Samsung Galaxy Nexus

I'll admit, I'm a geek. I love gadgets, I love having the latest toy and I love playing about with things that beep. So when it comes to smartphones I tend to want the latest and greatest, often opting to buy a newly released phone sim free mid contract to satisfy my cravings. It's not cheap, but it's fun...

For the last 12 months I'd owned an HTC Desire HD. Being a fan of HTC handsets and previously owning an HTC Desire prior to my Desire HD I had found a brand that I liked and I couldn't see myself moving away from. But breaking me away from my HTC comfort I saw reports in the press about a new phone coming soon, a phone from Samsung. Normally I wouldn't be all that interested because I'm not a Samsung handset fan, but this was different, this handset came with Ice Cream Sandwich!

ICS for those not in the know is the latest form of the Android operating system (at the time of writing this review it is anyway, I'm sure another food product named version will be out before too long). Each new version tends to bring new features that add to the functionality of the handset and remind us Android fans why we tend to choose it over the iOS offerings of Apple.

What makes the Samsung Galaxy Nexus so special is that unlike other Android handsets this handset comes with 'bare Android'. This means that unlike other manufacturers such as HTC, Motorola and even Samsung themselves, this particular handset has an unbranded, unmodified version of Android. Normally manufacturers take the Android operating system and put their own 'front end' on it which is basically the icons, the menus and generally the feel of the handset - the graphic stuff you see and use each day as a user. For most people that's fine, but for those who really like to customise things and play with the tech 'bare Android' is like honey to a bee.

Reading the preview articles this handset was starting to sound like some sort of miracle handset. It has touchless payment technology, like those Barclaycards - so you can pay with your phone without a pin etc. It has an instant camera, no camera lag at all, it has 'beam' technology so you can share images and contacts etc. with other compatible phones (currently only this handset) by just sticking them together which is slightly quicker and easier than Bluetoothing the item. It has quite a few features which make it rather an attractive handset, on paper. And sadly for me, that's where it ends. On paper this handset is fantastic, but in reality it was a disappointment.

As we approached release date pre-orders for this handset were starting to be snapped up very quickly. Internet forums buzzed with chatter from other geeks and general flashy phone wanting folk about how they wanted to be one of the first to get this handset. Then networks started to get involved when they all started competing to see who would release it first with Phones4u finally securing an exclusive launch several days before other stockists (although only their London store appeared to have it on the actual launch date).

This was the first disappointment. Despite the initial rumours of the launch date, followed by Samsung confirming the launch date for the UK the handset was delayed somewhat when suppliers just couldn't get hold of the initial stock. It was like rocking horse poo, which of course made it even more desirable to some as they wanted to get the handset that nobody could get!

Within a day of the launch I'd somehow managed to get the only handset supplied to my local mobile phone store. I called in and they'd literally had it delivered an hour before and it was the only one they'd had sent to them with no more expected for a few weeks due to demand. The staff themselves hadn't even seen one in the flesh and mine was still boxed. Despite their request I wanted to take it home to unbox it in some geeky techy ritual where I'd enjoy every moment.

Then the moment of truth, getting home with my new toy. The wife was at work, the child was at nursery. I had time to myself and some exploring to do! After all this build up you'd expect me to be content, alas this was not the case...

Although this handset sounds and looks great on all the previews and reviews, in the flesh it's hideous! Imagine an oversized bar of soap making love to a surf board and giving birth to a rather ugly looking child. THAT is this handset! It's long, dull, and feels terrible when held in the hand. There's no natural feel to it at all, no comfort, no sitting snugly. In fact it's awkward to hold and you can struggle to use the touch screen with one hand as you may on other similar handsets because of the fear of dropping the oversized ugly beast. It's size alone isn't the problem, it's just not designed well enough to be comfy or easy to hold.

Now we come to the actual build. Recent Samsung smartphones have been a matter of taste and have fuelled many an internet debate depending on where you sit on this. Samsung for whatever reason love plastic. And not just any plastic, they appear to love cheap, flimsy feeling plastic. I suspect it's a case of keeping the cost down, but when you've held an HTC handset and felt the confidence created by it's mostly metal and sturdy frame you quickly realise that the extremely plasticy and cheep feeling Samsung in your hand is in a different league. It may be strong plastic, but it certainly doesn't feel it. And when forking out a few hundred pounds for a handset or tying yourself in to a 12-24 month contract you want a handset that feels nice to hold, feels worth the cash / commitment and most importantly feels like it will actually last more than a few months without cracking. This platicy feel just didn't give me any confidence and I felt that a week or two in my pocket would see damage to this handset and render it even less attractive than it already is and could cause features to stop working.

So the handset isn't even turned on yet and already we're hitting major stumbling blocks. My heart's sank, the build up destroyed and I'm already looking back at my old HTC handsets thinking twice before making the jump.

Now comes the part where I turn the handset on. The screen immediately jumps to life with an impressive and very colourful animation while the handset boots up. I'm impressed. It's only something small, but it shows off the decent screen rather well. I'm then treated to my first sight of ICS, and it's not just ICS, it's 'bare Android' ICS. And WOW, I'm really impressed!

The best thing for me about ICS is the new Internet Browser. It's so far advanced for a mobile browser that any other mobile internet browser that I've used before or since has seemed old, out dated and poor. Both Android and iPhone users alike can't help but notice how much of an improvement this browser is compared to what they're currently using, it's fantastic! Imagine Google's Chrome browser on your laptop, not a cut down version, but the actual browser. Now put that on your handset and with it add a lot of speed, 'in privacy' browsing, tabbed browsing and other great features that you'd expect on a laptop but don't often see all in one place on a handset's browser. You're starting to get the idea. This browser is fast, very fast, and will load web pages in less time than other browsers. It's a joy to use.

ICS also has a nice 'recently used' apps menu that you can scroll up and down with ease to reload the app or switch between multitasked apps - yep, ICS has true multitasking, so you can switch between running apps no problem which is a nice feature that Android tends to have over other operating systems on smartphones.

There's quite a bit more to ICS to be honest, but this isn't a review about ICS, it's about the Galaxy Nexus and while ICS forms part of that, ICS will start appearing on other handsets now Google's made it available to other manufacturers and the general public in an open source format.

So my mind quickly runs back to what I'm running ICS on. While I love ICS, I'm reminded that the handset I'm running it on is ugly and horrible in the hand. It also feels like it's made from a recycled ice cream box.

And as I mentioned the 'no lag' camera earlier I think it's fair to cover that now. It's true, there is no shutter lag on the camera, you can press the screen to take a photo and it will literally take it immediately. While this isn't anything new for digital and analogue cameras it's quite a big thing for mobile phones because often you take the shot and there's anything up to a second in a delay, meaning you often miss that perfect shot moment. This handset doesn't have that lag, so you get the short as soon as you touch the screen and you'll get even more photos as fast as you can press the screen. If you can hit the screen 10 times in a second, you have 10 photos. Sounds great doesn't it? Well yes it is, but it's let down again by the handset.

For whatever reason Samsung have put a below average camera on this handset. I'm not overly bothered that this handset only takes 5mpx photos while many take 8mpx photos because I know that mpx doesn't automatically mean better photos. No, for me the problem is that the handset takes rather poor photos that appear smudged and blurry, even when they're perfectly focused. You may not notice this too much, but compared to the Desire, Desire HD and Sensation camera I found the Galaxy Nexus photos were lacking in sharpness and just didn't look as impressive. So while you can take that photo without delay, it doesn't actually look all that good when you do. This is a shame because it had huge potential here.

Another nice feature of the camera is that while recording video you can tap the screen and take a photo at the same time. See I'm being fair to Samsung and still pointing out their good points despite the flaws that put me off this handset...

Battery life was good, speech in calls was nice and clear, I couldn't find a way to get video calls to work so I can't comment there and I couldn't get voice dialling to work either. The handset was very fast, as you'd expect from a dual core handset, but for some completely stupid reason Samsung opted to leave off any sort of memory expansion. You get a generous 16Gb or 32Gb inbuilt storage depending on which version you buy, but there's no SD slot as is often the norm with such phones. Complete madness and a backstep! This is the kind of stupid thing you'd expect Apple to do, leave out a popular and useful feature for some unknown reason.

So now I'm stuck with the problem. I can move back to a nice HTC, well built handset and have to wait for ICS to become available for my handset or I can enjoy ICS and put up with using a flimsy feeling, ugly handset that's just not comfy to use. In the end it's not a massive battle and HTC win, with my Samsung Galaxy Nexus being listed on eBay within a couple of days from buying it. On the plus side I made a profit on the handset thanks to the severe demand and the stock shortages!

I left this handset and went for an HTC Sensation in the end. While it doesn't have ICS yet it's getting it in the not too distant future. And if I want 'bare Android' ICS I can root the handset and add it myself from a custom ROM - another great advantage of Android. This handset sits in my hand snugly, it feels a lot more sturdy and it's a joy to use. Sorry Samsung, you just can't make handsets as good as this and while ever you pump out flimsy, cheap feeling phones at premium prices you won't win me over....

To sum this up, it's a matter of taste. You may be able to live with an ugly, uncomfortable handset that feels like an oversized bar of soap in your hands, but it's not everyone's cup of tea. Certainly go to a store and try before you buy! I can't recommend this handset to others because for me it's a serious let down and disappointment. I understand that Nexus handsets tend to be aimed more at techies and developers, with Google having a go at showing off their latest carnation of their OS, but Samsung entered in to a rather large marketing campaign with this handset and as such appeared to push it out to the mass market. To me the handset can only be one or the other and sadly it's lacking as a mass consumer handset. Funnily enough I've noticed the marketing drop off recently, so I wonder if Samsung feel they've made a mistake?