Unless you've been living in a cave, or up a tree of late, it will not have escaped you that [arguably] the hottest, most anticipated new Android smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, has arrived with a fairly significant fault.

The fault manifests as the smartphone automatically [ghostly] dialling down the volume to zero, all by itself. Stuck buttons? Dodgy volume rocker switch? Something much more sinister?

Unfortunately it seems to be the latter. But it doesn't affect everyone.

Over the past 24 hours the problem has been localised to be some interaction between the SGN and 2G 900Mhz networking. So thats Vodafone and O2 to you and me. Orange and T-Mobile 2G newtworking does not appear to cause any issue. Those two networks operate at 1800Mhz. Nor does any UK-supplied 3G that operates at 2100Mhz. It is purely, and demonstrably, 2G at 900Mhz.

The problem seems to manifest in one or both of two ways.

Firstly, by switching the SGN or having it fall back to 2G/900Mhz the "ghost" occurs.

Secondly, by placing a 2G/900Mhz handset next to the SGN the "ghost" occurs.

Clearly then, this is a radio frequency interference issue. It happens not only when the Android OS is running, but there is video on YouTube of the same condition happening with a 2G handset placed close to the SGN while it is in Bootloader mode. So this is most definitely a hardware issue.

Samsung remain completely tight lipped at this time. Not even a denial. Anyone with an SGN and some 2G/900Mhz networking can demonstrate it happening.

Clove have said it is a batch issue and that none of theirs are being affected. Well, they would say that. I'd want to see the YouTube tests repeated by Clove to demonstrate no effect. Otherwise, the house rule says that Clove are as impacted as anyone else.

Me? I've got an SGN and am quite happy with it. I will only use it on the Three network so no worries about 2G/900Mhz there then.

A shortie YouTube from me, taken this morning, for your entertainment http://youtu.be/LjwMzooNVCE - please do excuse the sniffing and coughing, I am heavily under the influence of Man Flu.