Galaxy Nexus Antennagate: It’s Not Verizon, It’s You; or the Phone

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Remember the iPhone 4 Antennagate scandal, one of the most prominent issues that hit the flagship iOS device soon after it was released in summer 2010? Well, it looks like it’s time for a similar scandal, now hitting the Galaxy Nexus, the first Ice Cream Sandwich handset in the world that was finally released by Verizon in the USA.

What did Apple do when it became obvious that the iPhone 4 has a signal issue? First it said that it’s the fault of the users and the way they hold the device, then it updated the phone so it would better display signal bars and then it scheduled a special press event to tell the world that all phones suffer from signal attenuation problems and to issue free iPhone 4 bumpers to users affected by the matter.

What did Verizon do? Apparently the carrier is saying that it’s not its fault that the handset “appears” to be dropping the signal, it’s rather the users that see it as a problem as the phone shows no signal. Or better said it’s the phone. What happens is that the Galaxy Nexus measures signal strength differently than other LTE devices, so much so that it really shows you when you’re not getting a proper connection. Apparently other LTE phones also drop their signal in a similar fashion, but the handsets themselves do not acknowledge the signal drop as they still display some bars in the upper right corner. So therefore the Galaxy Nexus does not have a problem, as the device is otherwise fully functional.

In case you own a GSM version of the Galaxy Nexus then you’re probably not going to experience similar problems. But is this one of the reasons Samsung delayed the launch of the Galaxy Nexus? That’s what certain reports claimed a few weeks ago.

The solution? Release an update to correct the overly accurate signal bars in order for the phone to show more bars even when the signal is weaker. The update is expected to hit in January according to Computer World. And customers are supposed to go along with that, although it will be interesting to see whether that trick will do it.

In Apple’s case, the iPhone 4 became the best-selling smartphone built by the company with the device registering record sales all through 2011, and the handset is still selling strong in various markets almost 18 months after having been released. Will the Galaxy Nexus have a similar life? I highly doubt it, not because the signal issue, but because that’s now what happens with flagship handsets in the Android ecosystem. But we’re certainly interested to see how this Galaxy Nexus signal issue will play out in the end. Because this baby does not support bumpers, does it?