With these cameras it isn't really necessary to zoom. If I am correct the lens is fixed and it is all done digitally. Which in essence means that you are cropping the pic straight from the camera, which will degrade the final pic either way. It is not a true zoom/ longer focal length.
Wow, I'm pleasantly surprised with the quality of the photos! Every review I saw of the Nexus 4 included the camera in the "cons" section. Maybe I'm just used to my iPhone 4 and the Droid Incredible before that, but I think these photos look great!