My new Nexus4 Impressions based on one week usage (upgrade from Galaxy Nexus)
Hello All,
I just wanted to share my experience with my Nexus4 so far. I hope this helps some one who is planning on getting one! It has been about a week since I received my new toy. I sold my 6 month old Galaxy Nexus to make the jump. This is NOT a review and just my personal opinion.
User Type: Moderate User. I mostly use it for my emails and with a little bit of browsing, reading and listening to music. I occasionally play games and watch a few videos.
Short Opinion: Overall, its a good phone with a few "ifs n buts".
Build Quality:
-While the Samsung Galaxy Nexus was made of plastic it was definitely not cheap looking and did not produce any creaky sounds. That being said, Nexus4 has a more premium feel with nice soft rubber grips on the sides and glass on both sides. The phone is fragile and requires constant pampering and care. I would highly recommend a case and screen protector if you are particular about maintaining the phone scratch n cracks free!
Display:
-The Galaxy Nexus display had a calibration issue as most of you know, the greys would look blue and the whites look pretty washed out. Guess what, Nexus4 display has its own calibration problem.
Most of you might already be aware that the gamma setting is completely mis-calibrated resulting in once again the blacks appearing with a bluish tint. This is not easily noticeable when you are inside the app drawer (which has a black background) but is definitely seen when watching movies with night/dark scenes.
-There are a lot of apps and custom kernels that allow the user to tweak these settings. But Google has blocked out these settings completely on stock kernel starting 4.2.2. I believe you can now only change the color settings but cannot control the gamma values :-(
-The viewing angles are not as great as the SuperAMOLED display on Galaxy Nexus. I think this is partly because of the excessive contrast ratios on the screen.
-The colors also look washed out.
-P.S: A first time user who is directly playing with Nexus4 would not notice these issues.
-I actually like the unique contoured (curved) display...just a personal thing :-)
I really wish Google allows users to tinker with color settings!
Storage:
-Like the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus4 comes with just two options 8 and 16GB.
-Is it enough? It depends..My first android smartphone was a Samsung Captivate. So, I was "used" to a high capacity SD Card. I was pretty hesitant when purchasing the galaxy nexus with no SD card slot. I eventually realized its not that bad! I found that having an SD card was just a convenient thing and NOT an absolute requirement for ME. I have the 16GB version of Nexus4 with about 600songs, 200apps, few hundred snaps, wallpapers and 5 games (not very graphics intensive like racing (or) shooting games). That left me with 7GB free space!
-I do use my box and dropbox accounts though.
In short, I am not that worried about running about space..but I wish Google offers the 32/64GB versions.
Camera:
Sorry..I am the wrong guy to provide any opinion on this one :-( Camera is not something I use daily..so I am fine with whatever comes with the phone. But there is one thing I dislike in both my previous and current Nexus phone. It takes a long time for the camera to focus and then it does not stay focused consistently. So a lot of times the snap turns out be blurry. I believe this is a software glitch and gets fixed.
Battery:
-For my usage, the battery has been really good. The standby time (on 4.2.2) is extremely good. I intentionally left my phone untouched for a couple of days and just let it do its thing (sync, email checks, updates) with very little screen time. The battery was at 84% after 1day 8hrs! That's pretty impressive. But with the screen turned on and using the phone, it does seem to drop pretty fast..I expect a max of 4hrs-5hrs usage time with Moderate usage.
Performance and Heat:
-This phone is extremely snappy. There is absolutely no lag whatsoever. 4.2.2 looks extremely fluid and now comparable to iphone or even better.
-2GB RAM is plenty! For Moderate users like me ...this is honestly an overkill :-)
-This phone does have throttling implemented. It does not affect the CPU as much as the GPU. At 36C, both CPU and GPU start getting throttled. While the effect with respect to CPU is not visible to the user, GPU throttling is visible indeed. If the temperatures exceed 40C, you will definitely start observing a little bit of choppiness and drops in frame rates. So for serious gamers, this might a be deal breaker.
-The phone gets a little hot as well but not to the point that it becomes unconformable...at least not in my case.
Audio Quality:
-External Speakers sound a bit tinny. But I don't care as I use headphones most of the time and they sound fine.
-Call quality is fine and I believe this depends on the carrier signal quality as well. I have no complaints or comments in this regard. It does what it does!
WIFI/Bluetooth/HSPA+/NFC:
-Everything works fine.
-My Wifi signal is better compared to my previous phone. I experience less buffering issues when watching youtube in HD mode now.
-Bluetooth, I used it with my headphones and did not experience any issues (no crackling,skipping,signal issues etc.) I am yet to try it out in my car.
-I was easily able to initialize my Google Wallet the very first time and all my previous account settings was successfully ported over. It was very easy! But am yet to try NFC on this phone.
Overall Impressions:
From a price stand-point this phone is a real steal! ..With Nexus, you are always running the latest and greatest from Google (which was the main reason why I started using Nexus Phones).
If you are looking for a lot of features, bells and whistles there are better options available but a higher price point.
Hope this helps!
Re: My new Nexus4 Impressions based on one week usage (upgrade from Galaxy Nexus)
Thanks :) i'm thinking about changing my Lumia 920 to a nexus 4!
Re: My new Nexus4 Impressions based on one week usage (upgrade from Galaxy Nexus)
I've had my nexus since December and I love it. Had a nexus s prior to this.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums
Re: My new Nexus4 Impressions based on one week usage (upgrade from Galaxy Nexus)
Really nice job! If I did not have one, I would be more intrigued to get one. Lol! The things you said are spot on. I do wish they would make a 32GB version. Since getting the N4, I have started cloud accounts with Box (50GB), Google Drive (5 GB) and Dropbox (3.25) and while I love them, they are not the same as having internal or SD storage in my opinion. I just keep telling myself about those fast updates! I have a 64 GB in my Note 2.
Re: My new Nexus4 Impressions based on one week usage (upgrade from Galaxy Nexus)
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Re: My new Nexus4 Impressions based on one week usage (upgrade from Galaxy Nexus)
Quote:
Really nice job! If I did not have one, I would be more intrigued to get one. Lol! The things you said are spot on. I do wish they would make a 32GB version. Since getting the N4, I have started cloud accounts with Box (50GB), Google Drive (5 GB) and Dropbox (3.25) and while I love them, they are not the same as having internal or SD storage in my opinion. I just keep telling myself about those fast updates! I have a 64 GB in my Note 2.
I keep checking and waiting patiently for Box to update their app for auto upload. I'd be golden and would quit using googles auto upload.
Re: My new Nexus4 Impressions based on one week usage (upgrade from Galaxy Nexus)
I think nexus are the best hands down I played with an s4 it was cool but I hate skins I've had every nexus phone, after the nexus one I strayed away to an evo and since then I've decided to stay with the nexus line to me "if it's not a nexus its not android"
sent from my nexus 4 or nexus 7
Re: My new Nexus4 Impressions based on one week usage (upgrade from Galaxy Nexus)
Quote:
-This phone is extremely snappy. There is absolutely no lag whatsoever. 4.2.2 looks extremely fluid and now comparable to iphone or even better.
Agree with everything you said but this. If you use an iPhone daily as I do you will still see some lag and hesitation on the Nexus 4 but less than on any other Android device I have seen including the latest ones. Jelly Bean is excellent but not entirely lag free.
Re: My new Nexus4 Impressions based on one week usage (upgrade from Galaxy Nexus)
Yubeie, awesome post!! I've never commented on any posts before but I had to for this one. I am waiting for google i/o to see what they have to say but I am dying to get my n4. I'm coming from a basic flip phone so you can imagine how anxious I am to upgrade! Your post was great!
Sent from my Nexus 7
Re: My new Nexus4 Impressions based on one week usage (upgrade from Galaxy Nexus)
- - - Updated - - -
Quote:
Yubeie, awesome post!! I've never commented on any posts before but I had to for this one. I am waiting for google i/o to see what they have to say but I am dying to get my n4. I'm coming from a basic flip phone so you can imagine how anxious I am to upgrade! Your post was great!
Sent from my Nexus 7
Thanks!
I am completely sold on the nexus line so far..hope Google continues to dish out similarly impressive stuff maintaining the same reasonable price point.
Happy Nexus!
Re: My new Nexus4 Impressions based on one week usage (upgrade from Galaxy Nexus)
Quote:
Agree with everything you said but this. If you use an iPhone daily as I do you will still see some lag and hesitation on the Nexus 4 but less than on any other Android device I have seen including the latest ones. Jelly Bean is excellent but not entirely lag free.
I agree...I think I was a little too excited!!! :p
Re: My new Nexus4 Impressions based on one week usage (upgrade from Galaxy Nexus)
Quote:
Really nice job! If I did not have one, I would be more intrigued to get one. Lol! The things you said are spot on. I do wish they would make a 32GB version. Since getting the N4, I have started cloud accounts with Box (50GB), Google Drive (5 GB) and Dropbox (3.25) and while I love them, they are not the same as having internal or SD storage in my opinion. I just keep telling myself about those fast updates! I have a 64 GB in my Note 2.
Thank you for your kind words :-)
32GB Nexus I honestly think is the sweet spot by all means..should not be too heavy on the pocket and at the same time offers reasonable amount of disk space.
Re: My new Nexus4 Impressions based on one week usage (upgrade from Galaxy Nexus)
Quote:
Agree with everything you said but this. If you use an iPhone daily as I do you will still see some lag and hesitation on the Nexus 4 but less than on any other Android device I have seen including the latest ones. Jelly Bean is excellent but not entirely lag free.
100% agree.
Re: My new Nexus4 Impressions based on one week usage (upgrade from Galaxy Nexus)
I agree with most of the stuff you say. phone is fast and a good quality price ratio. does everything I need, but there are a few things that a bit a turn down on my point of view.
It's obviously a personal opinion but:
I would like to have the 2 physical buttons besides the power button. it sucks for me to always have to be going for the power button.
I also have some problems with the screen going all black because of the screen protectors, but that was solved just by removing it...
I don't like that much also the iphone approach of not having access to the battery of the phone.
I think I had more setting options before than I have now... I would like to control better the screen locking and onlocking.
if it was today I would have stick with another option, but most of people do like the phone a lot.
I'm not an heavy user, mostly for phone, text and basic apps and browsing. I liked my old galaxy s better, obviously it was much more laggy and slower. that is definitely the best part the phone can take a lot of stuff running in the background.
