Well, after 7 weeks of being a Nexus owner I picked up an iPhone 4S today. The Galaxy Nexus is an amazing bit of kit, but there are too many software issues with Android as a whole that have driven me mad since late November when I first purchased it. Issues such as:
- The keyboard is a pain to type on. Sure, it’s nice and large but after 7 weeks I was still typing the “n” key instead of space.
- No return key in the Messages app. Just a shortcut for emoticons.
- Apps that are still not available for Ice Cream Sandwich.
- Games not running at the full 720p resolution (such as GTA 3)
- Every single game runs at a much slower frame rate than the iPhone. Even 2D games such as Where’s My Water.
- Games not downloading. I purchased Sonic CD and it never completed the download process after weeks of trying. I’d leave it downloading overnight and wake up to find the download paused or incomplete, sometimes the download wouldn’t even start. I have a fibre optic 50MB web connection so presume it’s SEGA’s servers. No issue with the App Store today – it downloaded in minutes, first time.
- The email app not displaying image attachments at random. Even images taken with the camera. Restarting the Mail app/phone didn’t help, and K9 would also have problems displaying images. Could be a bug with ICS.
- My wireless Bluetooth headphones eating through battery . Playing music in general used up a lot of battery come to think of it.
- Jerky scrolling throughout. Sure, it’s better than earlier versions of Android but still not silky smooth like iOS.
- Change to any live wallpaper apart from the default choice and the OS becomes jittery. It meant I couldn’t use the cool “nexus” live wallpaper.
- Bugs and crashes everywhere. Music would pause randomly, the phone would crash requiring the battery to be removed, the keyboard would sometimes not appear.
- Battery not lasting a full work day. I had to buy a secondary charger and plug in the phone by 4PM – never happened with an iPhone. The Usage app always showed the display as the main culprit, even if it was set at a low brightness.
- Emails displaying at double size. Newsletters, image attachments etc (when they appeared) were all displayed so large they wouldn’t fit on the screen. Pinching to zoom doesn’t work so you have to pan around messages to read them.
- Problems syncing with a Mac. You can’t drag iPhoto albums to the device, so all of my photos (10,000+) appeared in one album in the photo Gallery, and DoubleTwist doesn’t currently work properly with ICS.
- Some music albums not showing album art – no matter what I try.
- No iTunes app to purchase music. Sure there’s Amazon Music and other apps, but these don’t have 120 second previews, are missing certain bands etc.
On the plus side:
- Widgets are great. I had my favourite bookmarks saved on the homescreen of the Nexus. I’ll miss those.
- The hardware puts the iPhone to shame. It’s button-less front is sleek and subtle. The iPhone 4S (in particular the white model) looks a mess in comparison with buttons and sensors cluttering the front and sides.
- The screen is amazing. Playing games, browsing the web etc is so much immersive on the Nexus.
- It’s less likely to smash if dropped.
I sold the Nexus for £450 and picked up an iPhone 4S, so my 7 weeks of Android adventures has cost me £50 in total. It’s been eye opening and fun, but I’m happy to live with the small iPhone screen and delicate hardware because of the software issues with ICS.
