RAZR MAXX or Galaxy Nexus

[Fathom]

Trying to make a decision between these two phones. I read the LTE thread and it seemed RAZR was the winner but turned out to be more of a promo thread. Any more insight would be appreciated.

[Kyhl]

I don't think you can go wrong with either.

I chose Razr because of Moto's radios, and unit durability. I'm hard on phones and like to be able to use them in the sticks. Motorola has never let me down on either count.

I've been know to forget that my phone was on my bumper, working on the boat trailer, and drove off. Found the phone (not the Razr) a block down the street scratched to heck but worked as it was supposed to for over a year after. Probably still works.

That said, the Gorilla glass doesn't seem to be anything more than marketing. It's just a named brand of harder glass. Every phone uses harder glass. I put a mark in the Gorilla glass withing days. I have since added a screen protector. Like I said, I'm hard on phones, and I feel like I've been treating this phone like it's a rare LP.

From what I've seen, the Galaxy is as fast or faster download speeds. I think the big plus to the Galaxay is it's lack of bloatware vs the Razr. I wish I could remove a bunch of dump from my Razr without having to root it.

I also wish I could do screen grabs without rooting. The Galaxy is able to do that.

I'm happy with the battery life. If I could do it over, I'd go with the Maxx. As it is, I can stream audio at work for six hours a day and still have 20% batter left to get me home.

[Fathom]

Took advantage of the Leap Day sale and ordered the nexus to try it out, if I don't like it I will probably return it for the Iphone. My wife already has one but I wanted to be different so I figured I'd try an android phone.

[LwnmwnMan2]

Fathom -

I know you already got your phone, but I'll throw this in for those that will read the thread.

I got a new Maxx in the mail yesterday.

Some of the bloatware you can delete.

I've been streaming live radio (I Heart Radio or Media U for 1500Espn) since 11:45 this morning.

I had a 1/2 hour break when I was driving through an area that didn't have decent data reception between Wyoming and East Bethel.

Right now the battery is 50%. I've had 4-5 10 minute plus phone calls, been running the bluetooth the whole time.

The battery is at 50% right now.

On my regular Razr, the battery would have already been dead. I was using the new Maxx last night without charging the battery completely. One thing I noticed was that on my original Razr, while streaming, once the phone beeped for 15% battery remaining, it would take about 15 minutes and the phone would beep that it was down to 5%, then about 5 minutes and it was dead.

This morning, I heard the 15% beep, listened for another 30-40 minutes and never heard the 5% beep before I finally put the phone on the charger for good.

Now, with all that said, I don't have all of the apps loaded I had before, but I did have the basics.

I have the phone streaming right now so I can see how long the phone streams before the battery dies.

[DTro]

Well that makes sense since 15% of 3400 (mAh) is quite a bit more than 15% of 1780 (mAh).

I plan on getting a Maxx, but just haven't got around to it yet. Which is a pretty good statement for my DroidX. I'm not hating it so much that I feel I have to get one now. But the 4G is what I'm really looking forward to.

[LwnmwnMan2]

I ended yesterday with putting the phone back on the charger after 9.5 hours of streaming, talking texting and surfing. The only time it wasn't streaming was the 1/2 hour when it kept dropping the stream between Wyoming and East Bethel.

I was still able to surf in the area though.

I will be putting the regular Razr on an auction site as soon as I get my music copied over and delete the memory.

[Fathom]

Got my Nexus last night and have been monkeying around with it, a little confusing after helping my wife with her iphone and this being my first android phone. The battery seemed to drain pretty fast but I was playing with it a lot last night. I did download a battery app to see if that helps. I'm a little unfamiliar with widgets and some of the icons don't make sense to me but I've started to figure some of it out, I think. Anyone know of a good site for beginner android users?

Caman, do you have any suggestions or helpful hints on using this phone?

[LwnmwnMan2]

Start reading..

^^^^ This is the app thread from farther along. There are alot of reviews.

I'll say this much, I have yet to find many apps where the paid version is better than the free version. Usually it just gets rid of the ads that pop up.

As far as weather apps or other apps that take you to a HSOforum, you'll be able to just bookmark the actual web page right to your phone.

I have the National Weather Service forecast page, as well as local and extended range radars bookmarked right on my homepage of my phone. I know there are many weather apps that are $2.99, $4.99 even more, but they all do the same as the free bookmarks.

[Fathom]

Thanks for the link, I'll get on that when I have a day or two...

Looks like a great thread

[CAMAN]

Got my Nexus last night and have been monkeying around with it, a little confusing after helping my wife with her iphone and this being my first android phone. The battery seemed to drain pretty fast but I was playing with it a lot last night. I did download a battery app to see if that helps. I'm a little unfamiliar with widgets and some of the icons don't make sense to me but I've started to figure some of it out, I think. Anyone know of a good site for beginner android users?

Caman, do you have any suggestions or helpful hints on using this phone?

I recommend setting your screen display to 30% and forget about the auto-brightness, I've never had it work properly on any phone I've ever used. That saves the most battery that I have noticed, and the screen is plenty bright enough, unless you're in direct sunlight, but even full brightness won't help you much there.

I've done so much with mine that I hardly remember everything I've done and can recommend, but if you have any specific questions or things that you can't seem to figure out feel free to ask away.

If you want to customize your ring and notification tones and have control over your notification LED, then I suggest getting Light Flow, the free version will work just fine for what you probably need. And to get more ringtones get Zedge which is free also.

I do recommend, if you're a weather freak like me, take advantage of the internal barometer and install Barograph. If you're interested, I can help walk you through getting that calibrated properly.

I don't know if you have a case yet for it or not, but I do recommend finding something. For some reason they made this phone INCREDIBLY slippery and the phone has a tendency to slip right out of dry hands. If you're not super rough on phones a couple I recommend are made of TPU, one is made by Cruzerlite and called Androidified A2 and the other is made by Qubits and called TPU Gel Skin. The CruzeLite was less than $10 and I think the Qubits was around $3. The CruzerLite is a little thicker and harder to put on and take off and I mainly got it because I liked their color selection a lot better and I think the Android on the back is kinda cool. The Qubits is thinner, but made very well and thought out better than the CruzerLite IMO, with better grip on the side, perfectly located ports and button covers, and just easier to put on and take off. They just don't have as good of a color selection if you're worried about that. Both slide in and out of your pockets very easily. I picked them both up on @m@zon.

CruzerLite

Qubits

I'll try and remember more that can help you out and post back, but feel free to ask away if you have any questions. Also check out other Android specific forums, there are people on them that know WAY more than I would ever know, and just scanning them will teach you a lot.

Oh, and those battery apps you download, usually don't work worth a darn, and just watching what you have running in the background will do better for you than downloading something that just uses the battery it is saving you to run itself.

The best advice I can give you is have fun and mess around with it and see what everything does. You really can't screw anything up that can't be undone unless you do something wrong while rooting it.

[Fathom]

Thanks everyone for the help/advice, it does come in handy. Since I had to look up what it means to root your phone I probably won't be doing that unless it is easier than it sounds. I haven't really kept up on my technology as well as I should and I don't want to ruin anything. You were right about the battery app CAMAN, it did help manage my battery but it wouldn't allow me to use my data until I uninstalled it and turned my phone off and on. I'll just try and keep an eye on what is running in the background.

So far I am happy with the look and feel of the phone and it does run supper smoothly. I think what I am missing is the customization to make it a truly great phone. It seems the iphone has most of the things I am looking for already loaded and easier to find and use(experience with wife's phone). I'll keep playing around with it though before I need to decide if I am going to exchange it. Thanks again to everyone who has offered advice.

[LwnmwnMan2]

Fathom -

As you get used to the phone, you'll realize you can't break it (programming wise).

Literally, yes.

If you have time, you can mess around with different apps. Make sure you stick to the free ones to begin with, as just about every app has a free "trial" or ad based app.

One thing about rooting your phone, is you can then download an app that gets rid of the ads in all of the apps.

For the Razr / Maxx, it was as simple as downloading a patch, connecting the phone to the laptop, clicking "run" and wha-la, it was rooted.

My "X" and "X2" were much more extensive at the time.

[CAMAN]

It seems the iphone has most of the things I am looking for already loaded and easier to find and use(experience with wife's phone).

That is what is great about the Galaxy Nexus, they are supposed to come pretty much bare bones, very little bloatware, etc that the cell company and manufacturer thinks you need. You are able to load on whatever you want and customize it yourself.

If you don't want that full customization option, by all means, get the iPhone.

[Fathom]

That is a good point, maybe I was just being lazy. I did have some time yesterday to add a bunch of apps. I didn't realize how easy it was. I actually was on my desktop at work looking on the market and just kept clicking install, install, install and they were all instantly loaded on my phone.

I am curious about one thing with the new Google Play, it seems some people with rooted phones were ticked off because the google apps don't work on their phones now? I'm going to do a little more searching on some other forums today but is this limiting the customization of android phones?

Another quick question about the voice search, how do you get it to stop searching the web? Maybe I am using it incorrectly or I am using the wrong search but when I hit the microphone and say "call so and so" it does a search on the web for call so and so. Any ideas?

[LwnmwnMan2]

All of my Google Apps still work: Google Books, Google Music, Google Play.

I see most online talk is about people that use phones to rent movies.

However, a little ways down the search page, one of the main developers for root apps has already created a work around.

[CAMAN]

Another quick question about the voice search, how do you get it to stop searching the web? Maybe I am using it incorrectly or I am using the wrong search but when I hit the microphone and say "call so and so" it does a search on the web for call so and so. Any ideas?

What app are you using? There is a Google Search app, that will search the internet. There is also a Voice Dialer app, that will search your contacts or whatever you tell it to do inside your phone.

[Fathom]

I must have been using the Google search app instead of the voice dialer app. I loaded the AVIC app today and will give that a go. Being new to a smartphone I just need to get in the habit where if I think of something that would be nice on my phone to do an app search for it. Only ever having a basic phone has limited my thinking. Thanks again for the help.

[nolte]

Is anyone else having terrible issues with battery life with the Nexus. It was never very good but now it is just brutal. The phone will be dead in 4.5 hours without even using it. Battery gauge tells me that Android OS used up 70% of the battery.

It then also takes a couple hours to charge it back up. I don't know what the deal it. 4G is turned off, GPS is off, email synch is every 15 minutes. Is there anything else I could look at or did I get a bad battery. I did use a non-Samsung charge a few times, did this happen to fry the battery or something.

[LwnmwnMan2]

Sounds to me like a bad battery.

I had that happen for no apparent reason on an "X2".

All of a sudden one day it would drain EXTREMELY fast. Took it in, and they had to send me a new battery. I bought an extended battery at the time, so now I have an new, normal OEM X or X2 battery, but no phone to use it for.

[Nick Kuhn]

Any number of things on the battery life. #1 delete any unnecessary apps. #2 Reboot the phone from time to time (especially if you are like me and never turn your phone off). #3 look into any apps that refresh often and use a lot of background data (ESPN ScoreCenter alone used to be about 50% of my battery drain). Lower the refresh rate or disable refresh altogether. #4, Lower screen brightness to about 30% unless you are outside. #5, keep the GPS, bluetooth, and 4G off unless you are actively using them.

If after all that you still have poor battery life, you may want to take it in.

[CAMAN]

First change your email to every 30 minutes or hour, believe me it uses a lot of power, unless you absolutely need it that often, I'd change it. Second pull your battery and let it sit for atleast 10 minutes, there is an issue with ICS that doesn't shut down some apps or even show you there is one hanging up and will kill the battery and that is the only fix I have found. Hopefully the rumored update will fix it.

Also can you poat a screenshot of your battery page? I believe what you say about it, but Android shouldn't be using 70% of the battery. It sounds like that is what has hung up.

Here is what a normal functioning Nexus should be showing...

[nolte]

This is a screenshot from just now. I pulled the phone off the charger when I left for work and it only made it about 4+ hours. I only took 2 short phones calls since this am and looked at a couple emails. I will try pulling the battery and seeing if that makes a differenc.

[CJH]

FYI ~ IT was leaked that both the Razer's are supposed to get Ice Cream Sandwich this week.

Razer Maxx is what I will be getting June 1st, especially after the I.C.S update.