So what is wrong with the Nexus 4?

[shabby]

Prefer rectangles. Angles are aesthetically easier on the eyes.

Are you holding it with your eyes or your hands? My gnex is easier to hold than a square'ish sgs2.

http://www.xda-developers.com/android/nexus-4-battery-shot-reveals-potential-quality-issues/

Hmmm, I did mention before I would have preferred Samsung built the new nexus.

I know this guy can send some 1's and 0's to a phone, but what does he know about building one from scratch?

 

[scaramoosh]

Yeh I hated holding my old iPhone 4, it was just too square on the hands with the sharp angles. The Galaxy S2 I have now is so much nicer to hold, it doesn't cut into your hand and plastic is better than the metal rims because it feels softer and doesn't get cold.

 

[vshah]

That guy posting about the build issues is a known Samsung fanboy. Also, all the review units are running different basebands and kernels. Almost guaranteed that it is not final software.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Precisely. Don't buy phones that are designed horribly, won't be an issue.

Do you buy covers for your car tires?
Do you buy covers for your shoes?

http://library.thinkquest.org/08aug/00578/motorola-bag-phone.jpg

That was my first cell phone. I've never used a cover, never regretted not using a cover.

Absolutely, why would that even be a question? One is a matter of vanity, the other a question of injury/functionality.

I'm saying that a dropped phone whether glass or plastic will get permanently damaged. So you don't have to buy a case for your iPhone 4/S or the LG Nexus 4. You just have to live with cracked glass if you do drop it. The alternative is to use plastic, but what happens if I drop my SGS2? Scuffs, scratches, etc. So it's not the same as a crack, but it still gets physically damaged.

I protect my leather shoes and spray waterproofing onto my suede shoes. I also make sure my hiking boots get waterproofing spray. A cover is optional for a phone. No one says that because it's a glass phone it suddenly needs a cover. I choose to put a cover on because whether glass or plastic, a dropped phone = physical damage marks that I don not want to say. THAT is why I use a cover. It's up to the end user to make that determination.

I also just looked at the GPU bench on AT as well. Ignoring the Optimus G cause it can't complete a proper run.

The Nexus 4 is still much faster than than Adreno 225 and wipes the floor with every other android phone. So I don't know how much actual throttling is going on, but it's not bad enough to make the phone a slouch.

As for the CPU benches. That must be software. We will see once the phone is launched.

Yeah not too worried about the GPU as long as its performing at its full potential. Even though Apple's A6 chips wipe the floor, I'm not a hardcore gamer. If I can play some basic casual games on my phone then that's enough. I care more about general performance, and for me that means CPU.

 

[basslover1]

http://www.xda-developers.com/android/nexus-4-battery-shot-reveals-potential-quality-issues/

Hmmm, I did mention before I would have preferred Samsung built the new nexus.

I got to this point:

This physical obsturction means the speaker wastes power on compression of air rather than audible sound creation.

And stopped reading.

 

[Muyoso]

Precisely. Don't buy phones that are designed horribly, won't be an issue.

Do you buy covers for your car tires?
Do you buy covers for your shoes?

Did you just compare a smartphone to car tires and shoes? If you are treating your smartphone the same as you treat your shoes or car tires, then YOU are the problem, not the design of the phone. Those two, and only two, examples you gave ARE THE COVERS. How the hell did you not realize that? The tires are the covers for your wheels so that they don't get damaged. The shoes are the covers for your feet so they don't get damaged.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Did you just compare a smartphone to car tires and shoes? If you are treating your smartphone the same as you treat your shoes or car tires, then YOU are the problem, not the design of the phone. Those two, and only two, examples you gave ARE THE COVERS.

I can give you the shoes, not tires. No current car would run properly on indestructible wheels without tires. Cars are designed to be run on tires. I threw out two examples of things that are supposed to operate under conditions where they are going to take impact as part of normal wear and tear. I was going to compare laptop HDDs to desktop HDDs and how laptop drives are reasonably expected to sustain a three foot drop while desktop drives are not, and that that makes sense given their respective uses. I dumbed it down a bit for simplicity's sake.

 

[Fire&Blood]

That guy posting about the build issues is a known Samsung fanboy. Also, all the review units are running different basebands and kernels. Almost guaranteed that it is not final software.

Read somewhere that an update is to be pushed on or before Nov 13.
Still convinced a phone can launch at $299 without compromising build quality.

 

[magomago]

I got to this point:



And stopped reading.

I kept reading, but I also LOLED.

Poor Grill Design may affect/distort sound, but it isn't because its creating a pressure drop LOL. And FYI I have no idea how I would even begin to measure how grills affect sound distortion...Probably do everything empirically and just quite literally create the transfer function.

Some of the other comments may be valid; I was thinking that if the battery died, just replace it, but based on this, I always need that wire in tension, and it sounds like swapping a battery is playing a risky game of "Will I kill my reception?"
Of course I probably have over 1 year to decide this lol

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

That guy posting about the build issues is a known Samsung fanboy. Also, all the review units are running different basebands and kernels. Almost guaranteed that it is not final software.

Also we have reviews ALL across the web. Why would Google or LG for that matter risk their reputation by releasing review units running beta/non final builds of Android?

If they know certain bugs are present and all, why would they want the review sites, which many potential buyers/users base their opinions on, to form these opinions based on potentially buggy software?

It's just stupid. They should've hit software design freeze weeks ago and IMO should've frozen the release for Android 4.2 on the Nexus 4. Or if there are so many bugs, they should've pushed out the launch. Kinda bad planning on their part.

I'm not saying they have to be perfect. iOS had many bugs. But it's another thing to have review units based on a pre-release. They're essentially banking on the review sites giving them another shot when the production release is out, or their software not having major bugs at the pre-release stage already.

 

[Aikouka]

Cars are designed to be run on tires.

Actually, they're designed to be run on anything that's round. Mythbusters already did a test on this about two years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfJeAb5hsUA

 

[Eug]

Also, all the review units are running different basebands and kernels.

If that's true, that's just moronic.

 

[vshah]

If that's true, that's just moronic.

very true. there's a thread on the xda nexus 4 section where a guy grabbed together screenshots from various reviews of the "about device" page, at least 3 different kernel versions and basebands are seen.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=33607958&postcount=38

no idea why google thought it was a good idea to put non-final software in reviewer's hands.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Also we have reviews ALL across the web. Why would Google or LG for that matter risk their reputation by releasing review units running beta/non final builds of Android?

If they know certain bugs are present and all, why would they want the review sites, which many potential buyers/users base their opinions on, to form these opinions based on potentially buggy software?

It's just stupid. They should've hit software design freeze weeks ago and IMO should've frozen the release for Android 4.2 on the Nexus 4. Or if there are so many bugs, they should've pushed out the launch. Kinda bad planning on their part.

I'm not saying they have to be perfect. iOS had many bugs. But it's another thing to have review units based on a pre-release. They're essentially banking on the review sites giving them another shot when the production release is out, or their software not having major bugs at the pre-release stage already.

Sadly it seems Google did just that. Phil Nickinson from Android Central mentioned his review unit didn't have user profiles or the new keyboard, with it's build of Android 4.2. So it seems like they may still be working on Android 4.2 right up to the last minute it seems.

 

[VashHT]

Yeah that is a really stupid launch strategy, I don't know who at Google would approve of this kind of thing but you would think there would be someone there with enough common sense to hold the thing back until it was actually finished.

 

[dagamer34]

Yeah that is a really stupid launch strategy, I don't know who at Google would approve of this kind of thing but you would think there would be someone there with enough common sense to hold the thing back until it was actually finished.

Uhh... there's a good reason why the phone won't be released for another week. They picked the 29th to launch the device because Andy Rubin was supposed to show it off an D : Dive into Mobile in New York (which obviously got cancelled). There was also little point in waiting much longer when it's obvious images of the device had leaked to the press.

 

[magomago]

Its alright, as much as I want the nexus, I'm going to wait for real reviews FIRST. Within 2 weeks I'll know if something about the phone will prevent me from buying it

 

[VashHT]

Uhh... there's a good reason why the phone won't be released for another week. They picked the 29th to launch the device because Andy Rubin was supposed to show it off an D : Dive into Mobile in New York (which obviously got cancelled). There was also little point in waiting much longer when it's obvious images of the device had leaked to the press.

Don't get me wrong I'm really hoping a software update is going to fix problems we've been seeing in some reviews, but the low benchmark scores and poor battery life changed my mind from order on day 1 to wait and see how it is. It isn't helping google sell this thing if it's getting inconsistent reviews due to pre-release software.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Uhh... there's a good reason why the phone won't be released for another week. They picked the 29th to launch the device because Andy Rubin was supposed to show it off an D : Dive into Mobile in New York (which obviously got cancelled). There was also little point in waiting much longer when it's obvious images of the device had leaked to the press.

The issue isn't announcing the phone on Oct 29th. It's that they probably shouldn't have sent review units out in the condition the software apparently is in.

 

[A5]

The issue isn't announcing the phone on Oct 29th. It's that they probably shouldn't have sent review units out in the condition the software apparently is in.

Yeah. Seems like a bad idea to ship "review" units with beta software 2 weeks in advance.

 

[dagamer34]

Don't get me wrong I'm really hoping a software update is going to fix problems we've been seeing in some reviews, but the low benchmark scores and poor battery life changed my mind from order on day 1 to wait and see how it is. It isn't helping google sell this thing if it's getting inconsistent reviews due to pre-release software.

Benchmark scores don't really matter when we know what hardware it has. Battery life again shouldn't be an issue when the Nexus 4 literally is the highly rated Optimus G with a different shell and stock Android software, which is why I'm not worried.

None of the review units have lock screen notifications, so we know they aren't shipping final software, but I'd rather get a sneak peak now than have to wait until next Tuesday for reviews to come out.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Benchmark scores don't really matter when we know what hardware it has. Battery life again shouldn't be an issue when the Nexus 4 literally is the highly rated Optimus G with a different shell and stock Android software, which is why I'm not worried.

None of the review units have lock screen notifications, so we know they aren't shipping final software, but I'd rather get a sneak peak now than have to wait until next Tuesday for reviews to come out.

Benchmark = performance test
Knowing what the hardware has = theoretical.

The two should match. If it doesn't how can you NOT be worried? Is it going to magically fix itself? The SGS2 had great hardware in its day, and it can't even run CM10 smoothly? Are you not worried? Oh wait it has to do with the Exynos sources not being released. There's a root cause for all of these problems. Just because on paper it should run fine, doesn't mean it will.

I certainly want to see Google fix this before I jump onboard.

The fact that Android 4.2 is being worked on til the last minute suggest its not ready for prime time yet. It's certainly very troubling. Perhaps it'll take 4.2.1 to iron out some major bugs before being acceptable for consumers.

 

[dagamer34]

Benchmark = performance test
Knowing what the hardware has = theoretical.

The two should match. If it doesn't how can you NOT be worried? Is it going to magically fix itself? The SGS2 had great hardware in its day, and it can't even run CM10 smoothly? Are you not worried? Oh wait it has to do with the Exynos sources not being released. There's a root cause for all of these problems. Just because on paper it should run fine, doesn't mean it will.

I certainly want to see Google fix this before I jump onboard.

The fact that Android 4.2 is being worked on til the last minute suggest its not ready for prime time yet. It's certainly very troubling. Perhaps it'll take 4.2.1 to iron out some major bugs before being acceptable for consumers.

Software can be fixed with an update, hardware cannot. And it's Google's phone. I trust them to make the phone work well. They've already made the performance of Android far smoother with Jelly Bean as compared to ICS.

I bring up the fact that the same hardware performs well on other devices, demonstrating that it's not a hardware problem but a software one. And since it's a first party product, Google isn't going to run into the CM10 problem of dealing with proprietary hardware.

Regardless, the phone doesn't come out for another week and it's bound to get an OTA update to enable all of the features. I will be right with you to complain about shipping hardware, but until then, I'll just sit back and wait.

 

[basslover1]

Benchmark = performance test
Knowing what the hardware has = theoretical.

The two should match. If it doesn't how can you NOT be worried? Is it going to magically fix itself? The SGS2 had great hardware in its day, and it can't even run CM10 smoothly? Are you not worried? Oh wait it has to do with the Exynos sources not being released. There's a root cause for all of these problems. Just because on paper it should run fine, doesn't mean it will.

Explain to me how the SGSII running CM10 poorly, because of Samsung not open sourcing Exynos, is AT ALL relevant to this discussion? The Nexus will be running factory Android, not some ROM based on Factory Android. Again, where's the relevance?

I certainly want to see Google fix this before I jump onboard.

The fact that Android 4.2 is being worked on til the last minute suggest its not ready for prime time yet. It's certainly very troubling. Perhaps it'll take 4.2.1 to iron out some major bugs before being acceptable for consumers.

I know last year around this time might be too long of a period for your long-term memory to hold onto something, but the GNex was in the hands of a few people running 4.0, and since you can't remember it shipped with 4.0.1 which fixed the issues reviewers were having with 4.0.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Software can be fixed with an update, hardware cannot. And it's Google's phone. I trust them to make the phone work well. They've already made the performance of Android far smoother with Jelly Bean as compared to ICS.

I bring up the fact that the same hardware performs well on other devices, demonstrating that it's not a hardware problem but a software one. And since it's a first party product, Google isn't going to run into the CM10 problem of dealing with proprietary hardware.

Regardless, the phone doesn't come out for another week and it's bound to get an OTA update to enable all of the features. I will be right with you to complain about shipping hardware, but until then, I'll just sit back and wait.

I really hope it's only a software issue, because Andand's comments in the preview worry me a little...


"The Nexus 4 on the other hand manages to complete everything, but likely quickly throttles its clocks down due to thermal constraints. The Nexus 4 was really hot by the end of our GLBenchmark run, which does point to some thermal throttling going on here. I do wonder if the Snapdragon S4 Pro is a bit too much for a smartphone, and is better suited for a tablet at 28nm."