I’ve been using the Samsung Galaxy Nexus on Verizon for almost a full month. I’m not going to right another review that many other tech blogs have already covered. Yes, we know this is the best Android phone on the market today. However, no phone is perfect. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is no different.

First off, I’d like to tell you a few things I like about the phone.

  • The 4.65″ display is absolutely gorgeous! I am an app hungry, media streamer, web browsing power user. No way could I still be walking around with a tiny 3.5″ screen, such as the iPhone. When I’m browsing the web on my phone, I need to be able to see what I’m doing on a big vibrant screen. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus has that covered.
  • NFC (near field communication). I love that the phone has an NFC chip in it. I doubt I will be using this on an everyday basis until payment by phone really takes off with retailers. However, the NFC chip is really cool, because I had someone look up a website for me on their Galaxy Nexus, and when they were ready to show me the page, I just held the  back of my phone up to the back of their phone, and the webpage was instantly loaded onto my Galaxy Nexus!
  • Battery life. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus has a much improved battery life over what I was used to with my HTC Thunderbolt. I bought the extended battery for the Nexus while it was on sale at Verizon for only $25. The extended battery is not noticeable like the Thunderbolt’s was. The HTC Thunderbolt extended battery was like carrying around a brick in your pocket. With the Galaxy Nexus, all my cases have been able to fit around the phone. Again, you can’t even tell there is an extended battery inside the phone. With the phone offering 2100mAh of juice, downloading the app Juice Defender, I’m easily able to get by a whole day without charging the phone. When I get home at the end of the day, I easily still have 50% left.
  • I like that there are no more physical buttons (Home button,  back, settings, search) on the bottom of the phone! The buttons are actually built into the operating system and appear when you turn the screen on. When the display is off, the front of the phone looks so sleek with only glass being displayed!

 

Now, here are the things I do not like about the Galaxy Nexus:

  • Transferring files via USB onto the phone simply does not work! I spent a good 3 hours trying to get my music and pictures transferred over onto the Nexus. The files will begin to transfer and then a warning message will popup saying an error occurred, or the process just hangs and never begins the transfer! I honestly have no idea how I got the files onto the phone, but it was the most difficult process I’ve ever dealt with in switching phones. If you Google this issue, many others are experiencing the same thing. I tried installing the official Samsung drivers, PDANet drivers, nothing worked. Tonight I even reformatted my computer, re-installed Windows 7, and just for test purposes, I tried copying a folder full of pictures into the DCIM folder on the SD card and it STILL didn’t work. SAMSUNG, PLEASE FIX THIS ISSUE! Some users even returned their phones after they couldn’t transfer their files. This is a major bug!
  • I don’t like how the volume up and volume down buttons are on the top, left-side of the phone and the power button is on the top, right-side of the phone. Seriously Samsung? Whoever placed the buttons there needs to be fired. Every time I go to grab the phone and put it in my hand, I naturally push the power button with my thumb (if the phone is in my right-hand) and then my index finger starts turning the volume down! This bugs the crap out of me! They should have put the power button on the top of the phone and the volume keys on the right side of the phone.

 

On a side note, that Samsung Galaxy Nexus is a piece of cake to root and start installing custom ROMs. This process is much easier than the HTC Thunderbolt. Overall, this phone IS the best Android phone to date. Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) does take a little time getting used to. However, this is the most appealing Android version to date and it’s well worth the adjustment.

Now if Google can just eventually fix the fragmentation issue so the developers don’t have to keep figuring out which devices are working/not work properly for their apps, that would be great! Currently, Spotify will reboot itself on Ice Cream Sandwich if you start moving too fast within the app.