Overall Experience
The LG Nexus 4 experience is essentially the same as the Galaxy Nexus experience, with some upgrades. Which is awesome. The Galaxy Nexus was an excellent phone and the Nexus 4 builds upon that legacy.
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| LG Nexus 4 |
There's a significant difference between the Galaxy Nexus's build and the Nexus 4's build. The Galaxy Nexus was unique, with its curved back with a dimpled texture. It felt very thin at its thinnest part. And while it didn't feel plasticky, it didn't feel as "expensive" as, say, an iPhone.
The Nexus 4 feels expensive. Even though, for some strange reason, the few people I've let hold it say it feels lighter than the Galaxy Nexus, it's actually 4 grams heavier than the GSM Galaxy Nexus. It doesn't feel cheap at all. The front is Corning Gorilla Glass 2 and the back, like an iPhone 4 and 4S, is made of glass as well (glass only covers a small portion of the iPhone 5's back). This makes for a very smooth, expensive feeling.
That's not to say that expensive is always good. Lighter is generally better than heavier when it comes to electronics. This will be especially apparent when manufacturers start to replace the lost weight with durability or extra battery life (i.e. they add back the weight with protective casing and/or a larger battery). Also, glass cracks easily. There have been numerous reports of cracked and scratched back glass on the Nexus 4, so it seems that the back's glass is not Gorilla Glass. But I digress.
There's no curve to the back. The Nexus 4 is just a flat slab. With a sparkly back that shines like a disco ball. Simple. Elegant.
I had never cared much for LG Android phones before this, but LG looks and feels marvelous. I agree with Android Central when they say "LG brought it's A-game".
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| Photo taken with the Nexus 4 |
Cameras
The stock Android camera app has been good since Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), and became excellent with Android 4.1 and 4.2 (Jelly Bean). It's fast; taking pictures from the lockscreen is very convenient; and panorama and photo sphere are fun ways of capturing memories.
But all of that is also available on the Galaxy Nexus. What's changed is the hardware. Google has notoriously been a step behind when it comes to their phones' back camera. They finally catch up with the rest of the top-of-the-line phones like the Samsung Galaxy S III and Apple's iPhone 5 with a worthy 8 megapixel camera.
Also unavailable on the Galaxy Nexus (for unknown reasons) is a HDR mode. But that's mostly a gimmick. The key here is 8 megapixels. I can finally toss my old point and shoot camera in the trash.
The only issue I've had is that sometimes the camera will get "stuck" focusing and I am unable to take a picture until I exit the app and enter it again. I assume this is a temporary software problem that will be fixed in the next OS update.
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| Koi! |
Since first reading about OLED, I thought that it was the future of all display technology. I thought every phone would eventually rock a SAMOLED display until they developed lasers that shot into your eyeballs or holograms or whatever the next screen technology will be. I think I was wrong.
Surely, the Galaxy Nexus had a great SAMOLED screen that had truly dark blacks and excellent brightness. But the IPS LCD display on the Nexus 4 seems to match or better the contrast and brightness of the Galaxy Nexus, but with better color reproduction. SAMOLED screens seem slightly tinged with blue. And even though the screen is 0.05 inches bigger, the Nexus 4 display has a slightly better pixel density, since it's 768 x 1280 pixels, compared to the Galaxy Nexus's 720 x 1280 pixels.
Combined with the excellent build/design, the display makes the Nexus 4 look gorgeous.
Battery
The battery is as good as it was with the Galaxy Nexus. I honestly can't say if it's better or worse. The capacity is 2100 mAh, which is better than the Galaxy Nexus's 1750 mAh, but it seems to last just as long. Which is nice. Both phones last me all day with moderate use. Even after an hour-long phone call, I'll lose maybe 20-25% of the battery and still have enough battery for the rest of the day. The only problem is that the battery on the Nexus 4 is non-removable.
Performance
This was key. I had a lot of difficulty justifying this phone to myself after trying it out for a few minutes and realized that it was a minor, minor upgrade to the Galaxy Nexus. But one thing that had been annoying me was the slow, lagginess of my phone since upgrading to 4.2. 4.1 was a great OS. My Galaxy Nexus was plenty fast. It appeared that "Project Butter" had succeeded. Then came 4.2 and everything slowed down to molasses. It didn't help that I had a live wallpaper and used a 3rd party launcher (Apex Launcher, I highly recommend it!).
Nexus 4 has a quad-core CPU and it shows. I still have a live wallpaper (Koi Live Wallpaper, I highly recommend it!) and use Apex Launcher, but my phone screams along with no detectable lag at all. It doesn't even get hot.
This, along with the camera upgrade, is how I justify my conspicuous consumption.
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| Good speeds. That last one was ran partially on wifi and then cut short. |
Let's be honest here: The lack of an LTE Nexus 4 option is a confusing mistake. After the difficulties Google had with Verizon Galaxy Nexus, I understand the lack of a Verizon Nexus 4. But in a year when even Apple released an LTE iPhone, it's difficult to comprehend why Google didn't release an LTE phone on Sprint or AT&T.
I suppose it doesn't matter that much, if you're on T-Mobile or AT&T. T-Mobile's HSPA+ is plenty fast. I routinely got 5-7 Mbps with my Galaxy Nexus and lately I've been getting an outstanding 7-13 Mbps on my Nexus 4. I assume speeds on AT&T's HSPA+ are similar. The promise of 22 Mbps and better on an LTE provider like Verizon is great, but I think nearly 10 Mbps is good enough for most people, even heavy video users. I'm pretty sure it's better than my home Internet speed.
Storage
As with the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus, there is no microSD slot for expanded storage on the Nexus 4. That's not good, but it's expected and comparable to the iPhone 5 and the Lumia 920, which also have no expandable storage. What's a bit vexing is that the Nexus 4 only comes with 8 GB or 16 GB of storage. In 2012. In Q4 2012. The iPhone 5 comes in 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB versions, and the Lumia 920 has a respectable 32 GB of storage.
As someone who has just over 16 GB of music, it's a bit frustrating that I can't get more storage, even if I'm willing to pay for it. To solve this issue, I use Google Music. This lets me sync my music in the cloud and manually download what ever songs I want to my phone. So far I've downloaded my new stuff and a lot of my favorite stuff. When I'm in an area with no reception, it means my music collection is very limited, but what you gonna do?
Operating System
When I purchased my Galaxy Nexus, it was running Android 4.0. One the first day of using it, I updated to 4.1. I could review those two OSes, but since both the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4 are both running 4.2 today, there's not a real reason to do that.
As can be expected, Android 4.2 (which is still called "Jelly Bean") is the best version of Android yet. Lockscreen widgets are awesome, photo sphere is awesome, and the Swype-like gesture keyboard is super duper awesome. Despite the hideous font on the lockscreen clock, it's a wonderful update. The only drawback of this OS (since lockscreen clock can be "fixed" with Fixed 4.2 Clock Widget, also highly recommended) is that the OS is slower than 4.1. But if you have a phone as fast as the Nexus 4, you won't notice the OS lag.
Google Now is a great personal assistant that is arguably as good as the iPhone's Siri. Aside from the weather and travel time cards, the cards aren't very useful yet, but they show promise.
As a mobile OS, Android continues to lead the pack in terms of versatility and customizability while iOS and Windows Phone play catch up. Since Ice Cream Sandwich, Android's been beautiful and stable. The only glaring oversight is a lack of an undo when typing.
As with any GSM Nexus device, you can look forward to the simplicity of pure stock Android--no bloatware--and OS updates as soon as Google creates them.
Apps/Ecosystem
As for apps, Android still is behind iOS in number and quality, but has all the important apps (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, eBay, Angry Birds, as well as a variety of flashlight apps, calculator apps and games). And unlike iOS, you can customize your phone with plenty of launchers and interesting widgets.
The hardware ecosystem is the same with Android: easy charging with micro USB cables that are so universal you can use them to charge Windows Phones and vice versa. Also cool is Android Beam (NFC). You can send pictures and web links instantly by simply touching phones. Surprisingly, this also works with other operating systems: I was able to send web links to Windows Phones with NFC like the Lumia 920. I had trouble sending pictures.
There are two new aspects of the hardware ecosystem: one is wireless charging. I haven't gotten the chance to use this yet since the Nexus 4 doesn't work with some of the popular wireless chargers out there and Google's wireless charging orb has yet to be released. The other new hardware item is Slimport, a new display-sharing technology. It's like MHL, where the micro USB port can be used to output HDMI video and audio. The advantage is that, unlike MHL, you don't need to connect your charging cable to the MHL adapter to use it. You can output to HDMI without an electrical outlet nearby. It's a little frustrating that the MHL adapter that worked just fine on my HTC EVO 3D and Galaxy Nexus doesn't work with my Nexus 4, but Slimport is better than MHL. Hopefully, the standard for outputting video won't change again and I won't have to keep buying new video cables every year.
Other Notes
This phone vibrates less strongly, which is bittersweet. The upside is that I can leave my phone on vibrate at work because it's not a loud vibration. My Galaxy Nexus vibrated so loudly with every notification, it sounded like a local earthquake was happening at my desk. The downside is that I'm probably less likely to feel and hear notifications when my Nexus 4 is on vibrate in my pocket.
One issue is that my computer doesn't charge my Nexus 4 when my computer sleeps. I always put my computer to sleep (i.e. low power mode) every night, but before that, I plug in my phone for transferring files and syncing. It's worked just fine with every other smartphone I've had, from the iPhone 3G to the Galaxy Nexus. It doesn't work with the Nexus 4. Others have seen this problem, too. However, it's not a dealbreaker since I usually just sync through the cloud, using Google Music for music and Instant Upload for pics.
Conclusion
It's very telling that, if you go to Google's Nexus 4 webpage, a large portion of the features are Android 4.2 features instead of exclusive Nexus 4 features. It's quite clear that the main difference between this phone and the Galaxy Nexus is that the hardware has been incrementally upgraded. Most notably, the camera is better and the phone is a lot faster, due to the quad-core processor and extra gig of RAM.
Which is fine because the Galaxy Nexus is a great, still nearly top-of-the-line phone. I am tempted to say that the Nexus 4 is the Galaxy Nexus, perfected; but that's not quite right. Google still has to work on their storage problem and getting fast speeds on a CDMA carrier.
Comparing it to other phones gets hard. Is the Nexus 4 better than the iPhone 5? Sure, especially if you're on T-Mobile, where there is no iPhone. But if you're on Sprint or Verizon, if you want a good music experience (storage, syncing and playing), or if you want the best app ecosystem, iPhone wins. Is the Nexus 4 better than the Lumia 920? Sure, unless you want the absolute best phone camera ever or if you want a good music experience. Is the Nexus 4 better than the Galaxy S III? Maybe, unless you're on Sprint or Verizon or you want lots of storage. The Nexus 4 vs the Galaxy S III is hard to call. I think a rooted Galaxy S III wins.
Disclaimer: This is my first post as a Google employee, but Google does not endorse nor even know about the opinions expressed in this blog. I receive no payment for this blog. I try not to let the fact that my employer is Google affect my opinions in any way. Though I have long been a fan of many Google products, in the end, I remain a fan of technology above all.
