The Nexus 4 is a dud
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According to verge, the screen is a "big upgrade" though it concedes that the colors look washed out in comparison to other phones http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/2/3589280/google-nexus-4-rev...
Ars says the display emits "bright, pure colors" http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/11/nexus-4-two-thirds-of...
Both publications say the camera on the 4 is great.
Given the opinions of two well read publications that provide photographic evidence, and a blogger who provides his Instagram feed, it's hard to go with the latter
"Note that my standards for camera phones are high. I'm a co-owner and co-founder of Imatest (http://www.imatest.com/), which is the standard software used by the industry to quantify the quality of digital imaging. I'm not actively involved in the company anymore, however, so haven't had the test to put the GNex and the N4 through rigorous side-by-side testing. I've developed a good eye for these things over the years, however, and can say with considerable assurance that the latter is subtly but definitively worse."
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nexus4disp...
1. Some don't like the LCD screen on the Nexus and prefer the OLED screen of the Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Nexus. Personally I don't like the OLED screens because the colours just feel wrong to me (oversaturation on the greens especially). I absolutely love the screen on the Nexus 4
2. I haven't had any issue with Data connectivity. I've been testing alongside an iPhone 4 on the same network (o2 which some claim has the best coverage in the UK) and haven't had any issue with real time connectivity except a couple times when the train goes into a tunnel.
3. Battery life initially for my use was really poor but I then realised that it was because I was using my Nexus a lot more (discovering apps, playing games for long periods of time etc.). Once i'd settled with the device for a couple days, the battery usage was similar to that of the iPhone 4. This includes full data sync, 3G & WiFi enabled and everything and brightness set to auto. It really depends on usage in my opinion
I switched from an iPhone 4 to a Nexus 4 and couldn't be happier. I tried the Galaxy Nexus for a brief stint but the battery life was poor in standard usage and the screen always felt off. I was a major iPhone fanboy but my switch to the Nexus 4 has been nearly flawless (the ordering process was a bit of a faff)
Google and LG impressed me with this device at the price it's at. Is it the device in my pocket? No... I'm rocking the Lumia 920. But when I look at the short list of phones I'd recommend (depending on various factors of who I'm recommending to) the Nexus 4 is probably quite often on the list.
I would think that a replaceable battery also extends the life of the device in general for people who don't necessarily need the latest and greatest every year or two, since it's easy to just buy a new one and pop it in when the old one starts to lose its ability to hold a charge.
Since I can't get a new phone on contract again (don't want to lose unlimited data on Verizon), I'll probably buy a used Galaxy S3 some time next summer - by then it'll hopefully be $100-200 for one that's in good shape. The Galaxy S3 has a strong modding community around it, so I can just install a stock Android ROM and things will be fine.
> I would think that a replaceable battery also extends the life of the device in general for people who don't necessarily need the latest and greatest every year or two, since it's easy to just buy a new one and pop it in when the old one starts to lose its ability to hold a charge.
Don't forget about the option of getting a bigger battery when it can be removed, for those who need their phone to last longer.
If you have the Android SDK installed its worth a try.
This is why it uses MTP for storage, as explained by Android engineer Dan Morrill: http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/mg14z/whoa_whoa_ics...
They can.
It's not as bad as you suggest. The battery is not glued in place and can be replaced if you have the correct screwdriver. (http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus+4+Teardown/11781/2)
I seems like you only looked ad the pictures and didn't read the text.
Devices without an user-removable battery always have a hard reset key combination that will reboot the thing no matter how frozen it is.
This while logical turns out to not be true. Most (99.99%) people will never buy a new battery for a phone. Instead, they might sell the phone to a store which may refurbish it or give the phone to a friend or family member who dosen't need the latest phone. In the latter case the lack of battery life is typically irrelevant as the user is using the phone all the time anyways.
No it couldn't. Not by a long shot.
I was wondering about that too.
After having owned a Galaxy S2 I was really disapointed with the Nexus camera.
The whole twice as much twice as good thing is a straw man argument — would you rather pay twice as much for two phones or one phone with 50% better battery life, for example?
Google differentiates on their "free and cheap stuff paid by ads" model, which is nice for billions of people, and highly cost effective. But it isn't premium.
If I had just sat idle doing nothing, would have been better off.. #rant
I am absolutely happy with mine, simply blown away not just by the quality of the phone (its outstanding) but by how nice the stock android really is. No more bloatware and "enhanced" UI for me
So basically, this article is saying he thinks the iPhone is the best. The only strange part is where he doesn't get the iPhone he craves at the end, but gets instead a model that he is unhappy with.
I'm not saying that OP is wrong to highlight his problems with the Nexus 4, but I think a little perspective may be in order. Heck, the fact that a phone exists that doesn't suck like nearly every smart/feature phone from 2000-2005 is proof enough for me that we're genuinely living in the future, flying cars be damned!
I call bullshit. Your car is probably far safer than the ones produced during the muscle car phase, prior to airbags and good crumple zones. Does this mean anyone who complains that car X kills 50% more people in crashes than car Y is simply wrong, and should suck it up and be glad it doesn't kill three times as many?
Anyways, I was a 4 year old Android user, but this year I bought a Nokia Lumia 920, and I absolutely love it. I even got reception for the very first time in the elevator! And the user experience blown me away. Some apps needs improvement, but the core apps keep me addicted.
I am debating
* do nothing, wait a year
* buy Nexus 4
* buy Galaxy Note II
* buy Nexus 7, possibly with HSPA, use GrooveIP
When I surveyed the field I basically narrowed it down to the Note II and the Nexus 4. I didn't want to wait any longer since I needed a phone now, so I got the Note. At $199 for a 2yr contract upgrade on Amazon, you're getting a lot of value for the money. There's a video out there of a guy hooking up the Note II to a TV and easily using it as a desktop computer. It's quite powerful. And LTE is great ... I speed tested it at 48 mbps the other day, and this was 12 miles from downtown.
The delayed updates are indeed a downside. Samsung's keyboard and predictive text are crap compared to the iPhone's (yes, you get Swype, but I don't always want to do the swiping).
If you're a heavy mobile user, lots of apps and media consumption, get the Note II. If you're a moderate user, mostly phone and email, I'd say do nothing, wait a year. The longer you wait, the better the products get, and you experience more "wow factor" when you finally do make the switch from your old dinosaur to the newest offering.
Screen: The Gnex has more saturated colours but the Nexus 4 screen is also gorgeous with accurate colour representation and insane viewing angles. Whites are brilliant and everything looks like it's printed on paper.
Connectivity: I really have no idea what he is talking about here. I am on a shitty cheapo unlimited everything carrier in Canada and at the ground floor of my house I would get 0-1 bars of reception on the Gnex while now on the N4 I get a consistent 2 bars. Just one example but this might vary user to user.
Battery Life: this is a huuuge huge win for the Nexus 4. My Gnex would last until about 6pm with about 1.5 hours of screen time while with the Nexus 4 I go until midnight on over 2 hours of screen time (I say over because I've never put it back on the charger with less than 14% so far - also I play Ingress). I think anecdotally there are phones with even better battery life (razr maxx, iphone5, htc one x) but to say that Nexus 4 is a step down from the Gnex is absolutely false.
Here are a couple of things that I do like better on the Gnex: It is more comfortable to hold. While the Nexus 4 looks a little sexier with the straight edges and flat black glass surfaces.. the Gnex was a little thinner and a little curvier in just the right places to ensure that my hand is not straining at all in order to hold it comfortably.
Buttons were more solidly built on the Gnex. The volume and power button on the N4 seem cheaper and squeakier than the Gnex. I imagine HTC and iPhones are even better in this regard.
I say accept your new phone and use. Then if you don't like it don't send it back but instead sell it back on Ebay. In the first few weeks of the N4 being available (or rather unavailable) people were making $50-$100 of profit on extra phones they bought by mistake from the Play store.
It's no anecdote, most high-end smartphones crush that statistic even in objective tests. If 2 hours of usage is "good battery life" for you, then your standards are way too low. Just checked my iPhone 5, with LTE, Location Services, WiFi, and Bluetooth enabled. On a Canadian carrier that doesn't support LTE connections for calls (meaning the 3G radio is running all the time too).
3 hours and a minute of usage according to my phone, as well as 8 hours of standby. It's still at 60%. 2 hours is like a bad netbook. I don't know how you even stand a phone like that. I've had Bluetooth earbuds with better battery life. However it does explain why every time I've wanted to try out someone's Android device they had to enable data for me.
No wonder. I would disable data too if my phone didn't even outlast my commute. I think we have also discovered another reason it doesn't have LTE. Only two hours of usage with 3G is beyond ridiculous.
He thought his old camera was good?
Seems like he forgot what his old phone did, and he is wishfully comparing Nexus to iPhone.
Previously, Nexus was oversaturated to make UI more bright, but ruining photo colors. Glad they finally stopped faking it. Tebold way was again to using loudness hyper boosting on a CD at expense of dynamic rangem
Of course THIS Nexus, this is the one to turn it all around. Not like that Nexus One, or Nexus S, or Galaxy Nexus. They were cut-rate devices with cut-rate build quality and features to match a low un-subsidized price point.
When will people learn that Google has no choice but to cut corners if they insist on competing primarily on price? You're not going to get an unlocked iPhone for 300, you're going to get a phone Google can sell for 300 unlocked without going bankrupt. That means, parts of it are going to be bad.
Whether it's digitizer of the Nexus One, the underpowered chipset of the Nexus S, the low-quality screen & camera of the Galaxy Nexus, or the lack of LTE in the Nexus 4. There will always be something. It's worth letting others buy first, if only to determine what "thing" it will be this time.