Smartphone
The Nexus range is Google’s own series of
Android smartphone, essentially the reference design for ‘droids everywhere.
The Nexus 4 is the newest model, and is the first manufactured by LG
Electronics. Previous Nexus devices were built by HTC (Nexus One) and Samsung
(Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus).
The
Nexus 4 runs the latest Android 4.2 OS
Design and build
At 9.1mm, the Nexus 4 is slim but not
record settingly so. It’s about the average weight for a smartphone of its
screen size at 139grams.
The phone’s front and rear are both flat,
edge to edge glass. The back is slightly smaller than the front, and the two
glass panels are joined by a narrow rubberized plastic bezel. It feels very
solid, and the bezel offers the glass a bit of protection at the corners.
The rear panel looks black from most
angles, but contains a shimmering, almost holographic silver dot pattern
visible only when viewed straight on. It’s a cool effect, and looks a lot less
tacky than it might sound.
The Nexus 4’s flat back doesn’t fit the
hand as comfortably as phones with a more contoured design, such as my own HTC
7 Trophy or Samsung’s Galaxy S III. The smooth glass doesn’t provide the best
grip either, and is as fingerprint-prone as the touchscreen on the front.
Both
front and rear panels are flat glass
The only physical buttons are a volume
rocker on the left side, and a power button on the right side, both near the
top. The typical Android buttons are implemented entirely in software, which
leaves a nice blank patch to hold the phone in landscape mode. It’s great for
gaming, watching videos, and other activities where a misplaced thumb can prove
a huge pain in the app.
You can’t replace the battery, but the SIM
card is accessed via a slide out tray in the side. The sealed design seems to
go against the Android concept of putting users in control of their devices,
but perhaps vanity won out over practicality. On the upside, the battery
probably won’t come flying out if you drop the phone.
Display and camera
The Nexus 4 has a 4.7 inch, 768x1280 pixel
IPS display at 320 pixels per inch. That’s effectively as sharp as the Apple
iPhone 5’s Retina Display (326ppi). Text looks superbly crisp, and images are
bright and clear. The maximum brightness is high enough to make the screen
viewable in sunlight, though the high-gloss surface does make it prone to
reflection.
The
Nexus 4 has a 4.7 inch, 768x1280 pixel IPS display at 320 pixels per inch.
There’s a front-facing 1.3MP camera for
video calling, and a rear facing 8MP camera capable of shooting video at up to
1080p and 30 frames per second. The quality of still images and video is
acceptable, as you’d expect of any good smartphone, but not remarkably
above-average. The rear-facing camera includes an LED flash, which is a nice
touch.
Performance and battery life
The Nexus 4 runs on a quad-core, 1.5GHz
Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor and has an impressive 2GB of RAM. Results
in the AnTuTu Benchmark app are high, though our AnTuTu scores were a little
lower than anticipated based on others’ scores. For us, it ranked just below
the Samsung Galaxy Note II and above the Samsung Galaxy S III, making it a very
high-performance smartphone either way.
Games run well, transitions between menus
are smooth and load-times on apps are short or non-existent. Yes, that’s
exactly what you should expect of a high-end smartphone, but it’s not always
what you get.
The Nexus 4 uses HSPA+, which provides data
speeds up to a theoretical maximum of 21Mbit/sec (42Mbit/sec with dual carrier
technology). In the US, the Nexus has been criticized for its lack of LTE/4G.
In New Zealand, that’s currently not an issue. Even if you’d like to
future-proof by selecting a phone with LTE support, there’s no guarantee that
any current LTE phone will be compatible with New Zealand’s eventual
implementation.
Battery life from the 2100mAh
lithium-polymer battery is advertised as up to 15 hours talk time, and 16 days
standby. With moderate use of games and apps, we had to charge the phone every
two to three days. If you do a lot of mobile gaming, or make heavy use of power
hungry apps such as GPS-enabled fitness trackers, you’ll find yourself
recharging the phone daily.
The Nexus 4 supports wireless charging in
addition to its standard micro USB port, but does not ship with a wireless
charging pad.
Storage
The Nexus includes 16GB of internal
storage, with no option for expansion – the phone lacks a microSD card slot.
16GB should be sufficient for most users’ app needs, but if you plan to store
music, video content or large games, you may have to watch storage limits more
carefully. As many users now stream music and video rather than storing it on device,
it’s not as much of a problem as it may have been a few years back. Still,
there’s no escaping the storage limitation for mobile gamers. Modern 3D games
such as N.O.V.A.3, Modern Combat 3, or the resurrected Grand Theft
Auto: Vice City can easily be 1.5-2GB in size.
Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
As Nexus devices run the Android operating
system without carrier or manufacturer modifications, they can run the latest
version of Android. The Nexus 4 has Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, released in
mid-November 2012.
Jelly Bean brings many small but useful
improvements to Android, such as the new notification system that allows
‘actionable’ notifications, with context-appropriate commands accessible from
within the notification itself.
Also added is wireless display support via the
open Miracast protocol. This allows you to wirelessly broadcast the content of
your phone screen web page, app, video or game to a compatible TV or other
display.
As
Nexus devices run the Android operating system without carrier or manufacturer
modifications
Unfortunately while the phone will
recognize adapters and televisions designed to work with Intel’s Wireless
Display (WiDi), it will only successfully connect to those devices which also
support Miracast. The Netgear PTV-2000 wireless display adapter we use in the
lab doesn’t, so we couldn’t test the feature. Apparently the latest PTV-3000
model adds support for Miracast, as do many newer wireless display adapters and
equipped TVs.
Gesture Typing is a new keyboard feature,
which lets you enter text quickly by running your finger from letter to letter
without lifting if from the screen. This is pretty much Google’s own version of
Swype. For many users, this will be one of the most useful additions in Android
4.2.
Conclusion
The Nexus 4 is well constructed, portable,
very attractive and uncompromising in performance. It’s a smartphone that could
easily cost two or three hundred dollars more, without feeling overpriced.
However, it does have its flaws.
Though not a problem in New Zealand, the
phone’s lack of LTE/4G may be an annoyance for frequent travelers to the US and
other LTE/4G equipped countries.
The lack of expandable storage will also
prove a downside for travelers that like to carry their music and movies on
their phones, along with mobile gamers who want a large collection of the
latest (and biggest) titles.
Finally, the attractiveness of the design
is offset by the lack of grip on the glass back panel, and the lack of a user replaceable
battery. Android phones are allowed to be attractive, but sacrificing
practicality to that end? I didn’t think that’s what the little green robot was
all about. Perhaps I was wrong.
If my criticisms sound like nitpicks to
you, that’s because they are the Nexus 4 really is a great phone. Just not a
perfect phone. For $799, though, it’s one of the best deals you can get.
|
Specifications
§
Price: $799
§
Software: Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
§
Processor: 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro
§
Memory slot: No
§
Port: microUSB/ SlimPort HDMI
§
Battery: Li-Ion 2100mAh
§
Size: 134x69x9mm
§ Weight:
139g
|
