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 :)
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?
I don't know if it is the "most talked Android phone to date". I think the Galaxy S series by Samsung have much more hype than Nexus (at least between "real" people that is not obsessed with gadgets), and I am pretty sure that the Nexus 4 will not sell as much phones as the S3.
There is a lot of controversy on the reviews because it lacks LTE. Apart from that, the only thing that this phone have that is not found in many other Android devices is the glass back. The HTC One X (lacks non-removable battery, no SD card slot) and the GNexus (no SD card slot) are famous devices that have this problems.
My point is that the "beauty" of the Android ecosystem is that you can choose between a lot of different designs and specs. The Nexus 4 have glass back, no LTE, no sd card slot and non-removable battery. Will it be more popular than the S3, that don't have any of this "problems"? I don't think so.
I am buying the Nexus 4 because I love the design, I love stock Android and there is no LTE in my country yet. I always really liked the iPhone design and hardware, but the OS and the locked ecosystem are deal breakers to me.
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+.
Non-removable battery is a choice which a lot of people are OK with. If the battery doesn't deteriorate, at least.
No LTE doesn't affect people on non-LTE networks (eg all of Ireland) and isn't a deal breaker for people who mostly connect via wireless (eg all those people who are happy enough with highly restricted data plans).
If those two things contribute to the attractive price and/or design then for a big group of people these are good things. They still get a phone that works great at a low price without paying for features they can't or won't use.
This isn't the highest end phone on the market, but it puts a a lot of computer in your pocket at a price that people will be willing to pay.
Well the difference is, you can just buy a different Android phone which is just as powerful but doesn't have these 'defects'. The choice is yours. With an iPhone, you either buy one "with no LTE, non-removable battery, no SD card slot and glass front and back" or you don't buy an iPhone at all.
Remember, outside of the US LTE is essentially a non-feature, so there are lots of people who don't actually care. Then there are the people who could use LTE, but find their current network fast enough.
I live in a place with no LTE, but honestly if it were to degrade battery life I'd rather live without it: faster network is always nice, but the current one is fast enough.
I didn't believe the specs when I first saw them. Those are some of the things that have always made Android phones a no-brainer over the iPhone for me. I've heard this phone still has huge appeal in the international market, but those are definitely deal breakers for a lot of U.S. users.
1. 4G tethering / hotspot is amazing and doesn't require an additional subscription on previous Nexus phones.
2. 16 GB (13 GB free) is miniscule today, especially for a phone with limited streaming capability due to #1.
3. Non-removable battery also means no extended batteries. One of the first accessories I buy is usually an extra or extended battery.
You forgot to mention that it's a very powerful unlocked phone at a $300 - $350 price point. When you compare it to the competition, of course people are gonna talk about it.
Besides, I think the most talked about phone award probably goes to the Samsung S3...
I think that what many people forget is that Nexus line has always been targeted at developers. Not general public. At least that's what I've taken for granted since the first Nexus device. Yes, there are glaring deficiencies. However, it's still a very powerful device without carrier lock-in or locked bootloader. And cheap. Excellent choice for someone who develops Android apps.
Don't forget: average consumer has no clue about nexus devices. But they do know about Samsung or Htc phones.
Yeah for instance when Apple did this design a few years ago it was mostly unacceptable among Fandroids and HN crowd. Now its good, because its Android. Its no secret that HN is heavily biased against Apple (and to some extent MS). I don't know, must be all the Google employees here or something. Its always interesting to watch how these conversations turn out. Its been getting a lot more noticeable over the years on here.
> 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.
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.
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?
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?
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.
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.
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...
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.
For many people, this is not actually a problem. I foolishly got a phone with 4G support last year, but I have yet to be in a city in which it actually works. I try it every time I go to a new city.
You know what would be even better than hardware support for 4G? Consistent coverage for 3G service.
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?
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.
I have a Galaxy Nexus, and I find I don't miss the SD card at all - if I want the data off of it I use a cable, and photos automatically sync over Dropbox.
If you _need_ more space than it comes with, then you'll want something with an SD card, but otherwise I wouldn't worry about it.
Frankly, at this point I wouldn't have any Android phone that wasn't a Nexus. So when I replace my Galaxy Nexus (another year or so) then I'll be looking to see what the successor to the Nexus 4 is. If I was buying next week I'd definitely get a Nexus 4.
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.
I'm in your exact position. Aging Nexus One that I plan on replacing, using t-mobile. LTE isn't an issue for me for a while, as I don't plan on giving my money to either Verizon or AT&T in the near future. My storage concerns were cleared up when I realized I have ~5gb free on my current 16gb sd card. Would both of those things be nice? Sure, but I doubt I will actually miss them.
Thanks for the input! After reading here and some other reviews, I think I'm going to pull the trigger on it. Although, I'm sure a 32gb version will probably be available at $350 in 6 months :P
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?
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)
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....
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).
Well, the target group of android police is existing android users. So they naturally compare it to phones they use.
The same was true with the iPhone 5: A lot of blogs that are mostly frequented by existing iOS users didn't bother to compare it to android phones, but just the iPhone 4S. E.g. these reviews were talking about the "huge" screen of the iPhone 5 and didn't compare to the dozens of android phones with bigger screens...
Why everyone has to compare to the iPhone? like it were a model to follow. It's like the Apple fans feel butt-hurt when someone it's stealing their hype. You can't do more than superficial comparisons, they're totally different experiences and app ecosystems.
The comparison is implicit. The review tells you what you're getting and it gives some downsides (No LTE, average camera). Essentially what it comes down to is the following: It is a well made android phone for half the price of the current top models.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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™... :(
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?
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?
[+] [-] thomseddon|13 years ago|reply
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 :)
[+] [-] eggbrain|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] juliano_q|13 years ago|reply
There is a lot of controversy on the reviews because it lacks LTE. Apart from that, the only thing that this phone have that is not found in many other Android devices is the glass back. The HTC One X (lacks non-removable battery, no SD card slot) and the GNexus (no SD card slot) are famous devices that have this problems.
My point is that the "beauty" of the Android ecosystem is that you can choose between a lot of different designs and specs. The Nexus 4 have glass back, no LTE, no sd card slot and non-removable battery. Will it be more popular than the S3, that don't have any of this "problems"? I don't think so.
I am buying the Nexus 4 because I love the design, I love stock Android and there is no LTE in my country yet. I always really liked the iPhone design and hardware, but the OS and the locked ecosystem are deal breakers to me.
[+] [-] gridaphobe|13 years ago|reply
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+.
[+] [-] netcan|13 years ago|reply
No LTE doesn't affect people on non-LTE networks (eg all of Ireland) and isn't a deal breaker for people who mostly connect via wireless (eg all those people who are happy enough with highly restricted data plans).
If those two things contribute to the attractive price and/or design then for a big group of people these are good things. They still get a phone that works great at a low price without paying for features they can't or won't use.
This isn't the highest end phone on the market, but it puts a a lot of computer in your pocket at a price that people will be willing to pay.
What was the median price of a phone pre-iphone?
[+] [-] kirubakaran|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SCdF|13 years ago|reply
I live in a place with no LTE, but honestly if it were to degrade battery life I'd rather live without it: faster network is always nice, but the current one is fast enough.
[+] [-] niklas_a|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Irregardless|13 years ago|reply
1. 4G tethering / hotspot is amazing and doesn't require an additional subscription on previous Nexus phones. 2. 16 GB (13 GB free) is miniscule today, especially for a phone with limited streaming capability due to #1. 3. Non-removable battery also means no extended batteries. One of the first accessories I buy is usually an extra or extended battery.
[+] [-] rafaelm|13 years ago|reply
Besides, I think the most talked about phone award probably goes to the Samsung S3...
[+] [-] potato|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jan_g|13 years ago|reply
Don't forget: average consumer has no clue about nexus devices. But they do know about Samsung or Htc phones.
[+] [-] cryptoz|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lnanek2|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] metatronscube|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] timeshifter|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] davidw|13 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] yalogin|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jusben1369|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mgkimsal|13 years ago|reply
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?
[+] [-] fudged71|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Achshar|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bencpeters|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] teddyknox|13 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] recursive|13 years ago|reply
You know what would be even better than hardware support for 4G? Consistent coverage for 3G service.
[+] [-] bookwormAT|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] csmatt|13 years ago|reply
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?
[+] [-] AndrewDucker|13 years ago|reply
If you _need_ more space than it comes with, then you'll want something with an SD card, but otherwise I wouldn't worry about it.
Frankly, at this point I wouldn't have any Android phone that wasn't a Nexus. So when I replace my Galaxy Nexus (another year or so) then I'll be looking to see what the successor to the Nexus 4 is. If I was buying next week I'd definitely get a Nexus 4.
[+] [-] EwanToo|13 years ago|reply
If you love watching films on your phone (something i never do), I can see the 16GB limit getting annoying though.
[+] [-] pivotal|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] csmatt|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rplst8|13 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] TeeWEE|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] roadnottaken|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gmac|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CookWithMe|13 years ago|reply
The same was true with the iPhone 5: A lot of blogs that are mostly frequented by existing iOS users didn't bother to compare it to android phones, but just the iPhone 4S. E.g. these reviews were talking about the "huge" screen of the iPhone 5 and didn't compare to the dozens of android phones with bigger screens...
But I agree, either is weird.
[+] [-] darkstalker|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] macspoofing|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thoughtsimple|13 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] lmm|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] silon3|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chaitanya768|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] snogglethorpe|13 years ago|reply
[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™... :(
[+] [-] nagrom|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fam|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jeffwilder|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]