Nexus 4 Review by an iPhone Fanboy

[Switchback666]

Thanks man

For me, it is getting up at 8, going to class, coming back home and working modeling and rigging for the most part. The main times I am using my phone is all the downtime in between that and whenever I need a break when rigging. And then I normally plug my phone back in around 12-1AM.

Today was a little bit different as I didn't have a class til 1. Ill attach some images to be more specific for you:
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But really, what it boils down to for me is that on an average day, I notice myself having to cater my usage to the battery at the end of the day for maybe the last hour or two before I go to bed. With my iPhone I never had to do that.

Seems about the same others have pointed, dont really think i will have problem with battery life (4s user here ) so i can manage

Btw do you use whatsapp or skype ? If so are you a heavy user ? I communicate a lot with msg over whatsapp and skype.

 

[gniss39]

For Google now once you swipe the home button up to open it, you can say "Google" and it will activate the microphone for you to talk to. So if you can find the power button at the bottom of the screen without looking, you can use Now without looking at the phone.

 

[ixodes]

Tell me about it ! I cant wait to get mine and hope i feel the same way like you and the others good to know people that are not "married" to a brand and reject anything other companys have to offer even if that means less options.

With all due modesty, I have years of Android experience. I've been studying/using/evaluating Android since day one & the G1. More than 30 new Android phones later, that experience is priceless. It enables me to endorse the N4 as the premier model it is. No phone is perfect, but this one is awfully close. Time will tell... You're going to love yours

 

[strausd]

Seems about the same others have pointed, dont really think i will have problem with battery life (4s user here ) so i can manage

Btw do you use whatsapp or skype ? If so are you a heavy user ? I communicate a lot with msg over whatsapp and skype.

I actually just switched to IMO last night. My GF (2 year anniversary today ) uses an iPad. She is still on a dumb phone at the moment. And IMO is completely free, uses skype, and works on iPads perfectly.

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For Google now once you swipe the home button up to open it, you can say "Google" and it will activate the microphone for you to talk to. So if you can find the power button at the bottom of the screen without looking, you can use Now without looking at the phone.

I think I have said this in other posts, but saying "Google" is very inconsistent for me. Also, I would rather it just allow me to talk right away and cut out that needless second step.

 

[Switchback666]

I actually just switched to IMO last night. My GF (2 year anniversary today ) uses an iPad. She is still on a dumb phone at the moment. And IMO is completely free, uses skype, and works on iPads perfectly.

Oh never heard of it ! Thanks for the tip

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With all due modesty, I have years of Android experience. I've been studying/using/evaluating Android since day one & the G1. More than 30 new Android phones later, that experience is priceless. It enables me to endorse the N4 as the premier model it is. No phone is perfect, but this one is awfully close. Time will tell... You're going to love yours

Thats awesome, my only experience with android was with a "modded/flashed" htc hd2 i did for a friend and wow i was impressed, i always wanted to try android phones but where i am its almost impossible due to carriers started to sell not long ago (mostly blackberrys here on carriers) and buying on the street they were asking too much; ordered my nexus 4 with a US vpn and used my florida mailbox

 

[dalbir4444]

Thats awesome, my only experience with android was with a "modded/flashed" htc hd2 i did for a friend and wow i was impressed, i always wanted to try android phones but where i am its almost impossible due to carriers started to sell not long ago (mostly blackberrys here on carriers) and buying on the street they were asking too much; ordered my nexus 4 with a US vpn and used my florida mailbox

That phone is legendary. It could run WP and Android.

 

[Switchback666]

That phone is legendary. It could run WP and Android.

Indeed the Leo is a legend it also showed me that high end android are not crap because that old phone was running wp and android 4.1 without lag !

 

[sotorious]

Just so you know when you bring up Google now instead of hitting the mic you can just say Google and it will activate.

 

[strausd]

Just so you know when you bring up Google now instead of hitting the mic you can just say Google and it will activate.

Ya I have already talked about that on here. It hearing me say Google isn't very consistent. Plus I would just like to eliminate that needless step from the get go. Not to mention you still can't even send a text message completely by voice, which I think is one thing people are most likely to do while in the car.

 

[onthecouchagain]

Ya I have already talked about that on here. It hearing me say Google isn't very consistent. Plus I would just like to eliminate that needless step from the get go. Not to mention you still can't even send a text message completely by voice, which I think is one thing people are most likely to do while in the car.

You can accomplish this by hitting the mic icon in the Google search bar that's on top of each home screen. It listens right away.

I don't think anything can text completely by voice, right? That would mean the device would have to be listening for you 24/7. I mean, that'll be a cool day when you can just go all Tony Stark and Jarvis on your devices.

Anyway, here's the full list of Google Now commands, if it helps: http://www.addictivetips.com/internet-tips/url-droplet-downloads-online-files-to-your-dropbox/

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Ya I have tried rebooting. It happened once yesterday and twice the day before. Hasn't happened once yet. Maybe it just needs a little breaking in

Also I added a few more things to the original post towards the end.

BTW, didn't someone on here post about a setting in the Accessibility menu that was causing some slow responses? Maybe that's related?

I can't imagine Google would allow the Back, Home, and App Switcher buttons to hang for 5-10 seconds. It never had that problem in ICS or the first JB. Something is definitely off... Sorry I can't be more help.

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Most of the other things where my iPhone was better were small things to me, and right now not worth me switching back to my iPhone.

To me, this really hits the nail on the head. The list of iOS advantages have grown very short and very specific. Just look at the threads on here talking about exclusive games, or millisecond differences in touch response time being utter deal-breakers. It's getting awfully narrow and becoming increasingly more difficult to defend and apologize for iOS. And most of the rest of the so called advantages, Android has an answer for. Want battery life? Note II and RAZR MAXX. Want instant updates? Nexus line. Etc. Android comes from so many angles that they got almost all the bases covered.

And the advantages that Android offers aren't just a hair or two better; they are leaps and bounds better. The keyboard is the perfect example. It's leaps and bounds ahead of iOS' keyboard (which still remains unchanged after 5 years...).

Anyway, glad you're enjoying your Nexus 4.

 

[ntc3freak]

Very nice review

I currently have an iPad 3 , a Samsung Galaxy S3 and as of yesterday, the LG Nexus 4. Before that I have had the Samsung Galaxy S2 and the HTC Desire. On the iOS side I've had a 2nd gen iPod Touch and the 4th gen one.

First off I would just say, this is the closest Android has come to matching the iOS' level of smoothness. I thought the S3 was smooth enough, until I got this N4 yesterday. It is extremely speedy, regardless of the low benchmark scores you see popping up everywhere. This thing simply FLIES through everything.

I'm sorry you've had freezes with the software buttons and with the OS itself. I can't vouch for that, my Nexus hasn't even shown a hint of even slowing down, let alone freezing. Everything is incredibly smooth and fluid. I'm beginning to get into the habit of pressing the app list button to simply switch between apps for fun and marvel at how smooth it is, and how excellent the multitasking is on it. The animations are a joy to watch. On the S3 I used to go into the dev setting and turn down animations to 0.5x to make it feel a bit snappier. Here I don't even bother. I suggest looking at your apps, there has to be a rogue app somewhere. I use Power Toggles and it works without any problems. I don't use Skype on it, though. One other thing I love about this is the 2GB of RAM, my God that is a Godsend! And not having any resource-hungry skin like Sense or Touchwiz makes it extremely efficient. No matter what I do, I can't force the amount of free RAM below 1.2GB. And similarly, regardless what I do, I can't force the phone into a stutter

As for the build quality, I should mention I got the bumper with it, and have not used it without the bumper. When I heard it was being made by LG, i too was skeptical about the build. But full props to LG and Google, this thing is an absolute jewel. It really is beautiful, and the back is extremely cool. I love how smooth the front glass feels, not only because it is curved, but the coating as well. It is just sooooo smooothhhh that makes it an absolute joy to use Swype, your finger just glides around effortlessly. I did buy a pack of screen protectors for both the front and back glass. But so far I've only used it on the back. This is a big deal for me, because all my previous phones have had screen protectors. With this, the glass feels so incredible that I don't want to spoil it with a protector.

Some other things to note. I love the notification lights! I love how it can produce the whole spectrum of colors, unlike the S3 which only produced Red, green and blue properly. Any other color makes the light look all wonky and just disgusting. With this one, I can't complain. I do wish it was a bit bigger, but that's no biggie. I found the S3's one to be enormously big, too big. Using Lightflow on the N4, I'm having so much fun customizing notifications,even for things I wouldn't even use

Otherwise, Google Now launches extremely quick. On the S3 it was so slow I ended up disabling it altogether. On the N4 it has been brilliantly quick. I can't really comment on the camera or the battery life as of yet, it's too soon.

One last thing, the display is superb, it is GORGEOUS. Colors look washed out at first, mainly because I have been used to the incredibly unrealistic colors of Amoled displays. I love the Nexus' screen, I love it

 

[Oletros]

Skype is the other main one. And other things that contributed to iOS winning in the reliability category was the navigation buttons freezing multiple times and complete OS lags that occur for about 5-10 seconds each.

Since it arrived two weeks ago I have not had any button freeze or lag, strange

 

[daveathall]

What an excellent review, it is so refreshing to read a well balanced write up, I really enjoyed reading it thank you. My experience mirrors yours except I have had no apps crash or the freezing of the buttons, having said that, I only use very few apps and none of them being games so I really in all honesty don't think that my usage of them is a real test for the phone. My battery has been very good, but again, I am not what one would call a power user by any stretch of the imagination so it should be decent.

Thank you once again for your review.

I am struggling as to which of my phones to keep, the N4 or my S3.

 

[technowar]

Pretty jealous with you right now.

 

[THE JUICEMAN]

Also when you swipe up from the home button to access Google now you can just say "google", and it will be activated and waiting for your voice. That is more of the hands free that you are looking for.

 

[mattopotamus]

Great review. Something You can do in mail now with IOS is add attachments . Also, passbook (i guess the apple NFC replacement for purchases right now) is just great. Using fandango and starbucks work flawlessly. Last thing haha, the share button in safari makes sharing links easy

 

[ReanimationN]

This section should be important to everyone. We rely on our phones, and knowing that everything will work well when we need it to is important. On the Nexus 4, apps crash on a daily basis and complete lags occur often. And the software buttons freeze at least once a day. My iPhone definitely wins in this section.

Agreed, and this is why, after my Nexus 7 experience, I don't want Android anywhere near my daily driver. I've never had my home button lock up for as long as you, but it happens on my N7 too. Also the app quality is shocking in comparison- so many more lockups, or features that don't work, or weird little freezes when things were fine a second ago.

App selection:
This is a hot topic, especially coming from iPhone users. The fact of the matter is they are pretty close. Quantity wise, Android is right up there, so it is easy to find the same apps or equivalent apps for the most part. That may sound all fine and dandy, but quality is just as important. Apps on Android don't feel as fluid. For some, you may not be able to find an equivalent. And there have been multiple reports that ~2/3 of all mobile developers prefer to work on iOS. In this category, my iPhone wins.

However, from a personal standpoint, I have not had any major problems in this category besides one. I use a delivery app on iOS for all my packages. The only "equivalent" I have found for Android is Parcels, but every delivery for Amazon I put in brings an error. Totally pointless. So really, it depends on the apps you use. But as a whole, iOS has the upper hand.

iOS most definitely wins here. Android doesn't even compare in both quality and quantity when it comes to apps I use on a regular basis, a huge number of them are missing, or are of such low quality that they're basically unusable compared to their iPhone counterparts. That may sound like I'm overreacting but it really is the case, Android is terrible for a lot of Australian-exclusive apps (they either don't exist or are of terrible quality) and for a lot of other smaller markets, like surfing.

And I don't even think I need to compare maps

Except here, according to Apple Maps, my local beach has grown an extra 200m of land. I go surfing on grass apparently.

Notifications:
I always hear people say how notifications on Android are better. And after using the Nexus 4 for a while, I partially agree. I love being able to swipe down to see current notification. And I love swiping down with 2 finger for controls. I also love using Power Toggles to get even more quick controls.

But there is one thing about notifications that I love about iOS. When I get a new Facebook notification or something else and unlock the screen once I see that notification pop up, it takes me right to the app. I love that.

With the Nexus 4, it seems like that if something is in the notification bar, there also has to be an icon at the top left. This, I don't like so much. For power toggles, it requires something up top, but I don't want anything up there. Sure, I can change it to be transparent, but then if there is something else that needs to go up there, it will cause a gap. And yes, thats a small thing I know, but personally I don't like it. Also, for some widgets that I just want to show, for example, the current date or battery percentage up in the corner, there has to be something in the notification bar as well. For some apps, I just want functionality in the notifications bar. For others, I just want information at the top. But its either both or neither.

I wasn't that big a fan of Android notifications either. I didn't mind them, for the most part, but wow did the notification tray fill up with junk quickly. PVstar telling me it's playing music, great, the OS telling me my screenshot is saved (WOW, you don't say?), the OS telling me an app is updated, no way, I only pressed the update button! And so on and so forth. After hearing how amazing Android notifications were, it felt like I spent most of my time in the notification centre sifting through redundant information, or having apps take up a bar in it doing next to nothing (PVstar). I know you can permanently stop some notifications from occurring, but some of them just shouldn't be given, and aren't worthy of one, in the first place.

I also hugely missed iOS' lockscreen notifications and swiping from an individual notification to enter that app straight away.

Vibrate Switch:
This is one thing I really miss from my iPhone. I love a physical switch to make sure things are silent. Going to class or going to church, I could just reach in my pocket and feel what side the switch was on.

Agreed, it'd be hard to consider a phone without one.

I love the LED notification light. Widgets are very functional. Lockscreen widgets look cool, but developers really need to start taking advantage of them.

I honestly used widgets as much as I did Gadgets on Windows Vista/7 and Dashboard on OS X, I.e. barely at all. I only ever used the calculator and a couple of time zone clocks. Same goes for Android, the novelty wore off quite quickly and I found myself only using 2 after that.

Not a big fan of onscreen buttons.

I definitely agree when it comes to home buttons. I don't know what it is, but having everything 100% onscreen and needing to wrestle around with the side of the device to reach the power/wake button just feels clumsy and unnatural. Maybe it's the fact that I've grown up with physical buttons, from the first ever 286 I had as a kid, through to my SNES and N64 and later my PS3 and Sandy Bridge machines, physical buttons have always been a constant on them all. Having the physical home button on the iPhone feels like a reassuring homage to every other device I've used- even though almost all input is now done onscreen, there's always the physical button to get you out if you've screwed something up, or if things are going wrong. It in part reminds me of the START button on game controllers.

 

[onthecouchagain]

Great review. Something You can do in mail now with IOS is add attachments .

Only pics, though, no? You still can't attached files or anything like that. Or was there an even more recent update I wasn't aware of...? I'd love to be wrong.

 

[mattopotamus]

Only pics, though, no? You still can't attached files or anything like that. Or was there an even more recent update I wasn't aware of...? I'd love to be wrong.

Just tried, and it is still just pictures from inside the mail app....if I go to my Dropbox app though I can click a file, then the share button, and then email it.

 

[Tinmania]

Power Toggles and Skype are the main ones that crash.

That's odd about Power Toggles, since I have been using it since day-one without a single issue. I have Skype installed but I have yet to log in.



Michael

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For sure I'd be bothered by this. I'm not hearing a lot about it, and I would think that's something that the folks over at XDA would be indignant over, especially since it's never been a problem before.

I would think people here would have spoken up more too. I mean, freezing for 5-10 seconds when pressing Back or Home button is a really big deal.

I've read more about the opposite... that the App Switcher launches the switcher extremely quickly, or how accessing Google Now by swiping up from the Home button is so much faster now. That's been my experience too on the GN.

Wonder what's happening here... 5-10 seconds lag is severe. Rogue app? Have you tried rebooting? Hm.

Something is definitely strange about that. Have not seen that in nearly two weeks of having my Nexus 4.

The nav buttons are so instantaneous that I forget they are just part of the regular lcd.

I also have the app GMD Gestures to remove the nav bars, and to use gestures. I am really getting to like the gestures, even when the nav bars are removed. With the bars removed a few action games have a little lag--more like stutters--but others, even much more intense action, have none. Don't notice lag in chrome or other non-gaming apps as far as I can see. Well worth it to be able to utilize that big beautiful screen.



Michael

 

[JaySoul]

Great review mate - nice one.

 

[strausd]

Let me clarify one point about Google now that multiple people have brought up.

Yes, I realize I can say "Google" and then it will listen. But getting that to work for me is not very consistent. And having to do that is a 2 step process for I can start giving it commands. Swipe up then say it.

I realize once on the home screen or in Google now I can tap the small mic icon. But I am most likely to use Google now when driving, meaning I don't want to look at the screen. Tapping the mic makes me look at the screen, thus not ideal.

I want a one step process to easily get to Google now from anywhere and start talking. A friend of mine is on a rooted GS3 on Cyanogen mod and set up the home button to bring up Google now and start listening right away after holding down the home button. That is an easy 1 step process from anywhere to go straight into saying commands to the phone. And that is precisely what is lacking from stock 4.2.

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Great review. Something You can do in mail now with IOS is add attachments . Also, passbook (i guess the apple NFC replacement for purchases right now) is just great. Using fandango and starbucks work flawlessly. Last thing haha, the share button in safari makes sharing links easy

Mail on iOS is still awesome. I use it on a daily basis on my iPad. I love pull down to refresh and the side swipe gesture to quickly hide and show my inbox. But I love being able to easily add multiple attachments from dropbox in one email, and iOS still can't do that AFAIK.

I also think it will be interesting to see what the iPhone 5S does with NFC. Passbook definitely makes me think Apple will support NFC, but who knows. I think NFC is extremely functional and once Apple puts it in the iPhone, more businesses and consumers will take it more seriously.

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You can accomplish this by hitting the mic icon in the Google search bar that's on top of each home screen. It listens right away.

See above.

I don't think anything can text completely by voice, right? That would mean the device would have to be listening for you 24/7.

Siri, and not listening all the time. Just a one step process that allows you to talk right away. And a one step process that doesn't require you to look at the screen.

BTW, didn't someone on here post about a setting in the Accessibility menu that was causing some slow responses? Maybe that's related?

What setting?

I can't imagine Google would allow the Back, Home, and App Switcher buttons to hang for 5-10 seconds. It never had that problem in ICS or the first JB. Something is definitely off... Sorry I can't be more help.

Yesterday was the first day it didn't happen. It seems to be getting a little better. If it doesn't happen for a few days straight, I will need to edit the main post.

 

[Tinmania]

Agreed, it'd be hard to consider a phone without one.

Not for me. The physical switch has downsides as well: it can be switched accidentally, meaning you won't know the phone is now silent--or the reverse. I have had that happen many times with my iPhone.

It also can and does break. Just google iphone silent switch repair. The home button too can wear out, or become unreliable over time (had to replace mine on my old iPhone 4).

I like that my Nexus 4 shows me in the status bar whether the phone is on silent or vibrate. Even though there is little chance it can be triggered by accident sitting in my pocket, there are times where I forget to turn the ringer back on.

For it was not hard to get used to pressing the power button and tapping mute/vibrate/on instead of reaching for the switch.



Michael

 

[ChazUK]

That review was as unbiased and to the point as they get. Great read!

 

[Frankied22]

If you have headphones with inline controls you can press and hold the center button to bring up Google now and it will automatically start listening.