Gadgetory

a little more than 15 weeks ago in December 2011 the Samsung Galaxy Nexus was launched on Verizon a 4G LTE phone with hardware by Samsung and software by Google so it's been my primary handset since then and this is the 100% honest review of the Android phone that I waited so long for starting with the hardware the only real concern that critics of this phone had at launch and also the Android haters with Samsung's plastic back and I'm happy to report that it's still really durable it's not a problem none of the glass on the back is cracked it's still in excellent condition and one other thing to note was that shortly after I got the Nexus I picked up the 2100 milliamp hour extended battery which is just ever so slightly thicker than the stock eighteen hundred million power battery but the difference is definitely worth it and it's still a very thin phone but I get to battery life in a second but onto the front of the phone which I can tell you has proved to be the best feature of the whole device is the four point six five inch 1280 by 720 Super AMOLED HD display absolutely astounding it's that beautiful having to display this big and amazingly crisp pretty much a Retina display makes it a pleasure to use for everything that smartphones should be good at it's comfortable for me I have big hands I think anything over four point eight inches might be a little too big I've enjoyed as small as four inches on the incredible two and as large as 4.7 inches on the Titan but four point six five is comfortable and all of that is exactly what she said but seriously this is still one of the best displays in the business and there's no denying that so let me fill you in on the software side of things this is a Nexus device which makes it exceptionally easy to unlock route and customize the daylights out of and that's exactly what I've done here I realized it was downright silly for me someone who likes to take advantage of the customization of Android to stay with stock for so long so I'm running Android 4.0 point four with the a-ok peer um a franko kernel that likes me overclocked to 1.3 gigahertz and let me tell you this thing belies the rom is what allows me to get if you notable UI changes like the convenient toggles up here in the notification bar and the customized bottom navigation bar with the persistent menu button and the kernel is what makes it so stupid fast I mean it feels brand new but like I said this device is past 15 weeks old the dual-core processor is more than capable of everything stock but the kernel really takes it to the next level and everything just feels liquid smooth like I just got it out the box it opens apps quickly it closes them quickly even crashes quicker honestly this isn't a stable signage and mod or anything but you will notice the occasional force close and very discrete actions somewhere deep in the OS but you'll be out of it in no time flat so it just feels really great I actually tried to get this thing to lag and as you can see here no chance I think I think you get the point this phone handles Ice Cream Sandwich like a boss now Ice Cream Sandwich itself is pretty sweet if you're already an Android user it's really easy to fall in love with the new UI but if you're coming from something silly simple like Windows Phone or iOS then yeah you might think this is a little bit confusing sometimes so give it a few days and you'll get through the learning curve just fine the built-in apps are great they've proved to be very reliable especially I love Google Maps which is really helpful for me someone who goes a lot of places on foot and Google Maps walking directions navigation is pure awesome and let's not forget the Play Store which is full of great apps great third-party apps constantly growing with notable additions recently like Instagram and Temple Run and speaking of Temple Run I'm not a huge phone gamer at all I'm over productivity and utility person but it's safe to say looking at this that gaming will go just fine on this beauty of the screen I think I've made that point already and so will movie watching and YouTube video watching when it's full screen 1280 by 720 it's just hard to get over how rich that AMOLED display is it amazes me literally every day some days I found myself using the Nexus to catch up on my YouTube subscriptions more than I do on my tablet or on my computer also a major buying point for some people on a smartphone is a camera's picture quality and I have an entire video dedicated to this and that'll be in the description right below that like help with the summit up it's pretty decent the instant shutter is really nice convenient and the front-facing camera is great for Google+ Hangouts or Skype or even face unlock yeah face unlock you catch that unlocking it within the face and there are just some things that Android does really really well like notifications for example it just doesn't get any better than that it's an amazing system battery life all day every day and did I mention that screen so overall the Samsung Galaxy Nexus easily one of the best phones I've ever used and I'm really glad it's my own contract phone I'm not saying I'm not looking forward to stuff like the Samsung Galaxy s3 but just little things about Android like for example the ability to go and look at how much mobile data you're using on your device little things maybe like the ability to sync bookmarks from Google Chrome the Galaxy Nexus is absolutely a very nice device even if you were to buy one today unlocked for somewhere around $450 absolutely recommended like I said in the video one of the biggest reasons you buy a nexus is because it's so easy to unlock and customize and to use a custom ROM and that's definitely what I've done using a okp here on Android 4.0.4 oh that a brief summary would be awesome display really really really really fast and pretty much an awesome all-around device thanks for watching this review video guys of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus hope you enjoyed it give it a thumbs up in fact if you liked this video as that really does help out the mkbhd channel and I'll go ahead and sign off here and I'll talk to you guys in the next video thanks for watching case you