[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] vv13:
Hello XDA.

The gnex is my 1st android phone and I'm pretty excited to start tweaking it out.

I am coming from a previous generation ip4.

I am mainly switching because I am grandfathered in to Tmo Tzones and iphones don't support Tmo 3g bands, only edge.

My micro-sim adapter will arrive later today so I haven't put my sim in yet, but I've been just playing w/ ICS and inspecting the the unit itself.

Just some thoughts below.

The overall weight is pretty light, but not so light that it feels too cheap. Its ok. Materials are whatever, I guess I've been spoiled with the ip4 metal and glass.

The battery door feels cheap, but when its on you can't really tell so its not a big deal, and also I rather have a removable battery than not.

In terms of size I really like it, ip4 was just too small to browse or watch videos on. Gnex is a bit bigger but I am still able to easily handle it and use with only one hand. Still fits in the front pocket of fitted pants easily as well since its slim.

The slight curve is pretty nice, but I don't like how the whole phone is not symmetrical in thickness.

So yea, fit and finish is mediocre. Ip4 is a cut above the rest in terms of design and materials, but the gnex is a good size and still feels of decent quality in the hand overall so I'm ok with it.

ICS is nice. Pretty intuitive and easy to pick up.

No previous android experience to compare, and I'm still on the dated ios4, but it takes a few apps from cydia for the ip4 to be about where ICS is in terms of options and control out of the box. I can only imagine my options after rooting.

The os feels pretty quick and snappy, but its not as smooth as ios. Ios feels very liquid, while android feels choppy.

Things load quick, but the overall system just doesn't feel as polished.

I didn't fiddle with much, skimmed the apps and browsed settings. I did play with the camera a little. Quality is good enough for a phone camera and I really like how it snaps shots very quickly.

Overall stock system is ok, but I like android. I'm glad for the potential to tweak the phone more and can't wait to mess with it. I hope custom roms run smoother than the stock ics.

Now for my main gripe with this phone.

The screen. I am very underwhelmed.

Right when I opened the phone settings I could see a lot of funky banding on the grey background on all brightness settings.

Viewing angles are also pretty bad. Bluish green tint shows only after a bit less than 30 degrees off center from any angle.

Then I opened up the browser. The whites have issues. Brightness on max is acceptable, but anything else and it gets grainy and ugly. No uniformity.

I don't notice obvious pixelation, but browsing text and everything just looks softer and not as crisp. I felt like I was reading a newspaper haha.

Looked at some photos I snapped. Color representation is very off with this screen. Pics do pop more from the contrast when the brightness is up high though. Luckily the screen falls on the warmer side of things so its easy on my eyes.

What I do like a lot is the blacks are black even on max brightness, compared to the ip4 which has washed out blacks on high brightness.

I also like the slightly higher resolution and bigger screen size of course.

I'm a bit dated on my display tech so I did not know what to expect with the pentile amoled.

It definitely can not live up to apple's "retina" standard. Apples screen looks crystal even if you put your nose up to it.

The 1/3 less sub pixels using pentile really ruins things. Ppi really is probably effectively 200ish and not 300+ as the gnex claims on paper.

Pentile amoled seems very low quality to me. Maybe amoled in general. It has all the issues of a cheap TN lcd panel. Inaccurate colors, bad viewing angle, no screen uniformity. The pluses being extremely deep blacks and good contrast.

If you run your monitors on high brightness the screen might be acceptable, but if not its pretty bad. Unfortunately I run all my screens on very low brightness.

Mind you my monitors and tvs are calibrated and color accuracy matters to me. The ip4s ips screen does very well in this regard. Colors are very natural and also viewing angles are great, typical of ips screens. Its also brighter at max than the gnex and dimmer at min. I have to say the ip4s display is leaps above the gnex in terms of quality. Only down fall is the washed out blacks.

If you are coming from ip4 or spend most of your time on ips/pva displays etc the gnex screen will most likely be a let down.

If you haven't owned an ip4 and don't know what tech your monitor is or dont care then you will most likely be very happy with the gnex screen, just don't put it side by side an iphone 4 or you will notice issues you won't be able to remove from your brain.

For $400 + tax I can't really complain. I'm getting a lot from the phone, but its definitely not a steal of a deal. Samsung cut quite a few corners, the pentile amoled display being the most regrettable for me.

I currently have a docomo version from amazon, but will return it soon after my warrantied google one arrives. I will compare the two. I hope the next one's screen is better.

I'll stick with the gnex despite my gripes since I want to play with android, its got great dev support and its one of the best tzones compatible phone currently, but I am not as thrilled since receiving the phone.

Probably will move on to the sg3 asap if it works on my plan. They better get it right on that phone.