We won't lie: it's rather thrilling when a big new product is properly broken. Whether it's a juicy hardware fault like the iPhone 4's antenna or a major service breakdown like the BlackBerry outage or the PlayStation network palaver, a consumer electronics crisis is meat and drink to CNET UK.
Because this is what we're here for: to tell you what's broken, why it's happened, and to pester the manufacturer on your behalf until it's fixed. And while increasingly good quality assurance means genuine hardware snafus are becoming rarer, ever more complicated software means hacks and bugs are becoming more common.
It's the latter that concerns us today. The first phone to run Google's Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich software, we were extremely excited to get our hands on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. But the phone we tested in our review has an extremely annoying tendency to drop its volume to zero, over and over again, when we were using 2G (in our case on Tesco Mobile's O2-powered network). This means we couldn't hear what the other person was saying when we were on a call.
Looking around the Internet, it seems we aren't alone. The phone went on sale last week and a number of punters are reporting this same problem. Although we can't yet be sure how widespread the issue is, it seems to be a software bug that could be fixed with an update.
We're duty-bound to mention this in our review, and we do, prominently. Simply put, we don't want you to go and buy this phone and wonder why we didn't mention such a glaring problem. And that means we have to alter our review score, however good the phone might be in other respects.
We feel the model we reviewed deserves a two-star score because it suffers from a major flaw: you can't use it as a phone under certain conditions. It's a real shame, because otherwise it's brill. It has the highest resolution screen we've ever seen on a mobile, and Ice Cream Sandwich really is a major leap forward for Android. We said all of this in the review, so you should go and read just how good a phone it is for yourself.
So, our next steps: we have contacted Samsung and Google, and await their response. We'll let you know what they say and when we can expect a fix. And when the problem is solved, we'll go back to our review, get rid of the stuff about this bug and change the score to what it should have been in the first place: a magnificent four and a half stars.
Update 2 December: Google has pushed out an official update that fixes the bug, and we've amended our Samsung Galaxy Nexus review to reflect this.
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Comments 26
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MikeBuck_1 21 November, 2011 17:03
even if it worked, wouldn't by it, the S2 is a better phone, looks like google just paid for Samsungs spare parts! shame
anonymous 21 November, 2011 17:05
@Ollie Dell. Ouch mate get a life!
@CNET Nicely put guys. Still think a 3 star rating would have been good enough for the time being, Hell I don't even use my Phone as a, erm, Phone... It's a shame they missed this in testing, but the phone looks so amazing I'll get it once they fix the problem. Hopefully a software update!
Rían Mac Leannachain 21 November, 2011 17:13
Why did the much more common and more serious flaw with the iPhone 4 not reduce it's rating to 2 stars? It was brushed over as a minor problem. Apple can obviously do no wrong!
Ryan J Pattinson 21 November, 2011 17:42
lolol trust cnet to say this really i wouldnt care its a small bug people on xda can fix that easy do a little more homework
anonymous 21 November, 2011 18:27
So if the Iphone 4 suffered 'a juicy hardware fault like the iPhone 4's antenna' which more than constitutes a major flaw and you then go and to say 'We feel the model we reviewed deserves a two-star score because it suffers from a major flaw' yet you still managed to give the Iphone 4, despite suffering a 'major flaw' four and a half stars. If that's not bias I do not know what is.
anonymous 21 November, 2011 18:47
CNET SORT YOURSELVE'S OUT YOU FOOLS. This comment will no doubt be deleted under your new fascist regime, but hear me out. I shall make one point, yes the iphone has volume during calls; but that means nothing when you can't make a call in the first place. Your fans know it, i know it, you know it: Cnet has grown to crap. Fix this cnet, every post you make vaguely about technology is ridden with people complaining about your fanboy'ism. Are you really thick enough to not notice!?!? Pull your finger out guys, this is pathetic and i for one won't be a part of this rubbish apple centric poison of tech blogging. Now go ahead, delete this before everyone realises that cnet is worse than death now and leaves.
anonymous 21 November, 2011 18:47
Over the air update.
Morons.
anonymous 21 November, 2011 19:06
Although I agree the phone deserves to be marked down because of this fault. 2 stars is harsh. Will you adjust your rating accordingly when an OTA update fixes this?
The iPhone wasn't treated so harshly with the fault that acutually prevented you from making calls. CNET is loosing it's credibility.
Sort yourselves out guys!
Jacob Dutt 21 November, 2011 19:49
why dont iphones thus get rated this lowly? Im yet to have a full phone call with an iphone 4 or 4S user without it suddenly cutting out and having recall each other. This is a problem that has been going on for nearly a year and a half, but no fix, just "it's a google smear campaign! our phones work fine! here have a case and play some more trainyard". We need Ian back! He wouldnt have allowed any favouritism towards an apple product like this.
anonymous 21 November, 2011 20:06
OTA update will not fix this, the problem is a hardware related issue as proven by this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_mO_K7OYR0
the phone is in bootloader mode (which doesn't load any drivers, or anything to do with Android), yet is still experiencing the problem when another phone that operates on 900MHz is held near to it. this is undeniable proof that this is a hardware issue and cannot be fixed by a software update.
Bladey 21 November, 2011 20:10
If you haven't had a full phone call on an iPhone 4 yet, then I can only suggest that your network is pants, this whole antenna issue has been blown out of all proportion, I think the iPhone antenna is far superior to the HTC I had, I had no signal most of the time at home and work, 1 bar if I was lucky, when the iPhone 4 got released I purchased it straight from the Apple store, changed my sim to a micro sim for my iPhone, same network Orange, put it in my new iPhone and straight away had 3 bars, home and at work, very rarely had a dropped call at all, so how do you explain that then? Just the usual idiots slagging off the iPhone as usual, it's the best phone out there, just remember if Apple didn't invent the iPhone back in 2007, phones would not be like they are today, you have to thank Apple for the phones that people enjoy today, HTC, SAMSUNG, all smart phones, they are all trying to play catch up to the iPhone and still haven't done it after all these years!!!!!!
anonymous 21 November, 2011 20:18
I will certainly not be coming back to CNET any more, i find their reporting to be very poor and have noticed a dramatic shift in their reporting to be more positive towards apple products and increasingly negative towards androids whoever is in charge needs to sort it out cause they're loosing credibility fast.
ChromeShark 21 November, 2011 20:29
Can anyone confirm that this is OK on the Orange network?
I bought one anyway, I trust will be fixed this soon enough.
Charlesknight 21 November, 2011 21:18
@Ryan J Pattinson
"lolol trust cnet to say this really i wouldnt care its a small bug people on xda can fix that easy do a little more homework"
Well that would be news to the people at XDAdevelopers, they say it appears to be a hardware fault and thus is unfixable via software updates or hacking.
jayce35 21 November, 2011 23:52
this is last time I come on this website they can give the iPhone 4 with all its problems with a 4 and a half butthey give the nexus a 2 where every other reviews read or watched gave 4 or over up to a 5
star rating I knew this website was one sided but this shows how much you good bye cnet you apple #@^= suckers
anonymous 22 November, 2011 01:59
The 4S[ame] has major issues - major security issues and Siri only working in the US to name just a couple, but it gets a rave review? I smell a rotting apple...
Ryan Simmons 22 November, 2011 02:53
How about just withholding giving the phone a score until you at least have heard back from Google/Samsung about this problem that's clearly just a launch issue, be it hardware or software related? No, that would be too sensible...
anonymous 22 November, 2011 06:05
hey Nick Hyde not being funny but any chance of a video showing this problem happening to the phone you have? the reason I say this add being the skeptic I am your report doesn't ring true (excuse the pun) your report reads like you've read it from someone elses report and then put this into your own words, most of the other reports state that they observe the volume bar on screen going down, show us a video of this happening as my belief is this is a problem happening on a small number of phones yet strangely you managed to get one!?
anonymous 22 November, 2011 09:03
Nick, this article is a disgrace. How are people like u allowed to wright stuff like that amazes me. Unless apple paid everybody at CNET, if I were yr boss I would definitely consider sacking u !
Seriously !?!?!?!??!?!?!
anonymous 22 November, 2011 12:43
Over the past year I have noticed the apple bias on this blog becomming more and more prominent and blatent. I gave the blog time and continued visiting, because .... objectivity is easy to talk about but hard to achieve. I was figuring the apple bias I percieved was either a) Temporary or b) Only in my imagination.
The percieved bias has continued for quite some time now so option a) is out.... and Ive noticed a lot more people posting comments about apple bias so option b) is out.
I'm afraid this will be my last visit to this blog. Thanks for all the effort of all the contributors over the years I've been visiting and I hope the blog either rectifies the bias issue or makes it more obvious to readers by way of a disclaimer than this site is biased towards apple products.
Either way, I wont know, because this is my last visit.
So long and thanks for all the fish.
trick202 22 November, 2011 13:49
This phone has a problem.
It's not Apple's fault.
It's not CNET's fault.
It's not the reviewers fault.
Why are some of you so butthurt? If it's a software issue (which would seem NOT to be the case) then it's temporary - what are you getting so defensive about?
Saying the site is getting more Apple-biased is a bit short-sighted. When products are considered better in the eyes of the reviewer (who has the benefit of using a far wider variety of devices than you or I) - they get high marks. Simple.
Put it into perspective a little and stop getting so worked up. All phones have flaws - including my old Galaxy S2, Nexus S, and iPhone 4 (my iPhone 4s is, so far, pretty solid for me).
anonymous 22 November, 2011 14:41
Still not convinced its a hardware issue, perhaps firmware yes, but not hardware. The GSM voice side of things is pretty standard and manufacturers tend to use a handful of specific chips for this
I bet that if you strip the Galaxy down you will find that this "problem component" is found on a dozen other phone models
@Trick202 I think the uproar is that while the iPhone had a just as serious if not worse fault which WAS 100% hardware related, the device didn't get marked down anywhere near as badly as the Google phone did
So if anyone should be butthurt its CNET, from taking it up the wrong'un from Apple so blatently
jayce35 22 November, 2011 18:26
i got my nexus today not a problem on 3 network my had a few problems with poor reception bad wofi now and yellow marks on screen when she first.had it . Joshua Topolsky old engadget editor who loves apple but dislikes androix. gave it 8.5 mark and said its only phone that lived up to his expections
anonymous 26 November, 2011 11:20
Why has this article not been updated? It is a software issue, google have a fix already available, updates are being rolled out afaik asap.
anonymous 1 December, 2011 01:05
Way to go Cnet for kissing Apples's **** once more!
anonymous 1 December, 2011 08:36
Dear CNET,
I have to agree with the other people commenting here.
Your review policy is clearly biased, and I will therefore no longer be visiting your website for technology reviews.
I understand your reasoning, but if you apply that scoring method to one phone, you have to be consistent. I completely disagree with the scoring method: a single flaw such as this which is software-fixable should not diminish the score.