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Nexus 4 Review: Beautifully Crafted, Premium Android Phone

androidpolice.com

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Re: Nexus 4 Review: Beautifully Crafted, Premium Android Phone

#151

Post by halefx »

Irregardless wrote: post #96
halefx wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you implying that tethering is different on the Nexus 4?

No, it's more about the lack of 4G. Streaming full-screen HD videos and playing games on a laptop over 3G is a stretch, but I have no issues doing either with the 4G connection of my Galaxy Nexus. Even loading large web pages was noticeably slower using the 3G connection of my previous Droid. Verizon's 4G definitely rivals Comcast's cable in terms of latency and reliability, if not in raw speed.

Well it doesn't just support 3G. The Nexus 4 runs HSPA+ 42 (basically non-LTE 4G) which is available in Australia, Europe, Asia, Africa, and on Tmobile in the US. My Tmobile HSPA+ is actually faster than most home internet connections in my area.

Re: Nexus 4 Review: Beautifully Crafted, Premium Android Phone

#152

Post by cbsmith »

wbrendel wrote: post #102
kirubakaran wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The iPhone 5 has LTE and an aluminum back. Edit: Not being snarky. Just a minor correction.

I think he was referring to the state of the world prior to iPhone 5 being announced.

Re: Nexus 4 Review: Beautifully Crafted, Premium Android Phone

#153

Post by rimantas »

yalogin wrote: post #34

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 intere…

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

Re: Nexus 4 Review: Beautifully Crafted, Premium Android Phone

#154

Post by vshade »

mikelward wrote: post #83
searbe wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Razr I (or Razr M, depending where you are) is worth a look if form factor is an issue. The Intel processor in the Razr I isn't high-end, but I've not had any compatibility issues and games (Minecraft, GTA III, World of Goo) run fine - not to mention great battery life. Although I would personally go for the Nexus 4 if I hadn't already bought one of these - simply because it has great specs, is "pure Google" and…

I wish there would be a Nexus version of the RAZR M. The battery life really is good. Certainly the best 4" Android phone out at the moment.

At least the latest motorola android is very close to stock android, and there is hope that since moto is now google the newer phones will have timely updates.

Re: Nexus 4 Review: Beautifully Crafted, Premium Android Phone

#155

Post by harshreality »

philsnow wrote: post #136
gridaphobe wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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+.

Wow 6 replies here and nobody has specifically called out latency. I have a verizon LTE device that I tether with from time to time, and the ping times I get to my home server are insane, usually around 20ms. When I tether on my HSPA galaxy nexus, ping times are usually around 100+ms. Now this could be verizon vs t-mobile and not LTE vs HSPA (or some mix). Verizon is the only/main LTE-supporting provider right now, s…

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

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

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

Re: Nexus 4 Review: Beautifully Crafted, Premium Android Phone

#156

Post by Rynant »

rplst8 wrote: post #144
SCdF wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It may not be widely deployed outside the US, but that doesn't mean new devices shouldn't support the new standards. Imagine if when Microsoft was designing Windows 7 they said "well, no one is using IPv6 right now so we won't include any support."

The difference between Windows 7 supporting IPv6 and the Nexus 4 supporting LTE is that LTE requires a physical chip that costs extra to manufacture. Why force all users to pay extra for an LTE radio if most users will not see any benefit from it?

Re: Nexus 4 Review: Beautifully Crafted, Premium Android Phone

#157

Post by greyboy »

rplst8 wrote: post #112

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 w…

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

Re: Nexus 4 Review: Beautifully Crafted, Premium Android Phone

#158

Post by bookwormAT »

rplst8 wrote: post #143
bookwormAT wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Most people DO have access to LTE. Verizon's network covers 250 Million people in the US, and their 4G footprint will equal that of their 3G network by next year sometime (2013). http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/verizons-shammo-well-fin...

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

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

Re: Nexus 4 Review: Beautifully Crafted, Premium Android Phone

#159

Post by galadriel »

csmatt wrote: post #23
csmatt wrote: post #2

I'm considering getting this to replace my Nexus One. However, the lack of an sd slot and LTE really has me hung up. I'd be using it on T-mobile, though, so the LTE probably won't matter for a little while. I love the community support for Nexus devices and the only disappointment about the Nexus One for me was that I didn't get until it was already out for 6 months. Thoughts?

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

Just adding to what others said, you won't miss your music collection if you use Google Music and have good enough internet. In my use case, I have found that although I have GBs of music collected over years, at any particular movement, I am listening to only very small subset of it. So what I have uploaded all my music to Google Music, and then made offline all the music I frequently listen; essentially the new albums I purchase and the older, favorite songs.

It works well because T-mobile data speeds are fast enough, and only time I remember missing my music was when I was on a long 12 hour flight, and really wanted to listen to that one song, and taking out my laptop wasn't worth the effort.

Re: Nexus 4 Review: Beautifully Crafted, Premium Android Phone

#160

Post by snogglethorpe »

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

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

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

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