iPhone 4S vs. Galaxy Nexus (VZW) - A Comparison

[Fingolfin269]

**UPDATE** Added an update, post #24 - When Android Apps go Wild!

I fired up my "new to me" phone on Wednesday night, a VZW Galaxy Nexus, and went through the entire (sort of) first day of use yesterday. Here are some of my initial impressions. I'll go through a few different categories but if there are any other comparisons you're interested in just let me know.

Note: This is obviously not a comparison of the most up to date tech but does pit the most recent versions of each os against one another as well as two phones that came out around the same time. I really like iOS and had a bad experience with Android previously (EVO 4G used up until ~Oct '11) so keep that in mind.

Screen - Let's start with the most obvious difference. The screen on this thing is ginormous in relative terms. I'll be honest, the quality of the display is not on par with the 4S, but that wasn't the top priority for me in picking up this phone. My top priority was getting my hands on a larger phone to see if I could handle the larger screen size. And the answer is a definite yes. I'll assume that there are better screens out there, with better responsiveness, less of a 'screen door' type effect, and less of a bluish tint when viewing from off centered angles. But even with all of the relative negatives it's not a total turn off so no real issue here.

OS Look/Feel - Android has come a long way since I last used it and is now close to offering the same experience as iOS. It's still not quite as smooth but the customization is a nice trade off. The one thing I'm not quite sure of yet, but can already sense with a bit of dread, is that the exchange mail/calendar offering of Android is not on par with iOS. And this could be the one deal breaker for me. Are there any apps you guys would suggest that could help level the playing field? How do I get some emails to show up on my lock screen (4-digit pin lock)?

Battery - I knew that the VZW Nexus was awful on battery going in but didn't realize it was this bad. So yesterday morning I just turned off LTE. I figure I can turn it on whenever I really need it but if I'm trying to compare 4S to Nexus then 3G is sufficient for that comparison. Even then I can't go nearly as long with this phone as the 4S but that's not an indictment of Android but of the phone and can be corrected.

Apps - I haven't noticed much difference in the apps I use so in terms of the relative quality argument I haven't experienced any issues.

Reception - This could be an issue with the phone or another issue where Apple kind of 'lies' when reporting bars. I generally got 4-5 3G bars with the 4S but only get 2-3 3G bars with the Nexus. The odd thing is that if I switch LTE on it gets more bars than 3G.

Other - This is minor. I do miss the iPhone to iPhone messaging service. I know Android has something similar but it's not as integrated so not in the same ballpark in my opinon at this point.

Verdict (at this point) - It could really go either way at this point with the Exchange email/calendar having a lot to do with it. I'm happy to know that the screen size isn't a hindrance to me, nor is the Android OS an issue for me anymore for the most part. To be honest I'm really hoping one of you guys can help me with some apps to try to help make the email/calendar issue much better because I don't want an excuse to go back to the 4S or 5 at this point.

I'll update again after having a chance to play around with it over the weekend.

 

[bearxor]

I fired up my "new to me" phone on Wednesday night, a VZW Galaxy Nexus, and went through the entire (sort of) first day of use yesterday. Here are some of my initial impressions. I'll go through a few different categories but if there are any other comparisons you're interested in just let me know.

It's not a bad device. It's what I used (the HSPA+ version) in between the iPhone 4 and the 5.

Screen - Let's start with the most obvious difference. The screen on this thing is ginormous in relative terms. I'll be honest, the quality of the display is not on par with the 4S, but that wasn't the top priority for me in picking up this phone. My top priority was getting my hands on a larger phone to see if I could handle the larger screen size. And the answer is a definite yes. I'll assume that there are better screens out there, with better responsiveness, less of a 'screen door' type effect, and less of a bluish tint when viewing from off centered angles. But even with all of the relative negatives it's not a total turn off so no real issue here.

I would imagine the "screen door" effect you're seeing is PenTile. Stay away from Samsung devices. I'll cue the flock of people coming in saying "You can't see the subpixels at 1280x720 on a 4.65" screen!" now.

Edit: If you want to test this, roll up in to a AT&T store. Take a look at the GS3 compared to your Nexus. Then go look at a HTC OneX compared to your Nexus and see which one you like better.

OS Look/Feel - Android has come a long way since I last used it and is now close to offering the same experience as iOS. It's still not quite as smooth but the customization is a nice trade off. The one thing I'm not quite sure of yet, but can already sense with a bit of dread, is that the exchange mail/calendar offering of Android is not on par with iOS. And this could be the one deal breaker for me. Are there any apps you guys would suggest that could help level the playing field? How do I get some emails to show up on my lock screen (4-digit pin lock)?

This is an aside, but kind of on topic. Does your work require you to have a PIN code lock? If so, you might want to try the trial of TouchDown!. This will let you pull your Exchange email in and separate it from the rest of the system. So your PIN isn't asked for until you open TouchDown.

Fair warning though, the TouchDown client is terrible. Even worse than Android's stock email/calendar app. That's really saying something IMO. But it was worth it when I didn't want my companies policies intruding on my device. I haven't even added Exchange back to my iPhone since I switched back (but, I do keep it on my iPad, which has cellular and I nearly always have with me anyways).

Battery - I knew that the VZW Nexus was awful on battery going in but didn't realize it was this bad. So yesterday morning I just turned off LTE. I figure I can turn it on whenever I really need it but if I'm trying to compare 4S to Nexus then 3G is sufficient for that comparison. Even then I can't go nearly as long with this phone as the 4S but that's not an indictment of Android but of the phone and can be corrected.

The battery on the GNex is pretty bad, and I can imagine the Verizon version is worse than the HSPA+ version even on regular 3G. On my iP4 and now iP5, I could go the whole day, regular usage, and leave work with about 70% battery left. The GNex would die halfway through the day. Had to put a charger at my desk and leave it plugged in all day.

Reception - This could be an issue with the phone or another issue where Apple kind of 'lies' when reporting bars. I generally got 4-5 3G bars with the 4S but only get 2-3 3G bars with the Nexus. The odd thing is that if I switch LTE on it gets more bars than 3G.

I don't think that's odd. Most likely in your case, VZW is running 3G on 1900mhz around you. The LTE will be on 700mhz. Longer range per tower, better building penetration. If you don't believe the bars on the iPhone, fire up the field test mode, *3001#12345#*, and you'll see the actual atenuation number instead of bars. The higher the better (keeping in mind that -80 is a "higher" number than -100).

I'll update again after having a chance to play around with it over the weekend.

It's my opinion that the best way to tell is to use the device on a daily basis, so good on you. I went straight cold turkey with my two-month trial this year. Got the GNex and sold the iPhone 4. That way I wouldn't have any distractions. To tell the truth, I could probably switch to Android and be fine. But I can stay on iOS and be fine. And I have a lot invested in the iOS ecosystem at this point.

IMO, both operating systems are "fine". There just isn't anything significantly important enough to pull me off iOS, so I stuck with it for another year. And everything on Windows Phone seems geared towards "social" activities and as a guy with no facebook or twitter account, I simply can't even justify trying WP8 at this point.

There's always next years trial.

 

[Red Storm]

I would get the extended battery for the Nexus, it barely adds to thickness and actually evens out the weight of the Verizon model to make for a better hold IMHO.

While it does use more battery than the 4S (kinda obvious since you're stuck with 3G only on that iPhone), I always made it through the day with mine.

 

[obidamnkenobi]

I use Enhanced Email to get my work Exchange email to work properly. Calendar also seems to import ok as far as I know. (I only have the occasional appointment there).

(!)However, the EE dev is in the process of a major overhaul of the app, to look more like JB etc. The old version does not work right in JB so I got to try the beta instead (that or he would also refund you). It's nice, promising, but a bit buggy. I get force close daily from the inbox. I'm ok using it, since i'm not heavy on the email. I read em and that's mostly it, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it yet. Maybe once it's done. EE is normally $10.
There are other exchange email apps, but I didn't try any other paid ones. Oh, I did try k9 email, but don't quite remember why I stopped using it I think it was Exchange not working right

 

[grkM3]

I have a nexus and gs3,the screen on the nexus is junk compared to the gs3.It has horrible shadows/trails/screendoor and the colors change with tilting the viewing angle a bit also.

the gs3 has NONE of these issues and I challange anyone to go and compare the 2.No trails,no ghosting,no screen door effect and tilting the screen does not change the colors like it does on my nexus.

the only problem it has is its not as bright as an lcd but it smokes the living crap out of them in contrast ratio.

Its not from the pentile,its just a pos screen to begin with

 

[Chocu1a]

Get the official extended battery. It helps get you through the day better. Honestly, though, if you have a Nexus, UN LOCK, ROOT, & ROM that baby. With a custom rom/kernel combo, I can get 12-14 hours of use, a little over 2 hours of screen time on & still have a little juice left.

 

[bearxor]

I have a nexus and gs3,the screen on the nexus is junk compared to the gs3.It has horrible shadows/trails/screendoor and the colors change with tilting the viewing angle a bit also.

the gs3 has NONE of these issues and I challange anyone to go and compare the 2.No trails,no ghosting,no screen door effect and tilting the screen does not change the colors like it does on my nexus.

the only problem it has is its not as bright as an lcd but it smokes the living crap out of them in contrast ratio.

Its not from the pentile,its just a pos screen to begin with

I haven't compared a GNex to a GS3 side-by-side.

Comparing a GS3 to a OneX makes the GS3 look like an exceptionally shitty screen.

 

[grkM3]

I haven't compared a GNex to a GS3 side-by-side.

Comparing a GS3 to a OneX makes the GS3 look like an exceptionally shitty screen.

maybe you saw a bad gs3.but the nexus screen is horrible,me and my brother both got them at launch and almost at the same time said the screen fing sucks ballz lol

my only issue with the gs3 is the colors need to be tweaked and I did that with a modded kernal and set it up to have a little more blue and I did the best I could on my nexus but that screen has serious issues.

Its not from the pentile as a lot of other phones and even lcds use it.

on the nexus if you tilt the phone up and down vertically the white will fade to blue/grey and it has horrible ghosting trails like if you open a new page you will see old text slowy fade away.

I modded the heck out of the kernal to speed up refresh and changed as much as I could to correct it and just gave up.

I would not use the nexus as an example of a good amold screen,just go look at the note and note 2,those screens are amazing and also have no issues,its like samsung had a bunch of bad screens and just used them on the nexus to get rid of them.

also in what ways does the screen look bad to a one x? I have compared them and the only thing I noticed is white is whiter and brighter but black was lacking,I saw no issues from pentile and the text looks almost identicle to the gs3 other than white being brighter.

on the other hand the black detail the gs3 has is alot better than the one x,its a trade off like on plasmas vs lcd/leds you get insane black detail but lack white brightness

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

The GS3 uses roughly the same screen tech as the GNex. The GS3 just has the cover glass bonded to the display so it looks gapless and better.

 

[grkM3]

The GS3 uses roughly the same screen tech as the GNex. The GS3 just has the cover glass bonded to the display so it looks gapless and better.

night and day difference on screens

if roughly means to 100% get rid of ghosting/trails,white looking like blue and all the colors shifting when moving the cell off angle then be it but im willing to bet its a whole new panel design

 

[dagamer34]

I think the oversaturated colors are a worse problem on the Galaxy S III than the PenTile display itself. They aren't as accurate as the One X.

 

[bearxor]

*snip*

I've gone over this in some older threads when I was trying to decide which Android device to buy, a GS3 or a OneX. Suffice it to say the GS3 is significantly muted, color wise, not as easy to see in bright lights, and I could definitely see flaring on the edges of text and pictures.

At the time the AT&T store had them right next to each other so I was able to fire up websites, youtube videos and pictures and check them out on both screens simultaneous. The only tweak I did between the two was disabling automatic brightness and then setting the brightness level on each to what was comfortable for my eyes.

The OneX screen simply destroyed the SGS3 screen, IMO. It's all subjective, of course, so there's room for you and I to have differing opinions on the matter. You prefer it, I don't.

Additionally, there's no fucking way I'm rooting, flashing or tweaking to get my screen to look halfway decent. I'm so past that point in my life. If it doesn't work the way I want it to out of the box, I'm not likely to spend more than 5 minutes looking for a way to make it work like I want to before saying "fuck it". So... Back to an iPhone for me.

Edit: As evidenced though, I'll spend hours talking about it. I'll spend significantly more time complaning about a problem than I will spending time to look for a way to correct it.

 

[Skurge]

The screen on the gnex is pretty poor compared to modern phones. The S3 has a much better display. The Note 2 is even better. Seems like the nexus got the short end of the stick in that deal. It's still miles better in terms of contrast and response time compared to a nexus 7 for example.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Thanks for some of the comments guys. Just a few of my own to add here...

1) I do have the official 2100 extended battery so that has helped. I managed to pull ~13 hours with 2-2.5 hours of screen time yesterday but that was with LTE off. To be honest I'm actually ok with the battery as it stands. That was an intentional run down without bothering to plug in. I should normally be able to plug in though so the battery looks to be a non-issue as long as I stay on 3G.

2) My biggest gripes right now have to do with just what I was accustomed to on iOS. For example, is there a setting or an app that allows me to do any of the following?

a) Not have the screen lock immediately after pressing the screen off button? I'd like to be able to set a lock delay. I see a setting that allows me to set the lock to auto-lock after sleep but I also don't want it to auto-lock when I press the screen off button. (sorry not sure what the real name for this button is. )

b) Is there an app or setting that allows me to show certain information on the lock screen? I want to be able to see previews of my emails/unread texts before deciding if its worth unlocking to read the whole thing or respond to.

3) I've heard that certain rom/kernel combinations can definitely help with the VZW Nexus battery issues, even on the LTE side. Do any of you have a favorite that is closest to the look and feel of stock JB? I'm really liking this stock experience.

 

[grkM3]

Screen adjuster is free in the market and doesn't require root access.

 

[vshah]

widgetlocker for putting widgets on the lockscreen. try out CM10 for your first rom, it's basically stock with a few added features/performance.

if you're feeling adventurous you could try out a custom kernel that allows for undervolting. franco kernel is my favorite.

 

[Red Storm]

Just curious but what purpose is there to the lock button other than locking your phone (or holding to turn off)? I don't understand what the feature you're requesting would be used for.

New emails/texts/etc show up in notifications. I'm pretty sure you can pull down the notification to get a look at things before deciding the unlock.

 

[TuxDave]

Just curious but what purpose is there to the lock button other than locking your phone (or holding to turn off)? I don't understand what the feature you're requesting would be used for.

If I had to guess based on what you can do on iOS. If you push the screen off button, you don't have to re-enter the passcode if you want to immediately turn the screen back on. You can set it to delay for a minute (or other values) so if you turn off the screen and don't touch it for a minute, it'll require the passcode again.

 

[ponyo]

If you haven't already, I would recommend complete factory image flash via fastboot before you get too comfortable and load up the phone. You don't know what the previous owner did and there could be ghosts present. Factory image flash will completely wipe and cleanup your phone so you can be fully sure it's factory fresh. You can download the image for your phone directly from Google. I also recommend you flash it manually yourself instead of using some toolkit so you can get comfortable with the process and how your phone works. I can link you with XDA thread which will explain and walk you through if you would like.

As for custom Roms and kernels, I like completely stock everything. I haven't seen any evidence custom Roms and kernels really help with battery life. I didn't get as good battery life with 4.1.1 Jellybean as I did with 4.0.4 ICS but the new 4.1.2 update seems to have fixed that. Yesterday I got over 4 hours minutes of screen time use entirely on cell signal and no WiFi after 16 hours of being unplugged. And I still wasn't in the red. But I have GSM Galaxy Nexus with official 2000 mAH extend battery.

 

[obidamnkenobi]

a) Not have the screen lock immediately after pressing the screen off button? I'd like to be able to set a lock delay. I see a setting that allows me to set the lock to auto-lock after sleep but I also don't want it to auto-lock when I press the screen off button. (sorry not sure what the real name for this button is. )

b) Is there an app or setting that allows me to show certain information on the lock screen? I want to be able to see previews of my emails/unread texts before deciding if its worth unlocking to read the whole thing or respond to.

a)
settings>security there is a checkbox for "Power button instantly locks". I think that's what you're looking for? I tried it and now the power button just turns the screen off.

b) I'd like to know this as well
sorta related, I do like Light Flow to customize the color of the notification LED for different apps. Just wish it would let me use different colors per email account (work is more important than my "trash" hotmail account etc..).
Enhanced email can at last use different colors for the email envelope in the notification bar depending on account. But like I said; beta..

 

[obidamnkenobi]

New emails/texts/etc show up in notifications. I'm pretty sure you can pull down the notification to get a look at things before deciding the unlock.

Nope. not on mine at least.... (PIN unlock.)

 

[Fingolfin269]

If I had to guess based on what you can do on iOS. If you push the screen off button, you don't have to re-enter the passcode if you want to immediately turn the screen back on. You can set it to delay for a minute (so if you turn off the screen and don't touch it for a minute, it'll require the passcode again)

Yep this is what I'm referring to. I want to turn the screen off to conserve battery not necessarily to immediately lock the screen. I just want to be able to set a lock button lock delay so to speak.

And I just tried viewing a new email from the lock screen via pull down but no luck there unfortunately.

 

[Fingolfin269]

a)
settings>security there is a checkbox for "Power button instantly locks". I think that's what you're looking for? I tried it and now the power button just turns the screen off.

Thanks I totally overlooked this setting!

 

[Fingolfin269]

**UPDATE**

Had my first 'incident' that I think would not have happened in an iOS app. I'm on VZW and have a 2GB per month cap. This morning I managed to download what I usually consume in a month in the span of about an hour via the Amazon MP3 app (almost a GB!!!).

Here's what happened:

1) Last night I installed the Amazon app and decided to download all of my stuff from the cloud. I was at home and on wi-fi so no problem.
2) The gf was uploading some stuff to shutterfly at the same time and we were also watching something on Netflix. I noticed the PQ wasn't that great so decided to just stop downloading from Amazon. I didn't see a stop button so I just hit pause and closed the app.
3) This morning when I got to work I noticed the phone was a little warm for some reason and figured something must be wrong so decided to power down/restart the phone. I did this, plugged it into a charger, and walked away.
4) I returned about an hour later and noticed the Amazon icon in the upper left corner. Curious, I opened it up and realized it was downloading! AHH why!

So basically two problems here. First, Amazon programmed its app to automatically turn on and resume paused downloads after a phone restart. Second, and this is at least partially my fault, it appears the setting to download over WiFi only was not checked. I have no idea if this by default or if I screwed something up in the initial setup. Regardless, why in the world would the Amazon app automatically resume, by default, after a phone restart?

This isn't enough to make me go back to iOS by any means as I'm really enjoying the experience thus far. It is definitely one of those things where I feel like Android users are more at risk than iOS users. I caught it but the first thing I remember thinking after 'oh shit!' was 'If this had happened to my gf it wouldn't have been caught and we would be in for a fun cell bill surprise...'

 

[Topweasel]

**UPDATE**

Had my first 'incident' that I think would not have happened in an iOS app. I'm on VZW and have a 2GB per month cap. This morning I managed to download what I usually consume in a month in the span of about an hour via the Amazon MP3 app (almost a GB!!!).

Here's what happened:

1) Last night I installed the Amazon app and decided to download all of my stuff from the cloud. I was at home and on wi-fi so no problem.
2) The gf was uploading some stuff to shutterfly at the same time and we were also watching something on Netflix. I noticed the PQ wasn't that great so decided to just stop downloading from Amazon. I didn't see a stop button so I just hit pause and closed the app.
3) This morning when I got to work I noticed the phone was a little warm for some reason and figured something must be wrong so decided to power down/restart the phone. I did this, plugged it into a charger, and walked away.
4) I returned about an hour later and noticed the Amazon icon in the upper left corner. Curious, I opened it up and realized it was downloading! AHH why!

So basically two problems here. First, Amazon programmed its app to automatically turn on and resume paused downloads after a phone restart. Second, and this is at least partially my fault, it appears the setting to download over WiFi only was not checked. I have no idea if this by default or if I screwed something up in the initial setup. Regardless, why in the world would the Amazon app automatically resume, by default, after a phone restart?

This isn't enough to make me go back to iOS by any means as I'm really enjoying the experience thus far. It is definitely one of those things where I feel like Android users are more at risk than iOS users. I caught it up but the first thing I remember thinking after 'oh shit!' was 'If this had happened to my gf it wouldn't have been caught and we would be in for a fun cell bill surprise...'

I get your point there, but keep in mind that even on iOS this stuff can be missed. Apple had an issue recently where even if people had wifi on the phone was still downloading info from their 3g/4g connection. But yeah overall because Android allows both users and app creators more freedom, it also means that you have to make sure your settings are correct in most apps. There are some overriding options as well, like ICS has a data usage setting, that will turn off 3g/4g data if you go above whatever you set a threshold.