Samsung Galaxy Nexus & Ice Cream Sandwich Review
by Brian Klug & Anand Lal Shimpi on January 18, 2012 1:34 PM ESTSettings
Android continues to offer configuration options within individual applications as well as centrally located system settings. Once again the lack of a dedicated, system-wide menu button forced Google to rely on a settings icon alone to get you to the system settings panel.
Although most of the configurable options remain unchanged from Gingerbread to Ice Cream Sandwich, Google completely reorganized the Android system settings page. What used to be a convoluted mess of items that weren't always placed logically has now turned into something far more sensible:
| Gingerbread vs. Ice Cream Sandwich | ||||
| Gingerbread | Ice Cream Sandwich | |||
| Settings |
 |
 |
||
Location settings are now separate from security and there's now a dedicated backup & erase section. Subtle changes like these seem to make a lot more sense than the organization in Gingerbread. I find myself spending far less time staring blankly at the ICS settings menus than I did in Gingerbread. Let's hope Google's partners don't go in and shift things around too much.
ICS includes a complete set of cool developer options, above and beyond the ability to enable USB debugging. You can force GPU accelerated drawing system-wide, even in apps that don't explicitly request it. You can overlay CPU usage data on the screen, cause any part of the screen that has been redrawn to flash wildly and even mark up the screen with your last touch events:
Most of this isn't useful to an end user but for a developer or just someone who's curious, it's fun stuff. More generally applicable however is the ability to turn on a little circle that follows your finger around the touch screen similar to what's always used in touchscreen demo videos.
There's also official support for adjusting mouse pointer speed, an obvious inclusion for dockable tablets like the Transformer Prime.
Copying via MTP or PTP
With Honeycomb we saw Google treat tablets as Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) devices rather than traditional USB mass storage devices. For Windows users there was no difference as MTP is natively supported in Vista and 7. Mac users have to rely on third party support for MTP, which Google provided via its own free Android File Transfer application.
Given that Android exposes much of the file system to the end user, MTP is a safer bet for protecting against corruption from both Android and the connected Mac/PC modifying data on the NAND at the same time.
Business is as usual for Windows users as ICS based devices just appear as a drive letter thanks to native MTP support. If you want to access an ICS device as you would a camera (perhaps for a specific application), Google allows you to toggle between MTP and PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol).
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
185 Comments
View All Comments
bjacobson - Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - link
I believe most of the readership is willing to wait--it's the price we pay for the most analytical reviews the net has to offer, and I definitely hope AT doesn't take a page from Tom's Hardware's book... That said, this one does seem a bit delayed, poor Anand has too much to do...dwang - Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - link
Any remaining lag issues in ics is due to software and not hardware.4.0.3 has significant performance enhancements that address any remaining lag issues in the browser and buttons.
For example, theverge.com lags pretty badly in 4.0.1/4.0.2, but is buttery smooth in 4.0.3. Check out this youtube video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN27yZQWfU0
Either wait for google to push out 4.0.3 to the galaxy nexus or install one of the many custom 4.0.3 roms from xda.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f...
cgalyon - Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - link
I've noticed popping and static coming from my GNexus when using apps (such as AmbiSciPS) that include extremely low tones (like 1.05Hz). I never had this problem with my Droid X, so I'm wondering if this is a limitation of the GNexus in general or if maybe I'm having bad luck. I don't suppose there's a way you could test the ability of the phone to produce tones across a broad range of frequencies?bjacobson - Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - link
considering 1hz is 6hz below the threshold of human hearing (7hz), 19hz below what most headphones support (20hz), and about 80hz below what perfect-pitch musicians could identify as do, rei, me, fah, so, lah, or ti, I think you're asking a bit much...gorash - Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - link
I hope Android becomes a full-fledged desktop OS pretty soon, and it would be interesting to see how iOS will pan out in a few years.We're ready to say GOODBYE to Windows hegemony.
Zoomer - Thursday, January 19, 2012 - link
No thanks, that would suck badly.sjankis630 - Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - link
I have the Galaxy Nexus and while I love it, I am coming from the Droid Eris, I have noticed several picture heavy sites which cause stuttering while zooming. I was slightly taken aback. I don't care how well my phone does against some other phone in a contest. I do, however, mind when visiting some sites makes it kind of annoying trying to get around.2 particular problem sites for me are : www.theverge.com and www.msnbc.com
Lovely phone though.
dwang - Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - link
wait for 4.0.3 that addresses the browser lag issues.Here is 4.0.3 on theverge.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN27yZQWfU0
notext - Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - link
love my nexus even though I dropped it and put a big ass crack on the screen. dropped my iphone many times and it never had a problem. Hopefully it was just a bad hit and not a sign of its design.notext - Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - link
and i will send you my broken glass once I can get a replacement. The closest repair place here in austin said it is unavailabe right now.