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Verizon's Galaxy Nexus To Launch Tomorrow
zacharye writes "Verizon Wireless on Wednesday finally announced the upcoming launch of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. The world's first Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich phone with 4G LTE support will become available beginning tomorrow for $299.99 with a new two-year service agreement. "
For a brand new smart phone, its not that unreasonable. If don't like that price, wait a year or 2 and it will be 99. Then wait another and it might be free.
Don't like waiting? Then pony up the cost of admission for being first in line and deal with it. Stop acting like a baby.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Buying it separately (if you can afford it) is a pretty good Idea, as long as you are on a GSM network. Canadian/Euro unlocked models will work on AT&T and T-Mobile.
The advantage is you can have the full Nexus experience including carrier un-detectable tethering, and Google Wallet with NFC support.
Google Wallet, which was the principal reason this phone was designed and built by Samsung for Google was banned by VZW in a stunning stab in the back to Google.
Further, this banning may be in direct violation of their 700mhz spectrum licensing conditions, one of which was free use of any application on 700mhz bands. Verizon uses 700mhz spectrum for LTE.
It remains to be seen if anyone will call Verizon to task for this, of if they have lined enough pockets in Washington to escape this requirement.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Same as an iPhone 4S with an equal amount of storage. I wouldn't be surprised if they use the Apple devices as a price benchmark.
I wonder if there will be a 16gb model that could go for $200 to match the 16gb iPhone option. That seems to be the upper boundary on my comfort zone for fancy new widgets.
Buy a no-contract cell phone or a used one on ebay, and just don't sign up for any carrier. The reason no one sells it is the market for such a device is tiny and shrinking.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
carrier un-detectable tethering
If your user agent is that of a desktop browser, you will be detected. And even if you use HTTPS for everything, a carrier's tether detector can still see your DNS requests. If you connect to popular PC operating systems' update servers, you will be detected. If you view a lot of popular web sites that have a mobile version without getting redirected to the mobile version, you will be detected. If you visit popular Flash sites (e.g. Newgrounds, Kongregate, Weebl's Stuff, FarmVille) without having bought a phone that supports Flash from the carrier, you will be detected.
http://www.samsung.com/hk_en/consumer/mobile/mp3-players/mid/YP-G70CW/XSH/index.idx?pagetype=prd_detail
In the United States, only T-Mobile itemizes the cost of the device and the service on the bill, and once your 2-year contract expires, the line item for the phone loan drops off the bill. The January 2012 issue of Consumer Reports applauded T-Mobile for its transparency in this respect (p. 36). The other GSM carrier (AT&T) charges the same per month whether you take the subsidized phone or bring your own phone that was bought separately, and an AT&T representative appeared genuinely surprised that T-Mobile would even offer a discount for bringing one's own phone. But I have trouble wholeheartedly recommending T-Mobile for three reasons: its coverage isn't as wide, its 3G data uses a band that most phones bought separately don't support, and AT&T still hasn't fully abandoned plans to acquire T-Mobile USA.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/12/14/financial/f150316S91.DTL
"[...] the Galaxy Nexus can record high-definition videos in 1080p — the best resolution you can get on a consumer camera. I had some fun taking sunset videos with a time-lapse feature, and there are some goofy filming effects to play around with, too."
"Generally, though, the Galaxy Nexus is a well-rounded smartphone that serves up a noticeably freshened-up version of Android with sleek hardware. Delicious, indeed."
The pros and cons, at least as far as i've heard.
Pros:
It's got ICS, ahead of everything else.
It's a Nexus device, which means it won't have any carrier skins or pre-installed crap (including CarrierIQ) and it will be updated in a timely manner with each new release of Android that it's capable of running.
It's got a high end chip with a dual core, putting it in a small class of mobile phones.
It's got a very large screen.
Cons:
It's got a very large screen. I'm not sure if the phone will actually fit in my pocket.
It's got ICS, which is great overall but i'm unsure about the lack of a global Menu button.
It's made out of plastic rather than a nice metal case like my Nexus One has. Some people have reported it feels kind of flimsy because of that.
It has no expandable memory, you're stuck with the 16/32 GB you start with.
It doesn't have Google Wallet (in the US.) I'm not sure if i want to use Google Wallet to pay for my groceries or whatever, but i'm not sure that i _won't_ want to do that in the future either.
Unknowns:
It is (so far) exclusive to Verizon in the US. I'm currently on T-Mobile and don't want to switch... unless the T-Mobile/AT&T deal goes through that is...
I'm not sure if it's possible to get an unlocked version, unless you're willing to import it from Europe. Which might let me use it on T-Mobile depending on the frequencies but certainly doesn't help with the price.
It only has a 5 MP camera. I don't actually care about the MP per se (it's already greater than the resolution of an HD screen after all) but they don't really give you any other specs to go by so i don't know how else to judge it.
Of course the biggest pro in my personal book is that my Nexus One is getting a little long in the tooth (in particular it has no space left for new apps) and i'm not sure how long i'm willing to wait for the next Nexus device. It's either that or get another high end phone that i can root and install Cyanogen on.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
It's not pure profit. England has the third highest population density for major counties in the world. The US has lower density overall, and a lot more rural areas. People expect coverage in those areas because Americans travel more than people in most other countries (vehicle miles traveled per capita is nearly twice that of the UK). We also have four major cell phone networks with different technologies and frequencies. So it is a lot more expensive to run a cell phone company in America than in England, although none of the extra expense actually helps consumers.
While I agree with everything you said, it still doesn't negate the GP's contention that we pay way too much for phones (handsets) in the US.
He just gave you an example of the EXACT same phone costing less in the UK. The Galaky S2 on T-Mobile costs around $179 up front and $79/mo. On top of that we pay for our calls (in minutes) for both outbound and inbound.
The price per month and amount of minutes takes into account the cost of networking a large country vs a small one. That might explain his $39/mo cost vs the US $79/mo cost. I say, MIGHT.
So why is the phone cost him ONLY $15 dollars up front and costs you and I $179, over 10 times as much?
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Megapixels don't matter, it's about the lens, the aperture, the--wait! Doesn't the iPhone have an 8MP camera?
Oh, this thing completely sucks, then. :^D
Well, let me correct that...this IS /.
I've been hearing for a while now about the upcoming release of the first phone running ICS, *in the US*.
Europe, Canada, and Australia have already had it.
Well, let me correct that...this IS /.
I've been hearing for a while now about the upcoming release of the first phone running ICS, *in the US*.
Europe, Canada, and Australia have already had it.
Blame Verizon and your crappy telco rackets.
Verizon, being a CDMA carrier requires a special version for them where as Australia, Europe and Canada use GSM, some variant of the four bands the phoneis capable of using (830/900/1900/2100) so the same version can be shipped to all both continents and the mooseheads
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.