Anyone still running an older Samsung Nexus?

[fuzzybabybunny]

How is it limping along? I'm still on 4.1.2 because anything higher causes it to lag profoundly. It's like with every new update it just gets slower and slower even though the apps stay the same.

I'm not even going to be upgrading to KitKat because I'm worried it'll become damn near unusable.

 

[vshah]

kitkat isn't coming out for it. probably because the CPU is too slow.

have you tried a custom rom?

 

[s44]

Android hasn't actually advanced since 4.1.2. Maybe 4.4 will do it.

I dumped mine for a moddable (MDK) S4 in the summer, and it was worth every full-price penny. Getting literally double the battery life, less finicky (and now, with AWS, much faster) LTE, non-horrible photos, and it's much lighter in my pocket. There's a great AOSP themed TW ROM (for the camera app) and tons of AOSP based stuff. Only problem is the hipster lament of everyone else having one too.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Android hasn't actually advanced since 4.1.2. Maybe 4.4 will do it.

I dumped mine for a moddable (MDK) S4 in the summer, and it was worth every full-price penny. Getting literally double the battery life, less finicky (and now, with AWS, much faster) LTE, non-horrible photos, and it's much lighter in my pocket. There's a great AOSP themed TW ROM (for the camera app) and tons of AOSP based stuff. Only problem is the hipster lament of everyone else having one too.

This was my first Nexus phone and it was just so fast when it came out. Butter had just been released too.

Now I'm wondering whether or not I should stay on the Nexus line. I really need a replaceable battery, so the N5 doesn't work. I would normally be happy staying with my current Nexus but the lagging is starting to get in the way - things like typing starts the lag and that's when it starts to become an issue.

I don't really follow the specs of phones that well - the Nexii phones are half the price of Samsung flagship phones. Based on the specs, do the Samsung phones manage to stay fast and lag-free like twice as long as the Nexii?

 

[ChronoReverse]

My Nexus S is only running 4.1 and is mostly just a PMP and alarm clock nowadays. The screen is too small for me lol.

 

[s44]

You may need to TRIM the internal flash memory. If you're rooted, there's a simple app for it (LagFix Free). Of course, you just may have too much stuff on it for it to run at full speed now.

Secondhand S4 is about the same as the N5. But I think you said you were allergic.

I didn't have much lag on the GNex when I ditched it, unless I tried to play 3D games. Network lag from VZ getting overloaded was the main problem besides battery. Also I can multitask and multitab much easier with 2gb RAM.

 

[Capt Caveman]

This was my first Nexus phone and it was just so fast when it came out. Butter had just been released too.

Now I'm wondering whether or not I should stay on the Nexus line. I really need a replaceable battery, so the N5 doesn't work. I would normally be happy staying with my current Nexus but the lagging is starting to get in the way - things like typing starts the lag and that's when it starts to become an issue.

I don't really follow the specs of phones that well - the Nexii phones are half the price of Samsung flagship phones. Based on the specs, do the Samsung phones manage to stay fast and lag-free like twice as long as the Nexii?

If you're concerned sealed batteries, just buy a battery pack charger. That's what I use for my N4 and future N5. I can charge my N4 four times before I need to recharge my battery pack.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Galaxy Nexus here running Jellybro CM10.2 nightlies (4.3 based)

Still going pretty strong, there is some lag when I'm running low on RAM (facebook, messaging, and hangout all open at the same time)

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

You may need to TRIM the internal flash memory. If you're rooted, there's a simple app for it (LagFix Free). Of course, you just may have too much stuff on it for it to run at full speed now.

Secondhand S4 is about the same as the N5. But I think you said you were allergic.

I didn't have much lag on the GNex when I ditched it, unless I tried to play 3D games. Network lag from VZ getting overloaded was the main problem besides battery. Also I can multitask and multitab much easier with 2gb RAM.

Whoa, thanks! I'll give lagfix a shot.

Normally I would get a used S4 but the S5 is just around the corner. I'm unsure if spending money right now for an S4 is wise or not. I don't know if the CPU would really be *that* much better than a Samsung Nexus.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Nexus S on 4.3 here. It's aite. Choppy.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Android hasn't actually advanced since 4.1.2. Maybe 4.4 will do it.

I dumped mine for a moddable (MDK) S4 in the summer, and it was worth every full-price penny. Getting literally double the battery life, less finicky (and now, with AWS, much faster) LTE, non-horrible photos, and it's much lighter in my pocket. There's a great AOSP themed TW ROM (for the camera app) and tons of AOSP based stuff. Only problem is the hipster lament of everyone else having one too.

You use a TW ROM? I basically give up on the camera being worthwhile for AOKP and GPe ROMs.

 

[Viper GTS]

I would think that the benefits of trim would make the newer OSes worthwhile on the Galaxy Nexus, I have three friends/family on GNex at my suggestion and all are happy right now fully updated.

That said, the GS4 is MUCH better in every way. It's a full two generation gap, that's an eternity in mobile. Using the GNex now feels glacier slow (to be fair it felt the same after a couple weeks with my Nexus 4 as well - It's simply massively outgunned by both newer phones).

Viper GTS

 

[s44]

I'm unsure if spending money right now for an S4 is wise or not. I don't know if the CPU would really be *that* much better than a Samsung Nexus.

The S5 won't be on Verizon for a while, and it will be even longer before it's down to the current S4 price. And given the rate of security escalation, the MDK S4 may be the last properly moddable Galaxy S on Verizon.

(OK, VoLTE, but that will mean giving up unlimited.)

Anyway, it's about 4x the horsepower. Twice the cores, and each core about twice the single-threaded speed. So... yeah, huge difference.

You use a TW ROM? I basically give up on the camera being worthwhile for AOKP and GPe ROMs.

Eclipse. Excellent AOSP theme -- inverted GApps even. Wasn't there a guy trying to port the TW camera?

 

[lothar]

If you're concerned sealed batteries, just buy a battery pack charger. That's what I use for my N4 and future N5. I can charge my N4 four times before I need to recharge my battery pack.

Which one do you use?
I might need one for back home where they still do the stupid "2 days on, 3 days off" regarding electricity.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Whoa, thanks! I'll give lagfix a shot.

Normally I would get a used S4 but the S5 is just around the corner. I'm unsure if spending money right now for an S4 is wise or not. I don't know if the CPU would really be *that* much better than a Samsung Nexus.

Are you kidding me? The TI OMAP was the slowest SoC pretty much of its generation. The difference between an N4 and my Galaxy S2 is night and day. Let's not forget the S2 pushes less pixels than your GNex.

The N5 will be WAYYY faster, and so will the S4 compared to your GNex. Lag fix may help some, but it's not going to fundamentally alter a slow device to begin with at this point.

Yes you may not feel your device is THAT slow on paper because it's not. An iPhone 4S is much slower in terms of specs. Perhaps Android 4.4 will run nicer on your phone given how its more low end tolerant, but who knows? Also, even 4.3 should give you a nice boost. TRIM helps, and so do the 4.3 optimizations. I'd argue that my Nexus 10 that I used to use Lagfix on frequently feels even faster now on 4.3. Google definitely optimized the draw operations for 4.3 which has helped the UI fluidity considerably.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Horrible if you put it side by side to my s4 or my 5s. I keep it on my desk as a Bluetooth music player but it's noticeably bad now that I'm used to this gens stuff.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Horrible if you put it side by side to my s4 or my 5s. I keep it on my desk as a Bluetooth music player but it's noticeably bad now that I'm used to this gens stuff.

Think of it like going from a C2D/C2Q based PC to a i5 Haswell.

You won't feel that the C2D/C2Q is all that bad but once you jump onto Haswell, you'll notice the difference.

I've played around with my mom's iPhone 5 and I do notice a small difference in performance, but I can still live with my gnex. The only thing that gets me is the battery life and the handoff (they need to release a new set of radios which will not happen)

 

[BrightCandle]

Samsung Galaxy Nexus. I actually found that performance had been degrading for a while until the trim release came out. But in order to restore performance I had to reset the phone, once that was done performance was about the same as before. Google has been slowing certain things down with transition effects so it appears its quicker when its not but that isn't the same thing as core features like web page browsing getting slower or anything of that nature. Seems about the same as when I got the phone more or less.

 

[Sheep]

I would think that the benefits of trim would make the newer OSes worthwhile on the Galaxy Nexus, I have three friends/family on GNex at my suggestion and all are happy right now fully updated.

Running a GSM Galaxy Nexus here on a 4.3 ROM (Purity) and the thing flies. There's a confound in that I switched providers (and phones in the process) but I get hugely better battery on my GSM Nexus on 4.3 than I ever did on my old Sprint Nexus on 4.2.x--we're talking an additional hour of screen time on average.

I've been tempted by the Nexus 5 which I know is miles beyond my Galaxy Nexus but my phone works fine and does everything I need it to, so I'm having a hard time justifying that purchase.

 

[RandomFool]

I've still got my gnex but not for long. I'm switching back to my Lumia 920 for awhile and will probably pick up the Nexus 5 at some point.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

How is it limping along? I'm still on 4.1.2 because anything higher causes it to lag profoundly. It's like with every new update it just gets slower and slower even though the apps stay the same.

I'm not even going to be upgrading to KitKat because I'm worried it'll become damn near unusable.

I think someone mentioned using a rom with trim, but im pretty sure 4.3 has trim built in, and fixed things for a lot of devices.

I was on a 4.2 rom and it really sucked, went back to completely stock, and upgraded to 4.3 and things got a lot better. I have since upgraded to a nexus 4, but I kind of wish I just waited until the 5 came out. 200 was just too good pass up on a N4.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Think of it like going from a C2D/C2Q based PC to a i5 Haswell.

You won't feel that the C2D/C2Q is all that bad but once you jump onto Haswell, you'll notice the difference.

I've played around with my mom's iPhone 5 and I do notice a small difference in performance, but I can still live with my gnex. The only thing that gets me is the battery life and the handoff (they need to release a new set of radios which will not happen)

The battery life was the worst problem. I use my phone a lot and having die out by noon unless I was stuck to a charger was not the business.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

The battery life was the worst problem. I use my phone a lot and having die out by noon unless I was stuck to a charger was not the business.

I have to charge my phone whenever possible.

Other than the battery and the radios, I have no problems with it

 

[Insomniator]

Why can't you have a sealed battery?

Seriously, are people keeping charged batteries in their pockets or something? I don't get it. I bought a little powerpack charger thing and neverrrr use it. And this is with a DNA that doesn't have the best battery in the world.

 

[podspi]

Why can't you have a sealed battery?

Seriously, are people keeping charged batteries in their pockets or something? I don't get it. I bought a little powerpack charger thing and neverrrr use it. And this is with a DNA that doesn't have the best battery in the world.

Well, I do that. Another option is replacing the tiny stock battery with something else (like the Zerolemon).