This review is coming from someone who has owned both the S3 and the Nexus and this review is primarily based around them.
Just before the galaxy s3 came out I was agonising if I should buy the nexus or the up coming s3. The price difference was significant and so were the specs. The S3 is a super smart phone with well super everything inside like quad-core cpu, powerful GPU, HD super Amoled Screen etc. However the Nexus is google's flagship device and would always be supported with updates first and in my opinion it looked soo much better then the s3.
However went with the S3 as I thought it'll be worth the extra cash and I'd be future proof for awhile and I didn't look back. Whilst owning it, the S3 was great and I was actually very impressed. However wife wanted a new phone and was interested in spending over £200+. So I thought `hey', this would be a good time to get the nexus and give the wife the S3. Now before anyone screams `What!' I was already watching and was amazed with what the new update (Jellybean) had done to reinvigorate the Nexus and when the subject of the wife buying came up I thought this route would be great.
And it was.
Design
First of all, the design of the phone is brilliant; it's understated yet beautiful and technically elegant especially when sitting silently on your desk. Much better than the somewhat brash look of the S3, there are no physical buttons at the front at all; they are all capacitive buttons that's part of the screen. Meaning that when the screen is off, the phone is one slick unit and when on the capacitive button appear on the bottom much like some of the HTC phones....genius.
For me this was excellent. I came to hate the S3 having a physical button due to its design. Samsung just really didn't think about this well enough. The S 3 home button isn't concave meaning it doesn't curves in like the Iphone home button, instead its sticks out and it not only becomes freaking irritating to press but potentially its could break/pop out or become stuck on one side (mine nearly did) Plus it sits far to much at the bottom of the phone and is too thin and elongated making it difficult to press. On ALL the review videos you'll see them delicately and carefully press it when it should be pressed like a sledgehammer in my opinion
The nexus of the other hand, not only does the home button sit perfectly in proportion to the 4.65inch screen, its capacitive and such a life saver when your in a rush walking around, one hand phone operation is much much easier. You're not worried about stretching your thumb and insuring you're pressing the button well, should the phone accidently slip out of your hand..... You just press it and carry on. May seem like a small issue but over time not having that was slowly becoming really irritating.
Operating system
As soon as a set everything up, the phone prompted me for an update to Jellybean, the grin on my face was ridiculous. Let me highlight something here, Jellybean comes with all sorts of goodies but for me primarily it was about the improvement in slickness/lag etc (project butter)
Jellybean 4.1 is the vision of what I wanted from Android in 2008 when I got the first Iphone. It's without doubt on par with IOS in term of performance and slickness. There is no jaggedness or roughness in Android anymore, everything is super smooth. Project butter which is part of the Jellybean update really has made the Nexus buttery smooth and I cannot think of one area really where the S3 exceeds the nexus in general usage. If anything it's the other way around!. Which is testimony to good software vs. brute power.
As an example just scroll up and down on the internet browser or perhaps a longs text message thread on the S3 it'll judder and experience roughness/lag that just ruins the experience especially when a 4 year old Iphone with a cpu that probably has less computational power then the S3 battery never faced. All of that is sorted in the Nexus, its perfect to the point where you wonder how you dealt with those issues before.
In my opinion stock Andriod always surpasses the skinned ones including touchwiz, which this time round is slick and lightweight. The roboto blue font thing going on adds to the Nexus glory!.
Battery/camera etc
Battery seems good to me and so far I'm able to get the same usage out of it as the S3, heard that the nexus battery was bad but haven't experienced it, perhaps the all conquering 4.1 update helped solve that as well.
Camera isn't that great I'll admit and this is where the S3 competently beats it, but I'm fine with that, if you're a camera buff you should really be aware of this.
General
Multitasking is a breeze due to being able to do press home button etc really fast with no lag etc just adds to the idea that multitasking is merrily going on better... cant explain that one. Press of the task manager and it instantly brings up the list of last open app, S3 struggles in comparison here and you can switch to other programme really quickly. The physical and software advantage on the nexus is immeasurable compared to the S3.
Screen
Both roughly the same size, the s3 is bigger at 4.8 inch and they are both HD. However I will say even though they are both super Amoled HD, since the launch of the nexus, Samsung has made improvement to the Super Amoled screens and the one on the S3 does see better colours and seems a bit clearer and sharper. Also the Nexus suffers from a yellow tint unlike the S3 which seems more blueish.
Bit annoying sometimes but I do think the S3 screen is superior here.
Overall
I'm really really pleased with the Nexus coming from an S3 and for anyone out there thinking about the nexus. It is the superior buy in regards to everything it does. When the S3 gets Jellybean it will no doubt be as smooth but no one will take that nasty button away so the nexus will always ahead in my opinion. Yes the technology is slightly dated but there is nothing is does slower that the S3 (perhaps games) so that's really a redundant issue and should comfortably last for a year or so.
Also pure android is that great and really shows the best side of android and what it really should be in its purest form. Coupled with a beautiful body I can't emphasis how important those two are in ONE phone.
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This product has sustainability features recognised by trusted certifications.Products are inspected, cleaned and (if applicable) repaired to excellent functional standards. Buying pre-owned instead of new can extend a product's life, reduce e-waste and raw material extraction.As certified byPre-Owned Certified: Electronics
Pre-owned Certified products are inspected, cleaned and (if applicable) repaired to excellent functional standards. By purchasing pre-owned rather than new, customers can extend the life of the product, reduce electronic waste, and reduce the extraction of raw materials. These products are backed by the Amazon Renewed Guarantee. Pre-owned Certified is part of the Climate Pledge Friendly programme that helps you discover and shop for more-sustainable products.Sustainability features
This product has sustainability features recognised by trusted certifications.Products are inspected, cleaned and (if applicable) repaired to excellent functional standards. Buying pre-owned instead of new can extend a product's life, reduce e-waste and raw material extraction.As certified byPre-Owned Certified: Electronics
Pre-owned Certified products are inspected, cleaned and (if applicable) repaired to excellent functional standards. By purchasing pre-owned rather than new, customers can extend the life of the product, reduce electronic waste, and reduce the extraction of raw materials. These products are backed by the Amazon Renewed Guarantee. Pre-owned Certified is part of the Climate Pledge Friendly programme that helps you discover and shop for more-sustainable products.Sustainability features
This product has sustainability features recognised by trusted certifications.Products are inspected, cleaned and (if applicable) repaired to excellent functional standards. Buying pre-owned instead of new can extend a product's life, reduce e-waste and raw material extraction.As certified byPre-Owned Certified: Electronics
Pre-owned Certified products are inspected, cleaned and (if applicable) repaired to excellent functional standards. By purchasing pre-owned rather than new, customers can extend the life of the product, reduce electronic waste, and reduce the extraction of raw materials. These products are backed by the Amazon Renewed Guarantee. Pre-owned Certified is part of the Climate Pledge Friendly programme that helps you discover and shop for more-sustainable products.Sustainability features
This product has sustainability features recognised by trusted certifications.Products are inspected, cleaned and (if applicable) repaired to excellent functional standards. Buying pre-owned instead of new can extend a product's life, reduce e-waste and raw material extraction.As certified byPre-Owned Certified: Electronics
Pre-owned Certified products are inspected, cleaned and (if applicable) repaired to excellent functional standards. By purchasing pre-owned rather than new, customers can extend the life of the product, reduce electronic waste, and reduce the extraction of raw materials. These products are backed by the Amazon Renewed Guarantee. Pre-owned Certified is part of the Climate Pledge Friendly programme that helps you discover and shop for more-sustainable products.
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This item  Samsung Galaxy Nexus 16GB Sim Free Smartphone | Recommendations  |  |  |  |  | |
| Price | Currently unavailable. | -9% £90.00 Was: £99.00 | £260.00 | -5% £399.99 Was: £419.00 | £169.00 | -13% £135.00 Was: £155.00 |
| Delivery | — | Get it as soon as Friday, Jan 24 | Get it 23 – 24 Jan | — | — | Get it as soon as Friday, Jan 24 |
| Customer Ratings | ||||||
| Sold by | — | Daily Discounts Ltd | D Electronix | Brand Smart Ltd | Phones58 | Daily Discounts Ltd |
| display size | 4.65 inches | 5.2 inches | 5.3 inches | 6.6 inches | 5.1 inches | 6.5 inches |
| memory capacity | 16 GB | 16 GB | 64 GB | 6 GB | 32 GB | 64 GB |
| model name | — | Galaxy J5 | Galaxy XCover 5 | Samsung Galaxy Xcover6 Pro 16.8 cm (6.6") | Galaxy S7 | Galaxy A12 |
| operating system | Android | android | Android | Android | android | Android |
| connectivity tech | USB, Wi-Fi | Cellular (2G, 3G, 4G), WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, NFC, USB | Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, USB | Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, USB | Bluetooth | USB, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi |
| display type | AMOLED | AMOLED | AMOLED | AMOLED | AMOLED | LCD |
| service provider | — | T Mobile | T Mobile | Unlocked | T Mobile | All carriers |
| headphones jack | — | 3.5 mm | 3.5 mm | 3.5 mm | — | 3.5 mm |
| average talk time | — | 21 hours | 1860 minutes | — | 22 hours | — |
| input interface | touch screen | buttons, touch screen | microphone | touch screen | — | microphone |
| water resistance | water resistant | water resistant | waterproof | water resistant | water resistant | water resistant |
A big leap in quality, speed and slickness for Android phones.
I received the Samsung Galaxy Nexus about an hour ago. These are my first impressions & I will add to the review as I become more accustomed to the phone.SETUPI've upgraded from another Android phone (the HTC/Google Nexus). All I needed to do was take the SIM out of the old phone, snap the back off the Galaxy Nexus, install the SIM and battery and refit the back cover (a little bit fiddly on first attempt). Then I plugged it in using the supplied plug adaptor and micro-USB connector and powered it up. After entering wifi network details and the username and password for my Google Apps account, the phone was ready to use. It immediately began installing the various apps that I had set to AutoUpdate on the old phone and, after a few minutes of that, it told me that there was a firmware update. This took about 3 mins to perform, including a reboot of the phone.FIRST IMPRESSIONSThe screen is gorgeous - large, vibrant, and really easy to read. It's much larger than the Nexus One, but it's lighter too. The phone is much faster than my old Google Nexus - apps spring open, and flipping screens / navigating menus is near instantaneous. One niggle is that the Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android works differently to the previous versions. The app tray is swiped sideways rather than up/down - muscle memory/force of habit means that I've found myself performing the old gestures in this first hour or so. I guess that will fade pretty quickly. I've taken some stills and video. Both are straightforward to perform, and the picture quality seems good (need to check it on a PC screen) but I seem to have put my finger over the microphone a few times while filming - need to work out the best way to hold it to avoid this in future. I have uploaded some photos to the product page. You can find them under the main product image. The Gmail app is much nicer than on my old phone. Clearer, faster to use, and the menu options seem to be in a better place than the previous one. Calendar seems to have synched up correctly too, with multiple calendars from my Google apps account showing.UPDATE: About 2 hours inI tried out the Portable WiFi Hotspot. It works perfectly - managed to get my iPad 2 connected and accessing the outside world. Also, I've got an integrated Bluetooth hands free system in my car and the Nexus paired perfectly with it.'Contacts' seems to have been replaced by a 'People' app that pulls together contact info from Gmail, Google+, Twitter & WhatsApp and attempts to consolidate each person's Connections under their contact info. It's possible to tweak this so that you don't end up with everyone you follow in Twitter clogging up your contacts. Noticeably, it doesn't offer to integrate information from your Facebook friends. I'm not sure how useful this is, or indeed if I am correctly understanding what info it is pulling together, but I can see a real danger of your genuine contacts being swamped by the profiles of online acquaintances. Consequently, I've chosen not to view any of my Twitter contacts in the People app.The auto dimming screen brightness seems too low to me - I'll have to poke around to see if I can tweak it.Call me a Siri Iriot, but I thought I'd try using the microphone icon to tell the phone to 'Call XXX YYY at home' and the speech recognition worked very quickly to find the correct contact details.I made a call and the quality was perfect. No volume problems. If you have a picture associated with a contact then it takes up the whole screen background when you're talking. The in=call options (keypad, loudspeaker, hold..) appear at the foot of the screen.UPDATE: 6 hours in.I noticed that some of my photos and videos were crystal clear in the background, but not on the subject. The trick is to tap the screen over the item you want to be in focus. [Correction: tapping the screen focuses on a subject in camera mode. Doing the same in camcorder mode captures a still whilst the video is still being recorded. ]Seek time for autofocus in low light is slow.UPDATE: 3 days in.I've got used to the different gestures in Android 4, which is great.Tinkering around in the settings I found one that disconnects the WiFi connection when the phone is not being actively used - I've selected that as I think it might extend battery life.Speaking of which, with normal use (more data access than calls for me) the phone has been running for 20h 14m since the last charge and is still showing 34% battery.UPDATE: 5 days inGenerally I am delighted with the phone but there are some more niggles that are worth knowing about.1. The phone has crashed twice and frozen once. The crashes were while opening a contact and while using the Facebook app. The freeze was when opening the app tray. I'm not so worried as I'm sure subsequent updates to the FB app and/or system updates will address such instability.2. [This now fixed, as Flash for ICS is available from Android Market] There is no Flash support as Adobe has yet to compile a version for Android 4. This means that apps like BBC iPlayer, that depend on Flash, don't work. This is frustrating, but Adobe & Google recently announced that Flash and Adobe Air support will be rolled out soon.3. Some apps are not yet Android 4 compatible. Again - this is something that should be addressed by publishers of popular apps.UPDATE: 13 Jan 2012There was an Over The Air update waiting to be installed this morning. It is a bug fix release of the phone operating system. Now running Android 4.0.2---If you have any specific questions, add them as comments to this review and I'll see if I can answer them.
