Your real world experiences with the N4

[dkhmwilliams]

I used Google wallet for the first time today. It was really cool. I didn't realize that there were so many places that took it. It was much easier than using my credit or debit cards.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[mrvco]

I think there's plastic on the sides, near the power and volume buttons. If you hold your phone by the sides, you'll probably only feel the plastic, not the glass.

Still, do you prefer phones with a decent amount of heft to them? Could you give an example of a phone that felt better in your hands?

I just came from an iPhone4 and I like the feel of it with the Magpul Field Case on it. I also liked the feel of the first-gen iPhone and the Nexus One. I am getting used to the Nexus 4, but I'm still looking for a slim-line case for it. I didn't like the bumper case that came with it.

 

[ledfrog]

I love the look of it and quite like the idea of the vanilla Android (I also have a N7 tablet), however I am slightly concerned by the reported poor battery life, allegedly substandard camera and the lack of expandable storage.

I got my Nexus 4 on day one. At that time, I was using a Samsung Galaxy SII and had experience with only one other Android (some Sony Xperia model I can't remember). Before that I used iPhone all the way from iPhone 1 to iPhone 4S. With all that said, the Nexus 4 is my favorite device!

• Battery life -- I should mention that battery complaints never really worried me because I'm usually not very far from a charger, but it really does bite you in the *** when you happen to go somewhere for a whole day and you watch in agony as your battery indicator gets down into the red while you wonder what life will be like in 20 minutes when your phone is dead. The Nexus 4 is good for standard use throughout a given 8-10 hour work day, but if you're planning on playing Candy Crush or watching Netflix, you better hope you can plug in. Also, the phone gets super warm when you have the screen on for an hour straight.
• Camera -- In optimal conditions, the camera is awesome, but then again optimal conditions can allow a potato to take great photos too. I actually do photography as a hobby, so I generally have a "real" camera with me at all times. This means that I have never and will never rely on a cell phone camera to take "great" pics. But if I had to compare the Nexus 4 to other phones out there, I'd say my first complaint is that a lot of the pictures come out sort of bluish. I've been able to make adjustments on the camera app to help fix this, but I hate that the auto settings can't seem to get correct color balance. The flash is very nice, but super bright so I always feel sorry for my subjects afterward. As for speed, if you've ever taken a photo with a Galaxy S3, then you're going to feel like you can make a cup of coffee before the Nexus 4 is done taking a picture! I know it's not the slowest, but with all of your other choices out there, it just doesn't make sense.
• Expandable memory -- I might be the minority on this one. I actually agree with Google in that they prefer not to put expandable memory on their Nexus devices due to security and reliability issues. In fact, on my prior Android phones, I hated that I had to juggle between two storage locations. It was confusing sometimes to try and remember where some of your apps were stored as well as media, etc. Windows Phone did this right by taking an expansion card and formatting it into the on-board storage making it 1 seamless storage location. Of course the drawback to this is that you can't restore your phone without erasing all your data...so to each their own on this one.

And a final low-ball question - bearing in mind the announcement of the "Google" edition HTC One & SGS4 (and rumours of Xperia Z), would any of you be tempted by one of those instead?

Not only was I tempted by the HTC One, but I've already ordered it! I should mention that when the Nexus devices started rolling out, I was in love. Because like you, I hated TouchWiz, Sense and whatever Sony calls their version of Android. However, I was very, very close to picking up an HTC One carrier edition just because I loved the design (I was and still am a big fan of iPhone designs) and the fact that it has 4G LTE, but I stopped myself because I knew I would lose my free tethering and hotspot features that are built into pure Android. If had I gotten the AT&T version of the HTC One, they would have no doubt blocked tethering unless I upgraded my data plan...no thanks!!

So my plan was to wait for the Nexus 5 (?) and see if that was going to offer 4G. But then the heavens opened above and down came the HTC One Google Play Edition and I jumped on it faster than my Nexus 4's picture-taking capabilities. Now I can have the best of all worlds...sleek aluminum design, 4G LTE speeds, free tethering and hotspot features, fast camera and everything else the Nexus 4 has as well. My only complaint so far...it cost me $650 after taxes. :'(

Anyway...sorry for the long reply, but I had a Red Bull for lunch and I'm all hyped up! Hopefully I helped in some way and if you have any more specific questions, I can answer them.

 

[JeffDenver]

But if I had to compare the Nexus 4 to other phones out there, I'd say my first complaint is that a lot of the pictures come out sort of bluish. I've been able to make adjustments on the camera app to help fix this, but I hate that the auto settings can't seem to get correct color balance.

Yeah, the auto setting sucks. But if you manually set it for the right lighting conditions, that goes away. The camera just can't figure it out on it's own.

The new UI makes this really easy to change though. The native UI doesn't have a lot of options, but what it does have is ridiculously easy to access on the fly. Way better than any other camera phone I have used.

As for speed, if you've ever taken a photo with a Galaxy S3, then you're going to feel like you can make a cup of coffee before the Nexus 4 is done taking a picture!

Yeah, it is slow by modern standards. But way way faster than the last generation of phones. The new UI finally allows you to use the volume rocker to take pictures as well.

I might be the minority on this one. I actually agree with Google in that they prefer not to put expandable memory on their Nexus devices due to security and reliability issues. In fact, on my prior Android phones, I hated that I had to juggle between two storage locations.

The easy solution is to simply not put an SD card in it. If you ever need it, it's there, If you do not want to deal with the hassle, you just take it out. I miss expandable storage, but I have learned to survive without it. The rest of the phone is just so great.

 

[ledfrog]

The easy solution is to simply not put an SD card in it. If you ever need it, it's there, If you do not want to deal with the hassle, you just take it out. I miss expandable storage, but I have learned to survive without it. The rest of the phone is just so great.

Good point. I think I was trying to equate the two storage areas as having multiple hard drives in your computer. Of course it's awesome to have more space, but then there comes a point where you start to have stuff everywhere and if I remember correctly, some apps only used on-board, while others gave you a choice. I actually just had an issue like this with my friend's Android (can't think of the model) where he asked me to help him rip a CD to his computer and transfer the files over. After doing this, I couldn't find the album in the music player. I realized I had moved them to the phone instead of the SD card and the music app was only looking on the card. Problem solved, but then I had to explain to a very NON-techy person that when he plugs in his phone in for USB storage in the future that he needs to make sure he's copying files to the right "drive."

By all means, I love the extra storage option, but I just wish it got integrated with the phone storage as one storage location just like Windows Phone. The drawback here would be the loss of being able to swap SD cards without a reformat, but I think I could live with that.

 

[JeffDenver]

Good point. I think I was trying to equate the two storage areas as having multiple hard drives in your computer. Of course it's awesome to have more space, but then there comes a point where you start to have stuff everywhere and if I remember correctly, some apps only used on-board, while others gave you a choice.

I am sure there are apps out there that force the use of internal memory, but I can't think of any. They might force it for the app itself, but not for media files.

I actually just had an issue like this with my friend's Android (can't think of the model) where he asked me to help him rip a CD to his computer and transfer the files over. After doing this, I couldn't find the album in the music player. I realized I had moved them to the phone instead of the SD card and the music app was only looking on the card.

Which music player was it? Poweramp will recognize any folder on either memory.

Problem solved, but then I had to explain to a very NON-techy person that when he plugs in his phone in for USB storage in the future that he needs to make sure he's copying files to the right "drive."

I agree it is complicated. Android did not implement it very well is the problem...Android should always designate primary memory as internal, and everything else as external. It is really a semantic issue.

 

[ledfrog]

I am sure there are apps out there that force the use of internal memory, but I can't think of any. They might force it for the app itself, but not for media files.

Don't most apps install internally with some allowing you to move them to the SD card only after you've installed them? I remember on my Galaxy SII I wanted to have all my apps on the card thinking that if something happened to the phone, I could just move all my stuff over by simply swapping cards. In the app info menu (from Settings --> Apps), I noticed that some apps had a "move to SD card" options while others didn't.

Which music player was it? Poweramp will recognize any folder on either memory.

I'd have to go take another look. But we're talking about a phone that's pushing 3 years old so I'm pretty sure this issue is a moot point by now! Also, I didn't spend much time on it so there could have been settings that might allow the use of multiple folders or whatnot.

 

[JeffDenver]

Don't most apps install internally with some allowing you to move them to the SD card only after you've installed them?

Yes. But that is just for the app itself. If you install a camera (for example) it will typically allow you to save pictures or video direct to SD if you want.

Generally, you use internal memory for apps and SD for everything else.

 

[ledfrog]

Got it.

 

[ledfrog]

The battery on my iP4 went south

Planning on selling this device??

 

[taj7575]

Had a Nexus 4 since December (from the 2nd batch that shipped out!). I am on my second one right now. My first one had all the early Nexus 4 issues, so I had it replaced (I use Tmo service by the way).

What do I think of it after all of this time? I've concluded that it was a wonderful phone to use...if you don't actually use it for the purpose of being a phone. Signal strength is always pretty bad, frequent Loss of Signal, and every other rendom issue it decides to have as a phone. The battery isn't the best in the world either.

I've had a great amount of fun using this phone, and it was fun being my first pure Google Nexus experience (aside from a Nexus S I had a couple of years ago...Literally only used it for a few days). But for my next phone, I will be looking elsewhere if the Nexus lineup doesn't look too special and/or it is faced with a lot of hardware issues.

I apologize for going a bit off topic there....So to conclude, the Nexus 4 in the real world varies from being a headache to fun, which varies as much as it's signal (quite a lot!). I can't deny that it has been a wonderful and fun phone though.

 

[ledfrog]

Had a Nexus 4 since December (from the 2nd batch that shipped out!). I am on my second one right now. My first one had all the early Nexus 4 issues, so I had it replaced (I use Tmo service by the way).

Hey just out of curiosity, what were some of the issues you had? I got mine from the first batch on day one and I still use it and have never had any issues or maybe I've just been able to fix everything with a restart of the phone!

 

[ChappersUK]

Well, after two weeks living with the phone I thought that I'd best report back with my experiences and thoughts of it so far.

I have to say that in day-to-day usage this thing is awesomely fast. I don't care what any benchmark tests say, in general use this is just as fast (if not faster in many instances) than the HTC One that I had for a month - probably due to the N4 running stock vanilla Android. Being vanilla android, this will be one of those handsets that is always being tinkered with in order to personalise slightly more - arguably part of the appeal of android anyway.

The handset looks premium and feels good in the hand. My initial concerns about it being fragile have been put aside as it lives inside a Ringke Fusion case which offers plenty of protection for what I need plus the clear back shows of the beauty of the handset - personally I actually find it easier to handle than the HTC One.

I'm a lot happier with this handset than I thought that I ever would be - the fact that it is almost half as cheap as anything else of a comparable spec is just the icing on the cake for me. The display is great quality and responsive and the screen is a delight to use and very smooth. The battery life (for my use) is brilliant - I'm not a heavy user but it is looking like lasting almost twice as long as the upgraded battery in my old HTC Sensation used to! The camera is not the greatest, but it is far from being "bad", it's just not particularly special to either use or look at the results afterwards - acceptable is probably the best way to describe it.


Now, my only real gripe - and this is not a fault of the phone. Coming from HTC, the Sense UI integrates everything into the contacts list seamlessly and brilliantly - Facebook pictures, status updates, phone numbers, addresses, e-mail addresses etc etc. The stock Android Contacts app is shockingly poor in both looks and ability as standard (Google - NO-one uses Google+). I am still on the look out for a decent contacts app that would mimic that provided by HTC if anyone has any suggestions. I'm currently using Contacts+ which is okay but anytime I use the wife's Sensation I'm reminded how poor the other contacts apps are.

 

[mrvco]

Planning on selling this device??

Nah, I'll replace the battery and keep it as a backup and/or give it to the wife if something happens to her 3GS.

I did get a Boxwave Minimus case for my N4 and it is definitely an improvement over the stock bumper case (for my needs).

 

[Captainbob767]

Well, after two weeks living with the phone I thought that I'd best report back with my experiences and thoughts of it so far.

I have to say that in day-to-day usage this thing is awesomely fast. I don't care what any benchmark tests say, in general use this is just as fast (if not faster in many instances) than the HTC One that I had for a month - probably due to the N4 running stock vanilla Android. Being vanilla android, this will be one of those handsets that is always being tinkered with in order to personalise slightly more - arguably part of the appeal of android anyway.

The handset looks premium and feels good in the hand. My initial concerns about it being fragile have been put aside as it lives inside a Ringke Fusion case which offers plenty of protection for what I need plus the clear back shows of the beauty of the handset - personally I actually find it easier to handle than the HTC One.

I'm a lot happier with this handset than I thought that I ever would be - the fact that it is almost half as cheap as anything else of a comparable spec is just the icing on the cake for me. The display is great quality and responsive and the screen is a delight to use and very smooth. The battery life (for my use) is brilliant - I'm not a heavy user but it is looking like lasting almost twice as long as the upgraded battery in my old HTC Sensation used to! The camera is not the greatest, but it is far from being "bad", it's just not particularly special to either use or look at the results afterwards - acceptable is probably the best way to describe it.


Now, my only real gripe - and this is not a fault of the phone. Coming from HTC, the Sense UI integrates everything into the contacts list seamlessly and brilliantly - Facebook pictures, status updates, phone numbers, addresses, e-mail addresses etc etc. The stock Android Contacts app is shockingly poor in both looks and ability as standard (Google - NO-one uses Google+). I am still on the look out for a decent contacts app that would mimic that provided by HTC if anyone has any suggestions. I'm currently using Contacts+ which is okay but anytime I use the wife's Sensation I'm reminded how poor the other contacts apps are.

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...NvbS5qYmFwcHMuY29udGFjdHBybyJd&token=I3gv--oQ