Howdy, It’s been a while. A long while.

So… what brings me back you say? The Nexus 4 of course! I’ve been contemplating this phone ever since it was announced. The early reviewers didn’t cover what I thought were the key issues for me and what I feel a lot of other folks like me. Also, no benchmarks here; just my usage of the devices.

Let’s get into my tech/device background. I’m an apple fanboy, maybe? I like to try new other devices though. Don’t know if that disqualifies me though. Anyways, I’m pretty tech savvy. I don’t need the latest and greatest but I want good design and functionality. Oh, and a great camera. That one is important.

I was in the market for a new phone and I was leaning heavily toward the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy Note II. Here were the features that mattered to me: camera, call quality, and phone that will get out of my way and just let me connect to whatever. And yes, I still make phone calls. I was using a android 2.4. Either way, was it’s a big upgrade for me. The iPhone would be last resort as I am growing tired of iOS. Too many clicks/touches to do things. Annnnd I’m addicted to Swype. Swype has to be one of the best ways yo type on a touchscreen.

When the note 2 was announced, I was immediately attracted to it. The size didn’t put me off. I was really looking forward to using the stylus as I’ve grown to love it with Paper on the iPad. To my dismay, the S pen needs a lot of work still. The apps are half baked for the S pen & pressure sensitivity is just not up to par yet. I could over look this though. Samsung has created a great phone with a lot of great features for touch whiz… turning off the auto-rotate when your face is aligned with the screen is genius! They’ve built a lot of other features such as best picture and two apps at once. WOW! Not mention the camera. It takes great pictures. One of the best cameras on a android device. Yeah, I was going to get the Note 2.  Then they announced the Nexus 4!

And so, my dilemma began.  The only thing I kept thinking was that I couldn’t count on Samsung to update the note 2 to keep it relevant. The S pen would mean extra dev time for an android upgrade. I know there’s a healthy mod community out there, but that’s just not my cup of tea. I want my phone to work without having to anything to it. I decided to bite the bullet and get the Nexus 4.

AND it came yesterday!!! I’ll be rating the Nexus 4 on a 60 point system. Yep 60 points. 6 categories, 10 points each, we’ll do the math at the end. And let’s be clear here. Scoring a 5 is not average. If we go back to school, that’s failing.

• Design
• Screen/Display
• Battery
• Everyday Usage (OS & calls)
• Camera
• Apps

Design – 9
YES! The Nexus 4 is as gorgeous you’ve seen through out the web. LG and Google have done an amazing job with the phone. This phone feels great in the hand. Very light. I kinda wish they would have made it a bit thicker and added some more weight to the phone. Nexus 4 weighs approximately 1/3 of a lb. iPhone 5 weighs 1/4 lb. for comparison, but it feels appropriate for it’s size. The Nexus 4 though… that screen is so big. I hate to say this, but the Nexus 4 feels fragile. That’s my only complaint for design the phone.

Screen/Display – 9
It’s not the best screen out there, but it’s pretty damn good. I would have given it a 10, but you can’t use it in direct sunlight. I have a phone that’s 3 years old with a TFT screen that I could use in daylight. I just think the industry is going in the wrong direction with screens. I hope they stop focusing on the ppi and more so on brightness for outdoor use. The Droid DNA is a great example. 1080p but the brightness sucks on it.

Battery – 6
The battery on the Nexus 4 is sub par. I haven’t been doing a lot of heavy  usage on this, but man, the battery life on this Nexus 4 is pretty bad for this day and age. FYI that beautiful screen comes at a cost;  it’s consuming ~40% of the battery. The battery is not user replaceable. I don’t know how many charge cycles the Nexus 4’s battery will be able to handle. I had to replace the battery on my previous phone exactly 2 years into ownership. I would like this to last for at least 3 years. We’ll see how this pans out.

Everyday Usage (Calls & OS) – 3
This device can multitask like no other. It’s super fast and smooth. The Note 2 with it’s better benchmarking processor isn’t this smooth. Is cause of 4.2? Who knows, but at this point and time, the Nexus 4 blows it and everything else out of the water.

So why the 7? There are some UI tweaks that need to be made to enhance it. But mostly I took off points because the nexus 4 gets HOT. UNACCEPTABLE GOOGLE & LG. After a less than 5 mintues of surfing the web and playing with the phone’s features,  the Nexus 4 got HOT, not warm, but HOT. It’s wasn’t the battery getting hot, it was the screen and I’m guessing the cpu. Hottest spot was the top middle of the phone. Again, UNACCEPTABLE GOOGLE & LG. I am hoping that this can be resolved with a software patch, turning the cycles or something along those lines.

Camera – 7
Ok, so a camera is one of the main reasons I get a phone. It’s gotta be good. The Nexus 4’s camera is ok. It takes desaturated images which can then be adjusted post via one of it’s many features. I guess that’s pretty cool, but take a good pic to begin with please. Also the pics are a bit soft, not a lot of sharpness to them. I’ve also yet gotten to a good HDR pic.

Why the 7? It’s still a decent camera for an android. Why did get this phone if the camera is so important to me? Snapseed. Google bought Nik Software a few months ago who developed Snapseed for iOS. It’s a great app that let’s you do many things post. I think some of their functions are already in 4.2. I’m counting on Nik to work out the kinks on camera sensor. Supposedly, it’s the same camera as the ones Samsung uses in the Galaxy line so it should be able to take good pictures. Everyone knows google will update the nexus 4. Again, we don’t know about Samsung’s intentions on upgrades.

Apps – 8
Android has come a long way. Google Now just works. Plain and simple. It’s not hidden beneath a skin ala other android devices, it’s front and center. There are a lot of other apps (games, productivity, etc) missing from Google’s catalog. Even Facebook is not up to par with it’s iOS sibling. I think FB works other versions 4.1 and earlier. For me there are enough android apps that I can use to get me through the day. For my data connected device, I want information and the web, that’s where android 4.2 succeeds with the Nexus 4.

So, where does that leave us? 9+9 is 18. Add the 3 and 7 together you get 10.. add 6 and 8 you get 14. Carry the one, and BOOM: 42! Holy shit! 42!!! I should end this here.

 

 

 

Pssst… that only gives a score of 70%… What is that a D? Well… We can’t give this phone a D. The nexus 4 is a lot better than the sum of the parts. And bottom line it got a 42! How wicked is that?!! I want to say it’s the bet android device I’ve seen to date and a true flagship. But until fix the nexus 4’s issue of it getting hot, I can not say that. i am hoping I just have a rouge model. Will update as I find out more; after all it’s been just 24hrs.