Does anyone know if this is down to a lack of demand or is the supply constrained in some way? Curious as to the desire for vanilla Android that's often talked about but doesn't seem to be a big thing for the average consumer.
It was never available in the areas that people wanted them most. Hobbling sales was more of a decision by Google than a lack of demand. I suppose Google just wanted to show that a device could be built at this cost and prove a point. Here in India the demand for the Nexus 4 is HUGE however, after taxes, import duties and markups, it retails for around the same price as a iPhone 4s which a lot of people prefer as a status symbol, never mind capability. Most discerning techies however, carry a nexus.
I got one a few months ago (my first Android device) and I'm pretty happy with it but: the camera sucks, the screen is weak (I'm not sure the issue, it just looks a lot worse than the S3/4 and iPhone) and it's bulky. If I didn't need it for development purposes I wouldn't keep it for those three reasons. I'd probably go with an S3 if I were going to use Android everyday (although Touchwiz puts me off).
I've never once felt the camera sucked, in fact on a trip to Scotland with family I ditched my Canon PowerShot because the Nexus 4 was producing better results. The group consensus was that it took the best pictures on the trip beating out an iPhone 4S, Galaxy S3, two different Canon PowerShots and (shocker) an iPad.
I used the S3 quite a bit and I always come away feeling like it's a toy or one of those phones with giant numbers for the elderly. Samsung's UI tweaks feel like a throwback to UI design in Windows 95 or XP and the font sizes feel like they're geared towards old ladies. I always feel despite the screen size that things are cramped.
Physically speaking the iPhone windows out hands down by a large margin. The S3 just feels plastic, it's not really cheap but it's not nice either, the Nexus 4 feels much more solid in your hand and the choice of matte plastic appeals to me much more than the glossy of the S3. That being said it's build quality is dwarfed by the iPhone 4 and 5. It's sad that the beauty of those devices are hidden by the garish cases people always put them in because holding one naked is an experience.
My iPhone 5 screen is much better than the Nexus 4. It's much brighter. I find it hard to believe that iPhone users found the Nexus screen better. They might have appreciated the extra screen real estate but the brightness on mine is quite awful.
Regarding the screen, Android's dynamic brightness adjustment setting is much dimmer than iOS's. In iOS you can define it to be brighter or dimmer while still keeping the dynamic adjustment, with Android the dynamic setting is either on or off. If you turn it off on both devices and set brightness to full, they're pretty on par. Colors looked warmer on the Nexus 4 when my gf and I compared the other night but neither screen was noticeably brighter.
That being said, Apple has the highest standards of quality in the industry so it's entirely possible that the quality of the Nexus 4's components varies wildly and I just happened to get a good one.
Engadget is a gadget site that caters to gadget enthusiasts, not the average consumer. The excitement is proportionate to their audience.
iPhones and Samsung phones are everywhere. Nexus phones are practically invisible. People have to actually know the phone exists to consider it.
Generally, the overwhelming majority of handsets in at least North America are procured through one's carrier. If I'm getting a device through the carrier, not only do they not even offer Nexus devices, if they did it would seldom make economic sense: Get a subsidized $700 iPhone for $199 (so $500 of subsidy), or a subsidized Nexus for perhaps $0 (so $349 of subsidy?).
Speaking of carriers, this is why the overwhelming majority of smartphone ads for Apple are actually carried by carriers.
To buy a 64Gb 5S from Apple for cash is £709.
To buy it on finance over two years from Apple (which is a commercial rate loan) costs around £820 in total.
To buy it from 3 is £99 plus £51 a month for 2 years. The same tariff as SIM only is £15 a month giving a total handset cost of over £960.
Essentially carriers are not just no longer subsidising the iPhone here, they're charging a greater than commercial loan rate for people buying it as part of a contract.
Apple products for example are less than 10% more expensive in the eurozone, which is reasonabe given the mandatory 2 year warranty here.
Google botched the launch big time last year. Hopefully they won't repeat the same mistake this year. Even if all of their stock sells within a day, they should at least be ready to satisfy 2-3x that within another 2 weeks. Waiting another 3 months is just ridiculous.
i'm not a fan of rounded edges like that. "Straight edges" usually make a phone look more modern( like the htc one ). Also black plastic is ugly. Aluminium makes a phone more elegant in real(and more robust). That's why i'm not a big fan of Samsung phones neither, they are overrated.