TrustedReviews
  • Home
    • All Reviews
    • All News
    • All Videos
    • All Round-Ups
    • All Features
  • TVs & Entertainment
    • Blu-ray Players
    • Gadgets
    • Games
    • Games Accessories
    • Headphones
    • Portable Audio
    • Projectors
    • Surround Sound Systems
    • TV Recorders & Set Top Boxes
    • TVs
  • Cameras
    • Camcorders
    • Camera Accessories
    • Camera Lenses
    • Digital Cameras
  • Laptops & Computing
    • Desktop PCs
    • Laptops
    • Monitors
    • PC Components
    • Peripherals
    • Printers
    • Software
    • Tablets
    • Broadband Deals
  • Mobile & GPS
    • GPS & Sat Nav
    • Mobile Apps
    • Mobile Phone Accessories
    • Mobile Phones
    • Mobile Deals
  • Video Reviews
Home » Mobile & GPS » Mobile Phone » Samsung Galaxy Nexus » Video

Samsung Galaxy Nexus video review

Tweet
  • More Photos
  • Video

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is the first phone to ship with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, arguably the biggest leap in the smartphone edition of Android yet. And the phone does the software proud. Its screen is excellent, the ergonomics of the body help to dull the impact of its sheer size and the processor is speedy enough to keep the OS running like a dream. It won't be alone for long, but for now it's way out in front of other Android phones in several respects.

Narrowly missing out on a nomination for the TrustedReviews Awards 2011 powered by Duracell, could the Samsung Galaxy Nexus make the shortlist for next year's awards? Click here for a full list of the Best Mobile Phones of 2011 as shortlisted in the TrustedReviews Awards 2011 Powered by Duracell.

Overall

9/10

Andrew Williams

By Andrew Williams
Reviewed 15 December 2011
Updated 22 February 2012

Price as reviewed

£499.99

  • Review
    • 1: Design
    • 2: Ice Cream Sandwich Interface
    • 3: Screen, Touchscreen and Browsing
    • 4: Music and Video Playback Support
    • 5: Apps, Performance and Android Market
    • 6: Camera and Video Capture
    • 7: Call Quality, Battery Life, Value...
  • Video Review
  • User Reviews
  • Comments
  • Specs
  • 33 Photos
  • Mobile Deals
  • Reviewed by Andrew Williams
  • 15 December 2011
Read the full Samsung Galaxy Nexus review
Tweet

More Mobile Phone Videos

  • Huawei Y 100Huawei Y 100
  • BlackBerry Curve 9320BlackBerry Curve 9320
  • BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9881BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9881
  • Samsung Galaxy S3Samsung Galaxy S3

Awards

  • Recommended by TR

Samsung Galaxy Nexus details

Design
8/10
Features
8/10
Performance
9/10
Usability
9/10
Value
8/10
Overall
9/10

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Amazingly sharp 720p screen
  • Android 4.0 software is great
  • 1080p video recording
  • Excellent performance

Cons

  • AMOLED display not flawless
  • Non-expandable memory
  • All-plastic frame

Price as reviewed

£499.99

Manufacturer

Samsung

  • WATCH: Doom 3 BFG Edition Trailer
  • WATCH: Is This The Most Offensive Game Trailer Of All Time?
  • E3 2012: Sony May Purchase Cloud Gaming Service, Say Reports
  • E3 2012: Sony May Purchase Cloud Gaming Service, Say Reports
  • Check In To Save: Foursquare And AmEx Money-Back Partnership Reaches UK

Mobile Phone round-ups

  1. Cheap mobiles

    Best Cheap Mobile Phones

    If you want a cheap contract or pay as you go phone, check out this run-down of the best affordable phones.

  2. Best Smartphone

    Best Mobile Phone

    Which is the best phone? Is it the iPhone, Samsung Galaxy S III or even the HTC One X? Check out our pick of the best...

  3. Best HTC Phones

    Our pick of the ten best HTC phones.

More Mobile Phone Round-ups

TrustedReviews newsletter

Get TrustedReviews' award-winning reviews, opinions and advice delivered to your inbox for free!


Three of the best High end Mobile Phones

  1. HTC One X

    Our rating:
    9/10

    HTC's new flagship packs in plenty of goodies but is it the one... to buy?

  2. Samsung Galaxy S2 Front Screen

    Samsung Galaxy S2

    Our rating:
    9/10
    User rating:
    7/10

    It's the most powerful smartphone on the planet, but is it the best?

  3. Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc

    Our rating:
    9/10

    Super slim and sleek yet powerful and feature packed. Sounds like a winning combination to us.

 

User reviews & comments

Comments

To leave a comment log in or sign up
 

Please wait while we process your request
 

Please wait while we retrieve the user's information

Bio

Your bio is currently empty. Now is a great time to fill in your profile.

This profile is private.

This profile is only shared with friends.

This profile is under review.

We were unable to request friendship with this user.

We were unable to request friendship with this user. Are you logged in?

Your friendship request has been sent to this user.

We were unable to terminate friendship with this user.

We were unable to terminate friendship with this user. Are you logged in?

You are no longer friends with this user.

We were unable to ignore this user.

We were unable to ignore this user. Are you logged in?

This user is now ignored.

We were unable to stop ignoring this user.

We were unable to stop ignoring this user. Are you logged in?

This user is no longer ignored.

We encountered a problem recommending this user.

pluck_user_recommend_permission

You have recommended this user.

pluck_user_mp-abuse_too_long_err

Send Cancel

Please wait while we perform your request.

Leave a comment

7 comments

Sort:

Name withheld

Dark of Day

6:55 PM on 15 December, 2011

This comment is hidden because you have chosen to ignore Dark of Day. Show DetailsHide Details

Sorry to be a dork but you refer to the "gorilla glass" screen; I understand it's been confirmed that it doesn't use the trademarked Corning Gorilla Glass. In the performance section you mention "dual core phones running honeycomb" did you mean tablets or gingerbread? Android 4.0 looks fantastic but software aside the phones hardware is hardly much of a step forward from a Galaxy S2. To me it feels like the last phone of 2011 tech not the first of 2012. Will be languishing in quad core dust before we know it..I'm bitter you see because I want to buy a nexus they just wont build one I'd pay for.

Abuse reported Report abuse
0
Score:
0 replies1 reply 0 replies1 reply Please wait while we perform your request.

Name withheld

MilleM

11:45 PM on 15 December, 2011

This comment is hidden because you have chosen to ignore MilleM. Show DetailsHide Details

I don't follow the smartphone market closely, but I assume the Nexus is competing with; amongst others, the new iPhone 4S. Your review states that at the same GBP 499, the iPhone comes with 64GB of storage compared to 16GB in the Nexus. Despite your very positive review, I still come away with the feeling that the Galaxy Nexus is a bit pricy.

Abuse reported Report abuse
-1
Score:
1 replies1 reply 1 replies1 reply Please wait while we perform your request.

Name withheld

Dark of Day

2:25 AM on 16 December, 2011

This comment is hidden because you have chosen to ignore Dark of Day. Show DetailsHide Details

I should have sourced https://twitter.com/#!/Corning/status/128803261749805056

Abuse reported Report abuse
0
Score:
0 replies1 reply 0 replies1 reply Please wait while we perform your request.

Name withheld

AndrewTR

8:39 AM on 16 December, 2011

This comment is hidden because you have chosen to ignore AndrewTR. Show DetailsHide Details

@Dark of Day Mixing up the terms Honeycomb and Gingerbread is something I've done more times than I care to admit - a bug I hope will get fixed once I get a firmware update. I'd say you certainly don't have to upgrade from the S2 - better screen but the S2 still holds up very well. Just won our phone of the year award too. A problem with Android is that because power upgrades mean much less than they do on iOS, thanks to the less tenacious dev scene, it can feel as though we've hit a plateau. I personally still question what meaningful improvements quad core processors will add in phones.

Abuse reported Report abuse
0
Score:
0 replies1 reply 0 replies1 reply Please wait while we perform your request.

Name withheld

Glenn Gore

10:40 AM on 16 December, 2011

This comment is hidden because you have chosen to ignore Glenn Gore. Show DetailsHide Details

So what I'm getting from the review is that you're getting a 16 GB phone for the price of a 32 GB iPhone 4S, with a worse camera, while in the interest of thinness, it sacrifices a battery adequate to power the phone for more than one day, actually much less I am sure if you are using the 4G version. Best have several spare batteries on hand and charged up. I think I'll pass.

Abuse reported Report abuse
-1
Score:
1 replies1 reply 1 replies1 reply Please wait while we perform your request.

Name withheld

Jawad Mateen

4:50 PM on 16 December, 2011

This comment is hidden because you have chosen to ignore Jawad Mateen. Show DetailsHide Details

@MilleM I didn't read the whole review but if it says the 16GB Nexus Prime costs the same (£499) as 64GB iPhone, no, not in this world... The 64GB iPhone is... wait for it... £699 from Apple store. So yeah, in it's own right the Nexus Prime maybe pricey, or not but compared with the iPhone it's the same for the same amount of storage...

Abuse reported Report abuse
1
Score:
0 replies1 reply 0 replies1 reply Please wait while we perform your request.

Name withheld

ort3

12:40 AM on 24 December, 2011

This comment is hidden because you have chosen to ignore ort3. Show DetailsHide Details

So as an owner of a Galaxy Nexus, I have to admit that I am somewhat underwhelmed. I'm not sure what all the hype of Android is all about. Whilst the device is really light, the gentle curved display is gorgeous, the specs are insane and this is Android as Google intended, the package lacks in the spit and polish that Cupertino offers. ICS is not very intuitive with the "menu" options appearing in inconsistent places and the multi-tasking soft key being visible within the browser - I've often tapped it thinking that it will show the open tabs. Some elements of the OS are great - I do think that the multi-tasking aspect works very well and widgets are inspired. The browser is super quick and the support for Adobe Flash is a bonus (though I've actually yet to make use of it). However, my main gripes so far are that the so called "freemium" apps are littered with adverts which are so very annoying; the battery life is not so good either - I don't think I've been able to go a day without having to reach for the charger. The camera quality is severely lacking with images appearing heavily pixelated (1080p - that's a joke, right?). A case of specs over substance. Oh and 16GB - puh-lease! Google Music does work wonderfully with all of the equaliser settings in the right place and the management of music is so much easier than having to be chained to iTunes. Video playback quality is pretty good too. I could go on, but in short, what I've found here is that the Galaxy Nexus is not greater than the sum of its parts which is disappointing. Ultimately, I'm worried that Android will go down the path of Windows Mobile / Pocket PC: highly customisable but massively fragmented with inconsistent implementations. I hope I prove to be wrong. I think will have a look at Android at the next point release. For now, I'll be listing my Galaxy Nexus (any takers?!), I think I'll give Windows Phone 7 a go or head back to my old 32GB 3GS and the iOS walled garden. ort3~rating = 7/10

Abuse reported Report abuse
0
Score:
0 replies1 reply 0 replies1 reply Please wait while we perform your request.
Powered by Pluck - Integrated Social Media Platform, Community Software and Custom Content Solutions for Digital Leaders
Next
 

What Do You Think?

To leave a comment, you need to sign up.

Sign up Sign in

Please wait while we file your abuse report.

Report Abuse

We're sorry. We were unable to report abuse at this time.

We limit the number of reactions an individual user can submit over a given period for quality reasons. You have currently reached that limit. Please try resubmitting your abuse report again later.

Comment is too long. Enter 500 characters or less.

Send Cancel

Please wait while we send the email.

Email This

You may send this to 5 e-mail addresses. Please separate each address with a space.

We're sorry, but the item you are sending has been removed from the site.

We're sorry. We were unable to send the email at this time.

Please specify a recipient.

You can only send messages to 5 addresses at a time.

The address "" is not valid.

Please specify a subject.

 Send Cancel
Email Delicious Digg Facebook LinkedIn Messenger Connect MySpace
Copy to Clipboard Reddit Slashdot StumbleUpon Tumblr Twitter Yahoo! Buzz
Copy to clipboard

Score
 vote upvotes up
 vote downvotes down

User reviews

There are currently no reviews for this product.

Read more reviews >

To add your own review log in or sign up

Explore TrustedReviews

Site Sections

  • Blu-ray Players
  • Camcorders
  • Camera Accessories
  • Camera Lenses
  • Desktop PCs
  • Digital Cameras
  • Gadgets
  • Games
  • Games Accessories
  • GPS & Sat Nav
  • Headphones
  • Laptops
  • Mobile Apps
  • Mobile Phone Accessories
  • Mobile Phones
  • Monitors
  • PC Components
  • Peripherals
  • Portable Audio
  • Printers
  • Projectors
  • Software
  • Surround Sound Systems
  • Tablets
  • TV Recorders & Set Top Boxes
  • TVs

Round-ups

  • E3 2012
  • Best Ultrabook
  • Best Netbooks
  • Best Monitors
  • Best Cheap Mobile Phones
  • Best Mobile Phone
  • Best PC
  • Best Laptop
  • Best Printers
  • Best Digital Cameras
  • Best Waterproof Cameras
  • Best Headphones 2012
  • Best HTC Phones
  • Best MP3 Player
  • Best Speakers

Tools and Social

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS feeds
  • Sitemap

More Information

  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Advertising info
  • © IPC Media 2003-2012, All rights reserved
  • Site user terms
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Information
  • Contact Us