It's true that the number refers to its size; that said, Nexus 4 is really 4.7". 4.7 is closer to 5 than 4, so I would not be surprised if they did name the next one Nexus 5.
Sigh, this is exactly backwards from where I want flagship Android phones going. It follows the typical tech trend of "bigger, better, faster", but I miss the small size of the Nexus One.
None of the Nexus devices fit in the pockets of the clothes of women I know. (First world problems, yes, but I wish I could recommend an Android device to them that they could carry around without having to use a purse. It doesn't help that Android is eating into the low-end market; barely anyone makes feature phones in the old candybar and flip form factors.)
If you're interested in good, smaller Android phones, keep an eye on Sony. The current rumor is that the mini-edition of their next flagship will keep the high-end specs of its larger sibling (except for the screen resolution, of course).
There's plenty of smaller Android phones available too. But users clearly seem to like the bigger sizes, and frankly women seem to be a large driver. At least around here, most women I see have their phones - regardless of size - in their purse, and so they also seem to be very quick to adopt the large form factor phones. It's fairly common to see people with 6" phones here now.
But check out Aliexpress.com, and you will find lots of small form factors, if you're ok with ordering direct from China.
I completely agree. The N1 was a very ergonomic phone. I use my N4 one-handed; my wife uses hers like a small tablet (two hands). I don't have small hands, but I have to shift my grip to reach all four corners of the screen. Each shift is a chance to drop the phone, so it carries a higher cognitive load than a smaller 3.5" device. The narrow screen on the iPhone 5 is an almost perfect size for me.
Honestly I wish they changed the name. Shopping for a Nexus 7 online or in stores is not friendly to the regular population. I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing and even I'm not 100% certain a Nexus 7 on any site (besides play.google.com) is the new refresh model or the older one.
That said, they should avoid the naming scheme of the galaxy line (e.g. Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0).
This is exactly why I didn't buy an N7 when I was looking a while back - I wanted an older model but not the original, which I understand had major issues. No way to differentiate without lots of reasearch.
I gave up and decided not to spend the hours trying to find the best Android tablet that runs (or can run) stock. Still haven't bought one, despite my interest.
Do you have more information about any release date for the next generation Nexus 4? I'm looking to buy a phone "by Google" and wouldn't want to be buying the Nexus 4 just when the new one is about to be released. Thanks.
All he said was "soon" and that was about a month ago, so it's hard to extract what he actually meant by that. I'm guessing he doesn't want to be the leak for any info. I also asked about the hardware and all he said was "it's gonna be great". Sorry to be a let down, but I guess he wants to keep his job.
Ha, wish I had seen this link first. My Nexus 4 arrived last Thursday so I was well within the 15 day window. I just called their customer service (https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/3053039) and they processed a refund for the difference. They're a bit swamped right now so you may have to hang on for 10-15 minutes before you can talk to someone.
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I bought my first tablet, a Nook HD+, last week, because I wanted something I could use to read technical docs when I do cardio. I wanted something bargain basement cheap because I don't want to feel bad if it gets smashed.
Barnes and Noble has made the decision to deliver the most possible value per $ for customers by making the Nook HD+ compatible with Google Play and Kindle. The device isn't the most powerful and doesn't have a camera or GPS, but the screen is great.
Other tablet vendors are going to be rushing to deliver products that appeal to different market segments. Quite exciting!
I'm very anxious to see what will happen when FoxOS hits the market. Presently developer preview phones are going for less than $150 (including shipping and taxes) entirely unlocked and without bloatware (ie, uninstallable freecell junk). Prices like that for the specs they're talking about are nearly unheard of here in Canada. I'll have a more informed opinion about it once it ships next month.
Yeah. It's an extremely low end phone (Cortex A5 processor, 3.5-inch HVGA display). Specs are about something you'd see on a high end phone 4 years ago. Appears to be mostly targeting emerging markets where it's a good fit (as cheap as a feature phone but with full smartphone capabilities).
Possibly but I think it seems more likely that they're clearing stock before the next Nexus device. Nexus devices typically become available around November and are announced around October. This would give them a month or two to clear out N4 stock before the announcement kills demand.
Maybe not "typical" but not unexpected either. We're all Bayesians here, aren't we? ;-) The prior probability of a new gadget getting released in time for the Christmas shopping season is pretty high, so it doesn't require too many additional data points to "know" what's going on.
I'd guess that's the case, but most of the estimates for the iPhone 5c are like 450-500, which is a slap in the fucking face for anyone that's expecting an affordable device. IMO, if it's a penny over 300, then it's going to be too expensive.
It isn't the most powerful Android phone out there, but it does run stock, has regular updates, will run third party ROMs, and is absolutely the best value for an out of contract smart phone, even more so with the $100 price drop.
If you're in a T-Mobile coverage area, look at Simple Mobile ($50/month unlimited everything)
"don't talk a lot" - and "First 5 GB at up to 4G Speeds" - on a smart phone this is somewhat confusing. I talk a lot - 2-3 hours/day, typically conference calls, but also with family, friends - and I'm trying to recall the last time I used any of my "Minutes" with my telco. Skype and Whatsapp get used a lot on my phone @ 8kilobytes/second (=30 megabytes/hour, 1.8 Gigabytes/month @ 2Hours/day talking)
I'm on this plan, and it's adequate but the service is pretty shoddy during parts of my commute (...no reliable 4G within a 5 min drive either side of Golden Gate Bridge?!) VZW definitely didn't have that problem.
I'm not sure if it's T-Mobile hardware or towers, but given I just use the phone to f around and am not reliant on it for work, I don't really feel it's worth trying to RMA or anything
I never stop wondering how those prices are possible. I had a 2e/month plan on my mobile, unlimited everything. Adding to that 0,07 e per sms/minute. Lucky me company now pays my bills so I save whopping 5e/month.
EDIT2: ALSO forgot to mention that unlike most month-to-month providers, they actually allow conditional call-forwarding, which is necessary for using Google Voice as your voicemail.
Yup. I upgraded to a Nexus 4 from a Nexus S recently and the Nexus 4 is a much nicer device and the Android experience is great: fast, smooth & pretty. It has to be hands down the best value smartphone on the market at this price (it was already great value at $100 more).
Damn I just bought one at regular price lol.
Nexus 4, if you build your own o/s is amazing fast. Runs SEAndroid like a charm too, you can lockout audio, camera and mic whenever not in use
I'm a little irked. I ordered mine on the 7th, so miss out by 5 days. But it's a great phone so it's not all bad. But no one likes paying over the asking price, and had I waited a week, I'd be £80 richer.
Best value of well known brands perhaps. You get various Chinese brand ~5" phones with 1920x1080 resolution, 16GB ROM for that price or less now. And those are typicall dual sim, and take 32GB SD-cards too.
Build quality for most of them are probably not as quite high as the Nexus 4, but the one I have at least is very well built.
Nor are any available with 2G DRAM, which is a big part of the N4's great interactive performance.
In fact, if you limit the search on that site to 1G phones with Jellybean and 4.6-5" displays, you get a lot of units with prices significantly higher than the new price of the N4. And the ones that are cheaper seem pretty universally inferior (e.g. 480x800 screen, minimal internal flash, etc...)
Tons of resellers on aliexpress.com. Note that they are shipped direct from China, so reading feedback is essential. You can also find some that sell via Amazon marketplace.
Here you can find other name for searching (no affiliation whatsoever with this shop, I don't even know if they sell in US, it's only the place where a couple of friends bought their chinese smartphone):
http://www.grossoshop.net/Smartphone_Dual_Sim_Android_Proces...
4.1. No upgrades, and I don't expect any, though there are custom roms (haven't bothered, though I have rooted it - most of these phones are beyond trivial to root). Essentially I'm expecting to upgrade every year, as e.g. in a year it's gone from about $230 for my dual core phone with 1280x720 to about the same for a quad core with 1920x1080 with more memory etc., so I don't really care if there are few or no upgrades for the phone - the reduction in my contract compared to getting an expensive brand phone easily pays down the phone in 6-8 months.
If you intend to keep a phone even at this price range for more than 1-2 years, you'll want to do your research both regarding build quality and upgrades. Though the brands with regular upgrades and "premium" build quality, like Xiaomi, are also pretty much as expensive as e.g. Samsung.
Who cares? Part of the reason why I've taken to buying these is that they're cheap enough that I can justify upgrading once a year or so.
(But yes, don't expect to get much in terms of upgrades from the manufacturer. Your mileage may wary, but the ones that do upgrade regularly, like Xiaomi, are also expensive high end brands - Xiaomi wants very much to be the "Chinese Apple" for example)
Meh; it's alright. I've had the Nexus One (pre-ordered) when it first came out up until this phone. This phone is larger, but doesn't feel as good. Feels very plasticky. Biggest annoyances are when I'm talking on it and my ear selects something and I end up opening an application without knowing it (or worse, hanging up on the other party). Also, when I'm tapping in a string of numbers (taking someone's phone #), it sometimes doesn't respond fast enough (or it'll lag). Otherwise I guess it's a good deal. Nothing to go crazy over though.
The Nexus 4 (as well as pretty much all smartphones on the market) disables the screen if you're in call and it detects that your face is near the screen. You can test this by going into a call and putting the palm of your hand (or any other surface) close to the phone.
If your phone doesn't do this you should either get it fixed or go join a league of super heroes.
Some people appear to be invisible to proximity sensors. We have one guy who isn't seen by two Lumias and an iPhone. He's resigned to using a blackberry now.
I've had that happen a number of times. I'd start a regular call, Skype, or Hangouts call, and when done I sometimes realize some random app was launched or something was selected, etc. Doesn't happen often, but it did happen.
The plasticky bit is so off base it makes me wonder if fourstar is inventing ownership to have an opinion. The bit about lag as well -- what? Maybe they're thinking of the 2012 Nexus 7?
How do you come up with stuff like this? I came from a Nexus One -- but you totally caught me lying about what Android phone I use on a website.
Feel around the edges of the phone: soft plastic where the bumper is, and the back is covered by the so-called `gorilla glass` which makes it feel even more like plastic.
There is definite lag, but maybe because I type in numbers fast and you don't? I don't know -- in my daily use, these are my gripes with it. Feel free to downvote me if you believe I'm lying though.
People lie on the internet. Don't be so offended by it.
So glass makes the phone feel like plastic? You realize that is nonsensical, right? The build quality and feel of the phone has pretty much universal praise, and you are the only person I've ever heard use that descriptive, so maybe you're just misusing it (the descriptive I mean). Design is subjective so I'm not by any measure saying that you have to like it or appreciate it, just that I don't see how a rubber and glass phone can be called plastic feeling.
As to the lag, again, you're completely on your own on that. You see to have no relative perspective to the market.
Strong disagree for me. I have no such issues with making "ear" selections and I find the overall responsiveness of the device to be incredible with the latest 4.3 release.
Yeah, another thing is when I'm talking on it with someone for awhile and try to get back to the "call screen" which doesn't happen, and they are still on the phone (if I want to open a browser or do something while I talk on the phone). The screen never comes back though until I either press power or the other party hangs up.
That part is the most frustrating, although someone might reply to this saying that this actually doesn't happen.
Is it really preferable, hardware-wise, to something like the HTC One?
That is, assuming the user is capable of flashing the HTC One with a third-party firmware to get a vanilla Android experience. Is there a draw to the Nexus in comparison to the likes of the One other than being vanilla out of the box?
The HTC One isn't the greatest comparison because it comes in a Google Play Edition, which is a near-Nexus experience (though outside the US you are still stuck with ROM flashing, albeit from a source with solid base and guaranteed up-to-date drivers). Compared to the One, I'd say the major draw is price (and maybe the NFC secure element if you care about that).
I'd go with a one because I like HTC better than LG. Plus I've had both manufacturers (had a Nexus One up until about a year ago) when I got the Nexus 4, and I thought the HTC hardware was better.
I've used both phones extensively, the Nexus for 2 weeks and the One for over a month.
The One is the better phone, no doubt, but the Nexus is best for the price.
The One has a much better radio, especially for bluetooth. It's a lot more powerful, a consideration if you're playing games. The screen blows the Nexus' thoroughly mediocre display out of the water, and the stereo speakers are some of the best I've ever heard on a phone. The build quality is closer to Apple than Android. The camera is one of the best on an Android phone ever.
The major downside of the One for me is that it is slower in terms of slickness and smoothness, which I'm blaming on the Sense UI. If you flash it to vanilla, it should be fine. If you are a gamer, it does get very hot. Although build quality is better it doesn't feel any less likely to break if you drop it.
Weirdly, the call quality isn't that good on the One, the Nexus has it beat there.
Yeah, you too can watch as "Android OS" drains the battery in 6 hours. Honestly, if you get a Nexus 4 be prepared to be a beta tester, or scratch monkey every time there's an OTA update. Perhaps it's just "international" users, but I totally regret buying into the Nexus hype.
And then there's the hardware issues (bluetooth kills WiFi if you try to use both at once), firmware issues (WiFi doesn't roam properly, ARP offload broken), straight-up bugs (wireless charging power management holds permanent wakelock preventing deep sleep)...
I use a Nexus 4. I listen to podcasts via bluetooth headset while doing chores; that's several hours on the weekends, and about one hour during weekdays. When I drive, I'm playing podcasts and using Waze (which uses GPS and Wireless networking and the screen is constantly on); that's about 1 hour/day. WiFi is constantly on and I use it to read e-mails and other social messages. I also use it for reading books (Safari To Go) throughout the day. It always lasts through the day with this behavior. I typically only plug it in on my bedstand when I go to bed, and unplug it in the morning when I get up. The only time I find I need to plug it in separately is when I watch some Netflix videos.
I recently destroyed the screen on my phone making it not possible to interact with it, so I've removed the sim and put it in a cheap feature phone. It still connects to WiFi (can't turn it off if I wanted to) and it beeps to let me know I have an e-mail. I can still listen to podcasts because my podcatcher automatically downloads and queues episodes and my headset has playback controls, and I have been using it for that purpose as much as I always have. Now when I go to bed, the battery icon has only the tiniest sliver empty; I expect it would last at least 4 days without plugging it in.
I think that it's safe to say Android OS is not draining my battery.
I'm happy that you haven't had this problem (although without a screen I'm not surprised you get multiple days use from a single charge.) Unfortunately, lots of people are not so fortunate, and I'm one of them. There are a number of known, reported, acknowledged bugs that might or might not be fixed in the latest patch update to 4.3 that cause "Android OS" (actually a partial wakelock held in the kernel) to stop the phone from going into deep sleep and draining the battery. For example, https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=52034 is one such bug. There are others (I don't use a wireless charger).
Until whatever byzantine download scheduler deigns to push the patch to 4.3 to my phone, it's basically unusable.
I ran into problems w/ stock Nexus and runaway CPU usage w/ the media process and while I had sworn off ROMs (too much maintenance), but after not being able to fix the problem otherwise, I ended up switching to CM 10.1, which fixed my issues and these days is mature enough that I never have to mess with it. The various custom kernels (Franco Kernel is relatively easy to flash and is focused on increasing battery life) seem to do good jobs at fixing various problems as well.
Still some work to do the initial flashing (wipe'restore), but as someone that hates futzing w/ the devices I'm actually using, I've been happy w/ how low maintenance things have been. If you just want the 4.3 factory image you can it here: https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images#occamjwr6...
Alternatively, if you are running stock and don't want to wipe and don't want to wait for the OTAs, you can get them directly:
6 hours?! Mine drains its battery in 12-13 hours and I use it regularly (facebook, whatsapp, google maps, spotify) all over 3g (I don't have access to wifi at the moment).
I bought an 8G N4 when they first came available last year (upgrading from a GSM Galaxy Nexus, which was an upgrade from a CDMA Galaxy Nexus), and it's never been away from me for more than an hour or two at a time since then. I bought a 16G about a month later, but haven't had the need just yet to move my stuff to the bigger model. Glass screen protector, Diztronic TPU case, and this is the best phone I've ever owned (so far).
I got my 16gb N4 ordered pretty soon after release (finally delivered early January). It's actually the first Android phone I liked out of the box, without feeling slow/sluggish. It's now my fourth android phone (first was the G1). Each one seemed like if it were just a little faster, I'd be happy with it.
It's actually a little more responsive than my 2012 model Nexus 7 tablet. Which is why I've been considering getting a new N7.
I've also played with both using the Chromecast, and have to say it's pretty nice and works smoother for Netflix than my typical pattern in the past, which was queue up stuff on my tablet/phone, then use my roku (bedroom) or the tv's built in player (living room).
I went from a Nexus One to an N4, so obviously it was fast to me! Also had a 2012 N7 (JB prompted me to buy the N4). I just picked up a new N7 and so far it's perfect (none of the reported problems), but a little harder to hold. I bought B&M so that I could return it easily if necessary, and hand-picked the only July manufacture date out of 8 other Junes.
Oh wow, the N4 was already the best value on the market - very powerful device for a very low price. Now the price is ridiculous... I have my N4 since the beginning of the year and I love it.
Keep in mind that the Lenovo has a MTK cpu which is A7 vs the A9 in the Nexus 4's Qualcomm S4 Pro, and has 1GB RAM vs the Nexus' 2GB. You also get the latest firmware on the Nexus. For £50, i'd go for the Nexus any day, especially since the prices i see online for the Lenovo bets on the chance that the device goes through customs without getting taxed.
The phone you point to might be a few bucks cheaper, but it has 1/2 the RAM, 1/2-1/4 internal storage, and while the MTK6589 performs surprisingly well for a Mediatek chip, it still performs below the Nexus 4's S4Pros both for CPU and GPU. The screen is also much lower res and 245ppi vs 320ppi. It doesn't have any support for LTE (Nexus 4 is flashable to Band 4) and doesn't appear to support NFC, or, probably more importantly, BT4/BTLE. There's also no front camera or a flash (!) on the back camera.
Of course, the worst thing is that it's already running an outdated (4.1.2) version of Android and is unlikely to be updated. There's a small community working on ROMs but it's sketchy (no dedicated forum on XDA, no CM port, much less an official build).
If you buy the A820, and almost all the other Shanzai'd devices, you effectively get a dead product, while w/ the Nexus 4 you'll get better hardware and both official and community support for years.
I upgraded to the Nexus 4 after owning a Galaxy Nexus and I have to say I feel mixed about the changes. As an Android device, the N4 is definitely faster and nicer to use. But as a phone, I found two important issues were a step back - the max volume of the earpiece and the strength of the vibration. The latter, in particular, is so weak on the N4 that I usually miss texts and other notifications. Instead I get to be yet another obnoxious person with a loud ringtone to avoid missing calls and texts. :(
For the problem with missing SMS notifications, there's software in the play store that'll periodically trigger an alarm if there are unread texts / unanswered phone calls. You can usually also use a different alarm sound than the default for these, so you can use something discreet for the original text arrival message, and then something more obnoxious for the repeated alarms. The best thing ever.
The one I use is "Missed Call Reminder", but there are plenty of others.
The strength of the vibration is ridiculously low, I've never felt it vibrate when in my pocket, and even when the phone is out on a surface the vibration is easy to miss.
It would be nice if Google would actually let people who aren't using a US ip address to be able to view the site. I have an account and mailing address in the States, but I live outside of the States. So even though I can buy, they won't let me see it outside of the States.... Way to go Google!
If you're logged in and you have a "US" Google account (credit card and shipping address, not sure if there are other requirements) you should be able to see it (at least I can, but only when logged in).
Grabbed one for my wife. She's been tottering along on an old phone for a while, and we've been hemming and hawing over getting an N4 for her, but at that price, it's a no-brainer.
This would OBVIOUSLY happen 1 week after I bought the S4 Mini. I was seriously considering the Nexus 4, but couldn't justify the $350 price range when compared to the Mini for only $400.
Go figure, I couldn't wait any longer and Google couldn't do this any sooner.
I was just about to buy one 2nd hand for more expensive! So glad I didn't catch one in time... all those unlucky sods selling their phones just lost out on another $100! I'm gonna keep an eye in the classified, these will go dirt cheap now! :)
I'm curious, just why did you go with the S4 mini instead of the Nexus in the first place, especially when (if i'm understanding correctly), it was cheaper? The SD card?
Well the Camera for one, and the reviews I read just kept coming up with an analysis like...The Nexus is a great 'Android starter' phone...but if you can plump for the S4, do it.
The only reason I didn't want to get an S4 was because of the form factor.
Once the mini came out, at only $50 - $100 more, it was a no-brainer.
Now, though, I would make a different purchasing decision.
Although, experience tells me that with the price recently dropped, that probably means they are trying to empty shelves and clear our their backlog to make way for a new unit coming in the next few months.
Soo......I am not sure what I would do - to be honest.
You do realise that the S4 and the S4 Mini are quite different? When reviews talk about the S4, you cannot extrapolate to the Mini due to different chipsets (quad core vs dual core), differing amount of RAM, resolution etc. I'm sure you know now.
Also, the only features of the Nexus 4 i would class as "starter" is the price (really cheap, accessible to a lot of peopl) and maybe the fast updates. That's about it. The camera is good, not the best, but more than good enough for casual stuff like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
And this is why I love living in a 3rd world country (Sweden):
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Use tunnel bear to browse the US/Uk play store. Use a forwarding address from www.borderlinx.com and www.entropay.com for a US visa number. Have it shipped to your country for a small shipping & customs fee.
Why I would buy a N4: Wireless charging, after getting a tablet with it the convenience is now mandatory.
Why I would not buy a N4: No removable storage. I don't trust my data in the hands of a cloud provider, I want it on my phone where it is completely under my control.
Wireless charging was one of the reasons why I got a Nexus 4. It's a shame the stock wireless charger is so terribly designed though (no adhesion and unnecessary angle). Judging by the reviews it's gotten, looks like I'm not the only one who hates it.
Why is it a shame that you dislike the "official" charger? The N4 uses the standard Qi charging protocol, so you can get pretty much any charger you want.
I've tried a bunch of Qi chargers. Samsung's official S3/S4 charger is my favorite. They cheap out and don't include a USB cable or power supply, though, so you have to buy those separately. (Anker sells one on Amazon that does include a power supply that works great with the N4. Works very poorly with the S4, though, which just goes to show you how flaky random Chinese imports can be, even if you pay $50 for them.)
If you've got a kid, especially a young one, 16GB isn't enough for pictures and video. Not even close. My niece has filled her 64GB iphone many times over with shots of her kid. I'm sure there are tons of other use cases too.
There are so many obvious flaws in that statement, here's two:
1) The assumption that the person who owns the phone owns a computer, rather than borrows someone else's when they need it.
Modern phones have hdmi outputs, and work with bluetooth keyboards. It is entirely feasible for the average person to use a high-end phone as their primary computing device. Especially with the carrier subsidies making the up-front cost so low. This will only become more common as phones get more powerful.
2) When you've moved the data off your phone it is no longer immediately at hand.
Flash storage is cheap and only getting cheaper, leaving off a micro-sd slot is all about pushing a cloud-storage paradigm rather than letting the user decide.
128GB cards are widely available.
The spec is good for up to 2TB, so it is only a matter of time. Meanwhile carrying a couple of extra cards tucked into the case of the phone is basically no effort at all.
"Isn't enough for pictures" really depends on the frequency that you offload photos from the phone.
Personally, if I'm storing important memories, I am NOT going to trust a loseable, breakable thing in my pocket to be the final resting place of JPEGs.
Isn't there some sort of OwnCloud client for Android? You could use that as your storage solution, hosted on your own machine which should be completely under your control.
So when did they start actually have these things in stock? I know a few months ago whenever I'd check they were unavailable.
With this price reduction, I guess Apple should cancel their 5S/5C event, no need since the phones will flop due to everyone with their shiny Nexus 4's.
Apple will not cancel anything as the cheap iPhone 5 and the one in the higher segment will outsell the Nexus 4. Even if they have lower specs or worse performance.
The guy who downvoted me, care to explain why? Apple has much better brand recognition, loyalty and advertising than Google currently has for their phones department. It is only logical the iPhone will perform better in sales. This doesn't say anything about the actual products.
I think it's two different markets. iPhone users are rather a different category from Nexus users; they're almost polar opposites. Mind you, I'm not knocking iPhones; they're excellent products. It's just a different way of purchasing, a different price point, and a different target audience.
They're only polar opposites within the space of smartphone users. Within the space of people who would like to use the phone, they're bunched very close together at the "wants to use a smartphone" end of the spectrum, the other end being "doesn't want to use the phone".
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 353 ms ] threadThe second-gen Nexus 7 which just made a debut kept the same name. Same will likely apply to the next-generation Nexus 10 as well.
And then I read some rumors saying it will have a full 5" screen. We'll see.
None of the Nexus devices fit in the pockets of the clothes of women I know. (First world problems, yes, but I wish I could recommend an Android device to them that they could carry around without having to use a purse. It doesn't help that Android is eating into the low-end market; barely anyone makes feature phones in the old candybar and flip form factors.)
But check out Aliexpress.com, and you will find lots of small form factors, if you're ok with ordering direct from China.
Even if it isn't available in a "basic pleasure model" configuration.
That said, they should avoid the naming scheme of the galaxy line (e.g. Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0).
eg: Nexus 7 (2013).
Some retailers do this but a lot of them dont
I gave up and decided not to spend the hours trying to find the best Android tablet that runs (or can run) stock. Still haven't bought one, despite my interest.
I'm not even in/from Australia, but have used them a couple of times, including for 2 macs and a nexus 4. Highly recommended.
I provided an option for those people.
He was just clarifying this.
I bought my first tablet, a Nook HD+, last week, because I wanted something I could use to read technical docs when I do cardio. I wanted something bargain basement cheap because I don't want to feel bad if it gets smashed.
Barnes and Noble has made the decision to deliver the most possible value per $ for customers by making the Nook HD+ compatible with Google Play and Kindle. The device isn't the most powerful and doesn't have a camera or GPS, but the screen is great.
Other tablet vendors are going to be rushing to deliver products that appeal to different market segments. Quite exciting!
http://stores.ebay.com/ztemobileus
https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_7_16g...
I mean, the last phones two were released in November, but I wouldn't really call that "typical" with that few data points.
If you're in a T-Mobile coverage area, look at Simple Mobile ($50/month unlimited everything)
http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans
"$30 per month - 100 minutes talk | Unlimited text | First 5 GB at up to 4G speeds"
Fine print: "New activations only." A new SIM card ($10) counts as a new activation. ;-)
For more detailed discussion: http://news.cnet.com/8301-33620_3-57587175-278/is-this-the-b...
I'm not sure if it's T-Mobile hardware or towers, but given I just use the phone to f around and am not reliant on it for work, I don't really feel it's worth trying to RMA or anything
Basically don't watch tons of videos or stream and excessive amount of music over the mobile network and it'll be no problem.
Anyways, for $10 more you can get 2.5 GB of 4G data, which should suffice for anyone.
I've used 40 MB of mobile data in the past month and 1.6 GB of WiFi data.
Also a T-mobile reseller, I believe.
EDIT: http://www.ptel.com/plans
EDIT2: ALSO forgot to mention that unlike most month-to-month providers, they actually allow conditional call-forwarding, which is necessary for using Google Voice as your voicemail.
Thing is unlocked to boot, great for working abroad. Unlocked iPhone, what, $650-750, no?
Having ditched OSX for Linux a few years ago, Android just makes cents, literally, lots of them ;-)
$100 refund by the looks of it.
You'll have to wade through the support prompts, but start at:
https://support.google.com/nexus/4/
and click 'Contact Us' to get to the form.
Edit: you'll need the order number and the device IMEI
Props to Google for it being an automated process, not so much for total lack of promoting the refund.
Build quality for most of them are probably not as quite high as the Nexus 4, but the one I have at least is very well built.
In fact, if you limit the search on that site to 1G phones with Jellybean and 4.6-5" displays, you get a lot of units with prices significantly higher than the new price of the N4. And the ones that are cheaper seem pretty universally inferior (e.g. 480x800 screen, minimal internal flash, etc...)
http://en.thl.com.cn/
http://en.zopomobile.com/
http://europe.oppostyle.com/
http://www.ejiayu.com/en/
Here you can find other name for searching (no affiliation whatsoever with this shop, I don't even know if they sell in US, it's only the place where a couple of friends bought their chinese smartphone): http://www.grossoshop.net/Smartphone_Dual_Sim_Android_Proces...
If you intend to keep a phone even at this price range for more than 1-2 years, you'll want to do your research both regarding build quality and upgrades. Though the brands with regular upgrades and "premium" build quality, like Xiaomi, are also pretty much as expensive as e.g. Samsung.
(But yes, don't expect to get much in terms of upgrades from the manufacturer. Your mileage may wary, but the ones that do upgrade regularly, like Xiaomi, are also expensive high end brands - Xiaomi wants very much to be the "Chinese Apple" for example)
Good to know some are, which one is that?
If your phone doesn't do this you should either get it fixed or go join a league of super heroes.
Very odd phenomenon but it does exist!
Personally I wish the Nexus 4 was more plasticky. My phone always ends up on the floor because the glass on the back slides off everything.
How do you come up with stuff like this? I came from a Nexus One -- but you totally caught me lying about what Android phone I use on a website.
Feel around the edges of the phone: soft plastic where the bumper is, and the back is covered by the so-called `gorilla glass` which makes it feel even more like plastic.
There is definite lag, but maybe because I type in numbers fast and you don't? I don't know -- in my daily use, these are my gripes with it. Feel free to downvote me if you believe I'm lying though.
So glass makes the phone feel like plastic? You realize that is nonsensical, right? The build quality and feel of the phone has pretty much universal praise, and you are the only person I've ever heard use that descriptive, so maybe you're just misusing it (the descriptive I mean). Design is subjective so I'm not by any measure saying that you have to like it or appreciate it, just that I don't see how a rubber and glass phone can be called plastic feeling.
As to the lag, again, you're completely on your own on that. You see to have no relative perspective to the market.
Usually it is "3" when listening to voice mail...which deletes the message!
That part is the most frustrating, although someone might reply to this saying that this actually doesn't happen.
That is, assuming the user is capable of flashing the HTC One with a third-party firmware to get a vanilla Android experience. Is there a draw to the Nexus in comparison to the likes of the One other than being vanilla out of the box?
The One is the better phone, no doubt, but the Nexus is best for the price.
The One has a much better radio, especially for bluetooth. It's a lot more powerful, a consideration if you're playing games. The screen blows the Nexus' thoroughly mediocre display out of the water, and the stereo speakers are some of the best I've ever heard on a phone. The build quality is closer to Apple than Android. The camera is one of the best on an Android phone ever.
The major downside of the One for me is that it is slower in terms of slickness and smoothness, which I'm blaming on the Sense UI. If you flash it to vanilla, it should be fine. If you are a gamer, it does get very hot. Although build quality is better it doesn't feel any less likely to break if you drop it.
Weirdly, the call quality isn't that good on the One, the Nexus has it beat there.
And then there's the hardware issues (bluetooth kills WiFi if you try to use both at once), firmware issues (WiFi doesn't roam properly, ARP offload broken), straight-up bugs (wireless charging power management holds permanent wakelock preventing deep sleep)...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2072930 really shows what Android is capable of.
I recently destroyed the screen on my phone making it not possible to interact with it, so I've removed the sim and put it in a cheap feature phone. It still connects to WiFi (can't turn it off if I wanted to) and it beeps to let me know I have an e-mail. I can still listen to podcasts because my podcatcher automatically downloads and queues episodes and my headset has playback controls, and I have been using it for that purpose as much as I always have. Now when I go to bed, the battery icon has only the tiniest sliver empty; I expect it would last at least 4 days without plugging it in.
I think that it's safe to say Android OS is not draining my battery.
Until whatever byzantine download scheduler deigns to push the patch to 4.3 to my phone, it's basically unusable.
Still some work to do the initial flashing (wipe'restore), but as someone that hates futzing w/ the devices I'm actually using, I've been happy w/ how low maintenance things have been. If you just want the 4.3 factory image you can it here: https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images#occamjwr6...
Alternatively, if you are running stock and don't want to wipe and don't want to wait for the OTAs, you can get them directly:
4.2.2 (JDQ39) -> 4.3 (JWR66V) http://www.droid-life.com/2013/07/25/android-4-3-update/
4.3 (JWR66V) -> 4.3 (JWR66Y) http://www.droid-life.com/2013/08/21/download-android-4-3-jw...
BTW, for most issues, I find the CM bug reports have significantly better S/N than official Google or XDA. Here's one on the wifi/ARP: https://jira.cyanogenmod.org/browse/CYAN-558 and on BT/Wifi: https://jira.cyanogenmod.org/browse/CYAN-550
My better life is around 20 hrs on average, with "medium" usage.
It's actually a little more responsive than my 2012 model Nexus 7 tablet. Which is why I've been considering getting a new N7.
I've also played with both using the Chromecast, and have to say it's pretty nice and works smoother for Netflix than my typical pattern in the past, which was queue up stuff on my tablet/phone, then use my roku (bedroom) or the tv's built in player (living room).
Can't say enough positive about this phone.
The phone you point to might be a few bucks cheaper, but it has 1/2 the RAM, 1/2-1/4 internal storage, and while the MTK6589 performs surprisingly well for a Mediatek chip, it still performs below the Nexus 4's S4Pros both for CPU and GPU. The screen is also much lower res and 245ppi vs 320ppi. It doesn't have any support for LTE (Nexus 4 is flashable to Band 4) and doesn't appear to support NFC, or, probably more importantly, BT4/BTLE. There's also no front camera or a flash (!) on the back camera.
Of course, the worst thing is that it's already running an outdated (4.1.2) version of Android and is unlikely to be updated. There's a small community working on ROMs but it's sketchy (no dedicated forum on XDA, no CM port, much less an official build).
If you buy the A820, and almost all the other Shanzai'd devices, you effectively get a dead product, while w/ the Nexus 4 you'll get better hardware and both official and community support for years.
Seems like a no-brainer for a $50-100 difference.
Maybe, just maybe, that's why we've seen the same exact move for the past 3 years in a row.
But what do I know?
The one I use is "Missed Call Reminder", but there are plenty of others.
If you miss stuff, try using an app that repeats them at an interval, sorry, can't remember the name now.
Go figure, I couldn't wait any longer and Google couldn't do this any sooner.
Just my luck!
The only reason I didn't want to get an S4 was because of the form factor.
Once the mini came out, at only $50 - $100 more, it was a no-brainer.
Now, though, I would make a different purchasing decision.
Although, experience tells me that with the price recently dropped, that probably means they are trying to empty shelves and clear our their backlog to make way for a new unit coming in the next few months.
Soo......I am not sure what I would do - to be honest.
Overall, am happy with my S4 Mini :)
Also, the only features of the Nexus 4 i would class as "starter" is the price (really cheap, accessible to a lot of peopl) and maybe the fast updates. That's about it. The camera is good, not the best, but more than good enough for casual stuff like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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Why I would not buy a N4: No removable storage. I don't trust my data in the hands of a cloud provider, I want it on my phone where it is completely under my control.
I've tried a bunch of Qi chargers. Samsung's official S3/S4 charger is my favorite. They cheap out and don't include a USB cable or power supply, though, so you have to buy those separately. (Anker sells one on Amazon that does include a power supply that works great with the N4. Works very poorly with the S4, though, which just goes to show you how flaky random Chinese imports can be, even if you pay $50 for them.)
1) The assumption that the person who owns the phone owns a computer, rather than borrows someone else's when they need it.
Modern phones have hdmi outputs, and work with bluetooth keyboards. It is entirely feasible for the average person to use a high-end phone as their primary computing device. Especially with the carrier subsidies making the up-front cost so low. This will only become more common as phones get more powerful.
2) When you've moved the data off your phone it is no longer immediately at hand.
Flash storage is cheap and only getting cheaper, leaving off a micro-sd slot is all about pushing a cloud-storage paradigm rather than letting the user decide.
So maybe ok, if you don't have a computer, don't buy a Nexus 4. Or buy a computer with the difference of prices between a S4 and a N4.
Or is the concept to keep a pile of sd-cards with all your data on it? I guess it is conceivable, but why would anybody want that?
https://www.sdcard.org/consumers/sdxc_capabilities/
Personally, if I'm storing important memories, I am NOT going to trust a loseable, breakable thing in my pocket to be the final resting place of JPEGs.
With this price reduction, I guess Apple should cancel their 5S/5C event, no need since the phones will flop due to everyone with their shiny Nexus 4's.