Phones Help Me Decide, Galaxy Nexus now or wait for iPhone 5

[Technarchy]

But you have the choice. If you want the full Google Android experience like Apple gives you with the latest OS releases with no carrier input, you have the Nexus devices. If you want a specific feature from a specific vendor (like a big screen, LTE, SD card, removable battery, etc.) you can get that too. You are then limited by how quickly they update or you can root and get your own ROMs. I like choice.

It's the illusion of choice. You brought a sucky product with bad hardware and software integration and support and now you're left to fix it on your own by downloading dubious ROMs and voiding your warranty.

In theory it's choice...a Hobson's Choice.

 

[Dmunjal]

I don't see how that is accurate at all. The Nexus is great hardware with integrated OS from Google. The S3 is even better hardware with integrated OS from Samsung. Both are great choices. The iPhone is also a great product but I don't really have a choice if I want a larger screen or LTE..

 

[aohus]

It's the illusion of choice. You brought a sucky product with bad hardware and software integration and support and now you're left to fix it on your own by downloading dubious ROMs and voiding your warranty.

In theory it's choice...a Hobson's Choice.

damn, you're dumb.

 

[LSUtigers03]

It's the illusion of choice. You brought a sucky product with bad hardware and software integration and support and now you're left to fix it on your own by downloading dubious ROMs and voiding your warranty.

In theory it's choice...a Hobson's Choice.

My Gnex works great without any modifications. But I chose to add a rom with more functionality. Just like my 4s worked fine without jailbreaking but I choose to jailbreak it so I could use apps and utilities that Apple doesn't allow. You're incredibly close minded. I've owned every iPhone that has been released but after using both beta builds of Jelly Bean and iOS6 I think Android has pulled ahead of iOS.

 

[Frankied22]

I just got my Galaxy Nexus and put JB on it. I'm really digging it and its super smooth. Google Now is really cool as well. There are so many things you can use it for. The only thing that disappointed me was the screen. I mean I knew going in that it was a worse screen than my iPhone. But there is s horrendous blue tint when I barely tilt the screen.

 

[redred]

Next iPhone. Absolutely. Or at least by October you'll also see the next Nexus too.

 

[Darthdingo]

If you plan to wait until October for the iPhone5 spec's, at least then wait until the Nexus-Four spec's are out too, we should know by end of October, or early November.

I think both the iPhone5 and Nexus-Four will be the best two smartphones for 2012, and well into 2013. Only the Samsung Galaxy S4 beating them, but that is not due out until late Spring 2013.

So only two smartphones worth buying soon will be the next iPhone and next Nexus, nothing else in my opinion.

 

[mbell1975]

So only two smartphones worth buying soon will be the next iPhone and next Nexus, nothing else in my opinion.

Not if you are on Verizon. The Razr HD is coming in the fall. Same hardware as the S3 and a 4.6 720p display but also a 13mp camera and that amazing 3300MAH battery from the Razr Maxx. That will be the phone to beat.

 

[Technarchy]

Not if you are on Verizon. The Razr HD is coming in the fall. Same hardware as the S3 and a 4.6 720p display but also a 13mp camera and that amazing 3300MAH battery from the Razr Maxx. That will be the phone to beat.

There is no such thing as a good Droid phone. They all suck ass. Especially if it's made by Motorola.

 

[TL24]

Man... I'm on the same boat as the OP, I currently have the 4S but I'm getting bored of iOS and the iOS 6 update is just garbage! Those of your saying otherwise are just brainwashed by Apple.

With that said, I still love my 4S and the simplicity of iOS but at this point after seeing what iOS6 brings to the table I'm ready to switch back to Android. Apple needs to step their game up, they've got the best phone (hardware wise) but the OS needs a major overhaul to even compete with Jelly Bean.

Once I'm able to pick up a GSM GNexus I don't think I'll be touching my 4S as much, that's until the 5 comes out lol

 

[Wrathwitch]

Even if you buy the GNex now and you plan to upgrade to 4.1, it makes no difference. 4.1 does not support Flash and has not been tested with Flash. Even Adobe has said results of using Flash on a Nexus phone with 4.1 may produce 'unpredictable' results.

Add to this the upcoming injunction of the GNex, the possibility of a GNex2 in a couple of months, plus you still have 2 months left on contract - I would wait to see how everything plays out with the new iphone, ios6, Android 4.1, gnex2, the injunction and lawsuits.
You have a 2 year committment to think about and a lot of issues will be resolved or be on a clear path over the next 2 months to allow you to make a more well informed decision. Of course, this is just my opinion and what I would do in your shoes. Personally, I think the GNEx is a good device, but will probably make you regret getting it once the iPhone 5 and GNex 2 come out, not to mention the S3 that just came out and a really nice phone too.

This so far has been the most unbiased and logical answer I have seen on this thread.

 

[Mac.World]

Not if you are on Verizon. The Razr HD is coming in the fall. Same hardware as the S3 and a 4.6 720p display but also a 13mp camera and that amazing 3300MAH battery from the Razr Maxx. That will be the phone to beat.

Unless you can tell us what sensor thecamera will be using and the software to process it, the amount of pixels is worthless. The width and weight of the phone is likely to be a factor as well. 3300mA is good, but I would have preferred to see over 4000mA. We all know LTE is a battery hog and I am hoping that more manufacturers start using batteries with more juice, even if it means an extra mm in width or depth. The S3 comes with a 2100mA battery and using it full time, pretty much maxing it out on HSPA+ speeds, you can get about 6.5 hours. LTE would likely be half that. But most people won't be using lte, pandora, gps nav, email, and tethering all at the same time.

* times of the S3 are estimates from people that have posted in several forums. I'm researching this phone due to my own interest.

 

[mbell1975]

There is no such thing as a good Droid phone. They all suck ass. Especially if it's made by Motorola.

LOL what? Tell that to all the people who keep voting for the Razr Maxx as best smartphone available. You NEVER see a phone get more popular the older it gets. However, now that it has ICS and combined with its processor and huge battery, many people consider it the best phone out right now. Love mine.

http://www.phonedog.com/rankings/smartphones/

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Unless you can tell us what sensor thecamera will be using and the software to process it, the amount of pixels is worthless. The width and weight of the phone is likely to be a factor as well. 3300mA is good, but I would have preferred to see over 4000mA. We all know LTE is a battery hog and I am hoping that more manufacturers start using batteries with more juice, even if it means an extra mm in width or depth. The S3 comes with a 2100mA battery and using it full time, pretty much maxing it out on HSPA+ speeds, you can get about 6.5 hours. LTE would likely be half that. But most people won't be using lte, pandora, gps nav, email, and tethering all at the same time.

* times of the S3 are estimates from people that have posted in several forums. I'm researching this phone due to my own interest.

Huh? The Razr Maxx runs on LTE and the battery life kicks the crap out of the S3 on HSPA+ I can go 2 days without charging my phone under moderate use and 18-20 hours with heavy use, and thats running LTE.

 

[outz]

Huh? The Razr Maxx runs on LTE and the battery life kicks the crap out of the S3 on HSPA+ I can go 2 days without charging my phone under moderate use and 18-20 hours with heavy use, and thats running LTE.

yeah, the maxx has a larger battery for sure. personally i'd rather have the 2GB of ram / better proc / better screen of the S3 and have my battery last a day, since charging it while i sleep isnt a problem.

the maxx is still a really good phone of course.

 

[Mac.World]

Huh? The Razr Maxx runs on LTE and the battery life kicks the crap out of the S3 on HSPA+ I can go 2 days without charging my phone under moderate use and 18-20 hours with heavy use, and thats running LTE.

the definition of moderate use is different for you than for me. Moderate for you would equate to a lot of downtime for me. I look at realistic numbers.

How about this? If you can show us more than 7 hours of heavy use via a snapshot i'll believe you. This is what heavy use to me means. Running google nav (and actually having directions on and running or turn the traffic layer on) and simultaneously running pandora, email open and on push, screen at 100% (because you are running gps nav during a bright, sunny day), and sms open in the background. Screen must remain on for 3 full hours while doing this. I have seen the proof of this from an S3 and that only has a 2100mA battery.

No smartphone battery in the world will last 18 hours under 'realistic' heavy use. Oh yeah, LTE is not required for this experiment, but if it were used, you'd be lucky to hit 7 hours of heavy use.

 

[mbell1975]

the definition of moderate use is different for you than for me. Moderate for you would equate to a lot of downtime for me. I look at realistic numbers.

How about this? If you can show us more than 7 hours of heavy use via a snapshot i'll believe you. This is what heavy use to me means. Running google nav (and actually having directions on and running or turn the traffic layer on) and simultaneously running pandora, email open and on push, screen at 100% (because you are running gps nav during a bright, sunny day), and sms open in the background. Screen must remain on for 3 full hours while doing this. I have seen the proof of this from an S3 and that only has a 2100mA battery.

No smartphone battery in the world will last 18 hours under 'realistic' heavy use. Oh yeah, LTE is not required for this experiment, but if it were used, you'd be lucky to hit 7 hours of heavy use.

I would need to do a road trip to use navigation for 3 hours. Wouldn't be a problem though. The Maxx lasted nearly 38 hours on LTE with pretty decent usage in this test. Plenty of others to see online too

http://www.gottabemobile.com/2012/01/30/droid-razr-maxx-battery-test-tops-36-hours/

One Gmail account connected, averaging near 100 emails a day (not including spam)
One Twitter account connected and updating every hour (default for Twitter app)
Brightness set at Automatic (default setting)
Google Talk used heavily
1 – 1.5 hours of phone calls
A couple hours of web browsing.
45 texts sent
Light music listening
No gaming

Throw in some gaming, movie watching and navigation and it would still last well over 7 hours. I would guess a good 18-20...like I said

 

[Mac.World]

I would need to do a road trip to use navigation for 3 hours. Wouldn't be a problem though. The Maxx lasted nearly 38 hours on LTE with pretty decent usage in this test. Plenty of others to see online too

http://www.gottabemobile.com/2012/01/30/droid-razr-maxx-battery-test-tops-36-hours/

One Gmail account connected, averaging near 100 emails a day (not including spam)
One Twitter account connected and updating every hour (default for Twitter app)
Brightness set at Automatic (default setting)
Google Talk used heavily
1 – 1.5 hours of phone calls
A couple hours of web browsing.
45 texts sent
Light music listening
No gaming

Throw in some gaming, movie watching and navigation and it would still last well over 7 hours. I would guess a good 18-20...like I said

While that is not the best pic to show the processes active, you can see a lot of down time for the phone. Over a quarter of the time the phone was in standby and not in use. What they did in that test I would consider a little better than 'light use'. But again, it's easy to get over a days use when the settings like brightness are set low.

If you do what I said, watch your battery use drop like a rock.

 

[Vegastouch]

While that is not the best pic to show the processes active, you can see a lot of down time for the phone. Over a quarter of the time the phone was in standby and not in use. What they did in that test I would consider a little better than 'light use'. But again, it's easy to get over a days use when the settings like brightness are set low.

If you do what I said, watch your battery use drop like a rock.

Nobody uses their phone every minute of the day. I think thats pretty good usuage what he showed myself. I use mine less during the day but my GS3 has much better battery life than my Galaxy Vibrant did and im very happy about that.

Androids arent known for getting good battery life and im sure you know that but they are getting much better at that and with the much bigger screens are starting to have phones that have better battery life than the iPhone. You have to be impressed with that since the iPhone has been doing well in that department.

 

[Mac.World]

Dude, nobody uses their phone every minute of the day. I think thats pretty good usuage what he showed myself. I use mine less during the day but my GS3 has much better battery life than my Galaxy Vibrant did.

Androids arent known for getting good battery life and im sure you know that but they are getting much better at that and with the much bigger screens are starting to have phones that have better battery life than the iPhone. You have to be impressed with that since the iPhone has been doing well in that department.

I never said it had bad battery life. The Maxx does have great battery life. But when I see people exclaim 18 hours of 'heavy' I know they are exhaggerating just a tad. Especially on a battery that's less than 3500mA. With the new process for manufacturing cpu chips, plus software optimizatiom, utilizing cores effectively, better screen technology, I have no doubt battery life will get there. But right now, it's not. Leaving your phone in standby and having the cpu idle for much of the day is the only 'real' way to achieve those kind of hours.

Take my challenge on any smartphone that can utilize hspa+ and/or LTE. Next time you do a road trip that is longer than 3 hours, turn your nav app on and set the destination. Flip on Pandora or equivalent. Set brightness to 100% and make sure your email is set to push and texting is open in the background. Then see what your battery is after 3 hours. Will bet ya it is right around 50%. This is heavy use.

And I agree not many people will do this. An average user that has their phone in sstandby for much of the day will get well over a days use. That's easy.

And just for sh#ts and giggles, i went to Androidcentral just to see the Maxx part of the forum and find a realistic battery post. Here is what i found and this isbelievable for light to moderate usage:

I can't seem to get over 30 hours, how on earth is everyone getting over 60 hours??!!! I can get over 24 hours though, so I'm not totally complaining. Anyway, here are today's stats for battery - - do they sound good? Anything I can do to prolong battery?


1d 3h 49 m 36s (I am currently at 30%) - - and this is on 3g NOT 4g. I'm afraid what the 4g will do to the battery if I last 24 hours on 3g.

Display - 29% - 3h 46m 7s
Android OS – 20 % - 46m 57s
Phone Idle – 11% - 1d 0h 3m 28s
Cell Standby - 10 % - 1d 3h 49m 36s - - Time w/o signal 2%
Facebook 10% - CPU Total 20 m 59s; CPU foreground 10m 48s; Keep awake 1m 25s
Browser – 8% - CPU Total 16m31s; CPU foreground 16m 29s; Keep awake 19s
Mediaserver - 4% - 7m34s
Voice Calls – 4% - 4m 10s
Android Central Forums – 2% - CPU Total 3m 55s; Keep Awake 5s
Gmail – 2% - CPU Total 3m 31s; Keep Awake 11m 34s
Pandora – 2% - CPU Total 2m 6s; Keep Awake 38m 4s

 

[mbell1975]

While that is not the best pic to show the processes active, you can see a lot of down time for the phone. Over a quarter of the time the phone was in standby and not in use. What they did in that test I would consider a little better than 'light use'. But again, it's easy to get over a days use when the settings like brightness are set low.

If you do what I said, watch your battery use drop like a rock.

Well I have been trying to kill the battery or at least get it down to like 20%, no luck. Trying to keep the screen on, made a few hours worth of phone calls, all kinds of internet browsing and watching videos from websites, texts, emails....I am probably using it more than most average people would in a day unless they were doing a ton of HD movie streaming or heavy gameplay. I think its safe to say (and tests have shown that) an average user is going to get at least a full days and nights worth of use out of the battery, maybe even two. A heavy user is still going to see a full day. Remember this is with LTE! on 3G, you could go days before needing a charge and get a really long time over 4G.

 

[Vanilla Ice]

Well I have been trying to kill the battery or at least get it down to like 20%, no luck. Trying to keep the screen on, made a few hours worth of phone calls, all kinds of internet browsing and watching videos from websites, texts, emails....I am probably using it more than most average people would in a day unless they were doing a ton of HD movie streaming or heavy gameplay. I think its safe to say (and tests have shown that) an average user is going to get at least a full days and nights worth of use out of the battery. A heavy user is still going to see a full day.

Impressive!

 

[Mac.World]

Well I have been trying to kill the battery or at least get it down to like 20%, no luck. Trying to keep the screen on, made a few hours worth of phone calls, all kinds of internet browsing and watching videos from websites, texts, emails....I am probably using it more than most average people would in a day unless they were doing a ton of HD movie streaming or heavy gameplay. I think its safe to say (and tests have shown that) an average user is going to get at least a full days and nights worth of use out of the battery, maybe even two. A heavy user is still going to see a full day. Remember this is with LTE! on 3G, you could go days before needing a charge and get a really long time over 4G.

Click on the battery graph, then we will see the truth. Your display will show blanks with a few spots of on time.

I don't know why people post that picture. It tells almost next to nothing. Once you click n the battery graph, you seenwhat is really going on... And people are afraid to do this cause it ruins their illusion.

Anyway, this is the image people should be looking at.. This is an S3 and you can clearly see screen has been used a lot, phone is awake the whole time with lots of wifi tethering and intermitent 3g and 4G signals, with a lot of gps time.
This is real havy use.

 

[404 tech junkie]

Click on the battery graph, then we will see the truth. Your display will show blanks with a few spots of on time.

I don't know why people post that picture. It tells almost next to nothing. Once you click n the battery graph, you seenwhat is really going on... And people are afraid to do this cause it ruins their illusion.

Anyway, this is the image people should be looking at.. This is an S3 and you can clearly see screen has been used a lot, phone is awake the whole time with lots of wifi tethering and intermitent 3g and 4G signals, with a lot of gps time.
This is real havy use.

Image

Everyone has their own definition of heavy use. I don't consider what you posted to be heavy use. I consider that to be a going out of your way to use the phone as much as possible. Over 6 hours straight of wake time isn't normal, even for heavy usage. In a day where I use my phone frequently, I would not have 6 hours straight wake time. That may be heavy use for you, but to me that would never happen even on a day where I constantly use my phone.
BTW, people use that other screen because it shows the amount of time. One screen isn't more important than the other. They compliment each other, hence why they're both there.

 

[mbell1975]

Click on the battery graph, then we will see the truth. Your display will show blanks with a few spots of on time.

I don't know why people post that picture. It tells almost next to nothing. Once you click n the battery graph, you seenwhat is really going on... And people are afraid to do this cause it ruins their illusion.

Anyway, this is the image people should be looking at.. This is an S3 and you can clearly see screen has been used a lot, phone is awake the whole time with lots of wifi tethering and intermitent 3g and 4G signals, with a lot of gps time.
This is real havy use.

Image

ummm, thats just stupid to be honest. This is nothing close to a real world situation. This is just someone trying to burn thru a battery as fast as they can Besides, there is no way a 2100MAH battery is going to get anywhere close to a 3300MAH battery. That extra 1200 is huge.

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Everyone has their own definition of heavy use. I don't consider what you posted to be heavy use. I consider that to be a going out of your way to use the phone as much as possible. Over 6 hours straight of wake time isn't normal, even for heavy usage. In a day where I use my phone frequently, I would not have 6 hours straight wake time. That may be heavy use for you, but to me that would never happen even on a day where I constantly use my phone.
BTW, people use that other screen because it shows the amount of time. One screen isn't more important than the other. They compliment each other, hence why they're both there.

Exactly

 

[Mac.World]

ummm, thats just stupid to be honest. This is nothing close to a real world situation. This is just someone trying to burn thru a battery as fast as they can Besides, there is no way a 2100MAH battery is going to get anywhere close to a 3300MAH battery. That extra 1200 is huge.

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Exactly

Nothing close to your real world situation maybe, but for others it is. As for battery size, there are so many factors between phones that some with a 3300mA battery may only get the same amount of Up time as a 2100mA battery. Just because you have a larger battery does not always equate to longer up time.

But since we are going to use your def of usage, my iPad gets over 600 hours of use between charges and my phone gets over 200. I don't need to prove it, all I have to do is say it. Do you believe those numbers?
People put out b.s. battery numbers all the time in an attempt to make their phone look better than it is. I only post numbers closer to what you can expect if you really need to use your phone continuosly for a few hours... Say in the event you are stuck waiting for a flight, a major disaster, terror attack, or zombies take over the world.