{"id":16281,"date":"2012-05-17T09:28:35","date_gmt":"2012-05-17T07:28:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/?p=16281"},"modified":"2012-05-17T09:28:35","modified_gmt":"2012-05-17T07:28:35","slug":"galaxy-nexus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2012\/05\/17\/galaxy-nexus\/","title":{"rendered":"Galaxy Nexus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’ve been a happy owner of Motorola Defy<\/a> for more than a year now. \u00a0It is a fantastic phone – small, well built, water resistant and powerful enough. \u00a0The only thing that bothered me about it was that Motorola stopped releasing Android updates for it and it was stack at pathetic 2.2 when the rest of the world was enjoying Android 4.0.<\/p>\n

There was a way, of course. \u00a0People have been hacking phones for as long as … well, forever. \u00a0And there is a well established path of rooting Motorola Defy and upgrading it to the newest version of Android. \u00a0I’m not the hacking type (when it comes to phones at least), so I was delaying the upgrade for as long as possible. \u00a0But with the recent hype about Galaxy Nexus phone and how awesome Android 4 is, I couldn’t any longer.<\/p>\n

I didn’t read much of the instructions, and I didn’t quite got how the process works. \u00a0Heck, I didn’t even verify the versions of all the firmware and kernel and apps that I’ve downloaded to install. \u00a0So obviously my attempt failed miserably. \u00a0I bricked the phone. \u00a0At first, it was responding to recovery boot option only, but there was nothing useful in there, so I formatted everything and pushed the original firmware. \u00a0 Which was for a different phone or country or something else. \u00a0After that, the phone didn’t even respond to the power button anymore. \u00a0Dead.<\/p>\n

I gave it to a friend, who is more experienced with these things, to see if he can revive it. \u00a0But in the meantime, I couldn’t stay without the phone, so I rushed to the shop and bought myself a … Galaxy Nexus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The price for this phone varies from place to place. \u00a0If I had more time, I could have gotten it for about 350 EUR. \u00a0But since I was in a hurry, I was robbed off 600 EUR. \u00a0Yeah, that’s the way it works. \u00a0But I wanted it so much for so long that I didn’t really care. \u00a0I’ll care next time, I promise.<\/p>\n

Before I go into any detail, let me just say this – Galaxy Nexus is everything I wanted from an Android phone and even more. \u00a0Now that I have it for almost two weeks, I can say that the positive feeling I had about it on the first day still lasts, and the more I have it, the more I can do with it and the more I like it. \u00a0Now, for the details.<\/p>\n

First things first. \u00a0This phone actually has a Google logo on the back of it. \u00a0For a long time Google fan like myself, that by itself is worth the phone price. \u00a0It’s especially cool having that logo on the device that is so tightly integrated with all the awesomeness of Google services – Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Search, YouTube, Google Picasa, Google+, Google Maps, and so on.<\/p>\n

Secondly, the thing that stands out immediately after unboxing the phone, it’s its form factor. \u00a0Compared to Motorola Defy, it’s huge! \u00a0It’s was almost awkward holding it, so big it was. \u00a0But, for that size, it was surprisingly thin and light. \u00a0I guess it’s made of plastic not glass and metal. \u00a0After using it for a day or two I totally got used to its size and it wasn’t awkward anymore.<\/p>\n

Thirdly, the screen. \u00a0The moment the phone is turned on, you know that you gonna love it. \u00a0There is no way not to love it with that screen. \u00a0As mentioned before – it’s huge. \u00a04.65 inch diagonal, 1280×720 pixel resolution, and the brightest and vividest colors that I’ve ever seen on a mobile device or tablet – an absolute pleasure.<\/p>\n

Fourthly, the performance. \u00a0It’s super fast. \u00a0It’s super fast compared to Motorola Defy. It’s super fast compared to my laptop. \u00a0It’s just super fast. \u00a0It’s so fast that it needs some getting used to. \u00a0Every single phone I ever owned, was slow compared to this. \u00a0Browsing through address book, making phone calls, editing the calendar, checking email, surfing the web – all of it is flying.<\/p>\n

Fifthly, the software. \u00a0I’ve been introduced to the variety of the software for Android for some time now. \u00a0But the tricky bit with Android Market is that it limits the apps based on the features your phone supports. \u00a0For example, if you are browsing the market with a device which runs Android 2.2, you won’t see any apps that require Android 2.3 or Android 4. \u00a0Same with some other features – large screen, WiFi connection, etc. \u00a0But with Nexus Galaxy you will pretty much see everything! \u00a0It looks like that it supports and runs every single app in the market. \u00a0And there are really awesome apps.<\/p>\n

Now that I’ve praised and boasted about Galaxy Nexus, you probably want to know the downsides. Are there any? \u00a0Yes. \u00a0Everything has a downside. \u00a0Galaxy Nexus has two – one easily solvable, one not.<\/p>\n

The easy one is the USB. \u00a0The one of the biggest differences between Galaxy Nexus and other devices is that it does not support an external SD card. \u00a0Internally, therefor, it keeps the operating system, applications and all files on the same media. \u00a0Which is dangerous to give access to non-technical people. \u00a0Things can get deleted or overwritten via USB. \u00a0So it doesn’t support USB mass storage protocol<\/a>. \u00a0Instead, you need to access it via MTP, which requires additional software or drivers. \u00a0Which I didn’t want to bother with for my Fedora Linux. \u00a0The easier way is to install AirDroid<\/a> application on the phone. \u00a0When you install and start it, your phone will provide a desktop-like web interface to all the features, using a WiFi connection. \u00a0With that, you can do pretty much everything – upload and download files, reorganize folders, browse through contacts, and even send SMS.<\/p>\n

The other issue is with volume and power buttons. \u00a0They are on the same level, on opposite sides of the device, which makes it nearly impossible pressing just one of them using one hand. \u00a0The index finger presses on the volume button at the same time as the thumb on the power button. \u00a0Somehow, I keep switching the screen off every time I need to adjust the volume, and volume up every time I wanted to send it to sleep. \u00a0 Not a biggy though.<\/p>\n

So, would I recommend Galaxy Nexus? \u00a0Absolutely! \u00a0It is the best mobile device I’ve had my hands on. \u00a0It works well both as a phone and a small tablet – for games, web browsing, and reading. \u00a0It is super fast. \u00a0It lasts more than a day on the battery, even with heavy usage. \u00a0It’s not that expensive, if you are not in a hurry. \u00a0And it has a Google logo on its back. \u00a0It is brilliant.<\/p>\n

P.S.: the friend to who I gave my bricked Motorola Defy managed to revive it. \u00a0And not only – he upgraded the Defy to Android 4.0 as well. \u00a0Now that I have my Galaxy Nexus, I’m not going back to Defy, but my wife will get a much needed phone upgrade for her 7-year old Samsung. \u00a0So all is well.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n

I’ve been a happy owner of Motorola Defy for more than a year now. \u00a0It is a fantastic phone – small, well built, water resistant and powerful enough. \u00a0The only thing that bothered me about it was that Motorola stopped releasing Android updates for it and it was stack at pathetic 2.2 when the rest … Continue reading Galaxy Nexus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,2,62],"tags":[3003,2400,1141,1601],"keyring_services":[],"class_list":["post-16281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-personal","category-technology","tag-galaxy-nexus","tag-google-android","tag-mobile","tag-phones"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t