If you buy this phone, get a case for it. The thing slides off of pretty much anything, including apparently flat counter tops. Screen replacements are $130 and take 2 weeks. You won't get the awesome feel of the beveled edges, or the nice solid feeling of a thin but reasonably weighted piece of equipment, but definitely get a case lest you watch in horror as your shiny new phone crashes onto your hard tile bathroom floor after sliding off the granite counter top like a magical hovercraft.
[I disagree with the case comment, but that's because I find cases annoying and my wife's didn't protect her Nexus 4 worth a darn.]
> The thing slides off of pretty much anything
This is incredibly true. An anecdote: I was sitting in the waiting room at my dentist's office; I knew I'd have a wait, so I turned on the access point so that I could do some work and set the phone on the seat next to me. 15 seconds later, it dropped to the carpet. WTF, so I picked it back up and put it on the center of the chair seat. It fell off 2 minutes later. WTF^2, so I picked it back up and, intentionally and very carefully, put it back on the chair seat. It didn't fall off, but it took me 3 tries to get the phone to sit on a cloth chair seat without falling off. And I'm sure it would have fallen off given more time.
If anyone wants more evidence of just how easily the Nexus 4 slides off things, here's a very unscientific video I took after witnessing my Nexus 4 slide off something and shatter the rear glass: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1hbVgO7_k8
It's incredible watching it slide ever-so-slowly on a surface that I previously thought was pretty much level.
Why do manufacturers insist on making their devices so slippery? My old phone (in dire need of replacement) is all rubberized steel. It doesn't slide off anything, and it's practically indestructible. Why doesn't anyone make a phone like that?
1. sleek devices are more generally-appealing in the store/advertisements
2. it's easier to effect a rugged case on a sleek phone than a sleek case on a rugged phone.
3. oleophobic-style coatings cut down on finger-smear
Yeah, this is wild... I have a Droid 4 and one of the two good features it has (other than the fantastic keyboard of course) is its rubberized back grip. The OG Droid 1 was extremely good, to the point where I could put it on my slanted car dash for GPS use without any accessories and it would just stick there.
This should be a feature of all phones. There's nearly zero number of times I want my phone to move from where I've placed it.
I have the hard plastic Speck case on my iPhone 4S... the front border is rubber and comes a couple mm past the glass, the back is hard plastic. I just set it screen-down and it never slides.
I'd guess because pockets. It's annoying to try and pull the phone out of your pocket, only to have it turn your pocket inside-out, thus dumping the contents of whatever else you had in there onto the floor.
AT&T has a phone that's some serious shit.
We got a demo the other day... and that thing resists drops, high temps, freezing, water splash (or underwater to a couple of feet... don't remember).
It was some serious hardware.
Of course, it's not running Android, yet if you want indestructible, I was impressed with this thing.
Me, personally: My phones last approx 2 years.
My iPhone 5 (got it around 1 year ago I think) is all busted up.
I'm not an Apple lover, yet this thing is tough.
EVERY panel on it is broken, bent, shattered... and it still works without a hitch.
Props to Apple on that.
Seems like a company should get more props for a product that doesn't actually break every exterior component within 1 year.
My N9 is well over a year old and has zero broken external parts. And of course the phone itself still works.
Given that a smartphone has virtually no moving parts inside, continued functionality absent being submerged or crushed is not a particularly noteworthy achievement.
I'll back this up too. If the phone can slide off something it eventually will slide off something - no matter how long it takes. I've put it down a few times and it's taken between 30 mins and an hour to make it's and eventually slip off an edge!
That said, I've dropped it a lot of times and it only has one crack on the back so far
Note that newer versions of the Nexus 4 have small nubs on the back that provide some additional traction, and also give enough of a gap to stop the speaker from being completely muffled on flat surfaces.
It's good that they did this for sure. I remember reading that people were also having problems with the rear glass shattering from the thermal shock of being placed on cold counter tops. I'd still probably get a case for it, though. If you have generally pretty dry hands like mine, a case can reduce the strain of holding on to a generally slippery phone. I also don't know if this would be changed by the little nubs but I had issues with it regularly sliding out of my pocket while on couches.
The phones ability to slide across the flattest of surfaces, combined with the super effective "silent mode" (aka putting your phone on any flat surface, blocking the speaker completely), has dumbfounded me since I got the phone at launch.
How do these things get missed in testing? Did no one throughout the entire testing process receive a call while their phone was on their desk? Did they not notice the phone running away from them every time they put it on a shiny surface?
The blocked speaker issue was fixed in a silent hardware rev. Two tiny bumps were added to the bottom edge of the rubber edge that lift it ever so slightly when placed on its back so sound escapes. Unfortunately, this change doesn't do anything for the "magical hovercraft" feature.
The magical hovercraft feature is why the Nexus engineers should really work at Hyperloop. They have bravely taken up the fight against friction, and they made terrific inroads.
Not only does it slide off everything, mine has broken twice after falling - once from sliding off of my wallet on a countertop, and once from me fumbling it out of my pocket.
They made me pay for the repairs ($150 each time).
The Nexus S on the other hand was indestructible. I dropped it multiple times even of hard services.
Once I was climbing on some rocks, tried to send a text (yeah, I realize that was dumb), lost balance and ended up slamming the phone screen first on the rock supporting my weight with it. There is a 1/4 sandgrain width dent in the middle of the screen, barely noticeable unless you're looking for it in just the right light. As I said pretty indestructible for me.
I had the same experience with the Galaxy Nexus. I literally threw it onto the road....twice. Both events happened while running with the phone in my hand. The first time I threw it downwards at speed, the second time I launched it about 10 feet in front of me. The back and corners took some dents and chips, but no significant damage.
I've not been particularly fond of LG hardware since a friend had an LG device spontaneously catch fire.
I sometimes intentionally drop mine, to show people how a phone can be. I happen to have the version with the plastic screen though, so it's no where near as brittle as glass (but scratches incredibly easily).
Yes. It's extremely unlikely that the margin on repairs would offset the loss of sales from an easily breakable phone, not to mention the impact of a poor reputation on sales of future versions.
That they designed it specifically to get extra revenue through repairs or replacements on what is, by most accounts, essentially a margin-free device? Yes, very crazy.
But it's fair to say that the designers had different priorities (primarily aesthetic ones - weight, thinness) which mean the device is more breakable than it could be. The iPhone is the same.
Old HTC models had a distinct chin, so you could just lay it somewhere face-down and it wouldn't damage the screen at all. Of course this conveniently also exposed the speaker.
It is a joke, the phone might stick to it the first time you use it, if you're lucky. The only thing keeping the above mentioned slippery phone on the un-necessarily slanted charger is some slick rubber material. The rubber holds dust like a pro, but alas cannot grip the phone.
I miss the Palm Touchstone. Not only was the accessory itself brilliant--magnets held the phone in place and aligned--but the entire Pre ecosystem had a thoughtful and slick feel to everything about it. Very much the opposite of the Nexus experience, which, while still very much fine, I can't help but feel is rushed and developed without thought to the small details.
Interestingly, you can actually connect the Palm Touchstone coils to some newer phones that have the right connections on the back and use a Touchstone for inductive charging - I did it with my Galaxy S3 for a while, it's a pretty simple mod. Yeah, the magnets are really nice, I almost can't believe that other manufacturers wouldn't put them in their charging bases.
I ran into the same difficulties. I came up with a very easy fix. Put a sticker on the back of your phone. The sticker will make it so that it doesn't slip off the charger and slide around in general. I do agree that it was rediculous that they sold a charger that wouldn't work with the phone as designed. The fix for the problem is very easy, however hackish.
Only one of the circles on the charger matters (I'm at the office now so I can't check it). It's actually really easy to clean that off with your finger, and that's the only thing that matters in terms of holding it on.
It's still a bad design, but once I figured that out it was useable again.
^^ truth. one thing that fixes this, though, is having a diztronic tpu case. with the case on the phone no longer slips off the orb and is protected to boot (an absolute must for this phone -- and i hate cases)
Have you tried cleaning it with a microfiber cloth and any old cleaning spray? I find I need to do that every few months, but so long as I do it holds perfectly. Before I cleaned it, it would slide off over time.
I personally use some sort of rubber sticker instead. It does not effect the resale value, as you can remove it easily, and does not look bad if you cut it properly.
All this without the bulk of a case, for less than $5.
I put a sticker on the back of my Nexus 4. The phone no longer slides off of seemingly level surfaces. In fact it doesn't slide around much at all after the sticker.
Not only prevents the potential sliding, but offers great protection for clumsy phone droppers like myself.
Most other cases are more fashion accessoire than they actually protect the device. This one adds some bulk in favor of actual protection. (ymmv yadda yadda)
I have one of the original (pre-nub) Nexus 4's and mine's slid off of desks/surfaces at least a dozen times. Somehow, the screen/back is still fine, but the plastic bezel looks and feels like it's been gnawed on by bears.
Still, it's a fantastic device, and it's been running flawlessly w/ CM10 and an LTE hybrid baseband (TMO in LA) for months - much better than when I got it in fact.
It's the best Android phone I've used (4.2+ of course is a big factor), and the first one where I haven't really felt the urge to upgrade at all (haven't been convinced by the S4, One, or X).
I think I'd need some combination of ridiculous battery life, way better radios, GoPro3-like video quality, IPX7+, and sunlight viewable screen to get me excited.
I guess everyone's mileage varies, but I've had a nexus 4 almost since launch, without a cover, and have only had one small 'accident' that didn't result in any damage.
I decided against some silly case/screen protector and mine is still looking as it did the day I received it. I see the magic slip feature as a bonus - no need to leave it casually lying around if you know it will fall.
I compared my phone with a friend's iphone - his was bulked out by the obligatory cheap and nasty case. He had the case because he would not be able to afford to replace his phone should it drop. Meanwhile, with the Nexus 4, you can afford two for the price of one lower-resolution screen iphone. Therefore, only when you have smashed one do you 'need' the case...
I got the front & back xtremeguards for mine and have no problem with it slipping. They're not perfect and there may be a better manufacturer, but I didn't want to add bulk to the phone and they were running their 80% off special. http://www.xtremeguard.com/LG-Google-Nexus-4-Screen-Protecto...
I picked up the Spigen SGP Steinheil Dual for the same reasons. I actually only use the back protector but it's great. Although, while I haven't had issues with my phone slipping off tables, I don't think I can really attribute that to the protector. I find I can still slide my phone across surfaces as if it were a hockey puck on ice.
This is a great pity. I'm looking to upgrade from my Galaxy Sii which seems virtually indestructible, and this matters. All my iphone friends have cracked their screens and I'm clumsier than all of them.
A $1 rear screen protector protects against that and gives it a really great grippy feel on the back. It's so much nicer to hold than having to put a clunky case on it.
For a while, it looks like the N4 came with a free bumper. Does anyone know if this is still so? It's advertised separately for $20, and so I assume not...
Agreed. Mine broke without even dropping it within 20 minutes of taking it out of the box. They replaced it, but it took quite some arguing on my part.
My home insurance company offers a rider for electronics damage - about $19/year, and it paid $50 out of the $100 to fix my Nexus One when it fell. It's Liberty Mutual, but I think all the big insurers have a similar deal.
SquareTrade is great for iPhones - $99 for two years with a $50 deductible. But for other smartphones, it's $125 for two years with a $99 deductible. For the 8GB, it would just be cheaper to buy a new one.
Yup. I upgraded to a Nexus 4 from a Nexus S recently and the Nexus 4 is a much nicer device and the Android experience is great: fast, smooth & pretty. It has to be hands down the best value smartphone on the market at this price (it was already great value at $100 more).
Best value of well known brands perhaps. You get various Chinese brand ~5" phones with 1920x1080 resolution, 16GB ROM for that price or less now. And those are typicall dual sim, and take 32GB SD-cards too.
Build quality for most of them are probably not as quite high as the Nexus 4, but the one I have at least is very well built.
4.1. No upgrades, and I don't expect any, though there are custom roms (haven't bothered, though I have rooted it - most of these phones are beyond trivial to root). Essentially I'm expecting to upgrade every year, as e.g. in a year it's gone from about $230 for my dual core phone with 1280x720 to about the same for a quad core with 1920x1080 with more memory etc., so I don't really care if there are few or no upgrades for the phone - the reduction in my contract compared to getting an expensive brand phone easily pays down the phone in 6-8 months.
If you intend to keep a phone even at this price range for more than 1-2 years, you'll want to do your research both regarding build quality and upgrades. Though the brands with regular upgrades and "premium" build quality, like Xiaomi, are also pretty much as expensive as e.g. Samsung.
Nor are any available with 2G DRAM, which is a big part of the N4's great interactive performance.
In fact, if you limit the search on that site to 1G phones with Jellybean and 4.6-5" displays, you get a lot of units with prices significantly higher than the new price of the N4. And the ones that are cheaper seem pretty universally inferior (e.g. 480x800 screen, minimal internal flash, etc...)
Tons of resellers on aliexpress.com. Note that they are shipped direct from China, so reading feedback is essential. You can also find some that sell via Amazon marketplace.
Who cares? Part of the reason why I've taken to buying these is that they're cheap enough that I can justify upgrading once a year or so.
(But yes, don't expect to get much in terms of upgrades from the manufacturer. Your mileage may wary, but the ones that do upgrade regularly, like Xiaomi, are also expensive high end brands - Xiaomi wants very much to be the "Chinese Apple" for example)
Here you can find other name for searching (no affiliation whatsoever with this shop, I don't even know if they sell in US, it's only the place where a couple of friends bought their chinese smartphone):
http://www.grossoshop.net/Smartphone_Dual_Sim_Android_Proces...
Damn I just bought one at regular price lol.
Nexus 4, if you build your own o/s is amazing fast. Runs SEAndroid like a charm too, you can lockout audio, camera and mic whenever not in use
I'm a little irked. I ordered mine on the 7th, so miss out by 5 days. But it's a great phone so it's not all bad. But no one likes paying over the asking price, and had I waited a week, I'd be £80 richer.
It isn't the most powerful Android phone out there, but it does run stock, has regular updates, will run third party ROMs, and is absolutely the best value for an out of contract smart phone, even more so with the $100 price drop.
If you're in a T-Mobile coverage area, look at Simple Mobile ($50/month unlimited everything)
"don't talk a lot" - and "First 5 GB at up to 4G Speeds" - on a smart phone this is somewhat confusing. I talk a lot - 2-3 hours/day, typically conference calls, but also with family, friends - and I'm trying to recall the last time I used any of my "Minutes" with my telco. Skype and Whatsapp get used a lot on my phone @ 8kilobytes/second (=30 megabytes/hour, 1.8 Gigabytes/month @ 2Hours/day talking)
I'm on this plan, and it's adequate but the service is pretty shoddy during parts of my commute (...no reliable 4G within a 5 min drive either side of Golden Gate Bridge?!) VZW definitely didn't have that problem.
I'm not sure if it's T-Mobile hardware or towers, but given I just use the phone to f around and am not reliant on it for work, I don't really feel it's worth trying to RMA or anything
EDIT2: ALSO forgot to mention that unlike most month-to-month providers, they actually allow conditional call-forwarding, which is necessary for using Google Voice as your voicemail.
I never stop wondering how those prices are possible. I had a 2e/month plan on my mobile, unlimited everything. Adding to that 0,07 e per sms/minute. Lucky me company now pays my bills so I save whopping 5e/month.
Yeah, you too can watch as "Android OS" drains the battery in 6 hours. Honestly, if you get a Nexus 4 be prepared to be a beta tester, or scratch monkey every time there's an OTA update. Perhaps it's just "international" users, but I totally regret buying into the Nexus hype.
And then there's the hardware issues (bluetooth kills WiFi if you try to use both at once), firmware issues (WiFi doesn't roam properly, ARP offload broken), straight-up bugs (wireless charging power management holds permanent wakelock preventing deep sleep)...
I use a Nexus 4. I listen to podcasts via bluetooth headset while doing chores; that's several hours on the weekends, and about one hour during weekdays. When I drive, I'm playing podcasts and using Waze (which uses GPS and Wireless networking and the screen is constantly on); that's about 1 hour/day. WiFi is constantly on and I use it to read e-mails and other social messages. I also use it for reading books (Safari To Go) throughout the day. It always lasts through the day with this behavior. I typically only plug it in on my bedstand when I go to bed, and unplug it in the morning when I get up. The only time I find I need to plug it in separately is when I watch some Netflix videos.
I recently destroyed the screen on my phone making it not possible to interact with it, so I've removed the sim and put it in a cheap feature phone. It still connects to WiFi (can't turn it off if I wanted to) and it beeps to let me know I have an e-mail. I can still listen to podcasts because my podcatcher automatically downloads and queues episodes and my headset has playback controls, and I have been using it for that purpose as much as I always have. Now when I go to bed, the battery icon has only the tiniest sliver empty; I expect it would last at least 4 days without plugging it in.
I think that it's safe to say Android OS is not draining my battery.
I'm happy that you haven't had this problem (although without a screen I'm not surprised you get multiple days use from a single charge.) Unfortunately, lots of people are not so fortunate, and I'm one of them. There are a number of known, reported, acknowledged bugs that might or might not be fixed in the latest patch update to 4.3 that cause "Android OS" (actually a partial wakelock held in the kernel) to stop the phone from going into deep sleep and draining the battery. For example, https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=52034 is one such bug. There are others (I don't use a wireless charger).
Until whatever byzantine download scheduler deigns to push the patch to 4.3 to my phone, it's basically unusable.
I ran into problems w/ stock Nexus and runaway CPU usage w/ the media process and while I had sworn off ROMs (too much maintenance), but after not being able to fix the problem otherwise, I ended up switching to CM 10.1, which fixed my issues and these days is mature enough that I never have to mess with it. The various custom kernels (Franco Kernel is relatively easy to flash and is focused on increasing battery life) seem to do good jobs at fixing various problems as well.
Still some work to do the initial flashing (wipe'restore), but as someone that hates futzing w/ the devices I'm actually using, I've been happy w/ how low maintenance things have been. If you just want the 4.3 factory image you can it here: https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images#occamjwr6...
Alternatively, if you are running stock and don't want to wipe and don't want to wait for the OTAs, you can get them directly:
6 hours?! Mine drains its battery in 12-13 hours and I use it regularly (facebook, whatsapp, google maps, spotify) all over 3g (I don't have access to wifi at the moment).
Is it really preferable, hardware-wise, to something like the HTC One?
That is, assuming the user is capable of flashing the HTC One with a third-party firmware to get a vanilla Android experience. Is there a draw to the Nexus in comparison to the likes of the One other than being vanilla out of the box?
I've used both phones extensively, the Nexus for 2 weeks and the One for over a month.
The One is the better phone, no doubt, but the Nexus is best for the price.
The One has a much better radio, especially for bluetooth. It's a lot more powerful, a consideration if you're playing games. The screen blows the Nexus' thoroughly mediocre display out of the water, and the stereo speakers are some of the best I've ever heard on a phone. The build quality is closer to Apple than Android. The camera is one of the best on an Android phone ever.
The major downside of the One for me is that it is slower in terms of slickness and smoothness, which I'm blaming on the Sense UI. If you flash it to vanilla, it should be fine. If you are a gamer, it does get very hot. Although build quality is better it doesn't feel any less likely to break if you drop it.
Weirdly, the call quality isn't that good on the One, the Nexus has it beat there.
The HTC One isn't the greatest comparison because it comes in a Google Play Edition, which is a near-Nexus experience (though outside the US you are still stuck with ROM flashing, albeit from a source with solid base and guaranteed up-to-date drivers). Compared to the One, I'd say the major draw is price (and maybe the NFC secure element if you care about that).
I'd go with a one because I like HTC better than LG. Plus I've had both manufacturers (had a Nexus One up until about a year ago) when I got the Nexus 4, and I thought the HTC hardware was better.
Meh; it's alright. I've had the Nexus One (pre-ordered) when it first came out up until this phone. This phone is larger, but doesn't feel as good. Feels very plasticky. Biggest annoyances are when I'm talking on it and my ear selects something and I end up opening an application without knowing it (or worse, hanging up on the other party). Also, when I'm tapping in a string of numbers (taking someone's phone #), it sometimes doesn't respond fast enough (or it'll lag). Otherwise I guess it's a good deal. Nothing to go crazy over though.
The Nexus 4 (as well as pretty much all smartphones on the market) disables the screen if you're in call and it detects that your face is near the screen. You can test this by going into a call and putting the palm of your hand (or any other surface) close to the phone.
If your phone doesn't do this you should either get it fixed or go join a league of super heroes.
Some people appear to be invisible to proximity sensors. We have one guy who isn't seen by two Lumias and an iPhone. He's resigned to using a blackberry now.
I've had that happen a number of times. I'd start a regular call, Skype, or Hangouts call, and when done I sometimes realize some random app was launched or something was selected, etc. Doesn't happen often, but it did happen.
The plasticky bit is so off base it makes me wonder if fourstar is inventing ownership to have an opinion. The bit about lag as well -- what? Maybe they're thinking of the 2012 Nexus 7?
How do you come up with stuff like this? I came from a Nexus One -- but you totally caught me lying about what Android phone I use on a website.
Feel around the edges of the phone: soft plastic where the bumper is, and the back is covered by the so-called `gorilla glass` which makes it feel even more like plastic.
There is definite lag, but maybe because I type in numbers fast and you don't? I don't know -- in my daily use, these are my gripes with it. Feel free to downvote me if you believe I'm lying though.
People lie on the internet. Don't be so offended by it.
So glass makes the phone feel like plastic? You realize that is nonsensical, right? The build quality and feel of the phone has pretty much universal praise, and you are the only person I've ever heard use that descriptive, so maybe you're just misusing it (the descriptive I mean). Design is subjective so I'm not by any measure saying that you have to like it or appreciate it, just that I don't see how a rubber and glass phone can be called plastic feeling.
As to the lag, again, you're completely on your own on that. You see to have no relative perspective to the market.
Strong disagree for me. I have no such issues with making "ear" selections and I find the overall responsiveness of the device to be incredible with the latest 4.3 release.
Yeah, another thing is when I'm talking on it with someone for awhile and try to get back to the "call screen" which doesn't happen, and they are still on the phone (if I want to open a browser or do something while I talk on the phone). The screen never comes back though until I either press power or the other party hangs up.
That part is the most frustrating, although someone might reply to this saying that this actually doesn't happen.
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Im in Denmark, we usually get the newest iPhone a couple of weeks after the US. Availability is one of the reasons the Nexus brand isn't as big as it could be.
Use a mail forwarding service. I can't recommend one for you because I used the one which is Russian language only. It added ~$60 to the price for service and insurance shipping across the Atlantic.
Availability == whether or not local carriers are willing to carry, or at least tolerate, the phone in question. This can be especially problematic with unusually cheap phones like Nexus 4 that aren't even tied to anybody's contract. Unfortunately, Google doesn't have much control over telecoms around the world.
Even in Korea, where the phone's manufacturer (LG) is based, it took several months for Nexus 4 to become officially available. Lots of hurdles, including LG not wanting to cannibalize sales of its other phones.
I can only speak for Denmark, but here every other phone is sold on and off contract, but Google should atleast be able to sell it off contract in the Play Store. The same situation with the Nexus 7.
I upgraded to the Nexus 4 after owning a Galaxy Nexus and I have to say I feel mixed about the changes. As an Android device, the N4 is definitely faster and nicer to use. But as a phone, I found two important issues were a step back - the max volume of the earpiece and the strength of the vibration. The latter, in particular, is so weak on the N4 that I usually miss texts and other notifications. Instead I get to be yet another obnoxious person with a loud ringtone to avoid missing calls and texts. :(
For the problem with missing SMS notifications, there's software in the play store that'll periodically trigger an alarm if there are unread texts / unanswered phone calls. You can usually also use a different alarm sound than the default for these, so you can use something discreet for the original text arrival message, and then something more obnoxious for the repeated alarms. The best thing ever.
The one I use is "Missed Call Reminder", but there are plenty of others.
The strength of the vibration is ridiculously low, I've never felt it vibrate when in my pocket, and even when the phone is out on a surface the vibration is easy to miss.
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Oh wow, the N4 was already the best value on the market - very powerful device for a very low price. Now the price is ridiculous... I have my N4 since the beginning of the year and I love it.
The phone you point to might be a few bucks cheaper, but it has 1/2 the RAM, 1/2-1/4 internal storage, and while the MTK6589 performs surprisingly well for a Mediatek chip, it still performs below the Nexus 4's S4Pros both for CPU and GPU. The screen is also much lower res and 245ppi vs 320ppi. It doesn't have any support for LTE (Nexus 4 is flashable to Band 4) and doesn't appear to support NFC, or, probably more importantly, BT4/BTLE. There's also no front camera or a flash (!) on the back camera.
Of course, the worst thing is that it's already running an outdated (4.1.2) version of Android and is unlikely to be updated. There's a small community working on ROMs but it's sketchy (no dedicated forum on XDA, no CM port, much less an official build).
If you buy the A820, and almost all the other Shanzai'd devices, you effectively get a dead product, while w/ the Nexus 4 you'll get better hardware and both official and community support for years.
Keep in mind that the Lenovo has a MTK cpu which is A7 vs the A9 in the Nexus 4's Qualcomm S4 Pro, and has 1GB RAM vs the Nexus' 2GB. You also get the latest firmware on the Nexus. For £50, i'd go for the Nexus any day, especially since the prices i see online for the Lenovo bets on the chance that the device goes through customs without getting taxed.
I’m now thinking of getting the Nexus 4 as a device to learn Android programming instead of the Nexus 7. Since I’m blind I actually prefer a smaller screen since there’s less blank space in between icons and it’s easier to keep track of where things are. Is it possible to use the Nexus 4 without a cell plan? I assume this would just involve putting in a deactivated sim. Is there any prior experience to guess at how long Google will support both the Nexus 4 and the new Nexus 7 with Android updates? If the Nexus 4 may only get one more update but the Nexus 7 will get 3 that would change my decision.
You can use a Nexus 4 as a simple wifi device without a sim card at all if you don't want cellular data.
As far as updates go, that is harder to say. I would be shocked if the Nexus 4 doesn't get Key Lime Pie. After that? Who knows... but I'd say the same for the Nexus 7, even the newer one. Key Lime Pie will probably be around for a long while with minor point upgrades much like Jellybean was.
In any case, if this is for development I wouldn't worry about it that much. There are relatively few points where Android diverged enough that it makes a huge difference to developers if the OS they are developing on is the very newest or slightly older.
For example, you can pretty much target Ice Cream Sandwich and above right now and it makes very little difference in terms of how you develop and which APIs you'd use.
And if you have to develop on systems even older than that, the combination of the Android Support Library here:
Sorry for my ignorance, and I'm sure you've answered this question many times before, but: how do you type and reply to comments and go about your daily routine while blind? Are there any links to articles you have written describing this?
The reason I ask is because I enjoy being in possession of very few things, and those that I own should preferably be pocket-sized. I read about developers daisy-chaining multiple hi-res displays and developers who use 11" ultrabooks and presumably Alt-Tab to get to other windows.
I'm the author of the top voted answer on this stackoverflow question.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/118984/how-can-you-progra...
I think I'm going to buy a 11 inch MacBook Air with maxed ram and processor based on the fact that I don't need a big screen and like portability.
Fwiw, one of my first mentors in college was a blind computer graphics specialist. He made 3D data visualizations for scientific computing jobs run on supercomputer clusters, and he couldn't even see them, except in his own mind. A screen reader read him the code, and he coded with a braile keyboard. It's pretty amazing what technology can enable these days.
It would be nice if Google would actually let people who aren't using a US ip address to be able to view the site. I have an account and mailing address in the States, but I live outside of the States. So even though I can buy, they won't let me see it outside of the States.... Way to go Google!
If you're logged in and you have a "US" Google account (credit card and shipping address, not sure if there are other requirements) you should be able to see it (at least I can, but only when logged in).
I'd like to thank @shuzchen for posting this. I bought a new Google Nexus 4 from MediaMarkt here in Germany on Saturday for 329 EUR and had luckily not yet opened the box (waiting for a Micro SIM to turn up from my provider).
I managed to take the phone back this morning after reading this, and get a full refund, and have now just ordered the phone direct from Google Play for 249 EUR (plus 9.99 EU shipping).
As a mental note I should always order online. In the EU you automatically get 14 days grace to return something for ANY reason (EU law). My spontaneous purchase on Saturday could have cost me 70 EUR more than it had to!
This program is only for customers who have bought the phone via Google Play. It doesn't include orders placed via distribution (as far as I can tell).
Grabbed one for my wife. She's been tottering along on an old phone for a while, and we've been hemming and hawing over getting an N4 for her, but at that price, it's a no-brainer.
Don't want to influence people who are going to order this but last week I order a Nexus 4 but I sent it back the next day it arrived. The internal ear speaker didn't work, apparently a very frequent defect. (see http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/mobile/2eVRjUXPS... )
The hassle was some of the people had the issue originated from a radio firmware (software). So I spent my evening unlocking the bootloader, rooting and flashing various rom without success to understand it was a hardware issue in my case (half the people complaining have software defect, the other half hardware).
I bought an 8G N4 when they first came available last year (upgrading from a GSM Galaxy Nexus, which was an upgrade from a CDMA Galaxy Nexus), and it's never been away from me for more than an hour or two at a time since then. I bought a 16G about a month later, but haven't had the need just yet to move my stuff to the bigger model. Glass screen protector, Diztronic TPU case, and this is the best phone I've ever owned (so far).
I got my 16gb N4 ordered pretty soon after release (finally delivered early January). It's actually the first Android phone I liked out of the box, without feeling slow/sluggish. It's now my fourth android phone (first was the G1). Each one seemed like if it were just a little faster, I'd be happy with it.
It's actually a little more responsive than my 2012 model Nexus 7 tablet. Which is why I've been considering getting a new N7.
I've also played with both using the Chromecast, and have to say it's pretty nice and works smoother for Netflix than my typical pattern in the past, which was queue up stuff on my tablet/phone, then use my roku (bedroom) or the tv's built in player (living room).
I went from a Nexus One to an N4, so obviously it was fast to me! Also had a 2012 N7 (JB prompted me to buy the N4). I just picked up a new N7 and so far it's perfect (none of the reported problems), but a little harder to hold. I bought B&M so that I could return it easily if necessary, and hand-picked the only July manufacture date out of 8 other Junes.
Possibly but I think it seems more likely that they're clearing stock before the next Nexus device. Nexus devices typically become available around November and are announced around October. This would give them a month or two to clear out N4 stock before the announcement kills demand.
Maybe not "typical" but not unexpected either. We're all Bayesians here, aren't we? ;-) The prior probability of a new gadget getting released in time for the Christmas shopping season is pretty high, so it doesn't require too many additional data points to "know" what's going on.
I'd guess that's the case, but most of the estimates for the iPhone 5c are like 450-500, which is a slap in the fucking face for anyone that's expecting an affordable device. IMO, if it's a penny over 300, then it's going to be too expensive.
Do you have more information about any release date for the next generation Nexus 4? I'm looking to buy a phone "by Google" and wouldn't want to be buying the Nexus 4 just when the new one is about to be released. Thanks.
All he said was "soon" and that was about a month ago, so it's hard to extract what he actually meant by that. I'm guessing he doesn't want to be the leak for any info. I also asked about the hardware and all he said was "it's gonna be great". Sorry to be a let down, but I guess he wants to keep his job.
Honestly I wish they changed the name. Shopping for a Nexus 7 online or in stores is not friendly to the regular population. I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing and even I'm not 100% certain a Nexus 7 on any site (besides play.google.com) is the new refresh model or the older one.
That said, they should avoid the naming scheme of the galaxy line (e.g. Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0).
It's true that the number refers to its size; that said, Nexus 4 is really 4.7". 4.7 is closer to 5 than 4, so I would not be surprised if they did name the next one Nexus 5.
Sigh, this is exactly backwards from where I want flagship Android phones going. It follows the typical tech trend of "bigger, better, faster", but I miss the small size of the Nexus One.
None of the Nexus devices fit in the pockets of the clothes of women I know. (First world problems, yes, but I wish I could recommend an Android device to them that they could carry around without having to use a purse. It doesn't help that Android is eating into the low-end market; barely anyone makes feature phones in the old candybar and flip form factors.)
There's plenty of smaller Android phones available too. But users clearly seem to like the bigger sizes, and frankly women seem to be a large driver. At least around here, most women I see have their phones - regardless of size - in their purse, and so they also seem to be very quick to adopt the large form factor phones. It's fairly common to see people with 6" phones here now.
But check out Aliexpress.com, and you will find lots of small form factors, if you're ok with ordering direct from China.
I completely agree. The N1 was a very ergonomic phone. I use my N4 one-handed; my wife uses hers like a small tablet (two hands). I don't have small hands, but I have to shift my grip to reach all four corners of the screen. Each shift is a chance to drop the phone, so it carries a higher cognitive load than a smaller 3.5" device. The narrow screen on the iPhone 5 is an almost perfect size for me.
If you're interested in good, smaller Android phones, keep an eye on Sony. The current rumor is that the mini-edition of their next flagship will keep the high-end specs of its larger sibling (except for the screen resolution, of course).
This is exactly why I didn't buy an N7 when I was looking a while back - I wanted an older model but not the original, which I understand had major issues. No way to differentiate without lots of reasearch.
I gave up and decided not to spend the hours trying to find the best Android tablet that runs (or can run) stock. Still haven't bought one, despite my interest.
And this is why I love living in a 3rd world country (Sweden):
Sorry! Devices on Google Play is not available in your country yet.
We're working to bring devices to more countries as quickly as possible.
Please check back again soon.
Use tunnel bear to browse the US/Uk play store. Use a forwarding address from www.borderlinx.com and www.entropay.com for a US visa number. Have it shipped to your country for a small shipping & customs fee.
The Nexus 4 is completely baffling to me from a pricing /market strategy perspective.
There are ends to the pricing strategy spectrum take: low price, high volume (aka market penetration) or higher price lower volume (aka differentiation). The former is about matching specs and winning on price (eg, last years's Galaxy S model). The latter is about making something a little different that some people are willing to pay a little more for, usually at the cost of volume (eg, Samsung Galaxy S note).
The Nexus 4 was squarely in the category of large screen Android phones that all major manufacturers have been selling like crazy as their flagship products for the last year. They all compete with similar prices and specs. Nexus 4 matches the spec, priced 30% lower!
Great, cut price market penetration strategy!
Accept that the product hasn't been available. It's not in phone/electronics stores. Its not on Amazon. Its not available in most countries. Its not available from carriers (I like this, but if you are taking this position, find other distribution channels) etc. etc.
Whats the point of that? They could have been selling this as a niche product at a higher margin and made some good money. Alternatively, they could have gotten it into stores at the $300 price they were supposedly selling it at and outsold the S3, especially in Europe where other manufacturers add a big markup over US prices.
What I don't really get is to what end are they doing this? Does this help Google, or hurt them - especially now that they have Motorola? Is the bigger over-arching goal here to go around the carriers, no matter what?
I think the first/early of a kind nexus models worked well.
They set a standard price/spec range for a high end android. The first couple of nexus phones led to the current generation flagship Androids. The first couple of nexus tablets led to the current generation of Android tablets and discovered a great opening.: 7-8" @ ~$200-$250. They even forced Apple to play catch-up.
The Nexus 4 doesn't make sense. What are they trying to do here? Sell phones? Maybe you should put them in shops where people can buy them. Concept phone? That doesn't make sense either. Nexus 4 is pretty similar to the top selling androids that already exist.
I look at the Nexus 4 as Google's way of saying, "We're sick of your shit, Motorola, Samsung, et al. Your OS 'customizations' make Android look bad, and your phones are too expensive. Fuck you, here's how it should be done."
My Nexus 4 is a hell of a lot more responsive than my girlfriend's Galaxy S4
I think the Nexus phones are just developer phones:
They're as performant as the other mid-range offerings and get the updates early.
Being as performant helps Android ecosystem by making the developers to develop apps that work well also in other models than just in the high-end models.
Getting the updates earlier helps developers to prepare their software for the new Android version so that when Samsung and other big players release the new version to their phones, the software is already updated. It's like using beta iOS.
So I don't think that Google's trying to make money, at least directly, with Nexus phones/tablets and instead they're just to help developers and Android ecosystem.
Ha, wish I had seen this link first. My Nexus 4 arrived last Thursday so I was well within the 15 day window. I just called their customer service (https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/3053039) and they processed a refund for the difference. They're a bit swamped right now so you may have to hang on for 10-15 minutes before you can talk to someone.
Sorry! Devices on Google Play is not available in your country yet.
We're working to bring devices to more countries as quickly as possible.
Please check back again soon.
It would be better if they finally released it outside US. I can't even see the site.
How are they able to sell it this cheap? Similar smartphones often cost $500-$800 unlocked and this is only $200! I understand the unlocked price is heavily marked up, but still...
The going rate for similarly spec'ed smartphone on Alibaba/Aliexpress is well below $200 now in quantities of 1 and have been for a while.
For the most expensive phones, you pay a large premium for the newest models, and you pay a large premium for brand names, and a bit extra for better build quality in some cases (but not always - a lot of the reasonably unknown Chinese brands deliver very solid phones), and it adds up quickly.
I screamed after seeing this headline in hacker news!
I knew my colleague is looking for a mobile as he lost his one last weekend. He wants a mid range one as he keeps losing/breaking his mobile! I told him about this one but he had already ordered one yesterday. Well, he cancelled his order and has now placed the order for Nexus 4!
I've gone through two 8GB models in the last two months. Lost the first one (slid out my pocket), then had to buy a replacement at a jacked up price from a different supplier as I was starting work on an Android job the next day.
At least I know that the next time I lose it, a replacement will be cheaper :-)
I've been considering getting a Nexus 4 for months now, but my Galaxy SII still mostly works (with Cyanogenmod) so I didn't have much of a reason to spend the money. But this new price is right in my impulse buy range, so it looks like I'll get one after all!
So when did they start actually have these things in stock? I know a few months ago whenever I'd check they were unavailable.
With this price reduction, I guess Apple should cancel their 5S/5C event, no need since the phones will flop due to everyone with their shiny Nexus 4's.
Apple will not cancel anything as the cheap iPhone 5 and the one in the higher segment will outsell the Nexus 4. Even if they have lower specs or worse performance.
I think it's two different markets. iPhone users are rather a different category from Nexus users; they're almost polar opposites. Mind you, I'm not knocking iPhones; they're excellent products. It's just a different way of purchasing, a different price point, and a different target audience.
They're only polar opposites within the space of smartphone users. Within the space of people who would like to use the phone, they're bunched very close together at the "wants to use a smartphone" end of the spectrum, the other end being "doesn't want to use the phone".
The guy who downvoted me, care to explain why? Apple has much better brand recognition, loyalty and advertising than Google currently has for their phones department. It is only logical the iPhone will perform better in sales. This doesn't say anything about the actual products.
Why I would buy a N4: Wireless charging, after getting a tablet with it the convenience is now mandatory.
Why I would not buy a N4: No removable storage. I don't trust my data in the hands of a cloud provider, I want it on my phone where it is completely under my control.
Wireless charging was one of the reasons why I got a Nexus 4. It's a shame the stock wireless charger is so terribly designed though (no adhesion and unnecessary angle). Judging by the reviews it's gotten, looks like I'm not the only one who hates it.
Why is it a shame that you dislike the "official" charger? The N4 uses the standard Qi charging protocol, so you can get pretty much any charger you want.
I've tried a bunch of Qi chargers. Samsung's official S3/S4 charger is my favorite. They cheap out and don't include a USB cable or power supply, though, so you have to buy those separately. (Anker sells one on Amazon that does include a power supply that works great with the N4. Works very poorly with the S4, though, which just goes to show you how flaky random Chinese imports can be, even if you pay $50 for them.)
If you've got a kid, especially a young one, 16GB isn't enough for pictures and video. Not even close. My niece has filled her 64GB iphone many times over with shots of her kid. I'm sure there are tons of other use cases too.
"Isn't enough for pictures" really depends on the frequency that you offload photos from the phone.
Personally, if I'm storing important memories, I am NOT going to trust a loseable, breakable thing in my pocket to be the final resting place of JPEGs.
There are so many obvious flaws in that statement, here's two:
1) The assumption that the person who owns the phone owns a computer, rather than borrows someone else's when they need it.
Modern phones have hdmi outputs, and work with bluetooth keyboards. It is entirely feasible for the average person to use a high-end phone as their primary computing device. Especially with the carrier subsidies making the up-front cost so low. This will only become more common as phones get more powerful.
2) When you've moved the data off your phone it is no longer immediately at hand.
Flash storage is cheap and only getting cheaper, leaving off a micro-sd slot is all about pushing a cloud-storage paradigm rather than letting the user decide.
128GB cards are widely available.
The spec is good for up to 2TB, so it is only a matter of time. Meanwhile carrying a couple of extra cards tucked into the case of the phone is basically no effort at all.
Isn't there some sort of OwnCloud client for Android? You could use that as your storage solution, hosted on your own machine which should be completely under your control.
This would OBVIOUSLY happen 1 week after I bought the S4 Mini. I was seriously considering the Nexus 4, but couldn't justify the $350 price range when compared to the Mini for only $400.
Go figure, I couldn't wait any longer and Google couldn't do this any sooner.
I'm curious, just why did you go with the S4 mini instead of the Nexus in the first place, especially when (if i'm understanding correctly), it was cheaper? The SD card?
Well the Camera for one, and the reviews I read just kept coming up with an analysis like...The Nexus is a great 'Android starter' phone...but if you can plump for the S4, do it.
The only reason I didn't want to get an S4 was because of the form factor.
Once the mini came out, at only $50 - $100 more, it was a no-brainer.
Now, though, I would make a different purchasing decision.
Although, experience tells me that with the price recently dropped, that probably means they are trying to empty shelves and clear our their backlog to make way for a new unit coming in the next few months.
Soo......I am not sure what I would do - to be honest.
You do realise that the S4 and the S4 Mini are quite different? When reviews talk about the S4, you cannot extrapolate to the Mini due to different chipsets (quad core vs dual core), differing amount of RAM, resolution etc. I'm sure you know now.
Also, the only features of the Nexus 4 i would class as "starter" is the price (really cheap, accessible to a lot of peopl) and maybe the fast updates. That's about it. The camera is good, not the best, but more than good enough for casual stuff like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
I was just about to buy one 2nd hand for more expensive! So glad I didn't catch one in time... all those unlucky sods selling their phones just lost out on another $100! I'm gonna keep an eye in the classified, these will go dirt cheap now! :)
Despite Google's global presence and all the smart and capable people they have, are still unable to offer international purchasing/shipping for one device almost one year after it's launch?
It's actually a good price for a decent piece of equipment out of contract. At the same time, for only $199 and $249, you get what you pay for. So don't complain it doesn't make sandwich.
I would be very grateful if anyone traveling to India could get one for me, since Google doesn't sell it in India (and local dealers sell it around 400 USD)
I would recommend the 16gb model if it fits your budget. The extra gigs make a difference in this era of 1+ gig apps and 1080p video cameras, I have found.
If they offered a 64 gig model, I'd buy it. Obviously, a microSD slot would be ideal, but that would go against Google's current religious crusade to rid the world of local storage :)
I bought my first tablet, a Nook HD+, last week, because I wanted something I could use to read technical docs when I do cardio. I wanted something bargain basement cheap because I don't want to feel bad if it gets smashed.
Barnes and Noble has made the decision to deliver the most possible value per $ for customers by making the Nook HD+ compatible with Google Play and Kindle. The device isn't the most powerful and doesn't have a camera or GPS, but the screen is great.
Other tablet vendors are going to be rushing to deliver products that appeal to different market segments. Quite exciting!
I'm very anxious to see what will happen when FoxOS hits the market. Presently developer preview phones are going for less than $150 (including shipping and taxes) entirely unlocked and without bloatware (ie, uninstallable freecell junk). Prices like that for the specs they're talking about are nearly unheard of here in Canada. I'll have a more informed opinion about it once it ships next month.
Yeah. It's an extremely low end phone (Cortex A5 processor, 3.5-inch HVGA display). Specs are about something you'd see on a high end phone 4 years ago. Appears to be mostly targeting emerging markets where it's a good fit (as cheap as a feature phone but with full smartphone capabilities).
