my Galaxy Nexus diary
dang1
Enthusiast - Level 1

I got this phone on Sunday night 1/29/12. The one day that I've had it, overall, it's ok. I'm still trying to decide if I want to keep it. Moving around the phone, it's fast, the big screen looks great and the fastest 4G speedtest so far is 30000 kbps download and 16000 kbps upload. On 3G, obviously it's slower but still pretty decent.

Now, I wish the standard battery lasts longer. At home and in the car, I have it charging. At work, I had it charged about 1/3 of the time. I don't talk alot on the phone, so I haven't seen how the battery holds up in a long conversation. When it's in my pocket, I only have it on 3G, only synch Gmail, and it's on vibrate. On those settings, the battery went from 100 to 90% in about 3 hours with about 30 minutes of Google Reader browsing. I was typing a comment on a blog and the battery went down a percent every minute I was typing- yikes. Hopefully, a software update will make the battery last longer, or I might get an extended battery.

The phone connection drops when switching between 3G and 4G. Most of the time, it take a couple of seconds for the connection to restore. Two or three times though, it took a couple of minutes. Most pf the time, when there's no connection, the signal indicator is all black or all grey. There's been times when the indicator is grey on 3G, I can make and get calls, but I'm not able to use the data connection. That's it for now, I'll add more later.

Re: my Galaxy Nexus diary
Tidbits
Legend

There's a few factors you have to consider...

1. Most apps currently in the market have not been updated or optimized for battery.  I have 54 apps installed on my Nexus and 1/3 of them have never been updated in 5-6 months, 1/4 of those left haven't been updated in a year.  The ones that have been updated 2/3 of them still don't support HDPI or ICS.

2.  Your background data/processing may use more than you do or think it does.  A lot of people have grown accustom to hitting the home button vs. back button.  Hitting home will allow that app to use background processing while back button in general closes the app or caches the app.  Also little differences like your Mail app for example if you have multiple accounts set up to check mail every 15 minutes will eat 4 times the battery checking every hour. Notifications also plays a part in this.  In order to get the notification it needs to poll first and see changes then report the changes.

3.  Screen brightness makes a small difference, and the amount of time you have it on.  I have mine set on auto, but understand the more it's on the quicker the battery drains.

4.  DON'T kill cached processes...  It'll make your device work harder throughout the day as it has to open the app from empty to full vs. 1/2 to full.  Just because you see it in the multitask button doesn't mean it's actually running(unless you hit home mentioned in #2).

I average around 16+ hours on an extended battery on a daily use.  If I used a normal battery I probably lose 2 hours tops.  Sometimes less due to having more free time than usual.  Understanding what chews your battery may help with habits for the long run and may help extend your battery life.