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Bout to order a Nexus 4, what should I expect?

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xanok

Newbie
This is sort of vague, so bear with me. I'm coming off of an Evo 3D, which is the only Android phone I've used. I'm not sure what to expect with the Nexus 4.

1. Camera quality was one of my biggest gripes with the Evo 3D. How is the camera with the Nexus 4? Reviews rate it pretty average, but those were when the device was first released. How bout now?

2. Stock android. That much difference than Sense? Will I need a third party launcher? I'm currently using Apex. Do most Nexus users use a third party launcher, and for that matter, custom roms?

3. App compatibility. Any issues with the Nexus devices being TOO ahead of the game here?

Thanks in advance for any help.
 
xanok said:
This is sort of vague, so bear with me. I'm coming off of an Evo 3D, which is the only Android phone I've used. I'm not sure what to expect with the Nexus 4.

1. Camera quality was one of my biggest gripes with the Evo 3D. How is the camera with the Nexus 4? Reviews rate it pretty average, but those were when the device was first released. How bout now?

2. Stock android. That much difference than Sense? Will I need a third party launcher? I'm currently using Apex. Do most Nexus users use a third party launcher, and for that matter, custom roms?

3. App compatibility. Any issues with the Nexus devices being TOO ahead of the game here?

Thanks in advance for any help.
Click to expand...

1)the camera is not to bad, perfectly acceptable for a cell phone Imo. It's certainly much better than the camera on my previous Galaxy Nexus.

2) if you've used apex launcher, then some of it should be familiar. There will still be some sense like things that you're likely to not have and so it will take some getting use to.

3) app incompatibility won't be an issue right away, but once google releases another update to android like 4.3 or 5.0, apps will likely be behind for a while and thus might behave oddly or not work at all. This should only be temporary until they update to work with the new Android update.
 
^ Yup. Basically.

I came from an HTC Desire. For me the camera on the N4 is actually pretty good - certainly better than any other phone I've owned. The HD video is absolutely awesome - way better than I got from my old video camera.

Having said that, my missus has an iPhone 5 and that does produce marginally better close up pictures (though I'd never tell her that, of course :D). I think it's because the iP5 lens isn't quite so wide-angle so close ups are less distorted (wider angle lens produce a slight back-of-a-spoon look in close ups). Obviously, the flip-side of this is a wider angle lens does let you fit more in the frame from a shorter distance. Horses for courses.

Re Sense: I thought I'd miss it, but actually, no, not at all. Vanilla Android is just fine. Plus 4.2.2 is way better than the Gingerbread my Desire was running. And the speed of the N4 makes everything silky smooth.

I haven't come across any app incompatibilities however I only get apps from Play - I guess it's possible non-Play sourced apps could have issues, but I guess that's the risk you take using those stores.
 
Low light performance isn't fantastic, but I wouldn't have said it's noticably worse than most other phones: cameras on phones are never going to do well in low light because they use such small sensors (the latest HTC One being a bit of an exception) and you can't really do much about the physics.

If you can use the flash - i.e. what you're trying to photograph isn't too far away (and you're happy to use a flash) - focusing isn't too much of an issue as the flash is used to light the subject while the autofocus does it's thing. Obviously, the flash is pretty pathetic compared to what you'd attach to an SLR so 'too far away' isn't actually that far :(
 
Thanks again for the responses guy. Shortly after I posted, I read some Google I/O rumors that suggest there could be a 32gb Nexus 4 announced. Sooooo overdue for a new phone. My 3vo is shot.
 
xanok said:
This is sort of vague, so bear with me. I'm coming off of an Evo 3D, which is the only Android phone I've used. I'm not sure what to expect with the Nexus 4.

1. Camera quality was one of my biggest gripes with the Evo 3D. How is the camera with the Nexus 4? Reviews rate it pretty average, but those were when the device was first released. How bout now?

2. Stock android. That much difference than Sense? Will I need a third party launcher? I'm currently using Apex. Do most Nexus users use a third party launcher, and for that matter, custom roms?

3. App compatibility. Any issues with the Nexus devices being TOO ahead of the game here?

Thanks in advance for any help.
Click to expand...

1) Camera is ok... nothing fantastic... nothing horrid. Just an average camera.

2) I'm a stock launcher kind of guy. That being said, I HATED sense, so....

3) I've only had one or two and they were both were resolved VERY fast by the developers. Future updates, as the occur, from Google may and likely will result in new problems that, like others, will be fixed by app developers.


If you are looking at buying a N4, I'll be selling one or two soon (a cheap plug until I get a chance to post them for sale in the classified section :D ). If you want to get it CHEAPER than what google is selling it for, let me know.
 
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