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N4 upgrade from GNex

aurora40

Android Enthusiast
There's no shortage of opinions on the Nexus 4, but just figured I'd toss mine in. With the price drop, I pulled the trigger on the 16GB model.

Some of the reasons:
- N4 has DC HSPA+, so faster data on T-Mobile
- I suspect 4.3 will be the last major update to the GNex (especially after the 4.3 update didn't have BT 4.0)
- Bigger battery
- Faster hardware
- I suspect the next Nexus will be too big in either size or price (or both) for my liking

Anyway, I generally like the phone. It is much faster. And it feels great in the hand.

But it's not lag-free. There's still lag turning on the camera for face-unlock. There's a slight lag rotating the phone when using the camera app. Both are not nearly as bad as on the GNex though.

And I miss the dark blacks of the GNex. The N4 screen is superior on paper, but to my eye the GNex looks better most of the time.

I've only had 4 charges on the phone so far, so maybe it will improve. But battery life is worse for me. I am a light phone user. I average 0 minutes a day of calls, and maybe 20 minutes of screen time. Mainly email, look up something on the web, send or get a photo. I get 2-3 days from my fully charged GNex. Not so the N4.

But the real kicker is the data connection. The N4 gets flaky when switching from HSPA to Edge. I have several times now had no connection at all, that required me to toggle airplane mode to rectify. This is all in areas I've been with the GNex many times. I find this quite annoying.

I still prefer the N4, I'll keep using it, but I'm not so sure I'd buy it again if I had it to do over.

I also have been getting crappy HSPA speeds (~400 kbps). Though I'm sure that's not the phone, maybe T-Mobile is doing some work/refarming or something in this area. But it does suck that I haven't seen that benefit so far.

Anyway, just my thoughts thus far after 5 days with the phone.
 
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