Google Nexus 4 First Impressions/Reviews

[badbrad17]

I'm not entirely decided on battery life yet, I'll give it a few more days to settle down before judging, but when it's plugged in I am continually surprised by how fast this thing charges (and on various different chargers too). Unfortunately I have no scientific evidence to back this up, I've not done any tests or anything sensible like that, so has anybody else noticed this or am I simply imagining it?

Steve.

Would love to hear more battery feedback when you can. Thanks.

Sent from my SGH-T989D using Android Central Forums

 

[Neo42]

Been playing with mine since yesterday afternoon.

First impression: compared to my iphone 4s, this thing is pretty huge. Likewise compared to the N4, 4s is pretty tiny. My hands are smaller than average so it will take some adjustment. The iphone feels more solid/dense, which could be taken negatively or positively depending on your perspective. Screen is beautiful, build seems good. Vibrate is stupid loud and cheap sounding, though this is not a big deal. External speaker nothing to write home about. Overall I love the thing.

Battery observations: Delivered charge was ~55%. From 55->95% was quick, then it seemed like it took 2-3x that time to go the last 5%. Maybe I was just checking it more frequently. Once at 100% I pulled off the charger and had it off ever since then. Current stats are 46% remaining, 18h27m on battery. Top offenders: Screen 23%, Mediaserver 15%, Wi-fi 10%, idle 10%, Pandora 9% (listening at work today), Cell standby 8%, OS 7%, system 4%, Maps 4% (?? I haven't even loaded this yet), NewsRob 3%. Screen on time: 2h11m. FYI: Google Now is thus far off. Spent most of my time on home or work wifi, other than a 30 min or so commute.

So far, very happy with the phone. YMMV.

EDIT: Other things to note. I have all haptic and sound feedback OFF. Also have auto screen brightness off with the level very near the low end, which is completely tolerable for me.

EDIT2, battery life update: 23% @ 1d0h40m. Screen on time 2h28m. Mediaserver has taken throne for usage of 32%. I presume this is due to several hours of streaming Pandora over wifi while at work today.

EDIT3: phone finally shutdown from low battery at about the 27 hour mark. Screen on time I'd guess was near 3 hours. Lots of Pandora over WiFi today. I'm very satisfied especially considering the battery may improve with conditioning

 

[soma4society]

If you are using an alternative keyboard like swiftkey you might also need to deactivate haptic feedback in the keyboard's menu.

I'm using the stock keyboard.

 

[soma4society]

Would love to hear more battery feedback when you can.

Thought I'd jump in with my initial and highly unscientific impressions. I had mine out of the box last night at 630 and was using it pretty much non-stop until about 1130--I streamed a little video toward the end of the evening (maybe 15 minutes or so), but mostly I was just surfing, loading new apps, and getting familiar with the phone's OS. By the time I set it aside I was down to 42% power. This doesn't seem bad to me for five hours of constant use. It feels on par with what my iPhone 4S would deliver if I used it heavily. I did have the screen brightness set just below 50% btw. PS I also downloaded JuiceDefender Plus as I'd read good things about the app.

 

[usualsuspect]

I have had my phone for about a day. This phone is so much better than GNex with the exception of the removable battery. Better screen, the phone is as thin as the thinnest part of GNEX. Phone is shorter and about the same width. So u get a much more powerful phone in a thinner, shorter package with a larger screen.

I find the phone very fast, GNex is not even in the same league. Build quality is great although when I set it down something sounds loose. Is anyone else experiencing this? I believe the fact that this phone does not have the hump on the GNex that it is much more pocketable.

Did I mention this thing is fast? When I configured the phone it installed all of my apps in an incredibly fast period of time. So far data speeds have been impressive.

That said the build quality of iphone 4-5 is a little better. But that is offset by openness of android, carrier free and larger screen. I would be worried if I were apple if Google can continue this trend of quality products, great build quality and inexpensive prices.

 

[badbrad17]

Thought I'd jump in with my initial and highly unscientific impressions. I had mine out of the box last night at 630 and was using it pretty much non-stop until about 1130--I streamed a little video toward the end of the evening (maybe 15 minutes or so), but mostly I was just surfing, loading new apps, and getting familiar with the phone's OS. By the time I set it aside I was down to 42% power. This doesn't seem bad to me for five hours of constant use. It feels on par with what my iPhone 4S would deliver if I used it heavily. I did have the screen brightness set just below 50% btw. PS I also downloaded JuiceDefender Plus as I'd read good things about the app.

What percentage did you start with when you opened it? Was it at 100%? Usually out of the box you don't get a full charge.

Sent from my SGH-T989D using Android Central Forums

 

[soma4society]

What percentage did you start with when you opened it? Was it at 100%? Usually out of the box you don't get a full charge.

93% if I recall correctly. I was going to plug it in right after opening the box but after seeing how close to full it was realized I didn't need to.

 

[Steve_S_T]

Iirc mine was close to fully charged straight out of the box too.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[badbrad17]

Thanks for the info. Let me know how things are after the battery settles. It probably will get even better.

Sent from my SGH-T989D using Android Central Forums

 

[Elborja1]

Is anyone finding that the back of their LG nexus 4 is getting warm with regular phone activity like browsing and downloading content, and getting quite hot while playing games?? Mine seems to be doing so, and I don't seem to be getting as much out if my battery as others. And it certainly doesn't not charge quickly. Takes almost 3 hrs for a full charge. It also dies almost 20 percent overnight. With no apps running in the background.

 

[Neo42]

Is anyone finding that the back of their LG nexus 4 is getting warm with regular phone activity like browsing and downloading content, and getting quite hot while playing games?? Mine seems to be doing so, and I don't seem to be getting as much out if my battery as others. And it certainly doesn't not charge quickly. Takes almost 3 hrs for a full charge. It also dies almost 20 percent overnight. With no apps running in the background.

Is 3 hours a long charge time? I always charge phone overnight so never notice how long it takes. Mine gets pretty warm when charging + using. Haven't really done anything processor intensive with it, so I can't give you much info on that front.

When you go to bed tonight, put it in airplane mode. If you find your battery life sustained in that mode, then you probably have one of the following:
a) bad cell signal
b) something in the background polling data constantly

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

Is anyone finding that the back of their LG nexus 4 is getting warm with regular phone activity like browsing and downloading content, and getting quite hot while playing games?? Mine seems to be doing so, and I don't seem to be getting as much out if my battery as others. And it certainly doesn't not charge quickly. Takes almost 3 hrs for a full charge. It also dies almost 20 percent overnight. With no apps running in the background.

Yeah, my phone gets hot when doing some things like downloading/installing a lot of apps (restored from my Google account) and also when playing games. Don't know what the deal is, but it does heat up.

Can't say I get the battery drain problem though. Went to bed with it at 100% battery, woke up with it at 98%. Can't complain. My guess is that your phone was searching for your network and couldn't establish a solid connection. Check to see what your 'cell standby' time is on your battery stats. If it's high, that means your phone had to use a lot of battery to search of a network.

 

[usualsuspect]

Just wanted to add anyone debating the upgrade from GNEX to this phone needs to stop asking the question and upgrade. This phone is superior in every respect. The only caveat is if you need removable battery. Other than that do not wait...

 

[ryanr509]

Is anyone finding that the back of their LG nexus 4 is getting warm with regular phone activity like browsing and downloading content, and getting quite hot while playing games?? Mine seems to be doing so, and I don't seem to be getting as much out if my battery as others. And it certainly doesn't not charge quickly. Takes almost 3 hrs for a full charge. It also dies almost 20 percent overnight. With no apps running in the background.

Something has to be eating your battery like an app. On wifi I lose roughly 2% overnight. On hspa+ I lose roughly 5% overnight. That's anywhere from 7-10 hours of sleep

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Android Central Forums

 

[SHADMOS]

Can someone talk about speakerphone quality when it is flat on the table? maybe video comparison? Guess in worried if it will be seriously muted when it rings on table.

 

[Channan]

Been playing with mine since yesterday afternoon.

First impression: compared to my iphone 4s, this thing is pretty huge. Likewise compared to the N4, 4s is pretty tiny. My hands are smaller than average so it will take some adjustment. The iphone feels more solid/dense, which could be taken negatively or positively depending on your perspective. Screen is beautiful, build seems good. Vibrate is stupid loud and cheap sounding, though this is not a big deal. External speaker nothing to write home about. Overall I love the thing.

Battery observations: Delivered charge was ~55%. From 55->95% was quick, then it seemed like it took 2-3x that time to go the last 5%. Maybe I was just checking it more frequently. Once at 100% I pulled off the charger and had it off ever since then. Current stats are 46% remaining, 18h27m on battery. Top offenders: Screen 23%, Mediaserver 15%, Wi-fi 10%, idle 10%, Pandora 9% (listening at work today), Cell standby 8%, OS 7%, system 4%, Maps 4% (?? I haven't even loaded this yet), NewsRob 3%. Screen on time: 2h11m. FYI: Google Now is thus far off. Spent most of my time on home or work wifi, other than a 30 min or so commute.

So far, very happy with the phone. YMMV.

EDIT: Other things to note. I have all haptic and sound feedback OFF. Also have auto screen brightness off with the level very near the low end, which is completely tolerable for me.

EDIT2, battery life update: 23% @ 1d0h40m. Screen on time 2h28m. Mediaserver has taken throne for usage of 32%. I presume this is due to several hours of streaming Pandora over wifi while at work today.

EDIT3: phone finally shutdown from low battery at about the 27 hour mark. Screen on time I'd guess was near 3 hours. Lots of Pandora over WiFi today. I'm very satisfied especially considering the battery may improve with conditioning

Sweet, thanks. Battery life seems to be pretty good. With all your music streaming and idling, with the first half of your battery life you still got about 2 hours of screen on time. I don't see you having problems getting 5 hours of screen on time without any streaming and little time idling. Thanks!

 

[badbrad17]

2 hours on screen time is nothing. I use this easily in half a day. I would love to know if you can get 4 or 5 of on screen time. That would be awesome.

Sent from my SGH-T989D using Android Central Forums

 

[Unicorns8mybaby]

Does anyone know how much this comes out to all together with a 2 year contract with tmobile?
i wanna get this phone tomorrow hopefully.
i seen on the website its 199 for the 16 gb with 2 year but i know there will prolly be an activation fee.

No point for me to buy it unlocked cause the city i live in doesnt have very many phone companys to choose from.

I was debating between this and the iphone on sprint network but i already have an ipad and a ipod, no need for more apple products.
And for the people who already own this, is the camera at least decent? coming from someone whos phone was a blackberry am i going to be astonished or just...eh.?

 

[Jax Tiger]

No point for me to buy it unlocked cause the city i live in doesnt have very many phone companys to choose from.

You will pay less on your monthly bill if you buy it unlocked.

 

[fatkiid]

Did everyone have 4.2 System Update out of the box?
As in LG/Google began manufacturing the phones before the final gold 4.2 release?