24 hours in....

[damo]

Love this phone, 2 things of note, coming from the GS3 I'm finding the capacitive buttons are eating away into real estate on the screen but I'll get used to it.

However the battery life so far seems appalling, I'm literally watching it decrease minute by minute when the screen is on. I hope that after a few charges it sorts itself out!

9/10 so far



Sent from my Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums

 

[taj7575]

I think you're 9/10 is being optimistic.

I initially gave it a 9/10 initially as well, but having it for 2 weeks now, I would be lying if I said I wasn't a tiny bit disappointed with some things. The bad battery gets more annoying in the long run, believe me.

It's around an 8/10 in my book right now, but could easily be around a 9.5 with some software fixes. This is such an amazing phone with so many little bugs that eat away from it's potential.

 

[DeadpoolJunior]

Some things you just have to play around with. I've gotten noticeable battery increase from reading the forums here and on XDA. So far what I did today thats really helped is disable all the cell broadcast. Settings > Wireless & Netrworks (more) > Cell Broadcasts. Uncheck everything.

Secondly, I don't find myself need a lot of the Google services that are automatically set to sync up all the time like G+ and all its functions, I read the Google books but not the magazines so I un-synced that and some other functions in the Accounts section. Before doing that, I was around 74% in about 4hrs (at this rate, maybe 11hrs tops) Now im at 64% and 7hrs on battery (at this rate possibly 16-20hrs). Little things like that make a difference. But in the case of the OP, im sure its just because you've been spending a lot of time trying to customize it or get the hang of it. Give it a week when all your settings are in place and you've weeded out the necessary and unnecessary apps and you should see a good bump. YMMV

 

[Hubertsng]

I think you're 9/10 is being optimistic.

I initially gave it a 9/10 initially as well, but having it for 2 weeks now, I would be lying if I said I wasn't a tiny bit disappointed with some things. The bad battery gets more annoying in the long run, believe me.

It's around an 8/10 in my book right now, but could easily be around a 9.5 with some software fixes. This is such an amazing phone with so many little bugs that eat away from it's potential.

I'm probably giving it 9.5/10 because of it's price. There are a lot of problems with it and software problems but the price of only 350 is amazing.

 

[taj7575]

I'm probably giving it 9.5/10 because of it's price. There are a lot of problems with it and software problems but the price of only 350 is amazing.

IMO, not a fair argument. We got lucky with the Google Play store. It is more expensive everywhere else.

The argument that Nexus isn't made to be a top of the line phone has become less and less relevant with the new Nexus lineup. Google is clearly trying to advertise to an audience further than developers and early adopters. To do that, they need to offer early versions with less bugs.

It shouldn't matter how much I paid for it. Google made it, and is advertising it as one of their core products. They're taking a different approach to Nexus now than they ever have, and their software should show for it.

 

[Hubertsng]

IMO, not a fair argument. We got lucky with the Google Play store. It is more expensive everywhere else.

The argument that Nexus isn't made to be a top of the line phone has become less and less relevant with the new Nexus lineup. Google is clearly trying to advertise to an audience further than developers and early adopters. To do that, they need to offer early versions with less bugs.

It shouldn't matter how much I paid for it. Google made it, and is advertising it as one of their core products. They're taking a different approach to Nexus now than they ever have, and their software should show for it.

True enough. Well I mean it's not more expensive but it's still relatively cheap with a contract compared to the iphone.
The specs and the speed of the Nexus is still top of the line, sure it could be better but if it was, it would be more expensive. I don't see how everyone thinks that they are advertising to developers, everyone is calling it a developer phone but I don't think so. I mean sure you get the early versions with bugs and everything but that's just about it. No expandable storage? I don't care, I only need 16 max. No removable battery? iPhone doesn't have it either and I'm fine with it (it's still removable just not as easy)

 

[taj7575]

True enough. Well I mean it's not more expensive but it's still relatively cheap with a contract compared to the iphone.
The specs and the speed of the Nexus is still top of the line, sure it could be better but if it was, it would be more expensive. I don't see how everyone thinks that they are advertising to developers, everyone is calling it a developer phone but I don't think so. I mean sure you get the early versions with bugs and everything but that's just about it. No expandable storage? I don't care, I only need 16 max. No removable battery? iPhone doesn't have it either and I'm fine with it (it's still removable just not as easy)

But here's the thing - I don't expect the specs to be better. They're top of the line specs. But why can't the software be optimized with the specs? If you've used this phone long enough, you'll realize that it just isn't. Period. 4.2 feels like a step back from what project butter has done.

 

[Hubertsng]

But here's the thing - I don't expect the specs to be better. They're top of the line specs. But why can't the software be optimized with the specs? If you've used this phone long enough, you'll realize that it just isn't. Period. 4.2 feels like a step back from what project butter has done.

Well they probably can, I mean the S3 is debatable as good as the Nexus 4 and that was released some time ago. Maybe it is the software then I guess and no optimization. Can't you just root and install a ROM for 4.1 if you don't like it?

 

[jd914]

Those are software buttons not capacitive buttons.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[moonlitwingsx]

But here's the thing - I don't expect the specs to be better. They're top of the line specs. But why can't the software be optimized with the specs? If you've used this phone long enough, you'll realize that it just isn't. Period. 4.2 feels like a step back from what project butter has done.

Software is notorious for moving much slower than hardware-- which tends to move quickly.. Especially so when there's very heavy competition.. Like the mobile market. Companies would release new hardware simply so the company can hold bragging rights for those 3-6 months, and they come so quickly that developers simply can't keep up with the constant new hardware.

I'd imagine by the time software developers FINALLY release a game that's meant for a single-core, 512MB RAM smartphone with an Adreno 205 GPU, dual-core phones are all the rage. And I'd imagine they're barely even mid-way through their new project to take advantage of the new phones with dual-cores and 1GB of RAM, now you have quad-core phones with 2GB of RAM!

Even the folks responsible for all the coding in Google themselves are subject to this little problem.. With the very high demands that software is released NOWNOWNOWNOW-- I'd imagine stressed developers are simply happy getting something that simply WORKS out the door, doesn't constantly crash, and hope Joe Blow doesn't realize the curious lack of performance while they then spend some time adding the appropriate optimizations in an upcoming update or three.

 

[mth785]

I've had my N4 for 3 weeks and I love it. I have experienced no bugs and my battery life has been excellent.

 

[canuck68]

I've had my N4 for 3 weeks and I love it. I have experienced no bugs and my battery life has been excellent.

Please change your signature, it is offensive

 

[Citizen Coyote]

But here's the thing - I don't expect the specs to be better. They're top of the line specs. But why can't the software be optimized with the specs? If you've used this phone long enough, you'll realize that it just isn't. Period. 4.2 feels like a step back from what project butter has done.

The Nexus 4 feels like greased lightning on angel's wings compared to my old 2.3.4 phone. Having never experienced ICS or 4.1 JB before this, I have zero complaints and I honestly don't see how it could be faster or smoother. This thing feels like my wife's iPhone 5 in terms of smoothness, and I've never handled any Android phone that could match that before.

But if you're unhappy with 4.2.1, go grab a 4.1 ROM. There are tons of them out there.

 

[greydarrah]

I have no idea what some of you are doing with your phones (or what you have installed on them), but the N4 has the best battery life of any Android device I've owned (Droid X, Bionic, Galaxy Nexus), and I have everything turned on and my screen set to 60%. I don't mean that to sound at all like an attack against anyone, I just don't get why some have so many battery complaints and others have none. I can only suspect apps are the culprit.

 

[codeda]

I have no idea what some of you are doing with your phones (or what you have installed on them), but the N4 has the best battery life of any Android device I've owned (Droid X, Bionic, Galaxy Nexus), and I have everything turned on and my screen set to 60%. I don't mean that to sound at all like an attack against anyone, I just don't get why some have so many battery complaints and others have none. I can only suspect apps are the culprit.

Probably also depends on what kind of phone you are coming from. Verizon galaxy nexus was notorious for bad battery. This phone has a great stand by time for me but on screen time is way worse than it was with Sg3.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums

 

[Hubertsng]

Probably also depends on what kind of phone you are coming from. Verizon galaxy nexus was notorious for bad battery. This phone has a great stand by time for me but on screen time is way worse than it was with Sg3.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums

That's what I heard too but a lot of people are saying the Nexus 4 battery trumps all. Who knows...

 

[DeadpoolJunior]

I have no idea what some of you are doing with your phones (or what you have installed on them), but the N4 has the best battery life of any Android device I've owned (Droid X, Bionic, Galaxy Nexus), and I have everything turned on and my screen set to 60%. I don't mean that to sound at all like an attack against anyone, I just don't get why some have so many battery complaints and others have none. I can only suspect apps are the culprit.

What kind of battery life are you getting? Specifically, what screen on time are you getting especially at 60% brightness? How many apps do you have installed? Can we get a sense of what you do during a day that makes your battery last? I find during school is when my battery drains the most so for me during that time itd last me at least 10-12 hours or more, which is cool I suppose but if I can get at least 16hrs of pretty moderate use (Texts, Social Networking a lot primarily Twitter and Instagram, Few pics, Mail, Browsing a bit and calls once in awhile) i'd be very very pleased. Now im on my break and im keeping busy with stuff and using my phone more for pictures, texts, and social networks with less mail and browsing, its lasting a bit longer (I got 14hrs out of it yesterday after working all day though). I thought turning off cell broadcasts and some syncs would help some and it did a bit but im still not getting that illusive 16+ hour battery life I'd love to hit.