zürich?

Second half of December. Brack and some other online retailers are apparently getting some on December 8. However, there's a massive list of pre-orders for this device.

They're readily available in the UK (from Clove etc.)

I've had it for a bit over a week now, so I thought I'd go through a few pros and cons:

Cons:

- The camera is pretty bad. I've seen worse on other Android phones but still, it's just not comparable to the iPhone 4s's or those of some of the newer HTC phones

- WiFi reception still not improved over the SGS II. Or perhaps I shouldn't say "reception" rather than "reception indicator". I've never actually had a problem with dropping connections, but for whatever reason, the SGS II and the SGN both tend to show only one bar of reception strength, even if I'm practically sitting on top of the access point.
- Lots of apps don't work on Ice Cream Sandwich yet (more prominent ones on that list would be Facebook, Navigon, Spotify etc.)


Pros:

- Well, pretty much everything else.

- Great screen - best screen I've ever seen on a mobile device (including the iPhone 4 / 4S). The resolution is insane, the colors are awesome, the brightness is also great.

- Ice Cream Sandwich: Incredible what a difference hiring some real interface designers can make. The whole GUI is polished, has a nice flow, tons of very useful new features. Android is actually a beautiful OS now. I'm sure all the manufacturers are going to screw this up by overlaying everything with some butt-ugly UI of their own on other devices - but on the Galaxy Nexus, the OS is now as beautiful as iOS.

- Speed: Just about perfect. Everything flows just as nicely as on the iPhone 4S. App loading speeds are fabulous, games look incredible on that large, beautiful screen.

- Battery life: Also pretty great - I usually have between 20 and 40 percent left in the evening after intense use. Also, the battery charges from 0 to 100% in around 2 hours - also nice.


All in all: best phone ever, unless you use your phone as your primary photo camera.

thanks. strange re: the camera being bad given how much they were hyping the photo quality. i'm happy with the quality on the galaxy note and i had hoped the nexus would have been better.

this thread in tv/internet/telephone?? ... sigh....

Sorry, I don't follow - in how far is the Nexus not a telephone? Also, as far as I can tell, the other cell phone threads are in here too.

GTFO n00b!