Good first impressions review. Liking the multi-tasking feature especially, and the video quality looks great. Maybe it's one of the first handsets where they've spent some time with the lens and sensor rather than simply yelling about larger MP figures. Best part of course though is that screen - would love it. On the other hand, it's a shame that in such a large handset it's got the same CPU as the SGS II and the battery is smaller (1750mAh vs 2000mAh), so battery life will presumably be worse, especially when the larger screen is factored in too. I also didn't particularly like the gun-metal-grey look, though it's something different from black or white I guess. I just think it looks cheap when in plastic, and while the feel is much the same as the SGS II, the colouration makes it appear worse. (I'll clarify and say I've played around with a demo handset (work for Three in the UK), but I didn't know about the multi-tasking feature or LED change).
nice review, ICS looks great. but personally i think the hardware is bland, i really wish a manufacturer would step up to apple and make a distinctive well made phone, HTC did it quite well, but lately they have released so many phones that are near identical to each other. As of now Nokia are the only manufacturer that comes to my mind, i think the N9/lumia is the best looking and well made phone out there, the only thing that puts me off is the specs, although from the reviews i've seen lack of performance isn't a major issue. though saying that i am still very tempted by the galaxy nexus.
I have had this phone for a couple of weeks now and it really is a good phone. The screen is fantastic, and although it is big it doesnt feel massive in my hands. ICS is a great OS, having moved from a jailborken 3GS it's nice not having to hack my phone to get what I want.....although I am missing some of my jailbroken apps The mulitasking feature is great, as is the slide down notification area. While the Android Market might not be as polished as the Apple app store, after a bit of googling and research you can find equivelant apps, if the same don't exist. The face unlock is a great party feature but nothing more than that. I just use the slide to unlock to get into my phone! As to the not so great, I'm not a fan of the picture quality under artificial light, its too dark and often blurry, also the flash can be too harsh uner low light conditions (hopefully they can improve with some firmware updates) out door photography is amazingly good though, crisp images and good colours. (I'm no photo expert, just my opinion) Some people might find fault with the hardware, but I think it's fine. The lack of sd card slot might irk some people, but having come from an iPhone with the same size internal storage, I don't find a problem with it. Finally, battery life on the phone is fantastic. Using it quite regulary day to day, I'm normally at about 40% when I go to bed (hours = 8am-11pm) Oviously if you do a lot of on screen stuff on full brightness (e.g. playing a game for an hour) then the battery life will drop quite quickly (I think rough figures are around 5 hours of gaming from looking around forums). It seems to be very efficient when the phone is in sleep mode, and battery drain is minimal when not in use. Web browsing is really fast too, loading web pages pretty sharpish, although flash hasn't been released for ICS, I havent found it a problem when browsing day to day. Overall I love this phone, and although it has a couple of shortcomings that I mentioned, I would recommend it to pretty much anyone!
Had mine for a week now, it's a beast. Coming from an HTC Desire it is a lot bigger but not quite "too big", although the notification bar is a bit of a stretch from my normal holding position. ICS is great, there's very little lag anywhere and it just snaps around brilliantly. The camera is ok for stills, only taken a couple of shots and not been overly impressed but video quality is very good. Battery life hasn't been great for me so far; charged to 100% yesterday around 10am, downloaded a few apps from the market but spent half the day with the data connection turned off, airplane mode between midnight and 8am and still needed charging again this morning. Will see if it improves though. I'll crack out the macro lens later and try to get some closeups of the screen; it really is amazing.
I've been playing with a galaxy note for the last couple of weeks. If you EVER feel your phone is too big, go and play with one of those in a shop. My galaxy s 2 feels tiny now, and I can't use an iphone 3GS. Its just too small, It makes my eyes hurt.
The Pentile RGBG arrangement was a real disappointment on my Desire but on this you just don't notice the offset pixels unless you wedge your eyeball against the screen. Sure, an RGBRGB arrangement would be better, but there's no complaints from me here.
I haven't had any issues with the handset in terms of speed though (it's very snappy) and the CPU is the TI OMAP which is completely different to the CPU in the SGS2, it's a different SoC. In terms of the plastic casing I would agree and the 16gig coupled with a not so amazing graphics card just packs my head in. On the flip side though, I really havent had any lag playing videos and just generally using the phone so it doesn't really effect the end user experience. Ha! My hands aren't massive either, good to see I'm not the only one.
My hands are pretty massive though, I have the longest thumbs of anyone I know I think I just hold it too far down; usually with the bottom edge resting on my straight little finger. I'm patiently waiting for a Facebook update so I can have contact photos, everything is a bit bland at the moment. Half of the stuff in Widgetsoid doesn't seem to work yet either (specifically network data, 2G/3G and flashlight toggles)
