Samsung Confirms Nexus Volume Fix But Freezes Shipments

Samsung UK has joined Google in promising a software fix for the volume bug in the Galaxy Nexus, suggesting that the company "will update devices as soon as possible"; however, more retailers have apparently reacted to the issue by freezing shipments of the ICS smartphone. Samsung took to Twitter to confirm its awareness of the volume issue, indicating that software tweaks would address the randomly fluctuating in-call audio experienced by some Galaxy Nexus Owners.

However, developer Steve Troughton-Smith tells us that the retailer he ordered a Galaxy Nexus from warned him today that Samsung had stopped shipments, with deliveries only expected to resume when the volume bug was addressed. New stock has apparently been put on ice as Samsung investigate whether hardware or software is at fault, the retailer suggested, with even a possible recall mentioned.

It's worth bearing in mind that both Samsung and Google have now publicly indicated that a software fix will be possible, which means the need for a recall is very unlikely. More likely is poor communication between Samsung and resellers, as the manufacturer attempts to keep pace with the problem. [Update: According to this ongoing thread at xda-developers, there are suspicions that the issue could be a hardware one as it continues to occur even when in bootloader mode. That's not to say it can't be addressed by software still.]

That issue appears to center around how the Galaxy Nexus handles the 900MHz 2G frequency band, with random muting and volume fluctuations occurring during calls. With consistent 3G coverage for voice calls, it's not something we noticed in our Galaxy Nexus review, but those with more patchy signal strength have found the flaw increasingly frustrating.