Gadgetory

so the same thing kind of always happens when a new phone is announced the media gets the device ahead of time maybe a couple days a couple weeks if we're lucky and we get to use it while we're preparing our review then the date and time of the press embargo arrives the embargo lifts everybody posts their review at once and it is a giant big frenzy of activity there's commenters going nuts and defenders and attackers and it's just a huge explosion for about a day and then everything disappears ensure there's follow-up coverage and stuff as people find bugs people have other stuff to say other devices they they wear a man over the course of a day or so but really nobody ever goes back and revisits these devices after that initial blast of review to see how they feel after a couple weeks so let's do something about it let's take a look at another device whose day as the media darling has come and gone I'm Michael Fisher with pocketnow.com this is the Samsung Galaxy Nexus LTE and this is episode five of after the buzz the Verizon version of the Galaxy Nexus the Galaxy Nexus LTE was supposed to be my cure for phone hopping it was supposed to be the phone that personally for me kept me interested for more than a few months it was a series of firsts it was my first phone on Verizon Wireless it was my first LTE device and it was also my first experience with a nexus Class device from Google it wasn't just new ground for me this was the first time a nexus device had been sold by Verizon in a retail setting and it was one of their early LTE devices not one of the first LTE phones but it was the early wave and it was a big deal when it launched a little over seven months ago it had a lot of potential so after over a half-year of use how has it lived up to that potential well there's good and there's bad in the hardware and in the software let's take a look at each in order I've often picked on the Galaxy Nexus when comparing it to other phones because it's never really seemed to me to aspire to anything it's what I call a handsome device it's not ugly by any means but it's not mind-blowing that said it has got a lot going for it I like the teardrop style design I like the textured battery door and I like the ever so slight curve of the display glass I adore its notification LED all I need to do is glance at the phone even if it's across the room to see if I've missed something and I don't know whether it's just me but every time I return to the Galaxy Nexus from my time with the review device I just feel a sense of relief the device feels wonderful in the hand with perfect width and especially with the extended battery door which thickens it up just a tad it sits perfectly in the palm it's very comfortable device to hold and it doesn't make me struggle as much when trying to get to the notification drawer as other larger devices like the Galaxy s3 which is a much feels like a much larger device in the hand even though it's not that much bigger in actuality and even though it's not winter anymore and I've switched to shorts it it's just fine in a pocket the hardened display glass here isn't foolproof it does in fact scratch I don't use a screen protector so I've scratched it up in a number of places the panel itself continues to be a real disappointment as well I like the deep blacks that the Super AMOLED panel provides and I like that it's big and at 720p but the white reproduction is just awful it's washed out and gray and ugly the colors often seem dead and the panel is quite dim and lacking in color it's sad as for the rest of the phone the plastic casing picks up oil from your hand quite readily which is annoying as a bonus though the texturing on the battery door covers up scratches and scuffs very very nicely from a hardware perspective this phone is a real trouper I mean I haven't beaten it up too bad but I haven't always been kind to it either and it's held up really well so unless you're a real abusive phone over you phone owner you shouldn't have too much trouble with the Galaxy Nexus LTE hardware so how about the software and the rest of the experience I'm running stock 4.4 ICS on my Galaxy Nexus and once again returning to this phone from review units always gives me a strong sense of relief responsiveness even after over six months is superb and this is ICS not jellybean we're not seeing any project butter action here it really just runs like a finely tuned watch I seldom experience crashes and I've never had to do a full device wipe or reset I have plenty of storage 32 gigs and I do use it as my primary media player with very very few problems but it's not all sunshine and rainbows it didn't take me long to realise that this phone has some serious shortcomings remember how we talked about this being an early LTE device well it takes a Galaxy Nexus forever to connect to the network if you've lost signal now normally that wouldn't be a problem but I take the subway somewhere almost every day and we don't have coverage underground here in Boston so at least once a day I'm waiting sometimes over a minute for the device to find the network connection again that would have been fine in 2001 it's not fine now maybe because of all this network stuff battery life suffers accordingly there's no way I could make it a full day with the Galaxy Nexus LTE without my trusty spare battery and my power pack I'll put it this way I'd pretty much always leave the apartment the same way I walk out the door I walk to a bus stop I ride the bus to a train station and then I wait for the train that takes about 10 to 15 minutes during the entirety of which I'm on my phone the whole time before the train even arrives every day that's less than 20 minutes I'm down below 90% that's ridiculous the camera has really fared no better but everyone knows this already you don't buy a Galaxy Nexus for its camera you're gonna get ok shots in the daytime or indoors if there's enough light for it but for dim environments you're not going to be blown away the shots look slightly better on a computer screen than they will on the phone because of that washed out display but bottom line it's still just not a very good camera by far the most frustrating part of the device though has been in the Nexus sense Nexus phones are supposed to get timely first crack updates from Google the latest version of Android and Verizon has really truly botched the entirety of that experience I've talked about this already and a piece on the site called this ain't no Nexus phone which you should read and yes I know that's the nature of the beast with the CDMA device but it shouldn't be marketed as a Nexus phone if my update to 4.4 is gonna arrive months after it does for the non Verizon Galaxy Nexus that's a huge messaging failure and a real disservice to anyone buying this phone for the pure Google experience still more than a year and a half after release the Galaxy Nexus LTE is still a great Android phone with awesome data speeds so if that's all you're looking for if that's all you're getting at 4 as an Android smartphone with all the Nexus stuff aside I absolutely think you will be happy as long as you a carry a spare battery and be don't expect too much from the camera if you're okay with these things this is a great great Android smartphone it really is and I don't hesitate to recommend it even now that we're more than a half a year there's there's less than a half of your left before we see it's likely successor on the other hand if you're looking for a genuine Nexus device with direct from Google support and timely updates to the latest version of Android I also don't hesitate who say run run as far away from this device as you can run to the Google Play Store and get yourself the real Galaxy Nexus the HSPA unlocked version it's priced very reasonably and most importantly you'll be getting what you paid for a real Nexus device which sorry to say the Verizon version here is not guys this has been episode 5 of after the buzz we hope you liked it leave us a thumbs up here leave us a comment on the post at pocketnow.com if you have something to say we'll try and get back to you there you can follow us on twitter at pocket now twits you can follow me on twitter at captain two phones that's captain the number two phones and you should stay tuned for future episodes of after the buzz and future videos they're coming soon till then thanks for watching and we'll see you next time