Hacker News Reader

Comment by ncantelmo | Hacker News Reader

I just replaced the battery in my Nexus 5 due to earlier stages of the same issue. The battery failure was causing a lot of random device shutdowns that I had initially thought were related to the rollout of Lollipop.

There's a long support thread of people with similar issues at: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/nexus/IJSOuc7...

Several of the posters there noticed that their battery had started bulging, ordered a new one, and reported that their devices were back to normal. Same issue and fix for my device.

This issue is definitely concerning, and I'm a bit surprised that more hasn't been made of it by now. It seems to be a fairly widespread problem.

View on HN

Ah, the infamous "random shutdown" of the Nexus 4. It has caused me to be 30 minutes late at work a few times that one.

It's annoying really because in the end, there is absolutely NO accountability from either LG or Google that the battery won't work as expected after about two years. Thing is, the price range of the Nexus 4 doesn't exist in the Google mobile lineup anymore, with the Nexus 5 being about twice as expensive. So ultimately, I'll either have to stop buying Nexus phones or spend $400 on a Nexus 5.

Yeah it's so frustrating that what I consider the prime price range for mid-range but well built phones existed for awhile, but has since ceased to. Between that and Google Fi sounding great but only being supported by one of these expensive and unwieldy mini-tablets, I guess I'm just outside Google's target market.

Yeah it's so frustrating that what I consider the prime price range for mid-range but well built phones existed for awhile, but has since ceased to.

Did it? You can pick up a 2014 Moto X for $299. You even get to customize it to your own taste. This phone has nice specs and near-vanilla Android. (Love my Moto X 2014 with cognac leather back :). Though, I bought it when is was still 200 above the current price.)

I hear that the Asus Zenfone 2 is also pretty ok. In Europe it's a little more than 300 Euro for the variant with 4GB RAM and 32 GB storage (there are some cheaper variants as well).

I was using an N4 for over two years... I had the random shutdown/reboot issues as well. When Google nix'd their value lines last year when I was ready for a new phone, I waited a while, and finally bought an NVidia Shield 8" tablet, and a OnePlus One phone. Probably the closest things to heir apparent to the N4/N7 devices.

I have friends who have been happy with Moto G and Blu Studio phones on the lower end.

Same here. I actually thought I had damaged the backcover clips when disassembling to retrieve a wayward nanosim to microsim adapter. Didn't realize it was the bulging battery until the random reboots finally forced me to buy a battery on the aftermarket.

The one downside I've noticed is that even with my "OEM" replacement battery (who really knows with these things), charging a lowish battery via a high amperage USB still takes significantly (multiples) longer than my iPhone 5 or 6.

It seems to be very difficult to find a genuine Nexus 4 battery that isn't already a year or two past manufacture date.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com