[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] bradm23:
I figured I would share some information I have retrieved from a VZW Tech. This gentleman, has helped me numerous times with issues, and has been one of the most friendliest, HELPFUL, and professional customer service rep/tech that I have ever had the please of dealing with. He was so nice, he told me to hang on to his e-mail in case I ever needed anything. I will post the transcript removing his name/ e-mail for identity purposes. He hasn't gave me "the golden answer", that we all have been waiting for, but he is going up and beyond the typical rep who just blows us off as if we do not know what we are talking about.

Original Email sent by me-

Dear VZW Tech: You helped me out numerous times before and I need for you to clarify something for me. I own a Galaxy nexus and even though its a superior phone to all, I have been having very weak signal (especially 4g while comparing it to a Razr, Thunderbolt, or Bionic). Since the Nexus is a deveploper Google phone, I was searching through some developer forums and ran across people having two different hardware versions. Supposedly there is a a Hardware version 9 and 10. You can verify this in fast boot under "hardware revision" or you can also confirm this in settings under "baseband version, where there are two different versions ( I51k.09 V.EK06/ I515.EK04 and I51k.10 V.EK06/ I515.EK04).

People who have the HW10 version, have reporting seeing a lot stronger 4g signal (similar to those of the phones I mentioned above) and they also do not have the hand off problems many of us with the HW9 version have been having. Can you please try to find out what you can to see what the differences are in between these hardware versions?

Many people who have been trying to figure this out have been told by VZW and Samsung that this is simply a software/ baseband update that will change the HW from 9 to 10 and that some phones must of "had an error updating"... However as you and I know, hardware cannot be changed with software updates. I am guessing that there probably was a revision to the HW because of the issues people were having with signal which is a well known trouble ticket at VZW with the Galaxy Nexus devices. Can you please shed some light on the situation.

I can share a link with you if you like that shows pictures and testomonies of HW 9 vs 10.

Thanks for all you help, Im hoping that you can offer me the same great customer service that you have in the past. My VZW cell numer is XXX_XXX_XXXX. Feel free to call me at any time to discuss this issue.

His Reply

Hello Brad, like always I am more than happy to assist you and would like to apologize for the late reply. I have been working with a

Co-workers and a supervisor. Unfortunately as of yet we have no information on the below. I still have one more contact I want to review the below with. In the mean time if possible the number to Samsung is 888-987-4357 incase you would like to give them a call. They may or may not be able to provide you with some information on the below. I will be on vacation for 4 days I will try my best to get in touch with my contact before the end of the day if not may I email you when im back in the office?

Also can you please forward me the link? thanks

My Reply

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1433963

Thanks for looking into this for me and the developing community. Just wanting to see if the original batch of phones maybe had an older hardware that is causing the issues we are experiencing

His Reply

Just an update: we may have found some information stating that the I51k.10 V.EK06/ I515.EK04 may have been a test batch that was released and recalled by Samsung. We are not 100% sure just yet and still investigating the issue at the moment. If you do not hear from me by 4:30PM you will definitely hear from me on Monday

My latest reply

Thanks for the responses. I appreciate all of the searching you have been doing for me. I did consider that the .10 version being a test batch or something similar, however it seems as if a lot of people are now receiving this HW version vs. #9. Please keep me posted on what you find, I am very curious.

While you are at it, can you please confirm which base band version we are suppose to have; 9 or 10?

Thanks for all of your help, I hope you have a great well deserved vacation!

---------- Post added at 07:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:12 PM ----------

I think something is up. There are so many "unknown answers".... Why is Google holding up releasing 4.0.3, when there was a possible leak of 4.0.4? Why is older devices being upgraded before ours? Why is there talk about a Nexus HW revision for sprints version? Why did VZW and/or Google delay the release so many times? I know ICS is very new and there are many bugs Google needs to work out, but it just seems as if we are only receiving a percentage of the story IMO.

I personally have the .9 HW version, and even though signal is so so, the hand off is horrible. Sometimes it take 2min+ to load 3g after a reboot and airplane toggle.