Like so many people who've moved onto the Android platform I had an iPhone 4 using it on T-mobile and was disappointed with the size of the iPhone5 when it was announced. I got lucky and was in the 2nd shipping group for the 16GB N4 and I've been using it exclusively for the past month. I am reasonably technical and have jailbroken and unlocked my prior iPhones to work on T-Mobile. In the past month of usage I do not miss iOS, however my attraction for the phone has more to do with the display size and FINALLY getting fast data speed than Android itself. I'm not disparaging Android at all, it is a very good mobile OS and a worthy competitor to iOS. As far as hardware goes, I'd say the N4 is very well made and is a joy to toss around and interact with.
My chief gripe with Android is that it has underdeveloped basic smartphone functions. I greatly prefer Email, texting and making phone calls on the iOS. I have found Chomp SMS which I am happy with. Aftermarket email programs either suck or do not support Exchange, which I require for work. Replying to a multithread email is a vision of confusion. Copying and pasting within emails and texts are poorly executed. Making phone calls is sadly not very intuitive and finding contacts to call is a complicated multi-button push process. If there is an aftermarket dialer that anyone recommends I'd love to know about it. Call quality also seems sketchy, there is a connection delay on my phone where I am saying "hello" twice because the first time the person on the other end can't hear me. The ear speaker sounds muffled but I am holding off judgement on that because it just may need to break in (the iPhone phone ear speaker was crap for the the first few months as well). Speakerphone is very tinny but that probably needs more break-in too.
I like being able to customize my phone but I'll take usability over customization any day. I've installed Nova Launcher Prime and it is fantastic. Additionally I recently figured out how to hide apps inside the app drawer and that is a wonderful thing. After using the N4 for several weeks and playing with friends iPhone5's I noticed how dull and washed my screen looked compared to the Apple stuff. After reading about Nexus 4 Display Control on this here forum I decided to give it a go and root my phone and install it. I AM SO GLAD IT DID. The display now just pops and it so much nicer to look at. I have no other use for rooting my phone at this point although I may try and setup the titanium backup.
The camera is disappointing and I am not sure how to resolve this. The wife and I went on a vacation to Italy in September I took at least 500 photos with my iPhone and for the most part they look great. All photos on the N4 are washed out and grainy. I know that with software this can be helped but I do not have the desire to fiddle with each photo after taking it or batch editing a slew of photos after the fact. FxCamera and Instagram are decent but they want you to 'share' after taking every shot. Too many button presses just to setup a second picture. Also the photo gallery quickly becomes a jumbled mess of folders that are not easily reorganized or edited.
At the end of the day this is a very good phone. Its not perfect but nothing is. I may sound like I am griping but I have no intention of going back to iOS and frankly don't miss it.
Happy New Year and thanks to everyone for all the help I have received from this board!
Mike B
My chief gripe with Android is that it has underdeveloped basic smartphone functions. I greatly prefer Email, texting and making phone calls on the iOS. I have found Chomp SMS which I am happy with. Aftermarket email programs either suck or do not support Exchange, which I require for work. Replying to a multithread email is a vision of confusion. Copying and pasting within emails and texts are poorly executed. Making phone calls is sadly not very intuitive and finding contacts to call is a complicated multi-button push process. If there is an aftermarket dialer that anyone recommends I'd love to know about it. Call quality also seems sketchy, there is a connection delay on my phone where I am saying "hello" twice because the first time the person on the other end can't hear me. The ear speaker sounds muffled but I am holding off judgement on that because it just may need to break in (the iPhone phone ear speaker was crap for the the first few months as well). Speakerphone is very tinny but that probably needs more break-in too.
I like being able to customize my phone but I'll take usability over customization any day. I've installed Nova Launcher Prime and it is fantastic. Additionally I recently figured out how to hide apps inside the app drawer and that is a wonderful thing. After using the N4 for several weeks and playing with friends iPhone5's I noticed how dull and washed my screen looked compared to the Apple stuff. After reading about Nexus 4 Display Control on this here forum I decided to give it a go and root my phone and install it. I AM SO GLAD IT DID. The display now just pops and it so much nicer to look at. I have no other use for rooting my phone at this point although I may try and setup the titanium backup.
The camera is disappointing and I am not sure how to resolve this. The wife and I went on a vacation to Italy in September I took at least 500 photos with my iPhone and for the most part they look great. All photos on the N4 are washed out and grainy. I know that with software this can be helped but I do not have the desire to fiddle with each photo after taking it or batch editing a slew of photos after the fact. FxCamera and Instagram are decent but they want you to 'share' after taking every shot. Too many button presses just to setup a second picture. Also the photo gallery quickly becomes a jumbled mess of folders that are not easily reorganized or edited.
At the end of the day this is a very good phone. Its not perfect but nothing is. I may sound like I am griping but I have no intention of going back to iOS and frankly don't miss it.
Happy New Year and thanks to everyone for all the help I have received from this board!
Mike B
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