By 
Bit of a slow news hump here so I decided to take AndroidForums.com for a spin. What better place to poke around than the section of one of the most anticipated phones for all Android enthusiasts? We jumped into some threads over at the Galaxy Nexus section and found the following threads interesting enough to spend a minute or 10 inside. Have at it!
- The forgotten feature of the Galaxy Nexus – Phone Calls
- One good reason to get the Galaxy Nexus
- The big honkin’ Gorilla Glass thread
- Galaxy Nexus vs Galaxy Note
- And last but most certainly not least, the Galaxy Nexus pre-release thread
Have fun!
only if this thing had the sd card slot… sigh…
Why?
Music requirements = google music.
Picture/video saves = auto backup to google+ and can back up to picasa/youtube
Movies = rent from marketplace
Or there are plenty of third party things too. All you need is coverage and a good data plan and you don’t need an SD card anymore.
I like the idea of an SD Card slot but have to admit that since opening day when I got my OD (still have) that I have never taken the SD card out of the phone…. perception is king…
Exactly… I’ve had the Incredible for a year and a half and haven’t taken my SD card out once.
You miss the point. It’s not about removing the SD card. It’s about having to add a possible extra 64 gb to the 32 gb internal memory.
lol 720p over the cell network.. I dont want my video to lag every 3 seconds…
thats where lte comes in=)
Yea, for like 4GB. What do you do after that? See? That’s where the cloud fails. It becomes pointless since companies are starting to limit the amount of data we can use.
If you used to reach like 5GB in a month, with new LTE, you’ll be able to do that in like 1 week. The purpose is getting defeated.
So…?
Fortunately for me I’m usually on Wifi anywhere I would actually sit down and watch a full movie. Anything shorter, like YouTube videos should stream fast enough over LTE.
Its a rediculous thought in any case to expect 720p over a cell network. Most people dont seem to realize that until its too late though.
“All you need is coverage and a good data plan”
“All you need” to solve world hunger is a bunch of food and a good distribution system. Doesn’t mean that shit’s always readily available.
Not sure about you, but i live in a city with good coverage, good data plan, plenty of food and excellent distribution system. Making vapid points about entirely unrelated issues is merely being a bit of a tit.
Um? I agree with the music. Only because I have like 3GB of total music. :P
Pics? Um… I’ll leave that to Ubuntu One. That’s pretty convenient. People should dual boot Ubuntu and use Ubuntu One. Perfect for pictures and other files.
Movies? By an iPod and have that for movies only. Won an iPod 2G before and that’s what I’m doing because 2GB movies take up space kinda fast.
How often do you need to swap out a SD card? And for music, use Google Music.
What about when I am in a plane? No cloud access! What about at work where I have very poor signal because of the building? I have multiple SD cards that I swap. I am having a very hard time getting past the lack of a SD card. Even the 4s has an option of 64gb. Why? Because we always will need more storage room!
How much “music” do you have??? Also it is recommended that you don’t keep swapping out those Micro Sd cards because they are very fragile.
It’s probably not only “how much do you need”.
Some of us have big sd cards, and would like to use them in a new phone.
Also, don’t forget that a phone that has for example 8 gb internal and a sd slot is much cheaper than a 32 gb phone w/o a sd slot.
Totally agree. Every Android user besides Nexus S users that upgrade to the G Nexus will now have a useless sd card. Plus I have apps and settings backed up on my sd card. I don’t want to lose that if something happens to the phone.
I actually don’t have all that much music, but movies on the other hand. I have swapping SD card in the same phone for over 2 years now.
Not to mentions the days that there happens to be an wireless outage. What do you do then? I like cloud as a backup not a full time solution.
65gb+ of my own CD rips (256kbps AAC) and counting.
Do I listen it all of it all the time? No, of course not. But having to plan out what I’m going to listen to and load it onto my phone ahead of time — not being able to pick out a random song I happen to want to hear at that moment — completely defeats the point of having a “portable” music device.
And no, the cloud isn’t a solution. It isn’t available during my commute (which is 98% underground), and it isn’t available when I travel abroad.
You’re absolutely right that having to swap out microSD cards on a regular basis isn’t ideal, which is EXACTLY why manufacturers should quit skimping on onboard storage.
This shrinking of onboard and removable storage options and pressure to use the cloud, which isn’t always available, is actually making music less and less portable.
Finally, an argument against the cloud thats thought out and written as such.
I agree fully. I rely almost fully on the cloud (G Music) for my music. I don’t like to watch movies on a phone so thats not a problem for me. I can fit a good portion of my library on 32gb but that doesn’t leave much room for anything else. They should just drop 64+ in mobile phones going forward and make us happy. I’d much rather have that than a barometer.
WHAT!? I only have like 3GB of music in my “Music” folder on my PC. eL oh eL!!
But I understand you. I mean, the cloud is retarded unless you’re on Sprint or Tmo since they give you unlimited data. (not unlimited data speeds. I’m not starting that argument). Other networks give you like so much data. The cloud would be useless once you reach that amount, so that’s another argument on your part.
The cloud is more always there, and when it’s not, then you have the temporary cache. Unless you’re just in an area where there’s NO data for like days or something. o.O
If you know you are going to be flying you can always make a playlist for it on Google Music and make it available offline. problem solved.
Wait, what?
Where do you think it stores the offline playlist if it has no cloud connection? Magically suspended in the ether?
to the phone’s memory maybe
Because you are going to need EVERY song for your two hour flight?!
“Where do you think it stores the offline playlist if it has no cloud connection? Magically suspended in the ether?”
You sound like someone I know, lmao.
Yeah. I think what the other posters seem to forget about is that networks aren’t always accessible or always reliable. I don’t like the cloud for that reason alone.
I though ICS was supposed to support USB flash drives (vs. other phones that had that capability built in). Drat, I can’t find the reference anymore. . .
Agreed. I absolutely understand the other posts praising cloud solutions for media content. However, the SD storage is extremely handy for video and audio playback as it drains far less battery life than streaming the same content over 3G/4G, and I do not have to worry about ultra high data usage. Again, I am not calling for an argument over local storage vs. cloud based storage, as I champion both sides. For me, however, I like to know I have the SD option. This may be the decision maker for me to go HTC Vigor (Rezound, bleh), not exicted about its name, but I think I can get over it.
Willing to be more than 75% of consumers don’t care about adding more than 16gigs of storage to a phone. I like to have an alarm clock with a bluetooth speaker and mic to answer my cell phone and wifi to auto correct time and access to internet radios and backup battery in case wifi fails and multi alarm for each day…but no one clock out there has it all because if it did it would cost $500 and nobody will buy it.
willing to put money on it?
coming from a Nexus S user, i rarely noticed the missing SD slot
Totally agree, i barely have used 2 gigs of my memory.
Yeah I’m only up to about 8gb.
I fill mine up on occasion, but it’s not that noticeable. Sitting on 12 gbs right now.
I’m sitting at 37gb
Slow news day?
I don’t care how many people say it… You can not make me believe, that not having SD slot is a positive. Not having expandable storage is a negative – simply put.
If this was not the case more android users would buy POS Iphones…
Completely agree. I’m getting this phone, but I don’t get the people that just throw away any opinion you put out there because it is against this phone. I thought Android was about options, but everyone that says “why do you need an SD card slot?” act like it’s not necessary because they like to store everything in the cloud. Just like King_James said, if you lose coverage in any small area or airplane, etc you can’t use any of these services.
I ran out of room on my 16gb SD card so I switched to google music and I can’t get music anywhere I go. Google Music is only as good as storing it on my phone when I actually have coverage. Not really any benefits.
Besides, how is Google Music better than having an SD card slot if they’re going to be charging for Google Music in the future. Not only do you have to buffer your music, but you get to pay for it too!
If you feel that strongly about the SD card slot then just pick one of the other 200 Android phones.
There’s only one that runs ICS though.
The fact that we are talking about a Nexus phone makes the sd card a non issue but if it was any other phone then I would be raising hell. How many of different Galaxy S you think there are since 2010 and how do you think Samsung will actually update, probably none because of how old they are but the Nexus S with the same internal will be. Hell we don’t even know for sure if some of the GS2 phones will get updated but time will tell. We at least know that their phone with a almost 2 year old processor will be supported but we can’t say that about phones that were announced last month or even last week, this is a very big deal since it is the Android OS that we love not just the hardware.
I would say the SD card is also good for transfer file between pc and/or other phones.. but there are a lot of apps that can do the wireless transfer (for pc/phone) and hey, we have NFC (for phone) although it’s not popular now, it will… (a nexus S user)
Not to mention Wi-Fi Direct coming in ICS. That will be quite nice once it becomes ubiquitous.
tbh sd cards will be a thing of the past. Cloud is where it will all be at in the future.
Yes, but that’s a good 5 years away when Google has it’s ultra fast network everywhere. For now, people are forced to be tiered data plans and shitty network coverage.
If only the headset jack was on the top of the phone, if only it were’t that ugly gun metal grey that is so popular now. Jeez, just make the thing universally appealing.; BLACK, like the Nexus S… The color of this phone is what is killing it for me- sounds vein, but I guess we can be when we spend $600 on a nice new toy. Grudgingly, I will prolly get it anyway.
My OG Droid has a 16GB card in it stock. I still have like 7GB free. That’s with probably 20ish albums on there. Close to 400 pictures. AND 2 years worth of Nandroid backups.
However, while ROMming it is nice to pop the SD out and stick it in a computer in order to transfer a ROM to it. Especially if something is messing up and I am getting a bootloop.
The question is why? Does an SD card slot take up that much room?
I have a 16GB card that has ONLY music and apps on it (those that will run off of the SD card) in my Nexus One. I use my N1 as my phone and mp3 player, and to do that I need all of that music on there (and some more).. I would’ve gotten a 32GB SD card if they weren’t so expensive at the time. I’m coming from an 80GB iPod (that was also full) so I REALLY had to pair down my library just to squeeze it on 16GB, and that sucks. The lack of an SD card slot is my single biggest gripe with the GN.
For those of you who think the “cloud” is the answer to everything, that might work fine on a network like Sprint where they don’t cap you out, but on all the other networks, I don’t want to be killing my available data (and BATTERY) streaming songs I could just have on my phone…. And yes, it will probably require a good SOLID 3G connection to stream music…. I’m sure at a lower bit rate than you can rip it into your library. Enjoy your lossy/choppy music and dead batteries people, I’ll be looking for phones with microSD card slots.
I get that everyone likes to have their entire music collection on them at all times, but why? How much of your 80 GB music library did you actually listen to?
I’m a little miffed the Nexus doesn’t have an SD card slot as well,simply because it’s nice to be able to expand the storage, but 14 GB (est 2 GB for OS/software) of music is over 1500 songs.
You don’t have to listen to all of your 80 Gbs of music to have a reason to keep it all on your phone, if your in a bad connection area, you only got 10 Gbs of your 80 Gb library (you forgot to include pictures, apps installed, etc) and if you wanted to listen to song X thats on the cloud, your just out of luck?
Why because the ultimate direction of cell phones is to become an all-in-one that replaces all your devices such as mp3 players. By limiting the amount of music you can listen to it’s like using your GPS but only being to access the first three streets on your trip.
You run into trouble with that argument though. If it replaces everything, including alternate storage, then you would lose everything if it was lost. You would want to have a master repository stored somewhere, either on another PC or a cloud-based system.
As far as the GPS analogy, I would rather liken it to a GPS containing the street maps for the areas you would be traveling, not the entire U.S. If you’re traveling somewhere else, load up some new stuff – just as if you feel like rotating in some new music.
I would also not consider 1500 songs a limited selection. At an average of 12 songs per album, you’re looking at 125 full albums. Average of 3.5 minutes per song, that’s 5,250 minutes or 87.5 hours of music.
If there’s some song that you have to listen to at that exact moment in time that is not on your device but in your vast 80 GB archive, stream it.
Why doesn’t everyone relax. Non of you designed either of these phones, so why take offense when someone prefers one over the other. How bout we wait for the full walk through and true side by side comparisons, and even then just pick the one you prefer.
The funniest thing here is if an Iphone came out w/o an sd slot, 90% of users here would poo poo it. The fact is Samsung was cheap in the design of the Nexus pure and simple.
the iphone doesn’t have an sd slot and never has?
And no ability to change the battery. I laugh about people complaining of reduced on board storage since when is 16 or 32GB a reduction? My OG droid had what 1GB? oh but wait that was almost 2 years ago :)
Ouch! I’m rocking 80 gb on my droid x. 16 internal and 64 sd card.
Samsung keeps copying Apple. First, it’s no sd card. What’s next? A non-removable battery?
Use micro SD card with adaptor in my DSLR camera and then use my phone to upload to picasa! Evry day use for past 2 years. For me no use for this phone! And also try to travel betvven citys and use any cloud service! Keep buffering? No music? My music from SD playing fine!
If the USB Host Mode works as advertised, you’ll be able to plug your SD card into a card reader then into the Nexus’ micro USB port. I’m looking forward to this for quickly accessing and uploading pics from my camera, as well as easy file swapping on and off the phone. **IF** USB Host Mode works ad advertised (as supposedly it does on the Honeycomb tablets).
Quentyn – My new hero. ;) :p
Galaxy Note FTW!
You guys are saying it’s fine that it doesn’t have one because YOU wouldn’t need it. But there are other people out there that needs it.
Anyway, i’ll probably pass on the nexus because I need more offline storage.
Is it just Americans that are cheap? Have you all neglected Spotify since its launch? Personally I collect all my music on Vinyl LP’s. Everything thing else is synced with Spotify over WiFi to play offline, so that’s a huge collection of my own digital music plus access to millions of tunes should I want to use my data up. I’m very much with the argument that having 80gb of music, accessible at all times is a waste.. you’re clearly not being attentive to whatever you’re listening to. The main argument I have towards having SD is actually photos, it’s handy for if the phone messes up I possess my photographs.. but then I’m a grown up and am fully capable of backing up my data to a secondary storage device. Get with it.
So because you think having 80 Gbs of music is a waste then it shouldn’t matter to others? How are they clearly not being attentive to what they are listening to? I like to listen to random songs in my library, and not a pre-chosen few, with all my library a slow stream away if I have network coverage. Wireless networks haven’t evolved enough for cloud storage to become a strong replacement for Onboard storage. If you have tiered, then you only get to listen to music for so long, and that takes away from data you could have used elsewhere. Go into a dead spot? No music while your there, go into a crappy signal area, no music while your there, network outage? No music. Even with a strong 3G signal in my town, I don’t use google music for my OG because I don’t like the lag while it loads when I’m switching songs. I agree cloud storage is the way of the FUTURE, but its not quite here yet.
I think that the SD card is a necessity. for those of us that travel a lot just using basic phone memory isn’t enough and cell service is faulty. I store a lot of things like videos and a lot of music and photos that need to keep me occupied for 12 hour drives sometimes. multiple SD are well needed. not to mention the cloud and google are a huge headache with sprint. if there’s no wifi i either don’t have service at all or it lags from non continuous service. and with at&t if i listen to music for that long using data i’ll have overages on my bill. I think all Android phones should at least have the option for SD cards.
I don’t understand why people come and complain about the phone. If you aren’t going to buy it because it doesn’t have something you feel you need go get another phone. That is the good thing with android there is plenty of choice.
I’m coming and complaining about the phone, but I’m still going to probably buy it (Depends on funds) As a consumer you should complain, if something is taken out when you want it, tell them. Don’t just scream SHUTTUP AND TAKE MY MONEY! Then they will start skimping on features while raising the price.
Not if you start buying another competitors product. For me no sd card isn’t that big of a deal I don’t store that much on my phone. I could see where this would be a problem for some. There are a ton of choices and for once great choices on Verizon and that will show what people want.
There’s not many choices if you want a nexus though :P gah I wish they could have made the Nexus Razr w/ all the best features from both phones. That, I wouldn’t mind paying 300 for.
There’s isn’t plenty of ICS devices, only one.
I forgot none of them will be updated. /s
if u dont like it, dont buy it. simple….
get a Razr or Amaze or something….
Will there be a version painted creme on the inside and clean on the outside?