Official ICS & Galaxy Nexus Launch Thread

[zerocool84]

Seems crazy we're still waiting for an update for a supposed developer phone. I wanted the Galaxy Nexus so I could remain stock and still get timely updates, but doesn't look like that's the case. I really didn't want to play the rom game like I did with my Droid 1, but I'm headed that way. I'll wait until early May and see what Verizon does, then I'll go ahead and rom it.

It's already been widely discussed that if you're on CDMA, your updates are no longer part of AOSP since CDMA is not open source.

http://androidcommunity.com/google-...per-phones-not-publishing-aosp-code-20120206/

 

[hans007]

Seems crazy we're still waiting for an update for a supposed developer phone. I wanted the Galaxy Nexus so I could remain stock and still get timely updates, but doesn't look like that's the case. I really didn't want to play the rom game like I did with my Droid 1, but I'm headed that way. I'll wait until early May and see what Verizon does, then I'll go ahead and rom it.

According to Google they alone have say in when updates are pushed on the i515. Some nexus in other countries its the carriers it Samsung s choice but I know Google has come out and said the Verizon model is their choice. I mean they just pushed ics to the sprint nexus 4g. Maybe Google just is slow with cdma. Or Samsung is slow with kernel drivers or radios. http://rootzwiki.com/topic/16723-verizon-fail-ota/

Read there. I know I read a post from some Google engineers that its their call to push updates but can't find it right now. Could be qualcomm holding them off because of cdma licenses too

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Just sounds quite a hassle to queue up music on youtube when you're driving or working out.
Why don't you use a youtube downloader?

Dont get me wrong, I dont usually do it at all.

Its like when I hear a new song on the radio so I look it up on youtube to play real quick.

Ill download the song when I get home on my computer but its those spontaneous moments or those moments when you want to hear the song on youtube but answer a text or something.

 

[ponyo]

3) iPhone 4 with cellular network on has 3 - 4x better battery life than G Nex with only WIFI on, and the difference is still 2.5 - 3x with the extended battery pack on the G Nex. I have done every tweak possible that XDA suggested, and also tested undervolting. There is just no way around this. Seems more like an OS issue than radio issue (since there is no 4G/LTE sim in my G Nex). Well, at least now you won't have to blame 4G for bad battery life. I firmly believe some software updates may fix this, though, since I've noticed different ROMs give different battery life (worst case had the G Nex drain 30 - 40% in 1 hour just browsing the web)

No way iPhone 4 has 3-4x better battery life. Stock G Nex has ~6 hours of continuous screen time. I've tested this and can confirm with screen shot. It's about what Anand got with their battery test as well.

Given there are so many variables with battery life, I can believe 2x better battery life which is already huge advantage. But 3-4x? No way unless there's something wrong with your G Nex.

I'm getting about double the battery life than I got with my previous phone- Samsung Vibrant. I was barely able to make it through the day with that phone, and I did have to watch my use. With G Nex, I don't worry about the battery life and I can pretty much use it without worry. I generally have 2 hours of screen use during a typical day and I usually end the day with about 50% battery life. Since I recharge each night before bed, I just need to get through the day without worry. I haven't had a single close call with battery life.

 

[runawayprisoner]

No way iPhone 4 has 3-4x better battery life. Stock G Nex has ~6 hours of continuous screen time. I've tested this and can confirm with screen shot. It's about what Anand got with their battery test as well.

Given there are so many variables with battery life, I can believe 2x better battery life which is already huge advantage. But 3-4x? No way unless there's something wrong with your G Nex.

I'm getting about double the battery life than I got with my previous phone- Samsung Vibrant. I was barely able to make it through the day with that phone, and I did have to watch my use. With G Nex, I don't worry about the battery life and I can pretty much use it without worry. I generally have 2 hours of screen use during a typical day and I usually end the day with about 50% battery life. Since I recharge each night before bed, I just need to get through the day without worry. I haven't had a single close call with battery life.

Standby time, iPhone 4 gets up to 2 days 14 hours. G Nex gets 20 hours just with WIFI on. Some ROMs are worse at 16 hours.

Screen on with browsing (Flash off), G Nex does 4 hours. iPhone does 8.

I don't gain anything from falsifying or exaggerating any of this information. It's just my personal experience with either phone.

 

[ponyo]

I'll share my experience. I'm on stock everything. Stock rom, stock kernel, stock radio. This was on 4.0.2.

(After 39 hours, 21% battery life left with screen on time of 2 hours 11 minutes.)


Next pictures are after OTA 4.0.4 update. Still stock everything.

(After 16 hours, 22% battery life left with screen on time of 4 hours 1 minute.)

 

[dguy6789]

Can't wait for VZW to push out the OTA ahhhhhhhh

 

[Chocu1a]

Standby time, iPhone 4 gets up to 2 days 14 hours. G Nex gets 20 hours just with WIFI on. Some ROMs are worse at 16 hours.

Screen on with browsing (Flash off), G Nex does 4 hours. iPhone does 8.

I don't gain anything from falsifying or exaggerating any of this information. It's just my personal experience with either phone.

Having had an iPhone 4, & now a G.Nex, I can say I honestly get about the same battery time out of both, but with the G.Nex I am using 4G instead of 3G like the iP4. Same usage patterns & I come home with between 16-22% on any given day with around 13-16 hours off charge. Same as when I had the iPhone 4. Main difference is that now I have a spare battery to swap if I ever need it, which I have only twice, instead of rushing to plug in the iPhone 4 on heavier usage.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Having had an iPhone 4, & now a G.Nex, I can say I honestly get about the same battery time out of both, but with the G.Nex I am using 4G instead of 3G like the iP4. Same usage patterns & I come home with between 16-22% on any given day with around 13-16 hours off charge. Same as when I had the iPhone 4. Main difference is that now I have a spare battery to swap if I ever need it, which I have only twice, instead of rushing to plug in the iPhone 4 on heavier usage.

best part is yes, the removable battery.

 

[ponyo]

According to Google they alone have say in when updates are pushed on the i515. Some nexus in other countries its the carriers it Samsung s choice but I know Google has come out and said the Verizon model is their choice. I mean they just pushed ics to the sprint nexus 4g. Maybe Google just is slow with cdma. Or Samsung is slow with kernel drivers or radios. http://rootzwiki.com/topic/16723-verizon-fail-ota/

Read there. I know I read a post from some Google engineers that its their call to push updates but can't find it right now. Could be qualcomm holding them off because of cdma licenses too

OTA updates are pushed by Google and distributed directly from Google's server but it still needs to pass Verizon internal quality control and testing. And Verizon being US carrier, the process takes lot longer. It seems international GSM carriers are easier to work with and the approval process is faster.

 

[runawayprisoner]

Well, I'm ditching the stock browser to go back to Dolphin now. Let's see if that will help with battery life. I noticed stock browser was taking 80% battery drain on my current ROM.

Edit: I didn't try Dolphin on ICS, but I guess... apparently, I should have! It's now the smoothest browser I have tried on ICS. I thought the stock browser was smoother than what I got from Dolphin when I last ran it on Ginger, but it seems Dolphin on ICS is on a whole new realm of performance.

Good first impression. I think I'll finally get to see battery life improve.

 

[ponyo]

I went ahead and finally ordered the official GSM Samsung extended battery. Expansys has it for $34 shipped. I also bought official Samsung battery charging stand for $12 shipped from Korea which I thought was great price. The extended battery is rated at 2000 mAh vs the stock 1750 mAh. 250 mAh difference is small but I'll take the extra ~14% battery life. Especially when the price difference between the stock and extended is only $4.

I don't need the extended battery but I had this phone for about 5 months and plan to keep this phone for awhile. I figure it's best to buy the battery and cover while it's easy to find.

 

[runawayprisoner]

Well, what did I know? Dolphin HD improved battery life.

By a LOT.

As in... now I can browse continuously for 1 hour freely ("free" to me means no turning off Flash and ads galore while I check out random websites and watch Flash video clips non-stop) and battery won't even drop 8%. That's simply amazing. It's been 12 hours and I'm down to 72%!

I retract what I said earlier. It seems the Galaxy Nexus can easily match the iPhone 4 in terms of battery life, which in my books means it'll easily beat the iPhone 4S. I'm loving this phone more and more.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

ponyo is your's GSM or CDMA? and is that on wifi all day?

I can barely hit 8 hours sometimes but now Im thinking its cause im on LTE all day everywhere.

 

[hans007]

ponyo is your's GSM or CDMA? and is that on wifi all day?

I can barely hit 8 hours sometimes but now Im thinking its cause im on LTE all day everywhere.

Lte is a huge power hog. On mine with lean kernel and the 4.04 ota with lte on just idle I'll lose about 35% in an 8 hour workday. If its on wifi 8 hours idle is like 3%

 

[Demo24]

What really kills it is when your on the edge of service like a building. I thought lte was suppose to penetrate better, but I've yet to see that. The 3g antenna just seems to be terrible and if I'm on the edge the battery just goes to nothing annoyingly quickly.


Curious, has anyone noticed the screen randomly turning on for like a second and then going right back off? Every so often I think km getting a call as the screen lites up and then I watch the screen turn off again. I was thinking it may be some app syncing and for some reason turning the screen on in the process, but I can't quite narrow down which app would cause this.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Well, what did I know? Dolphin HD improved battery life.

By a LOT.

As in... now I can browse continuously for 1 hour freely ("free" to me means no turning off Flash and ads galore while I check out random websites and watch Flash video clips non-stop) and battery won't even drop 8%. That's simply amazing. It's been 12 hours and I'm down to 72%!

I retract what I said earlier. It seems the Galaxy Nexus can easily match the iPhone 4 in terms of battery life, which in my books means it'll easily beat the iPhone 4S. I'm loving this phone more and more.

looks like im going to dl and see

 

[ponyo]

ponyo is your's GSM or CDMA? and is that on wifi all day?

I can barely hit 8 hours sometimes but now Im thinking its cause im on LTE all day everywhere.

Mine is GSM. Yeah, the LTE is battery killer. The only current way around that is by brute force like the huge battery on the Razr Maxx.

You can see how long I was on cell radio or WiFi by looking at the royal blue-purplish line under the line graph. Blue line means I was on WiFi. Black empty space means I was on 3g cell radio. On the 4.0.2, 39 hour one you can see I was on the cell radio about 60-70%. The 4.0.4, 16 hour one I was on WiFi like 90+%. Yesterday after 23 hours 36 minutes, I had 46% battery life left with screen on of 2 hours 23 minutes. But that was on ~95% WiFi as well. I think the battery life on 4.0.4 is slightly better but I had no complaint with 4.0.2. 4.0.1 didn't have that good battery life for me.

But everyone uses their phone differently and there are so many variables that effect battery life. Personally I think stock everything has the best battery life. I keep my phone on automatic brightness and the only thing I turn off is Bluetooth and GPS. Everything else is on. I have 3 widgets on screen and 2 push email accounts. Everything set to automatic sync.

As long as I can comfortably get through the day with my normal use, that's good enough battery life for me. I charge every night unless I forget so anything extra is simply peace of mind and bragging rights.

iPhone 4 is still the benchmark when it comes to battery life. But Android phones are getting better.

 

[dguy6789]

Is it possible to root the VZW Galaxy Nexus without doing the equivalent of a factory reset?

 

[bucwylde23]

Is it possible to root the VZW Galaxy Nexus without doing the equivalent of a factory reset?

Check out the Gnex toolkit over on XDA. It's a sticky thread in the CDMA nexus subforum.

I believe it has an option to just root, though I can't say 100% for sure if it does exactly what you want.

 

[trmiv]

Is it possible to root the VZW Galaxy Nexus without doing the equivalent of a factory reset?

You can root without wiping the phone, but if you want to unlock the bootloader you have to wipe it completely.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

You can root without wiping the phone, but if you want to unlock the bootloader you have to wipe it completely.

Which is why you unlock and root before loading up a bunch of personal data

 

[trmiv]

Which is why you unlock and root before loading up a bunch of personal data

Kind of a moot point if you've already loaded up a bunch of personal data.

 

[ponyo]

There was a bug on earlier build of 4.0.2 which allowed root without unlocking the bootloader. It was quickly patched by Google but if you're on that build, you can root using that exploit and then do nandroid backup and other backups. Then you can unlock the bootloader which will wipe your data but restore everything again using the nandroid backup you made. You can search for the old thread at XDA.

 

[The Green Bean]

I'm thinking of getting this. $460 a good deal for a factory unlocked version?