Nexus 4 vs. iPhone 5 mini-review (by me)
I have been using iPhone since it first came out, but I'm always open to trying something new if I feel it will markedly improve my life. I've loved the overall simplicity of iOS, but have acknowledged that Android has been catching up really, really quickly, and even surpasses iOS in some respects.
Based on the recommendation of some close friends (who switched to Android from iOS a year or two back), I decided to give the Nexus 4 a shot. I figured, as the "designed by Google for Android" flagship device, it would be the best one to try.
Here's what I thought:
Nexus 4 is a great device, I think Android has ALOT of niceties to it (the configurable home screens and live widgets being the main one). The device is also very well constructed.
However, I didn't feel the OS improvements to be life-changingly necessary: Android shows my calendar and to-dos right on the lock screen. iOS shows my upcoming calendar alerts and to-dos right on the lock screen, and if I want to view the whole shebang, it takes me about...2-3 taps/swipes extra? Sure I can shave a few seconds from a few frequent activities, but in the long run, it's nothing crazy (not like the crazy quality of life improvement I found when I switched from a Windows phone to the iPhone years back, for example).
The biggest issue for me, however, was the device itself, or more specifically,
the size.
Nexus 4, Galaxy SIII...these devices are too wide. After using the Nexus, making calls with it, using it for a couple days, I can understand 100% why Apple kept the iPhone width the same with iPhone 5. It's a big deal to me that I can comfortably grip and operate the device with one hand, and MAYBE use a second hand on the rare occasion. With Nexus 4, it felt reversed: you can occasionally use one hand depending on what you're doing, but it feels much better using two (typing with one hand always felt a bit stretched, for example, like when I had to reach my thumb over to type the furthest letters, my grip on the phone would destabilize a bit).
And mind you: I have large hands.
I feel a phone should be optimized for one hand. If I want a device with a larger screen to better display information and require two hands to optimally use, I'm using a tablet at that point.
So in summary, I'm personally sticking with iPhone. I think Apple needs to make some serious innovations in the next iOS update, or else Google will beat them out to the point where the benefits of an Android device
will be tangibly better enough to get me to switch over. As it stands, Android is a really slick OS, app quality is improving, but for me, I still think iPhone is just as strong of a contender, and ultimately the size of the device itself (and the fact I'm so entrenched in iOS) has made my decision for me.
Hope this helps!
*PS: for anybody suggesting "try a smaller Android device", I'm not too keen on ever using a non-Google developed phone because of the whole updates issue that seems to plague other Android devices. I want to be able to update to the newest version of an OS when it's released, not wait for the device manufacturer to decide when I can use it.