A Quick Look at the White Nexus 4
by Brian Klug on May 29, 2013 12:10 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- LG
- Mobile
- Nexus 4
We got a special care package from LG earlier today containing the elusive but recently-announced White Nexus 4. This is the same hardware we saw at Google I/O just a short week ago which I mentioned at the end of the Nexus Experience SGS4 article.
The White Nexus 4 is identical internally to the black Nexus 4 which we reviewed a while back. It's still the same 1.5 GHz APQ8064 inside with 2 GB of LPDDR2 and beautiful 4.7-inch 1280x768 display. The White Nexus 4 we got ahold of came with 16 GB of NAND onboard as well, though there's nothing preventing an 8 GB variant from appearing. All that's different is that now it's a beautiful stark white on the backside with chrome trim everywhere there was black. The front side of the white Nexus 4 remains black, this new model includes white trim around the edge and again white on the back while still including the reflective and faceted structured pattern. It's a purely aesthetic change which – to me at least – looks amazing in person. It's another option which doesn't do anything to sway potential phone shoppers to the Nexus 4 but does refresh the product with a somewhat new look. LG recently made a May 29th date public for the white Nexus 4's availability, there's no official word from Google about when we can expect it to hit the Play Store but release seems imminent. I would expect pricing to be the same for the white version as the black version.
Included with the white Nexus 4 is a white bumper as well, which looks great contrasting with the black Nexus 4 or on the natively white Nexus.
Also our white Nexus 4 came running Android 4.2.2, there's no secret 4.3 or other release running on the hardware we were sampled.
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VivekGowri - Wednesday, May 29, 2013 - link
I am ridiculously jealous of you. I don't care that the camera sucks, I want one.andezzat - Wednesday, May 29, 2013 - link
Sorry to break it to you, but the Nexus 4 camera does not suck. At all!VivekGowri - Wednesday, May 29, 2013 - link
The N4 is good enough in bright light, as most high-end smartphones have been for a couple of years, but even in indoor lighting it's pretty mediocre. It's a lot better than the Galaxy Nexus - it'd be hard for it not to be - but it's nowhere near the current crop of flagship devices (One, S4, iPhone 5, Lumia 920/5/8, Xperia Z, Find 5, etc), or even the better cameras from the last generation like the One X/S or S3. Look at Brian's review if you don't believe me.tipoo - Wednesday, May 29, 2013 - link
Falling short of flagships costing twice as much isn't the worst thing in the world either. For people like me coming from smartphones two generations down, the shots look pretty nice. People don't buy the Nexus 4 for the highest end experience, even if you want stock Google there's the stock Android S4 now being offered. The Nexus 4 is for most of the high end experience in a much lower price bracket.And I know you weren't trying to start a debate with that and I'm rambling, but a cheap small P&S camera is still worlds ahead of the best smartphones if you really care about IQ, for me at least a smartphone camera just has to be serviceable in a pinch while a dedicated camera still does anything worth taking.
VivekGowri - Wednesday, May 29, 2013 - link
I'd rather have an N4 than the S4GE for a bunch of reasons, too. But yeah, I mean, I love the hell out of the Nexus 4, it's probably my second favorite handset out there right now after the One, but I'm not going to pretend like the camera is particularly good. Certain things had to get cut for the Nexus 4 to hit that price point, but that's only a justification for why camera performance isn't an end of the world problem.DukeN - Wednesday, May 29, 2013 - link
Vivek, not trying to be facetious here but why would you have the N4 over the S4GE? Only thing I can think of is size?tipoo - Wednesday, May 29, 2013 - link
Arguably build quality, the plastic S4 may have its reasons but it doesn't look or feel particularly high end.jaysns - Wednesday, May 29, 2013 - link
The Nexus 4 is a lot smoother in day to day use than the Galaxy 4 is. It's actually pretty upsetting how much stuttering goes on with the S4 considering the internals and for me, at least, makes for a less than premium experience while operating it. Plus, with a rooted phone and customer kernel, the N4 is faster than my stock Galaxy 4 when opening apps or doing just about anything. It's just a nicer experience though even if left stock IMO.Affectionate-Bed-980 - Saturday, June 1, 2013 - link
Are you comparing AOSP and AOSP? I'd be interestedin how the GS4 NUE does. Theoretically it should outperform the Nexus 4. But in reality, things differ. Just like theoretically the Nexus 4 should have great battery life, but in reality all the Nexii suck. Why? Who knows? AOSP isn't optimized? Theoretically the GS2 should rock the GNex in AOSP, but due to broken butter, CM 10/10.1 always looks horrendous on the GS2.We'll wait and see, but I don't think comparing GS4 on Touchwiz against AOSP is fair in terms of performance. We all know the OEM skins = LAGfests.
Affectionate-Bed-980 - Saturday, June 1, 2013 - link
While the N4 is priced low, I think we need to stop making excuses for it based on price. Google's trying to throw a wrench in the pricing of phones. We all know phones don't cost $600 to build yet they've always been this price (esp for smartphones). Google's also realizing it has to compete in a US market that understands NOTHING but subsidized phones. As a result they need cheap phones to compete. Even $499 or $529 or $549 is hard to sell. Look at how many people have a Nexus 10 (the XDA section is completely empty and the CM devs totally ignore the device). Price matters.Furthermore, the N4 isn't even priced at $299/$349 in the rest of the globe. Why? Because people value unlocked phones quite a bit and they're selling for even higher price.
The reason the camera sucks is not because they priced it at $299/$349. Even if they priced it at $599, it would have the same sucky camera. It's not going to all of a sudden have a winner. The Galaxy Nexus was high priced and had a horrendous camera. They cut LTE out because the LTE battery issue on the GNex gave it a bad rep. Furthermore, not enough users around the world have LTE yet and its tricky to have an LTE phone work in the US AND around the world. The demand for LTE wasn't as high that they could get away with it then.
Honestly, the camera and LTE and battery life are huge issues on the Nexus 4. I dont think we should ever be excusing any of these issues due to pricing.