
Google Nexus 4: Nearly flawless - srathi
http://www.wired.com/reviews/2012/11/google-nexus-4/
======
marquis
Yes, I want this phone but it's huge. Please google, someone - make a decent
phone that's not the size of a giant's thumb. I guess they've done their focus
groups and their whatevers and decided that people want more screensize but
please for the love of god make a small awesome Android phone for a girl's
hands and purse and european small-sized car with a tiny dashboard (because I
use mine for GPS every-single-day) and I don't even care if you shove
pinterest and facebook on the frontscreen (I'll root it and make it go away, I
promise).

~~~
CrazedGeek
The Galaxy S3 Mini looks pretty nice to me:
[http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/samsung-
galaxy-s3-mini/4...](http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/samsung-
galaxy-s3-mini/4505-6452_7-35484855.html)

~~~
ajross
Amusingly the GS3 Mini has exactly the same screen specs as the original
Galaxy S did. I'm wondering if they still had a warehouse full of these they
needed to ship...

------
thoughtsimple
From the article, "Android has a new champion. The Nexus 4 ... is the best
overall Android handset currently available, and it’s one of the best phones
to be released this year."

And, "It’s as close to perfect as I’ve seen any Android smartphone get. But
the Nexus 4 falls just short of perfection due to one major omission: It’s not
compatible with any LTE networks. The Nexus 4 will run on just about any other
cellular network outside of LTE (GSM, UMTS, Edge, GPRS, 3G and HSPA+)"

It doesn't work on Verizon or Sprint. So at least in the US, half of the
cellular networks actually don't work with the Nexus 4. And it can't use
AT&T's ever expanding LTE network. But according to the author, it is the new
Android champion? The 42 Mbps HSPA+ only works on T-Mobile. The best you get
is half that for AT&T with this phone. So mediocre speeds on AT&T. Nothing on
Verizon or Sprint but decent on T-Mobile. Sounds like a niche to me. Only "buy
it now" if you are planning on going with T-Mobile. For any other carrier,
nearly any other current smartphone is better.

Can you imagine the reaction if Apple introduced a new iPhone at the end of
2012 that only worked on AT&T and T-Mobile without LTE? I'm pretty sure Wired
wouldn't call it "nearly flawless".

~~~
ojiikun
Honestly, the choice of HSPA+ over LTE is a no-brainer. The former is plenty
fast and has better coverage domestically and all over the world; the latter
is a smidgeon faster in limited cases and a battery hog.

LTE offers some interesting capacity benefits for providers, but is being
seriously over-marketed, as your post proves.

~~~
thoughtsimple
The iPhone 5 gets better battery life than the iPhone 4S when using LTE vs
HSPA. My iPad 3 with AT&T LTE gets 27 Mbps down and 14 Mbps up on my most
recent speed test. I doubt you will get anywhere near those speeds on HSPA+.

The Nexus 4 is a weird mix of premium components with last years radios.

------
bitcartel
Some people will be unhappy because it doesn't have LTE, or a removable
battery or a micro-SD expansion slot. However, there are probably other phones
which do have the right mix of features and form factor. That's the nice thing
about Android, consumers have a lot of choice.

~~~
acedanger
At first, I thought the exclusion of LTE was a major downfall of the phone.
After I read about HSPA+ (I'd never heard of it prior to the LG Nexus 4
announcement), I didn't really consider it to be that big of a deal. (Note
that I'm a Sprint customer and have no clue what LTE speed is like).

Being that inexpensive, and off-contract, is a major bonus in my mind. I have
until 2014 until my Sprint contract is up. If I was able to end my contract
with Sprint right now, I would. My ETF is around $175 IIRC.

I don't like that there isn't a removable battery though. That's my largest
issue with the phone.

~~~
bmelton
LTE speed is great, but HSPA+ is pretty damn good too. The big kicker against
HSPA+ is that it's not as pervasive as LTE (or perhaps T-Mobile just isn't as
pervasive as Verizon), so while I've gotten really fast speed (+- 60Mbps) on
HSPA+, it's usually much more pedestrian.

That said, I'm seldom downloading large files to my phone, and even 1 or 2
Mbps burst is usually fine for the way I use my phone.

------
jedc
$299 for an unlocked smartphone on NO contract, on lead device hardware, with
the newest Android OS (and which will receive updates as soon as they're
ready), and solid reviews?

Yikes!!

~~~
jff
And it's not just that you'll get updates--you'll also be able to grab the
source directly from the Android site, make any tweaks you like, and build
your very own image for your phone. You should be able to run bleeding-edge
Android as it goes into the repo if you feel like living dangerously. It beats
the usual "Well, we might get a Cyanogenmod ROM... maybe" for other phones.

~~~
topbanana
Are there any guides on how to do this?

~~~
jff
source.android.com has build instructions for the stock distribution; you just
need to figure out what the device name for your phone is (Nexus S ==
"crespo", IIRC) and specify that as the target to "lunch". You'll get a zip
file you can then flash to the phone.

~~~
topbanana
I'll give that a try when my Nexus 4 arrives. Thanks

------
kareemm
Does anybody else find it strange that in a glowing review of this phone, the
reviewer included nothing about actually, you know, _making phone calls_?

~~~
Timmy_C
This phone uses the same radio for making phone calls as any other GSM phone.

~~~
Groxx
Well sure, but remember the iPhone signal strength riots of 2010? If you can't
make a call at location A with new phone A when your old phone B could, it's
definitely a negative mark against new phone A, and worth mentioning in a
review.

------
golfstrom
People who are hung up on this and that missing feature, I understand why, but
that's missing the point imo. There has never been a phone this good, this
high profile, sold directly to consumers from day one, for this price.

This is simply the biggest shot so far in a strategic war Google is waging
against US cell carriers and in the mobile device space against Apple.

~~~
kin
What bothers me is why T-Mobile isn't marketing this more. That price point is
HUGE. I'm wondering if Samsung and the Galaxy S3 have a deal with T-Mobile to
continue to heavily market their phone.

------
ch0x
I'm having a terrible first world problem: I want to use both Nexus 4 and
iPhone 5. It's literally making me insane. I currently own iPhone 5 but each
time I read Nexus reviews, I want to get Nexus 4. I can't use both as I have
just one phone number. Perhaps I'll get Nexus 4 and just switch the sim card
around. That's terrible. ARGH.

~~~
joejohnson
The Nexus 4 is too big, doesn't have LTE and the headphone jack is on the top
(it seems like a minor nuisance, but being able to slide your phone into you
pocket while listening to music is actually much easier with the headphone
connected to the bottom of the device). Go with the iPhone 5.

~~~
bryanlarsen
Why is it easier to slide the phone into your pocket upside down than it is
right side up? I've had phones with both styles, and I didn't notice a
difference once I adjusted to the change.

I actually prefer the headphone jack on the top, because it's easier to use
that way when the phone is plugged in.

As for size, once you get used to a larger screen everything else seems too
small.

------
bdfh42
Not sure there is enough there to get me to upgrade my Nexus S but then again
mobile phones have reached a plateau of maturity for the moment and I can't
see any "must have" features around the corner.

~~~
lucian1900
But is it an excellent opportunity for people with older phones to buy a nice
new one. Only downside is the gigantic screen.

~~~
CrazedGeek
And the pitiful internal storage coupled with the lack of expandable storage.
It's still much more convenient for me to sync music to a card than to wrangle
with the various cloud services.

~~~
jff
Wifi + sftp client have helped me manage my ebooks on my phone, copying them
from my Linux box. You ought to be able to do something similar, just get on
your home wifi network and pull over your music.

------
ndepoel
This is going to be my next phone. Period. There's no LTE here in Europe yet,
so who cares about that, and 16 GB is more storage space than I'll need in the
next 1.5 to 2 years.

It's also good time to upgrade now, as my current Nexus S is getting
noticeably older, but not so old as to be annoying.

------
jsight
The engadget review (<http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/02/nexus-4-review/>)
complains of very bad battery life. TheVerge
([http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/2/3589280/google-
nexus-4-rev...](http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/2/3589280/google-
nexus-4-review)) indicates it is ok. I wonder which is actually true?

~~~
greenmountin
It's worse than this: the state of battery life reporting is abominable.
TheVerge says "Battery life was also top notch", with anecdots of 10h
lifetime, while Engadget (and Anandtech[1]) say it's at the bottom of the
barrel.

At least I'm pretty sure Anandtech controls for screen brightness in nits
["50%" doesn't cut it, just think about how easy that is to game]. Can't
anyone do it right?

[1] [http://www.anandtech.com/show/6425/google-nexus-4-and-
nexus-...](http://www.anandtech.com/show/6425/google-nexus-4-and-
nexus-10-review/2)

------
ansman
Isn't anyone else bothered that it only has 16GB space? I use around 13GB for
music (Spotify) and 2GB for photos.

I don't see why they couldn't make a 32GB version.

~~~
turing
Not particularly. I use Google Music streaming and only keep about 10 albums
on the device itself. That, combined with a couple hundred photos, a bunch of
apps, and a handful of ebooks puts me at about 3 gigs used on my Galaxy Nexus.
I could probably purchase the 8 gig version and never fill it up.

~~~
ansman
Well I had having to decide in advance what I want to listen to.

And I hate interruptions in my music just because I happened to go into a
house without wifi.

------
joejohnson
If it's only $300 unlocked, it should cost less than $200 with a two-year
contract. The iPhone 5 is $699 (16GB) and is still $200 with a two-year
contract. Can LG/Google not get this same subsidy for their phones?

~~~
tjdetwiler
Maybe it's part of Google's master plan to get people off 2 year contracts on
to prepaid accounts.

~~~
rhizome
Is that their master plan? My contract is up right now, so a signal like that
could affect my near-term decisions...

~~~
tjdetwiler
Anything that takes control away from carriers would help Google.

------
tadfisher
I don't care about LTE, but if the article's claim that the headphone jack is
on the top edge is true, then I may have to forgo this phone. I just can't
change my habit of putting my phone in my pocket upside-down.

~~~
dmazin
For what it's worth, Apple just flipped the location of the jack and I adapted
quickly after n years of habit - I'm sure you could too!

~~~
eco
I didn't even notice the headphone jack on my Galaxy Nexus was in a different
position (on the bottom) than it was on my previous phone (on the top) until
someone pointed it out months after I switched phones. I make plenty of use of
headphones but the jack position is apparently not something I consciously
think about while plugging them in.

------
sehrope
I'm still on the original grandfathered unlimited iPhone data plan from AT&T.
I've upgraded the phone a couple of times (3G -> 4 -> 4S) with no issues but
looking into an Android device next.

Does anyone have any experience with switching to a non iPhone? Any issues
from AT&T and do they let you keep the legacy plan?

~~~
Nowyouknow
All you have to do is swap out the sim card, keep in mind the Nexus uses a
micro-sim, which I think the iPhone uses anyways.

~~~
sehrope
I'm more concerned about the data plan. Pretty sure that the sim card should
(that's the whole point of them right?). Just worried that AT&T would remove
the unlimited data (i.e. consider it iPhone legacy only).

------
ck2
Isn't the second major flaw no microsd slot? Or am I confusing phones?

That's a really nasty trend for android phones.

~~~
harshreality
It's on purpose. [http://www.androidcentral.com/why-nexus-devices-have-no-
sd-c...](http://www.androidcentral.com/why-nexus-devices-have-no-sd-card)

I would rather have an sdcard slot, but I understand google's concern, and
it's not a must-have feature to me.

Maybe eventually they'll design some sort of clever unified storage system,
but I don't imagine that google-branded devices will see microsd slots return
as long as the storage is fragmented.

~~~
greenmountin
This and the cloud explanation: they just aren't reasonable.

The real reason why this is happening is because OEM's need something to
differentiate within their own line so that they can practice optimal price
discrimination. Given that the buyer has already decided what they want, the
OEM wants to be able to charge them as much as they'll pay.

The RAZR HD differentiates with the battery (MAXX), which is why they can
afford to have a card slot. The Nexus 7 w/ 3G can't possibly cost an extra
$100 to manufacture, but if you have $100 burning a hole in your pocket,
they'll be glad to sell you an upgrade just because.

The Nexus 4 (and various Apple models) do this with memory.

------
bsimpson
Josh Topolsky cracked the glass near the camera on his review unit:

[http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/2/3589280/google-
nexus-4-rev...](http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/2/3589280/google-
nexus-4-review)

------
moskie
I have a Galaxy Nexus on Verizon, and live in the Bay Area, so I currently
enjoy having decent LTE connectivity. I'm torn about whether I want to get the
Nexus 4.

I'd really like to see some side-by-side comparisons of performance on things
like web browsing, audio streaming, downloading/installing stuff from the Play
store, etc. Does the increased speed of the device make up for the decreased
speed of the network?

Also: is it worth considering getting the Nexus 4, and switching to another
cell provider that would provide the best speeds for the antennas that the
Nexus 4 has?

~~~
nuclear_eclipse
From my experience with having T-Mobile for my personal phone, and Verizon for
my work phone, and living on the peninsula, I get far better data connection
speeds from my Nexus S (which doesn't even support the full 42mbps HSPA+) than
I get from my Galaxy Nexus on LTE. Getting a signal indoors can be flakey for
each phone in various locations, but overall they seem to be pretty comparable
on coverage.

I still prefer T-Mobile in end though, especially since I'm only paying $50/mo
for unlimited everything...

------
hnriot
"Nearly flawless" - more like DOA considering it doesn't work with LTE, or
have any of the other usual non-apple advantages (expandable storage and
swappable batteries)

LTE is the one big innovation that is giving smartphones a whole new arena for
new apps, high speed data is the cornerstone of mobile.

~~~
vladikoff
DOA? LTE is way overpriced and not available in most areas. I don't see how
LTE is even a 'big' innovation for apps. YouTube HD works perfectly on HSPA+,
I'm not sure what else you need...

~~~
baddox
What do you mean by "LTE is way overpriced"? Do any carriers charge more for
the faster network, or are you just referring to the fact that you can utilize
your data quota much faster?

~~~
kin
Mainly that T-Mobile HSPA+ @ 42 mbps is faster, cheaper, and more widely
available than LTE on Verizon

------
nell
When we buy a phone, we expect it to work for atleast 2 years. Not having LTE
for next two years is not a good deal for a user when a competing product from
the market leader already has it.

And Wired says "Buy it now". I though wired is a Science & Tech magazine.

------
sixothree
So can I buy it now? I don't see any place I can pre-order one.

~~~
DrewHintz
It looks like it will be available for purchase on November 13. You can sign
up to be notified when it is for sale here:
[https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_4_8gb...](https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_4_8gb&feature=microsite)

------
sandGorgon
a few weeks back i bought an used One X on XDA. I then crossed my fingers and
contributed to a bounty for rooting the At&t model (the only HTC model that
couldn't be unlocked, even by HTC)

I'm glad I did. About a fortnight back, someone cracked the One X wide open,
and and I have stock Jellybean. And I find out today that the One X holds its
own against the latest and greatest nexus. It's camera and display is still
unbeaten.

Huzzah to the hacker who made it happen.

------
sidcool
It doesn't mention anything about it's lack of 4G support. It's a great phone,
agreed, but absence of 4G is a spoil spot.

~~~
srathi
It has 4G, just not LTE.

~~~
rhizome
HSDPA+ is not 4G.

~~~
srathi
My mistake! It is probably 3.5G.

~~~
rhizome
Yeah, that's what articles say but I don't know enough of the science behind
it, but eh, whatever. As I mention elsewhere I don't get high-speed anything
where I live so I don't actually have to care. ;)

