Empty_Quarter
2[H]4U
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Help Decide ASAP please
I'm wayyyy out of the cellphone loop and in too deep into the iphone cycle
I'm wayyyy out of the cellphone loop and in too deep into the iphone cycle
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Galaxy S2 LTE or Galaxy Nexus
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T4rd
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I assume you're on AT&T and mean the Skyrocket or GSM/HSPA+ Galaxy Nexus? If price is not a factor (assuming not since you're even considering the GSM Nexus), I'd choose the Nexus just for its display and ICS/faster updates. The Skyrocket has different hardware than the other GS2s too (excluding the T-Mobile version).
Empty_Quarter
2[H]4U
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Im in canada, so needless to say I havent come across the Skyrocket and have no idea what it is, so I was pretty lost when I heard that. Having said that, I cannot get the Skyrocket (even though its practically similar to the s2)
All galaxy nexus sold in canada are all unlocked and can work on all carriers.
I've had a tough argument with my carrier (rogers), and they are offering me a pretty substantial offer on my plan provided I renew my contract. If I'm going to renew, I will squeeze out a phone from them.
I am leaning towards the Galaxy Nexus, as I'd see myself benefiting from the screen and faster updates, I was never big on camera phones and it seems I'll have to deal with the 16GB memory. As for LTE, I've been reading around that I wouldn't really be making full use of it, yes, its very cool, but its not a very needed technology from what I gather. Regardless, 4G is and of itself an upgrade.
All galaxy nexus sold in canada are all unlocked and can work on all carriers.
I've had a tough argument with my carrier (rogers), and they are offering me a pretty substantial offer on my plan provided I renew my contract. If I'm going to renew, I will squeeze out a phone from them.
I am leaning towards the Galaxy Nexus, as I'd see myself benefiting from the screen and faster updates, I was never big on camera phones and it seems I'll have to deal with the 16GB memory. As for LTE, I've been reading around that I wouldn't really be making full use of it, yes, its very cool, but its not a very needed technology from what I gather. Regardless, 4G is and of itself an upgrade.
sgrinavi
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If you don't need the "better" camera of the S2 then it's hard to beat the pure ICS 4.0 on the GN.....
Empty_Quarter
2[H]4U
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I ended up with the S2 LTE. I'll wait for ICS.
When I held both phones in my hands (first time ever holding these phones, man they're huge), and while I loved the finish of the nexus's back more, I dont know if I could get used to its curved back. I much preferred the boxiness of the S2 LTE.
Now that I am on Android, and it was a sudden shift from iOS, it will take me a while to get used to this OS. Urgh, where do I begin...
When I held both phones in my hands (first time ever holding these phones, man they're huge), and while I loved the finish of the nexus's back more, I dont know if I could get used to its curved back. I much preferred the boxiness of the S2 LTE.
Now that I am on Android, and it was a sudden shift from iOS, it will take me a while to get used to this OS. Urgh, where do I begin...
War Machine
n00b
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I chose to go with the GN (unlocked GSM). Like you, I'm trying to wean off the iPhone and enter the new world of Android.
I had the Skyrocket (S2 LTE) and traded it for the Nexus. The Skyrocket is an AMAZING phone; it gets bashed for its CPU for no good reason, but the Nexus is a beast. You can't go wrong either way, but if you decide against the Nexus, wait a month for the Galaxy S2 HD, which is the LTE with a 720p screen.
And you're going to have to start all over again if Samsung actually releases a proper version of ICS for the SGSII.
Will that GS2 HD be on Verizon?
verison will always try to get their hand on these
T4rd
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They didn't seem to want the GS II that bad since they forfeited it to get the Nexus 2-4 months after all the other carriers got the GS II. I would have rather gotten a GS II back in September or so than waited another 3 months for the Nexus, but I'm still just as happy with the Nexus. Just sucks I had to wait so long for it; I held onto my NE2 upgrade for 7 months for it and my Droid was unbearably slow with any 2.3+ ROM on it.
I doubt Verizon will get the Galaxy S II HD though since they have the Nexus already and they're not too different spec-wise. The GS 3 would be more likely though near the end of the year.
I'm hanging on to my 2-year upgrade, too. I'm not interested in the GN or Razr, but a GS2 with higher rez screen would be perfect... which probably means VZW won't ever get it. I'm not thrilled about waiting until year's end for a new phone even if it would be a GS3.
Empty_Quarter
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I do have the LTE plan (it turns out it doesnt really matter whehter you have an LTE plan or not, I'm still carrying over my data plan from the iphone 6GB/$25)... The speeds are pretty incredible, HOWEVER... there seems to be a problem. LTE cannot handle voice AFAIK, and it seems Rogers cannot switch the signal from LTE to 4G fast enough, and as such, the other side of a voice convo cannot hear me very well, according to others, volume fluctuates a lot and cuts off a lot of the time.
I did some research and it turns out its a very common problem with Rogers. "They are aware of it, and they are working on it"
Right now, I'm running on 4G, I'll put it back on LTE to see how it is again, if the problem persists, I'll switch to the GN before my return policy expires.
Otherwise, I'm loving Android, its like all the good stuff of the iphone, coupled with craploads of flexibility
T4rd
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Wow, what phone are you using right now then? I couldn't stand to have my Droid any longer than necessary. Even if the GSII HD came to Verizon, it wouldn't have the Exynos SoC since apparently it doesn't play well with LTE chips. So it would essentially be a Skyrocket with an HD display on Verizon. So why would you be interested in that over the Nexus? Not that the Exynos SoC is substantially superior than the OMAP 4460 anyways, but that's the only reason I could figure you wanting it over the Nexus.
I bought a slightly used DInc 2 off eBay to keep me going until I find a phone I want. My original DInc gave up the ghost over the holidays. I loved the GS2 (Epic 4G Touch) I tried on Sprint and think a GS2 with 720p SAMOLED would be a helluva phone. I've seen three GN phones and all had some noticeable banding problems on their screens.
I'm willing to hold out for the new phones coming in the summer or fall (including even the iPhone 5). I'm just not particularly excited about doing so.
ya.. apple shouldn't be delayed for this time..
T4rd
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huh, I'll raise you the Galaxy S2 LTE, same size/ resolution, better cam 8Mp/ 2MP front, SDcard slot. Can attach ANY USB device, Faster 1.5 GHz Scorpion CPU, Wi-Fi Direct so you can connect two phones without a wifi router.
The Galaxy Nexus supports USB host and Wi-Fi Direct. Also, you can't really say the Snapdragon is faster than the OMAP on the G-Nex just because it has a faster clock speed. The Cortex A9 CPU in the Exynos and OMAP SoCs have actually yielded considerably faster results in most tests/benches than the Snapdragons when compared clock for clock. Their GPUs are also considerably faster than their Adreno counterparts. The SDcard isn't a big deal unless you're one of Chui's friends that only know how to share data through SD cards. Some people actually prefer it because you can still use your phone and access all data and apps on it while it's hooked up to and/or transferring files on a PC (using MTP).
The Camera is definitely better though, no denying that. They both have their trade-off's though. The Nexus has native ICS support and the moment and is guaranteed to receive support from Google for the next life-cycle (1.5-2 years). So you don't have to run hacked ROMs on it just to have the latest updates and features at the expense of all the bugs that are usually inherited with it because it didn't received it through official channels and have the proper testing. Seeing how Samsung treated the original Galaxy S owners in that respect is pretty discouraging in that regard. There's no way they can rationalize why the Galaxy S can't support ICS/4.0+ when the Nexus S with the same exact hardware is receiving the update and runs it perfectly. So I wouldn't count on them supporting the Galaxy S II past Android 4.0 if that is any indication.
I really hope Motorola makes the next Nexus because I think they make the best hardware, it's just ruined with their locked bootloaders and UI skin. OG Droid was their first and last phone with an unlocked bootloader and vanilla Android.
huh, I'll raise you the Galaxy S2 LTE, same size/ resolution, better cam 8Mp/ 2MP front, SDcard slot. Can attach ANY USB device, Faster 1.5 GHz Scorpion CPU, Wi-Fi Direct so you can connect two phones without a wifi router.
Uh, the S2 LTE is still a 800x480 resolution screen, which is a hell of a lot fewer pixels than 1280x720. Also it has much worse software on it
T4rd
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Uh, the S2 LTE is still a 800x480 resolution screen, which is a hell of a lot fewer pixels than 1280x720. Also it has much worse software on it
Ahh, I didn't even catch that, hah. For some reason I thought he meant HD instead of LTE. I would assume if the HD made it to the states it would have LTE anyways (if on AT&T or Verizon).
Uh, that phone already exists - it's called the Galaxy Nexus...
I should have mentioned I'd like a screen with no banding. GN loses.
Don't see it on my old Incredible or Epic 4G Touch. Guess my eyes aren't as good as yours.AMOLED without banding doesn't exist yet, so you'll be waiting for a while yet
onedestinazn2
[H]ard|Gawd
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Gs2 for the camera and exynos alone. It's a popular phone where there's tons of development on it. Software you can fix, hardware you can't.
Deathwish238
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I had banding issues on my first Gnexus, swapped it out and my second screen doesn't have any banding.
I love the deep dark blacks of an AMOLED. Nothing beats it and your image always looks so vivid.
An SDCard Slot would be nice, but I don't really care. ICS lets the device now access the whole storage as a single drive. Better that way than dealing with an SDCard. Some people need an SDCard slot and I understand that, I do not and 32 GB is plenty to play with.
I don't need a faster processor either. Over the last 55 hours of use according to CPU Spy my phone has been at 1.2Ghz for 3% of the time and has never used it's overclocked 1.35GHz speed. My most used non sleep state is 700 MHz.
What I do want however is quadcore. That will increase battery life further which is always a plus.
Wireless HDMI would be nice. Stereo speakers could be useful.
There is little room to improve the Galaxy Nexus.
I love the deep dark blacks of an AMOLED. Nothing beats it and your image always looks so vivid.
An SDCard Slot would be nice, but I don't really care. ICS lets the device now access the whole storage as a single drive. Better that way than dealing with an SDCard. Some people need an SDCard slot and I understand that, I do not and 32 GB is plenty to play with.
I don't need a faster processor either. Over the last 55 hours of use according to CPU Spy my phone has been at 1.2Ghz for 3% of the time and has never used it's overclocked 1.35GHz speed. My most used non sleep state is 700 MHz.
What I do want however is quadcore. That will increase battery life further which is always a plus.
Wireless HDMI would be nice. Stereo speakers could be useful.
There is little room to improve the Galaxy Nexus.
Then you probably won't see it on a GN either. The GN's screen isn't any worse than any of the other Super AMOLEDs (including the SGSII) - in fact it's better on pretty much every front except maximum brightness.
Anandtech did a fairly detailed look at the GN's screen: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5310/samsung-galaxy-nexus-ice-cream-sandwich-review/11
Wrong, again. I've seen 3 GNs (2 owned by friends, 1 in a Verizon store). The banding across the top and bottom of the screens on each was easy to spot, especially when I placed them next to the E4GT I had at the time. The Verizon rep had his manager look at the two phones, as well, to see the difference. I guess I just saw the only 3 GNs in existence with that problem. Yeah, that was it. Definitely.
Empty_Quarter
2[H]4U
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I contemplated between the two greatly. It's been almost a week or so with the phone, and I love it! Feature-wise, I'm glad I got the S2. At first I thought I could live with 16GB internal memory, only to realize that this is indeed not enough. So I got myself a 32GB micro SD for my music, totalling 48GB, and I'm much more happier with that.
ICS is the only downfall (and the screen), but at least I'll get ICS sooner or later, so it's not like I'll completely miss out on the party.
Whatever issues I had with my phone, as far as voice goes, seems to be resolved (idk what happend to begin with), so I'm really pleased with that news.
The only con I've experienced with android phones so far is the lack of accessories, I mean, compared to apple (which I understand is easy to do since they just have one phone), its pretty lacking. It was a pain finding a case for the S2 LTE. As long as I could plug into my car's stereo, it's all good.
Oh not to mention, the battery sucks ass, I find the iphone had better battery performance. Is it the LTE that drains my battery so hard?
onedestinazn2
[H]ard|Gawd
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If you're switching between 3g and 4G then yes it would drain your battery pretty fast. I'm also assuming the larger screen would drain more battery than a smaller screen.
you still might. it's up to the carrier and not Samsung. buy a phone for what it has TODAY, not what it probably won't have later
Redbeard80
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I had issues with the audio out jack on the Skyrocket. I had 3 in my possession at the same time and they all did it. There was hissing and it drove me nuts... the Gnex had it but it was tolerable.
kaichan918
n00b
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u dont care which carrier to use? galaxy nexus unlocked gsm is not a bad idea