Samsung Galaxy Nexus for Sprint Review

Introduction:

Crazy to imagine, but the Samsung Galaxy Nexus swooped into our hearts courtesy of Verizon way back in December, which is nearly 5 months ago. In the short time since then, we’ve seen some enticing new handsets from the competition that gives the original Ice Cream Sandwich powered smartphone a good run for its money, but at long last, it finally made its way to Sprint – with LTE connectivity in tow of course. Knowing that, will it still be enough to entice customers who know that other highly prized smartphones are on the horizon?

The packaging contains:

• microUSB cable
• Wall Charger
• Get Started Guide
• Important Information Guide

Design:

Identical in almost every way, aside from the obvious Sprint branding it’s flaunting, there is nothing we haven’t seen before with this version. Back 5 months ago, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus was the talk of the town with its clean design, but now, it’s starting to look rather dull after seeing the beauties from HTC’s camp. As expected, the construction is typical of any Samsung made device – meaning, it’s fairly lightweight and solid thanks to its plastic body.



You can compare the Samsung Galaxy Nexus with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

Boasting the stock ICS experience, this baby is free of any capacitive buttons, which adds to its clean overall appearance. However, perched above the display, is just the front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera.

Peering around the sides of the phone, our fingers take hold of the raised feel of the power and volume control buttons, which are both springy to the touch. Meanwhile, we also find its dock connection ports, 3.5mm headset jack, microphone, and microUSB port – the latter of which provides video-out functionality with the aid of an optional MHL adapter.

Just like before, there’s a 5-megapixel auto-focus snapper with LED flash in the rear of the handset, while two notches on the other end makeup its speaker grill. Removing the flimsy rear cover, we’re given access to its 1,850 mAh battery.


Display:

Over the course of the last few months, we’ve been engorging ourselves with some immaculate smartphones brandishing some high quality displays. Nevertheless, the 4.65” HD (720 x 1280) Super AMOLED display of the Galaxy Nexus is still an appealing one – despite its choice of employing a PenTile matrix arrangement. In fact, looking at it from a good distance away, it still exhibits plenty of sharp details, while continuing to entice us with its oversaturated color production and wide-viewing angles.

Interface and Functionality:

Call it a long time coming, but Sprint customers finally have a device that comes out of the box with Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich. Honestly, there’s nothing really new in this department, as the vanilla Android experience on Sprint’s version is identical to the one that Verizon customers have been relishing on for the past 5 months. Overall, it sports a cleaner looking UI combined with some additional new features that make it very enjoyable and different from other Sprint devices.


Providing us with enough real-estate to work with, thanks to its large 4.65” display, our fingers are able to quickly and carefully compose messages with no difficulty whatsoever. On top of the spacious layout of the stock ICS keyboard, we dig the accompanied responsiveness of it – so we’re able to crank out messages at a reasonable rate.


Setting up and operating with email (and Gmail) is a trouble-free process. Strangely, you can pinch-to-zoom in the Email app for a better view of the content of an email, but you can't do that in Gmail, which can make viewing of certain messages (some picture-rich newsletters, for example) a bit cumbersome.


Hardcore Android users will surely appreciate it the most, as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus isn’t bogged down by any bloatware whatsoever, which is hardly a surprise considering this is the pure Android experience. Of course, Google’s presence is established tremendously on the phone with apps like Gmail, Google Maps, Google+, Google Latitude, Google Shopper, Google Talk, Google Wallet, and YouTube.

Processor and Memory:

For what it’s worth, the 1.2GHz dual-core TI OMAP 4460 processor of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus executes most things with enough responsiveness. However, considering this is undoubtedly the flagship Google device, it’s a bit of a shame that its performance is sometimes hampered by some light evidence of choppiness. Specifically, it’s evident when attempting to navigate across the homescreen with some kind of graphically intensive live wallpaper. Luckily, it’s not enough to make the handset unusable, but rather, it simply softens its processing power. Below, we’re kind enough to share its benchmark scores.

	Quadrant Standard	AnTuTu	NenaMark 2
Samsung Galaxy Nexus Sprint	2023	6191	24,8
HTC One X AT&T	4958	6863	57,7
Samsung Galaxy S II	3113	6076	51
Sony Xperia S	3206	6595	37,5

Without a microSD slot in sight, users are still required to be conscious about what they keep on the phone – though, some will be content with the 28.13GB of free storage available out of the box.

Internet and Connectivity:

In order to prove itself as a future proof device, Sprint’s version of the Galaxy Nexus is also packing support for 4G LTE connectivity. But as we’ve come to realize, the lack of an actual up and running LTE network essentially limits this phone to 3G EV-DO speeds for now. Somewhat of a surprise, the web browsing experience is tarnished by some choppy navigational controls, which looks to be caused by Flash content. Turning it off, the level of responsiveness jumps up tremendously, as it exhibits a tighter response with every action.


Lacking the vital component of having a robust 4G LTE infrastructure right now, Sprint’s version is essentially rendered to surf the web on last-generation 3G EV-DO connections. Along for the ride, it also packs other connectivity options like aGPS, Bluetooth 3.0, 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, and mobile hotspot connectivity.

Camera:

No changes whatsoever of any kind with the quality out of its 5-megapixel auto-focus camera, seeing it’s good enough to handle outdoor and macro shots – well, that’s as long as there’s sufficient lighting. Unfortunately, it struggles with dynamic range because high contrast scenes tend to look overexposed in certain areas. Conversely under low lighting situations, things are dulled down a lot, as it exhibits a lot of noise, graininess, and inaccurate looking colors.


More of the same, its 1080p video recording quality is nearly identical to what we find with still shot images, and as a whole, it’s rather disappointing. For a top shelf smartphone, we’re still dumbfounded by its slower 24 frames per second capture rate, but even more disconcerting, is the fact that its quality is flawed by some heavy artifacting and poor details.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus Sprint Sample Video:



Multimedia:

The Music app is nothing to write home about, but this doesn't mean it isn't good. Essentially, it looks exactly like the Honeycomb music player, which means we get that cool 3D carousel when browsing through our catalog. Digging deeper into its options, we actually find a full-fledged equalizer that can be freely adjusted by the user. Moreover, its strong volume output, combined with no evidence of strain, makes for some pleasant tones to the ear.


Adorned with a lovable and sizable HD Super AMOLED display, there’s no kidding that it’s going to offer a pleasurable video watching experience that’s enjoyable on so many levels. Using our test video that’s encoded in MPEG-4 1920 x 1080 resolution, we’re enamored by the flawless performance thanks to its smooth playback, sharp details, and dreamy looking colors.


As we’ve pointed out already, we can obtain a mirrored experience on a high-def television with the aid of an optional MHL adapter – making it easy to share multimedia content.

Performance:

Almost perfect for conversations, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus delivers the goods on both ends of the line with its clear and distortion-free calling quality. Despite some slight echoing heard with its speakerphone, we’re still able to hold conversations without much difficulty.

Strange to say, but just like Big Red’s version, this one is plagued by low signal strength. In fact, it typically delivers a signal strength of -93 to -100 dBm in places we tested it out in the greater Philadelphia area. Thankfully, it didn’t drop any phone calls, but still, it’s concerning because it’s probably affecting battery life as well.

Moving right along, its 1,850 mAh battery leaves us desiring for more, since we’re only able to get by approximately 15 hours of normal usage – and that’s with 3G connectivity only! Imagine what it’ll be like when it hits the waves with LTE connections…

Conclusion:

First and foremost, if you’re a Sprint customer who simply can’t wait any longer to experience the bountiful features associated with Ice Cream Sandwich, you should no doubt check out the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. However, bear in mind that the handset is brandishing a $200 on-contract price, which seems normal at first, but considering that it’s essentially a 5-month old model, we actually would’ve liked to see it come in at a lower price point. To tell you the truth, for the same amount of money, you might as well wait to check out the upcoming HTC EVO 4G LTE, which seems to be a logical move since it’s the newer and fresher device. Finally, it’s a bit of a shame that you can’t make use of its 4G LTE connectivity, since the network is sparsely available in test markets for now.

Software version of the reviewed unit:
Android Version: 4.0.4
Kernel Version: 3.0.8-00007-gf16cc11
Build Number: IMM76D.L700FD02

Samsung Galaxy Nexus for Sprint Review: