
Nexus 4 Review: Beautifully Crafted, Premium Android Phone - mtgx
http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/11/07/google-nexus-4-review-the-beautifully-crafted-premium-flagship-phone-that-android-deserves/
======
thomseddon
After my blackberry died around 4 months ago I've been grappling with the
issue of what to replace it with. I really enjoy my Transformer Prime tablet
and am 100% sold on Android, but the major issue for me is phone size.

Why on earth is every decent phone so bloody big? Now, I've never had a "large
screen" phone before so my concerns may be unfounded but I feel that as I
don't carry a handbag/manbag and my phone resides in my jeans pocket 99% of
the time i'm on the move, anything over say 80/90mm long is just going to
become an utter liability with respect to falling out and/or breakage? That
aside from the fact that anything larger than that must be a pain to lug
around?

Is this something anyone else has struggled with? Are my impressions
unfounded?

For now I'm sticking with my old flip style Motorola Razor (beside it has the
totally brilliant "Hello Moto" ring tone :)

~~~
digitalclubb
The 4" Galaxy S3 Mini might be the phone for you. With the smaller size and
packing the same punch as the main S3, it's a clever move by Samsung to cater
for individuals such as yourself, at the other end of the market.

~~~
juliano_q
That's incorrect. The S3 Mini has not the same punch as the S3, actually it is
much weaker.

"First off the Samsung Galaxy S3 has an Exynos 1.4GHz quad-core processor
(1.51GHz Snapdragon dual-core for US variants), 4.8-inch Super AMOLED
touchscreen display with resolution of 1280 x 720 and 306ppi, LTE (regional),
1GB of RAM and16, 32 or 64GB internal memory expandable via microSD to 64GB.
It also has a very decent 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash,
autofocus,1080p HD video recording and the ability to simultaneously record
video and images, along with a 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera.

(...)

The Galaxy S3 Mini on the other hand has a 1GHz NovaThor dual-core processor,
4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen display with resolution of 800 x 480 and
233ppi, no LTE connectivity, 1GB of RAM, and 8 or 16GB of internal storage
expandable via microSD to 32GB. There’s also a 5-megapixel rear camera with
LED flash, autofocus and 720p video capture plus a VGA front-facing camera,
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, WiFi Direct, WiFi Hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC,
microUSB 2.0 and a 1500mAh battery."

[http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2012/10/13/samsung-
galaxy-s3-v...](http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2012/10/13/samsung-
galaxy-s3-v-galaxy-s3-mini-jelly-bean-advantage/)

~~~
digitalclubb
I stand corrected, but for anyone wanting a smaller phone the Mini might be
the phone for them. I'm all for 'bigger is better' and will be getting the
Nexus 4 when it comes out - at that list price, you can't really go wrong.

------
eggbrain
Am I the only one that finds it somewhat funny that a phone with no LTE, non-
removable battery, no SD card slot and glass front and back is the most talked
about Android phone to date?

~~~
gridaphobe
As an iPhone user (4S) that all sounds pretty standard!

On a more serious note, I don't understand all the fuss about LTE. IIRC it's
something like 20Mbps in practice, which is faster than most Internet
connections in the US.

What is the use case for such bandwidth on a phone? YouTube already plays just
fine with HSPA+.

~~~
philsnow
Wow 6 replies here and nobody has specifically called out latency.

I have a verizon LTE device that I tether with from time to time, and the ping
times I get to my home server are insane, usually around 20ms. When I tether
on my HSPA galaxy nexus, ping times are usually around 100+ms.

Now this could be verizon vs t-mobile and not LTE vs HSPA (or some mix).
Verizon is the only/main LTE-supporting provider right now, so LTE and Verizon
are conflated in my mind, for better or for worse.

~~~
harshreality
Do you have a more convincing measurement than ping times to some other
location?

Do you have real-looking latency data for the first few hops from your phone?
(...keeping in mind that latency information for intermediate hops is not
always accurate.)

100ms vs 20ms could be t-mobile peering with your home ISP in some far away
city, while Verizon peers locally. Based on only pings, you'd never know.

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davidw
> The other complaint I've heard is that this phone has a glass back, and it
> will break if you drop it. This is true, but guess what? Every phone will
> break if you drop it. Electronics aren't made to be dropped.

Say what you will about their recent problems, but Nokia made phones that were
solid. I dropped them on numerous occasions without problems.

I've been pretty happy with the Samsung phone that replaced my Nokia (wanted
Android, not due to a fall!) - it seems well made, and I figured I'd get a new
Samsung when the time came. This looks pretty compelling, although getting one
in Italy might be a PITA.

~~~
hayksaakian
I've dropped my galaxy nexus plenty, and its still getting by without a kink
in the screen or the body, albeit scratches on the corners.

~~~
mikelward
My screen broke somehow when it was sitting in my backpack. Not the best
construction ever.

~~~
bryanlarsen
Considering that the Galaxy Nexus doesn't have Gorilla Glass, the fact that
this doesn't happen to most people speaks to its quality construction.

IIRC, you couldn't get curved Gorilla Glass back then so Google decided to go
with regular glass rather than give up the subtle curve.

------
yalogin
This is the biggest announcement this year IMO. Google is finally playing to
its strength here (really Amazon showed the way). They make money on services
and so they want to cut the hardware margins as much as they can. This hits
Apple exactly where it matters since Apple only thinks about making money on
hardware. This is a significant change in strategy and could be the most
important one this year. Will be interesting to see if Apple sees this and how
it counters.

~~~
rimantas

      > Will be interesting to see if Apple sees this and
      > how it counters.
    

How dumb do you think people at Apple are? And I don't see how it hits Apple —
apple has been operating in low margin markets for ages, except that they have
high margins and products good enough for people to pay the price asked. The
dumb move would be to join the race to the bottom. And frankly, I am so sick
and tired of the world where everything is paid by advertising that I am
gladly paying premium. OTOH I think advertisers start to think what are they
really paying for.

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jusben1369
It hasn't caught much attention or focus but could this be the first phone
that makes any sort of headway in the US against the two year plan/subsidy
model? If yes, that has ramifications for the overall industry much greater
than any one phone. Anyone in the US know how much you'd save on a realistic
smart phone plan if you bought your own vs doing the two year subsidized
model?

~~~
mgkimsal
Not sure what you'd 'save' - any major carrier you want to use with a data
plan doesn't offer any (at all?) savings on monthly service plans. Prepaid
pricing sucks for data.

Do you want to pay $199 plus $90 month for airtime and data? Or $299 for an
unlocked phone and... $90/month for airtime and data?

~~~
silverlake
T-mobile offers $30/month plan: 5GB data, 100 minutes ($.1/minute overage).
Straight Talk is $45 for 2GB, unlimited minutes. $300 for phone, 24 months at
$30 is $1020. Most phone plans are $200 for phone, $80/month = $2120. That's a
huge savings.

Since the Nexus 4 doesn't support LTE, there's no reason to pay full price for
ATT or Verizon.

~~~
darrenkopp
That T-Mobile $30 plan is unlimited data, just throttled after 5GB

~~~
twism
Plus, it's DC-HSPA @ 42Mbps. Which has been shown to beat LTE speeds in some
areas.

------
fudged71
I've never been so conflicted between the choice of two phones before: Nexus 4
or Galaxy Note II. Although, I tend to trust AndroidPolice more than most
other outlets in terms of Android expertise, and I'm comforted more by their
assessment of the Nexus 4's battery.

~~~
Achshar
For me at least, the nexus brand's long OS support time is more than enough to
pull me in. The fact that nexus S got Jelly Bean sounds a very good reason to
go for Nexus.

~~~
CrazedGeek
And for me, the expandable storage on (most of) the Galaxy series is
infinitely more important than official OS updates (which Samsung is pretty
good at on their major phones).

~~~
BHSPitMonkey
> official OS updates (which Samsung is pretty good at on their major phones)

On what planet? The Galaxy S II was certainly a major phone (just one short
generation older than current) and yet it's still officially on 2.x. The only
good thing to say about Samsung's OS updates is that the CyanogenMod community
behind their phones is diligent.

~~~
CrazedGeek
Eh? Wikipedia says that 4.0 is the current version for the S2, and my S2
variant (the E4GT) is on 4.0.

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bencpeters
The only "serviceable" camera and lack of LTE are deal breakers for me on what
otherwise sounds like a pretty awesome phone. I really wish more android
phones (especially high end ones) would realize that, after basic phone
functionality and maps, taking pictures is one of the things that people do
most with their phones these days and there's a pretty huge difference between
a good and bad phone camera. After owning a HTC with a pretty terrible camera
for the past few years and comparing its pictures to those taken by friends
with iPhones, I can confidentially say that a good camera is going to be one
of the first things I look at in my next phone...

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teddyknox
Of course androidpolice.com downplays the phone's biggest problem: No 4G LTE.

Sure the phone has better build quality. Sure it has more RAM and processing
power. Both of those are important, but I don't think they're the biggest
limiting factor in android's smartphone sales.

Right now I'm using a Verizon Galaxy Nexus with a custom stock ROM and kernel
and I've had zero problems with speed. Sure the build quality could be better,
but I don't think anyone ever bought an android for its build quality. It's
the 4G speeds that made this phone better than the iphone 4S for a whole year
before the 5 was released. I'm really disappointed in Google for not getting
this right.

~~~
bookwormAT
I think it's unfair to say that androidpolice downplays the lack of LTE
support. I completely understand if this is a big issue for you. But most
people do not have access to LTE networks anyways, so isn't it understandable
if a reviewer does not make a big deal out of this?

~~~
rplst8
Most people DO have access to LTE. Verizon's network covers 250 Million people
in the US, and their 4G footprint will equal that of their 3G network by next
year sometime (2013).

[http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/verizons-shammo-well-
fin...](http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/verizons-shammo-well-finish-lte-
buildout-mid-2013/2012-11-08)

~~~
bookwormAT
There are about 500 million Android devices out there and 410 million iOS
devices (both numbers are from Wikipedia). We now at least from Android that
most devices are smartphones equiped with a radio.

So 250 million people can not be most people. And as I read it, the number of
current LTE users must be much, much lower than that, since Verizon states
that it had 111.3 million customers (using LTE or not) in Q2 2012:
[http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57505803-94/competitive-
wir...](http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57505803-94/competitive-wireless-
carriers-take-on-at-t-and-verizon/) )

------
csmatt
I'm considering getting this to replace my Nexus One. However, the lack of an
sd slot and LTE really has me hung up. I'd be using it on T-mobile, though, so
the LTE probably won't matter for a little while.

I love the community support for Nexus devices and the only disappointment
about the Nexus One for me was that I didn't get until it was already out for
6 months.

Thoughts?

~~~
EwanToo
I've no idea what the bandwidth caps are like on t-mobile, but the google
music streaming service is pretty nice on android, so it's not like you have
to fill up the phone SD card with every song you've ever owned.

If you love watching films on your phone (something i never do), I can see the
16GB limit getting annoying though.

~~~
itp
Bandwidth caps on T-Mobile vary from plan to plan. The $30/month prepaid
option that many people are going with for the N4 offers 100 minutes of voice
coverage each month, unlimited text messages, and unlimited data, but only the
first 5GB of data is available at HSPA+ 42Mbps speeds. After you exceed 5GB
your bandwidth is throttled down to "3G" speeds (but you're not actually cut
off).

~~~
mikeevans
I think you actually get throttled down to EDGE/2G speeds. I've had this plan
for a while and never hit the limit, but I'm pretty sure the limited speeds
are slower than 3G.

------
rplst8
I'm sorry. I don't think the GNex vs. Nexus 4 decision is as cut and dried as
this reviewer makes it.

Storage: The Nexus 4 has only 16GB of storage, with no way to expand (GNex had
32GB). That's a step backward IMO.

Screen: Yeah, yeah, yeah. AMOLED has fewer sub-pixels. So what. The blacks are
blacker, and the screen is more vibrant. I know the color gamut is different,
but the contrast is better. The Nexus 4 looks washed out next to the GNex.

Network: Sorry, lack of LTE is a deal breaker for me. Verizon LTE is solid
where I live, and very, very fast. That may not be the case for everyone, but
I'm sure as heck not going back to 3Gesque speeds. And for what features? A
slightly faster processor? More RAM? and a breakable glass case?

Fahgetabahtit.

~~~
greyboy
Is the Nexus 4 not a GSM-only phone? I don't recall seeing any CDMA bands
listed in the specs. I suspect, then, adding LTE wouldn't be beneficial to a
Verizon user, unless they didn't use the phone (right?).

------
TeeWEE
Its LG... I used some older LG android phones. I dont have good experience
with it. And the author says that galaxy nexus users should upgrade? Yeah if
money grows on your back yeah. (thats a dutch saying :p)

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roadnottaken
Not a single mention of how it compares to an iPhone. I know it's
androidpolice.com, but it's weird to have such a long review without making
ANY comparisons to the most-popular phone in the world....

~~~
gmac
Agreed, the iPhone is a bit of an elephant in the room here. Particularly when
the author waxes lyrical about how nice it is to have front and back made of
Gorilla Glass (exactly like the recently-superseded iPhone 4/4S).

~~~
joonix
Apples to oranges. iPhone 5 is severely limited when purchased in the US: you
can't unlock and put a different (overseas) carrier's SIM when you're out of
country, until you complete your 2 year contract.

Unsubsidized, the iPhone is $699. Unsubsidized Nexus 4 is $350.

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thoughtsimple
"Keep in mind this is an AT&T/T-Mobile phone. T-Mobile doesn't do LTE at all,
and AT&T has just started their build out. On their website, they still
measure it in cities; that should tell you how limited the coverage is."

I don't think AT&T's LTE coverage is as limited as stated here. I live about
20 miles outside of Boston and my town and the next town over both have LTE.
And it is fast, very fast. On my LTE iPad I get over 40 Mbps down and 20 Mbps
up. In Boston I get about half that.

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lmm
My cheap HTC has a bezel that comes forward at the front, so even if you drop
it front-first it's plastic rather than glass that makes contact with the
floor. I've dropped it at least five times and it works. So no, a phone that
breaks when you drop it really would be a downgrade.

~~~
silon3
I have a Hero and it's like that. Part of the reason why it's so robust is
that when it drops, it splits into 3 parts: the phone, the battery and the
battery cover.

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chaitanya768
Andy Rubin, who's the head of Android at Google, said that the point of this
phone is to spread the nexus brand to a lot more markets across the world,
something that they didn't do with the Galaxy Nexus. Keeping this in mind,
they chose not to put LTE since only a limited number of users in one country
would actually benefit from it. It'd be great if this phone would actually go
on to be a huge hit, say, like the galaxy series. A lot more people would get
to use stock android that way, and see how good it actually is.

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snogglethorpe
Unfortunately the nexus 4 is also large, heavy, and made of plastic.

[And what's with the stupid chrome ('d plastic) strip, given that they were
apparently at least _aiming_ at a quality feel?! Why on earth do manufacturers
feel the need to add tacky chrome "accents" to otherwise reasonable designs???
Guys: it doesn't make your phone look classy, it makes it look cheap.]

The iphone 5 really nails the physical phone; it's simply beautiful.
Unfortunately it also features apple's wackymaps™... :(

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nagrom
With bluetooth and induction charging, can we now make beautiful, fast phones
with no flaps to cover the ports? I've had two phones broken through water
damage; surely the time has come for a manufacturer to add such an obvious
feature to its high-end devices?

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fam
I've been looking into switching from Sprint to prepaid since our contract is
up. From the looks of it, Straight Talk has the best coverage for the price.
Anyone recommend other MVNOs over ST?

------
jeffwilder
This is the first Android phone that I'm actually excited about using.

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jfb
That's a lot of talk about the clock?

~~~
akgerber
As Apple has taught us so well, details matter.

~~~
jfb
True. It's also seemingly a well executed clock.

