My device was not able to hold a 4g signal. Period. The 4g signal would drop dead repeatedly, causing me to be restricted to the 3g, which in 4.0.2 time could be rather slow. The problem persisted even after the software update. So I traded it in for a CLNR device, which has worked very well. The signals are good where I expect them to be. The radio handoff is pretty quick and flawless. I found that the speaker is pretty standard, as is the camera (very quick, though). The screen looks great. It’s a great ICS device working on the best 4g network in the country (combined with a HBO Go account and an unlimited data plan… it’s great).

The fact still remains that I, along with many others, had to exchange for CLNR devices in order to get a working Gnex. The lemon rate is unacceptable. Gnex is not Samsung’s first LTE 4g phone on Verizon. It’s not like the company had no experience dealing with the 4g sim card system. This tells me that Samsung dropped the ball on QC. Though in design, the Gnex is a fantastic phone, the overall experience still left a bit of a sour note. Do I think Samsung is capable of designing fantastic phones? Yes. Will I jump on the preorder for the latest Samsung phone when it comes time for me to upgrade? Probably not. And that’s bad news for Samsung.

Furthermore, Gnex also showed that Verizon is just a bad carrier for the “Nexus” experience; the 4.0.4 update took forever to go OTA, and Verizon just remained silent while the rest of us struggle with 4g signal drop. A brief announcement and acknowledgement of the problem would suffice. Locking up google wallet was bad enough. The least they could do is communicate better.

My old EVO 4G was rock solid.