Reviewing the Nexus 4 was something interesting. Google has been improving its Nexus line-up year by year and the company has been taking the users’ feedback seriously. The fourth generation of Nexus 4, is being manufactured by LG, the company which impresses me with its display technology on mobile devices.
I still remember the first Nexus device, which was sold only via Google Play Store, and had the best untouched version of Android that any other OEMs provided at that time. It did not do well in the market, but then, it was a perfect device for the developers and hackers who’d always wanted a device with which they can play around with.
According to me, there are two types of users who use Android. One, those who’d like to use Android and looks for a device which runs the purest version of the OS. And two, those who are configuration freaks, who get a device which has the most advanced configuration that’s available in the market. But the Nexus, I think is a mix of both.
When I got the Nexus 4 for review, all that I did was to force myself away from using my iPhone and I wanted to live my day-to-day life with Nexus 4. And if I had to say, Yes, the device impressed me, in a lot of ways. While some of your might have already read the review of the Nexus 4, which launched in other parts of the world earlier, I’m trying to cover up how the device performs in India. What are the improvements that need to be done for the Indian market, and also some other aspects that best suits the Indian users.
LG has been producing a lot of devices off late, and all these come with a superb configuration, but a baked version of Android. That has been a concern for a lot of them, and some even told me that this is one of the reason why they don’t go ahead and get a LG device. Nexus 4 is a best example of what happens when LG puts stock Android on their way of configuring a phone.
Before I jump into reviewing this device, here are some pointers which might help you make some quick decision of the device:
Thumbs Up:
- Best Pricing
- Brilliant Display
- Powerful Configuration
- Android 4.2 just works on this device
- Really less lag
- 1080p video recording
Thumbs Down:
- Battery life
- No expandable memory
- Front Camera could have been better
- No LTE
- Might slip if you have wet palm
Build Quality:
When it comes to India, a phone is not a thing which really sits inside a pocket or rests on a table. It might get under a lot of pressure, might fall down pretty often and might also been thrown on the bed from a distance. Well, I do these sometimes. And yes, I did that with the Nexus 4 too. The device’s build quality has really improved when compared to the previous version of Nexus.
The front of the device is super black, and sports the Corning Gorilla Glass 2, one of the best durable glasses for the mobile phones in the market. Its durable, and I did not find a lot of scratches while using the device, even in the roughest way possible. When you take out the phone from its casing, all that you will see is a beautiful black front, with a shiny glass, surrounded by a Chrome finished bezel, which shines like its rich.
You turn the device to look at the back, and boom, I’m sure you’ll be impressed. The device sports a super cool sparkling back, which just shines its way out when in direct sunlight. I’ve seen such shiny back in some of the limited edition phones before, but I think Google and LG pulled it off with this device of the device. One the other hand, some might not be really impressed with this feature.
Next up, I wanted to talk about the device dimensions. The Nexus 4 is 133.9 x 68.7 x 9.1 mm, which sits pretty comfortable in my palms, and I was able to use it with one hand, most of the times. Thanks to the matte rubber kind of grip that runs around the device. The device was pretty comfortable in my hand, except for some cases, where it was pretty hard to hold. Especially when trying to reach across the device’s controls diagonally.
The next big thing which really matters to me are the buttons on any smartphone. As you start using a smartphone, which has these hardware buttons on top and along the sides of the device. At least for me, these buttons have never lasted for so long. These usually tend to wear off. But the Nexus 4 did not have any such issue. I have been asking some of my friends who’re using Nexus 4 since its worldwide launch, and looks like the buttons are still soft and working even after some rough usage.
The device is comparatively light. I liked how the phone felt rigid when I held it in my hand. About the connectivity of the phone, the headphone jack is at the top of the device, just like its previous generation Galaxy Nexus. One more thing which worried me was the amount of space the company has wasted at the bottom of the screen.
Overall, I was happy with the build quality of the device. Sometimes, I found it difficult to reach out to the edge of the phone with just one hand, but I got used to it after a while. But remember, if you’ve got small palms, then this might be your biggest challenge.
Performance:
The LG Nexus is probably the snappiest Android device I’ve seen so far. The device did not have any lag when switching between apps, and also while gaming. Thanks to the untouched Android Jelly Bean, which does not have any unwanted software installed in it out of the box.
When I first switched on the phone, I just kept it aside to continue with my work, until it boots up. But to my surprise, it booted up faster than other Android phones I’ve used. I think Google has worked on optimizing the phone’s OS to make it faster than it feels on other devices. This is probably the first Android phone which impressed me and made me feel that the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor is worth it. The phone killed all my complaints about the lags Android had on other devices. Thanks to the 1.5GHz processor.
For some reason, whenever I review a phone, I don’t go by the statistics which the Performance testing apps give. Instead, I look at how it works for me, and also its performance when it comes to gaming. But for your satisfaction, below is a screenshot of the performance of the device.
I completely agree to Google’s claims that Nexus 4 is the fastest Android device in the market. I have around 90 apps installed on the device, most of which keeps doing a push, pull and run in the background. There was literally no lag when switching between apps on the device. The device’s 2GB RAM made sense to me. Finally.
Camera:
For a guy who’s addicted to the iPhone’s camera, the Nexus 4’s camera UI was something new. I think most of the credit would go to Google for making the UI of the camera better. And thanks to LG for putting up a better camera than the Galaxy Nexus.
The picture quality was in-par with that of the iPhone’s, and I has a lot of fun playing around with Photo Sphere. Sometimes, I was not happy with the output the algorithm gave after stitching the photo. But for most part, I was happy with it.
The Nexus 4’s HDR mode is significantly faster than that of the iPhone’s HDR. But when iOS 7 came out for the developers last month, my perception changed. The iPhone running iOS 7 snatches a HDR picture like nothing else on the planet. But I’m quite sure that Google is going to be improving their camera app in the releases to come.
The 8 megapixel camera has been working well for me. And I was able to capture some really good pictures even during the low-light situation, which most phone cameras hate. But then, there was some issue when trying to capture the objects that are close by. I was not able to get the correct focus that my iPhone got for those objects with same focal length.
Software:
This is the front and center of the Nexus 4. Google has clearly put in a lot of efforts to make a clean and tidy version of Android, which they’d like to use in their day-to-day life. The company has made each and every aspect of the OS work for the device.
Let me start from the Lock Screen of the device. The lock screen is pretty neat with the time and date and also other things like the signal strength and access to Notifications. The notifications has always been a feature of focus for me on any device which I use, considering the number of emails and chats I receive every single day. Thanks to the devices’ LEDs which are configurable. As in, I chose the Red LED for Whatsapp conversations, and Green for other notifications.
Only thing which let me down in the notifications drawer was the ability to control the radios right there, instead of tapping the small button at the top, which would show the Google+ profile of the user, along with some settings like WiFi, Bluetooth and such. But the thing is, it lacks the ability to switch on or off the WiFi right there in the drawer.
The next big thing to me was Google Now. It was super useful for me, for whatever task I did for the day. The voice recognition is top notch, and I’m sure you’d have heard a lot about Google Now by this time.
On any smartphone I use, Music is something very important to me. I was looking for the same simple, and very minimal user interface for the Music app on Android, but I was little disappointed about the usability of the device. For any user, it would be a bit hard to figure out how to put a song on repeat unless he explores it completely. For me, a smartphone is one which just works out of the box, and does not involve much of configuration and learning to me made.
My next complain about Android 4.2 is about the ability to remove of even move the Google Bar which sits at the top of the screen. Always. I enjoyed the ability to customize the homescreen in other versions of Android before, but this came to me as a bit of disappointment. For me, it was killing the promise that Android has always been giving to its users, which is the ability to customize their device as they like.
The default browser is now Chrome. And boy, I have to admit, it gave me the best browsing experience on any Android device I’ve used. The browser does not lag anywhere, and all of a sudden I realized that the app had over 26 tabs open and everything was running smooth.
While these are just some of the pointers which I thought I should highlight, there were also other aspects of the software that I’d like to talk about. Overall, the device was super smooth and if I were to switch to Android, when Apple goes flat, then this would be the kind of device I’d make a jump to. Vanilla Android always wins.
Other Things to know:
As I noted at the start of this review, I’ve been looking at the basic day-to-day usability of the device for this review. Here are some short points which would help you make a decision on this device:
Sound Quality:
The external speakers were quite good. And the ringtone was audible even when the device was inside my pocket.
Cellular Reception:
Off late, these have not been my main concern on smartphones, since almost all the companies automatically put in a lot of effort in these areas before they put their phone on the market. The same applied to Nexus 4 too. LG Nexus 4’s call quality was equal to that of iPhone 5, which now uses an advanced technology to cancel out the external noise.
Usability in Sunlight:
The auto-brightness feature is a gift to the smartphone users. The Nexus was super visible when in direct sunlight, but sometimes, it takes a few seconds to get the brightness to the visibility level of the user.
Battery Life:
When the Nexus 4 launched in other parts of the world, I saw some reviews which read that the battery life was top notch, and is worth the money. But I’m sorry, I’d have to disagree with them. For some reason, I was not having a good battery life on this device. The Nexus 4 averaged out at 4 hours and 5 minutes usually, and I had to carry around my charger all the time. When testing the batter out, I has only 6 apps which I can’t live without installed and also with some push notifications disabled.
Verdict:
For me, the Nexus 4 was the best Android phone I’ve ever used. The device felt rigid, and for the price range, I think the configuration is top notch. If you’re not a huge fan of Apple, and if you’re planning to buy an Android device, then you’re reading the review of the device which I’d recommend you to get. Google Now, Notification LEDs, Weight, Grip and killer processor is what Nexus 4 is all about.