The Nexus after JB became close to perfect for me, 4G speeds are amazing, no dropped calls, wifi tethering to tablet & laptop, video streaming of Slingbox and Netflix, HDMI to tv with adapter and control with Bluetooth keyboard, camera takes excellent pictures if you use it properly, gps is amazingly fast and accurate, my battery life is acceptable to me an average 10 hour day for me leaves me with 40%. The phone does not lock-up or self reboot, very stable OS.
The phone is not perfect but I find it reliable and versatile. I am bone stock by the way. have nothing against root/roms I am just simply the type that needs a reason to root to fill a need, the phone as is fills all my requirements so a free Nexus sounds good to me.