Samsung Galaxy Nexus & Ice Cream Sandwich Review
by Brian Klug & Anand Lal Shimpi on January 18, 2012 1:34 PM ESTThe standard Email app in ICS is an evolutionary improvement over what we saw in Gingerbread. The white text on a black background is now inverted to a much more modern looking black text on white background theme:
The UI and performance improvements give the email app a nice update, but there are some feature enhancements as well.
You can still select several emails at a time for starring, marking, moving or deleting. ICS no longer requires you to hit a menu button to bring up additional options or even to do something as simple as composing an email. All of the most commonly used functions are displayed at the bottom of the screen.
Deleting emails is still not as instantaneous as I'd like it. If you're deleting a small number of emails they'll all go at once after a bit of a delay, otherwise for long lists you'll see the emails slowly disappear.
In message view mode you can quickly reply to any message by tapping the reply arrow key, however to reply to all or forward a message you'll need to first hit the contextual menu button at the top of the screen (this is configurable, you can make reply to all the default action).
Quoted text in a reply is still neatly placed in a separate text box, which keeps your composition text box nice and clean. ICS adds support for quick replies, which are canned responses to emails that you define manually and can quickly insert.
Server side searching is finally supported, however it's fairly slow (slower than iOS at least). String matching in your search query also seems to be fairly strict so you'll have to make sure that the word(s) you're searching for are not immediately preceded/followed by other characters. You also can't specify where in the email (subject, address field, message text, etc...) you want to search, you just get a general search box.
Gmail
Among the other first-party applications that are new in Android 4.0 is Gmail, which receives an overhaul that closely matches the client from 3.x. The update includes a dramatic makeover that minimizes use of the menu button for interaction. Instead, there’s a row of icons along the bottom for refreshing, composing, searching, and tagging Gmail conversations. If you make selections this row of buttons changes appropriately to mark read/unread and archive/trash items as well. At the very top is a drop down pane for selecting the current label or other inboxes.
On a smartphone sized device, Gmail now looks and feels a lot like the client from Android 3.x, except with menu and organizing befitting a smartphone. The improvement is dramatic and manages to leave the 2.x client feeling old and unintuitive. The only unfortunate thing is that in the message view, Gmail still lacks pinch to zoom functionality, making looking at emails composed with lots of HTML difficult. This is something that people have been vocal about since the Gmail in Android 2.x which surprisingly still is present.
Minor gripes aside, the Android Gmail application in 4.x yet again sets the bar for the best native Gmail implementation. I can’t go back to the 2.x client, and in comparison the iOS Gmail client seems like a cheap facsimile.
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TedG - Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - link
I am looking forward to ICS on my RAZR. It seems similar in power and size to the Nexus.Jonathan Dum - Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - link
Any comments on the quality of the touch sensors? My biggest gripe with my Nexus One is the absolutely inane touch accuracy in comparison to an iPhone. If these new ICS phones have significantly improved touch sensors, I may be coaxed into sticking with Android.jalexoid - Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - link
Synaptics touchscreen controller on N1 was to blame. Even the HTC's "copy" Desire had a much better touchscreen experience due to a better touchscreen controller.All devices after that should have a really good controller.
tipoo - Thursday, January 19, 2012 - link
Same with my Nexus S. The locational accuracy is good, but it actually senses a tap with my finger a few millimeters above the screen, which can cause problems with the keyboard and other precise apps.Brian Klug - Thursday, January 19, 2012 - link
That was always my bug with the Nexus One as well, and it remains an unsolved problem to this day on that phone.I've seen no touch recognitions at all on the Galaxy Nexus. For the most part honestly these issues have gone away as the OEMs stopped being cheap with their capacitive layers and controllers. The Nexus One was especially bad.
I've seen some people complaining about issues with recognition in the bottom right corner - hardware swaps fix those problems.
-Brian
Skiddywinks - Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - link
... is the GN still going to be the best Android on the market? I upgrade in March, and it basically comes down to the S2 or the GN. Each has their advantages, but personally it largely comes down to the display and the GPU.I like to play emulated games on my phone, but I don't know how they work in terms of whether they are software only, or can GPU accelerate. The better GPU in the S2 doesn't really do much if the GN can play everything else on the market at no apparent deficit. Better display all the way in that case. GN wins.
I'm not liking the lack of mSD in the GN either, though.
BAH. Decisions, decisions.
tipoo - Thursday, January 19, 2012 - link
Yeah, the Mali 400 in the GS2 might benchmark way higher than the Galaxy Nexus, but there are no games that exclusively run on it, or even that have more features on it like Tegra phones. I'd guess that even with its relatively weak GPU the Galaxy Nexus will never leave you wanting in games for the next year or two, and its screen is better. My Nexus S can still play top end games like Shadowgun, and that was built for more powerful tablets. With Android developers aim for middling hardware.medi01 - Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - link
@Android is an OS that, although more closed than many would like, still allows more flexibility than iOS@And that comparing Open Source OS to something as closed as it gets. It is merely "still allows more than iOS", hilarious.
doobydoo - Thursday, January 19, 2012 - link
The openness of Android wasn't being compared to iOS, the flexibility was.Two separate points.
Gwynbleidd - Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - link
Two things, though:1. You wrote "Business is as usual for Windows users as ICS based devices just appear as a drive letter thanks to native MTP support." - that's not true, because of MTP Nexus appears in My Computer in Windows as a multimedia device and does not have a letter assigned, so sadly it's not possible to use traditional file managers like Total Commander to deal with files on it without additional plugins.
2. Did you notice any screen quality issues in your devices? Mine shows ugly pinkish smudges visibly especially on gray backgrounds, here's photo (it's out of focus on purpose, otherwise there would be a rainbow goo on screen):
http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/7794/nexussmudg...
So when scrolling webpages you can see that text is pinkish at the top, then white stripe, then pinkish again... Apparently I'm not the only one having this issue with Nexus, and there is a long thread on xda forum about the same problem with Galaxy Note Screens
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1...
A little investigation, maybe? ;)