Official ICS & Galaxy Nexus Launch Thread

[vshah]

fingers crossed that that 1700 band isn't a mistake. Won't mind paying full price for this...can still sell my sensation for $375

 

[Red Storm]

I think a sigh of relief is in order. Hoping for a quick arrival of CM9, pretty sure I can run it on my phone. I am surprised that Moto, despite knowing what's coming to compete against them on VZW, would still lock the bootloader anyway. If Google didn't delay this launch, Moto's skinny kevlar today would have produced quite a few yawns.

Why am I comparing the Gillette Pro with the katana? To put in perspective the significance of the OS in direct comparison. Specs wise, both phones are comparable. Because the open, unskinned, bloat-less, ICS-sporting, dev community inviting G Nexus is facing the complete opposite of what it stands for. the Razr is arguably the loser here, to a point where it will reflect on the sales.

Not to mention the RAZR looks butt ugly compared to the Nexus.

 

[zinfamous]

Not sure if it's been posted but here's a summary of the highlights.

http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-4.0-highlights.html

So glad it will have hardware acceleration, hopefully everything will be smooth now.

looking at those browser benchmarks, comparing Nexus S Gingerbread/ICS with Prime ICS...I wonder how the SGS2 would perform with ICS?

:hmm:

 

[zinfamous]

without a doubt. the 4s is a joke. it's the same phone that's been out for over a year now. big, clunky, heavy with tiny screen.

the GN looks phenominal and ICS looks better than I expected. finally a phone worth getting

well, that's just patently incorrect.

 

[ew915]

I feel so bad for the people who have waited for the Bionic and bought that phone. The Galaxy Nexus and in a lesser degree the Droid RAZR makes the bionic pointless.
I am really tempted to get the galaxy nexus over the iphone 4s which i have ordered already, decisions...

 

[Fire&Blood]

looking at those browser benchmarks, comparing Nexus S Gingerbread/ICS with Prime ICS...I wonder how the SGS2 would perform with ICS?

:hmm:

Likely melt it. Single benchmarks never tell the full story but:
http://www.glbenchmark.com/phonedet...pro21&D=Google+Galaxy+Nexus&testgroup=overall

The site still won't let you do side by side comparisons but you can look at the result and open the SGS2 result in a different tab.

 

[zinfamous]

fingers crossed that that 1700 band isn't a mistake. Won't mind paying full price for this...can still sell my sensation for $375

whoa, where'd you see that? It would actually work with my T-Mobile SIM...unlike my GS2? :hmm:


also--I didn't see anything in the demo about a native backup for your phone--including apps, files, everything. I'd really like to see that.

 

[Mr. Lennon]

Thud!... thats the interest in the Droid Razr you just heard...

Comment I stole from Engadget. After watching/reading about the Nexus Prime...yeah RAZR is now a thing of the past. Only thing that might turn me off is if it only has around 6 hours of battery life.

 

[zinfamous]

one thing I just realized--the on-screen buttons are an integrated part of ICS, right? How would that work on Gingerbread devices that have capacitive and/or physical buttons?

I suppose they develop ICS for certain classes of devices, that removes those buttons and adjusts the functions related to those? maybe not as big of an issue as I think it would be?

 

[Bateluer]

Thud!... thats the interest in the Droid Razr you just heard...

Sums it up well, I think.

 

[Fire&Blood]

It should be simple to adjust ICS for capacitive/physical buttons.

Having 2 or ideally just one version for all carriers cuts costs and R&D time to the OEM. Having the GSM version carry T-Mobile bands is completely in line with Google's dev phone fundamentals. I am willing to bet there will be a T-mobile version.

Slightly off topic: No mention of WIMAX. If Sprint is the one passing on the Nexus this time around, T-Mobile could make a killing by subsidizing this phone.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

I just realized something.. there's no micro sd slot..........

 

[AznAnarchy99]

It should be simple to adjust ICS for capacitive/physical buttons.

Having 2 or ideally just one version for all carriers cuts costs and R&D time to the OEM. Having the GSM version carry T-Mobile bands is completely in line with Google's dev phone fundamentals. I am willing to bet there will be a T-mobile version.

Slightly off topic: No mention of WIMAX. If Sprint is the one passing on the Nexus this time around, T-Mobile could make a killing by subsidizing this phone.

Wimax is a dead technology and was never good unless you were not moving.

 

[zinfamous]

I just realized something.. there's no micro sd slot..........

This was revealed last week or thereabouts.

...definitely concerning.

 

[Piano Man]

Likely melt it. Single benchmarks never tell the full story but:
http://www.glbenchmark.com/phonedet...pro21&D=Google+Galaxy+Nexus&testgroup=overall

The site still won't let you do side by side comparisons but you can look at the result and open the SGS2 result in a different tab.

Ugh, no bueno. The SG2's GPU smokes this thing even without ICS. I'm assuming ip4s smokes both of them. I knew this GPU was gonna be a dog

 

[vshah]

one thing I just realized--the on-screen buttons are an integrated part of ICS, right? How would that work on Gingerbread devices that have capacitive and/or physical buttons?

I suppose they develop ICS for certain classes of devices, that removes those buttons and adjusts the functions related to those? maybe not as big of an issue as I think it would be?

devices with hardware buttons will function as they used to...i tried it out in the emulator (there's a flag for hardware buttons).

 

[Krynj]

What an awesome launch. I just got the SGSII Epic 4G Touch last month, and I'll be selling it on eBay very soon and switching to VZW for this. I'm a longtime Android user, and I've been wanting to join the Nexus party for a long time, but haven't been able to due to carrier/contract restraints.

There were several times during the stream that I forgot I was looking at Android. Android has always been the mobile OS with the most features, so it's never -- ever been playing catch up in that regard. However, I can say that stock Android wasn't quite as polished as other offerings. All of Android's old features + new features + beautiful, cohesive UI = not much ammunition left for Android naysayers.

 

[gorcorps]

I just realized something.. there's no micro sd slot..........

Huh... I thought that was a given on Android devices anymore. Definitely makes me sway back to the Galaxy S2

 

[Anubis]

the Nexus S didnt have one either. i really dont mind as long as they keep putting more and more storage in the phone itself

 

[Pliablemoose]

Wow, phones are getting big... And I've had some big phones, EVO 4G/ThunderBolt/HD2

 

[Krynj]

Every smartphone I've ever owned has come with a MicroSD slot. And guess how many times I've ever actually had/wanted to swap out the card? None. Not once have I swapped out the SD card. Total non-issue for me. Plus, I find MicroSD to be awfully slow. I prefer the speed of internal flash memory.

 

[bucwylde23]

Every smartphone I've ever owned has come with a MicroSD slot. And guess how many times I've ever actually had/wanted to swap out the card? None. Not once have I swapped out the SD card. Total non-issue for me. Plus, I find MicroSD to be awfully slow. I prefer the speed of internal flash memory.

I'm the exact same way. If the phone comes with 32GB storage I'll be fine. I'm not even using up my 16 GB card now, and most of what I'm using is CWM backups/ROM zips

 

[BenSkywalker]

ICS seems like a whole lot of basic functionality that has been available to Android users for a long time rolled up into one 'fanboy friendly' package. Half of the major UI 'improvements' have been in bone stock MotoBlur for quite a while- the other half have been in SPB or Honeycomb. Going over every new UI element, watching every video I can- I see *NOTHING* new that isn't already in another Android build. Of course the 'stock Android or bust' crowd is probably seeing a whole bunch of things to be impressed with, those that aren't running around with blinders on..... not so much.

Hardware wise the lack of physical buttons isn't a great idea IMO, although I suppose some may like it. Get a 4.65" screen with less actual screen space then a 4.5" screen? Maybe I'm a bit behind the economic times, but last I knew a piece of plastic was cheaper then display size being equal.

The 720p screen sounds nice, have to see one in person. It's the only part of the phone on a hardware basis that sounds what I would call better then run of the mill. If ICS was running on every current piece of hardware, I don't think the Nexus would be on most people's short list of devices they were interested in(perhaps I'm wrong, but outside of the screen everything else seems inferior, in some cases vastily inferior- to existing high end Android offerings).

I guess it is nice to see some of the functionality that millions of Android users have had for a long time now make its' way down to the lowest end of the informed, the Android 'purists'. Other then that I think the biggest boost to the ICS launch happened over the last month or so with Apple and MS clearly pushing hard to be the next RIM. Hopefully someone steps up here and gives Google a run for their money, they clearly aren't feeling any pressure from the current crop of competitors(maybe Dell will buy WebOS and do something worth while with it).

 

[crisscross]

ICS seems like a whole lot of basic functionality that has been available to Android users for a long time rolled up into one 'fanboy friendly' package. Half of the major UI 'improvements' have been in bone stock MotoBlur for quite a while- the other half have been in SPB or Honeycomb. Going over every new UI element, watching every video I can- I see *NOTHING* new that isn't already in another Android build. Of course the 'stock Android or bust' crowd is probably seeing a whole bunch of things to be impressed with, those that aren't running around with blinders on..... not so much.

Hardware wise the lack of physical buttons isn't a great idea IMO, although I suppose some may like it. Get a 4.65" screen with less actual screen space then a 4.5" screen? Maybe I'm a bit behind the economic times, but last I knew a piece of plastic was cheaper then display size being equal.

The 720p screen sounds nice, have to see one in person. It's the only part of the phone on a hardware basis that sounds what I would call better then run of the mill. If ICS was running on every current piece of hardware, I don't think the Nexus would be on most people's short list of devices they were interested in(perhaps I'm wrong, but outside of the screen everything else seems inferior, in some cases vastily inferior- to existing high end Android offerings).

I guess it is nice to see some of the functionality that millions of Android users have had for a long time now make its' way down to the lowest end of the informed, the Android 'purists'. Other then that I think the biggest boost to the ICS launch happened over the last month or so with Apple and MS clearly pushing hard to be the next RIM. Hopefully someone steps up here and gives Google a run for their money, they clearly aren't feeling any pressure from the current crop of competitors(maybe Dell will buy WebOS and do something worth while with it).

I thought Mango performed really well? going by most of the reviews anyway. Most of the complaints seem to be with lack of apps but features wise is Mango really lacking when compared to Android? I am planning on going with mango once Nokia come out with their phones.

 

[sgrinavi]

the obvious solution is to get the iPhone 4S. Ebay it (w/ 25% markup). Buy the Nexus Galaxy. Pocket the change

I'll sell you mine for a 15% markup ;-)