Is the S4 Google Edition really worth $300 more than a LG Nexus 4?

[JeffDenver]

Re: Is a Nexus S4 really worth $300 more than a LG Nexus 4?

The other thing to consider is that the GS4 has a lot of different sensors and the IR blaster that the N4 doesn't have.

But the critics will say "OMG you will never use those things because Google won't support them in the OS", and they are right. You might get someone to make apps that will access them or maybe custom ROMs or something...I would rather have them than not.

For me, however, I'm going to either by a full-functional Samsung GS4 or I'm going to buy a Nexus 4. I could not see spending $650 on what is really a crippled device (based on what the "regular" GS4 can do) out of the box

IMO it is better to look at it as an enhanced N4 than a crippled GS4. It is significantly better than the Nexus 4 hardware-wise IMO. The price does not bother me much because that is about the same price I already paid before...hell my Rezound was even more expensive when it launched. $650 feels normal to me for a high end phone.

Side note: I love Nexus devices and have owned a few of them, but I also have no problem with Touchwiz what-so-ever -- Samsung has incorporated some great features into their phones.

If only it were not so ugly and did not sap the frame rate in the UI so much. I saw a side by side comparison with the N4 in a video...Touchwiz comes with a price. Now that I have experienced the perfect smoothness of vanilla Android, I am not sure I could go back.

 

[Aquila]

Re: Is a Nexus S4 really worth $300 more than a LG Nexus 4?

IMO, not worth an extra $10, but it's definitely not worth double the price. It's got some awesome hardware, a great screen and many people think it's the best of both worlds. IMO Nexus is a better device and, at half the cost at least 200% the value. The S4 with all of Samsung's features is arguably better than or equal to the N4, but without those features, it's basically just a screen and a processor to me that comes with some baggage... the buttons. I love that Samsung did this and I hope more OEM's follow suit, but the eventual goal on this front seems like it ought to be finding a way to turn the proprietary features into Apps, rather than baked in parts of a separate code system. That way you can buy a real Samsung Nexus (a true Nexus) and Samsung can still provide incentive's for you to choose them in the form of features that go on top of the pure Google experience (which includes catching up on the buttons).

 

[icyrock1]

The Nexus 4 is subsidized, and rather significantly at that, by Google. Google breaks even or loses money on the sale of each and every Nexus device, whether it be 4, 7, or 10. Because Google wants Nexus devices in the hands of developers and Android enthusiasts. Making money on unit sales is not their goal. Getting devices into hands is.

...

The S4 is *worth* probably $100 more than the N4. Maybe a little more, maybe a little less, but somewhere in that ballpark. The other $200 is the profit Samsung wants to make off the device, third-party-sale markups, and the like.

How do you determine worth? By how much it costs to build it? If that's the only factor your looking at it only cost $237 to build an S4. Of course, this doesn't take into account patents they have to pay/license, though some think it comes out to around $60+ in patent fees a phone. That's still quite the hefty profit for each device sold. And, if sold at cost, would hardly be much of a loss for google and would even have a slight profit(more of a point about the nexus 4).

 

[charlee08]

I love the Nexus line and would love to get my hands on the Google edition S4, but it isn't worth $300 more than the N4. Cool product, look forward to everyone's reviews, but I won't be purchasing one at that price.

Sent from my HTC One

 

[co500]

In case anyone was wondering as I've seen people complaining in other forums, the reason the GES4 is not subsidized is because if it was it would cannibalize the sales of the normal S4.

But other than that I still wouldn't buy one, design can't compare to the N4 and the fact that I hate Samsung button mappings (home and capacitive buttons)

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[cormaster628]

Yep, your just paying full retail. It only costs about $240 per unit to build an s4 and they could easily sell it for say $400 or $450 and make a profit, but then Samsung is competing against carriers, and that would strain relations with carriers, which unfortunately, is a big deal in the states.

Of course the price I saw was only parts. Labor, packaging, and shipping come into play too, not sure how much that costs. Overall it's just a niche product, you want a phone with raw android, grab a nexus 4, you want an s4 with raw android, go grab a subsidized carrier model and root it, much better deal imo.

The s4 on the play store is really about the same thing as a pixel, priced too high to have a market.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

[dcb4l77]

Not worth it. If you got the N4 soon as it was released last year I can't see justifying buying an almost $700 phone after taxes less than a year later. It's a slight upgrade but not for the price

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[cormaster628]

Thing that gets me... The menu button. Navigation is going to be so clunky on the s4. Your going to have a dedicated button for legacy apps, and have to hold down home to get the recents... And where does search go in all of this?

Never did understand Samsungs unwillingness to let go with the menu button...

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

[sidharth]

It is for people who want the latest and greatest hardware with the latest and greatest version of Android. I think it's a great start and we might start seeing devices from HTC, Sony etc very soon. It would be great to have HTC One with stock Android updated by Google.

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