Destiny’s fourth “standard” smartphone with Android, Nexus 4, there was not easy. Google has decided to make the device as accessible, LG did not have time to meet the demand, and therefore, in November and December to buy a new “Google phone” was almost impossible. At the beginning of the year the supply situation has improved, the unit in January and got to Russia, but not the most affordable price. Now that the Nexus 4 can buy almost twice cheaper than the fresh new items, you can talk about it and – in fact, for my money it is now urgent as ever.
Design, ergonomics
Appearance at Nexus 4 discreet, the official photo device looks pretty ordinary. When not in it even easy to confuse with the predecessor (Galaxy Nexus by Samsung), and in general the market is much more original design devices – Sony Xperia Z, for example, HTC 8X or Lumia 920. Used typical “Nexus” body shape with slightly rounded top and bottom part of the shell at present can not be called thin – 9.1 mm. In comparison with the Galaxy Nexus smartphone LG 0.8 mm wider by 1.6 mm shorter and 0.2 mm thick.
But in the hands of the Nexus 4 is perceived quite differently – as a seamless, stylish and robust. The back cover is made of glass, if you look at it from an angle, you can see the iridescent pattern of squares in the spirit of “The Matrix.” The front surface of any logos (and correctly – the user does not particularly want to enjoy every day on the word “Sony” or “Samsung”), off it looks like a solid black rectangle with rounded short sides. Around the screen – a narrow rim of the plastic “by the metal”, basically the same bezel is made from a similar touch rubbery plastic. It helps the machine does not slip out of hand. In addition, the “rubber” quite a bit, just a fraction of a millimeter sticks out the rear panel. This gives the glass does not shatter additional chances of a fall on a hard surface. Of course, it’s Gorilla Glass, but it is not invulnerable.
Nexus 4 – unit, by far the largest, but to use it quite comfortable, certainly more comfortable than the 5-inch novelties from HTC and Sony, and the Galaxy S III from Samsung bursting hand stronger. First, help to ease beveled back side of the casing. Secondly – rounded on the left and right edge of the display, through which he cuts into his hand. Finally, reasonably placed buttons, the lock – on top of the right edge, the volume rocker – symmetrically on the left. Key lock, however, would like to see a larger and closer to the middle of the body (as it did in the Sony Xperia Z and a number of other new products).
System the “home”, “back” and “recently used programs” are available, as in the Galaxy Nexus, right on the screen. So the phone a less long, though, minus the fact that most programs lose part of the display space.
short, design, materials, housing, assembly and reasoning place controls from LG Nexus 4 on the five-minus. Minus for the glass, of course, beautiful, but potentially more susceptible permanent damage than plastic or metal. Buy a machine, and then go with a crack on the back would not be very nice. At the same time, of all the more or less the flagship Android-devices, which I tested, it was in Nexus 4 design, manufacturing quality and convenience most balanced – there is none of these qualities are not sacrificed to the other.
Screen
diagonal display at Nexus 4 – 4.7 inches, resolution – 1280 by 768, the density of points – 318 per inch. It is 768, not 720, as the majority of comparable devices, that is a little wider than the display (15:9), and, for example, when watching a video with a standard 16:9 aspect ratio it will be framed at the top and bottom black bars.
Manufacturing – IPS. The screen quality compared to the Galaxy Nexus device has made a big step forward – at an angle of the image does not change color, but falls brightness, crisp text – great and quite “retinoic” (in the Galaxy Nexus PenTile spoil the picture when displaying text on a contrasting background). Do not hold the phone close to your eyes, can not be distinguished from the four Nexus screen FullHD-displays new flagship of Sony or HTC.
But the colors compared to other modern device with LCD-display (iPhone 5, HTC Butterfly) seem to be somewhat muted, some may not like it. Autotune brightness I would recommend include only when it is important to save battery power or when used in almost complete darkness. Otherwise, most of the display dims and becomes too much to please the eye.
screen Nexus 4 and the rear glass panel has an oleophobic coating, if not 100% prevents the appearance of fingerprints, then, at least, successfully masking them. Touch sensor works without a problem, clearly recognizing including svaypy edge display. They Nexus 4 allow, for example, to activate the camera or view the last message in Gmail directly from the lock screen.
Camera
Like most other flagship smartphones in 2012, Nexus has four 8-megapixel sensor. However, unlike most competitors, pictures from Nexus 4 is really pleasing – the device is excellent, at the iPhone 4S / 5, automatically sets the correct white balance. The vast majority of images no “bias” in a particular color, and exposure vystayletsya true. Is that the image is a little more “noisy” than the iPhone 5, but more dramatic. Built-in photo editor pleased the serious editing functions, such as a curve. Frivolous functions too much color variation from Instagram photo filters in the spirit to the framework.
very interesting outside the box and realized it is convenient manual setting while taking pictures. If you keep your finger on the screen for about a second, a ring appears around the icons that symbolize the menu items. Move your finger on one of these “segments”, and it is revealed further by allowing you to select which settings. So set exposure compensation, white balance, flash mode, select the main or front camera as well as mode is activated HDR. There is also the “Settings” under which is hidden the regular menu. Here you can select the shooting mode (auto – sport – sunset – night – party), the picture size, and enable geotagging.
in Android Jelly Bean to Nexus 4 (you can read our review of OSes) Google has added a new shooting mode. Apart from the traditional horizontal panoramas appeared spherical. The same technology is available for a long time in the application Microsoft Photosynth for iOS and some others. Smartphone moving around you can take pictures, which, after covering a combined 360 degree panorama. PR LG, however, managed to send me to the test apparatus with nefinalnym software (and this in the middle of March), and it was this experience can not.
Video Nexus 4 shoots in 720p or Full HD. You can do the usual photo during video recording, it is enough to just touch the screen. There is the silent shooting, allowing, for example, to one frame per minute. If you have a tripod with a fastener for Nexus 4 and a lot of time with it you can take pictures of interesting video sunset with fast rolling towards the horizon in the morning sun or the blossoming of a flower.
stuffing, performance
Inside the Nexus 4 is a system-on-chip Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core Krait, running at 1.5 GHz, and graphics Adreno 320. At the time of the announcement it was the fastest smartphone in the world, but later adopted a similar decision in the Butterfly HTC and Sony Xperia Z. In any case, this is one of the most powerful smartphones today, significantly surpassing the benchmark results show a Samsung Galaxy S IV and HTC One, the first with the new 8-core Exynos, and the second – with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600. Run applications, moving interface smartphone game – it works very quickly. Such a rapid and smooth operation of the interface, I think I have not seen yet on any Android-smartphone.
RAM at Nexus February 4 gigabytes as befits any flagship unit today. But the built-in only 8 (this model was in my test) or 16 (these are mainly found in the Russian retail), and a memory card slot no. In 8-gigabyte model, which I tested, reset it and delete all the data was free only 5.7 GB, 16-GB – just over 13. If you plan to shoot a lot of videos and photos stored on your phone movies or extensive music collection, the Nexus 4 – not for you. At the same time, for many users, the amount of internal memory is critical.
Battery Capacity Nexus 4 is 2100 mAh, but the outstanding battery life can not be named. With continuous playback 720p video in mp4 format at maximum brightness, and 3G-enabled smartphone internet worked for 4 hours – rather poor result. If the video is not playing in the game will not play, then any problems with the battery not – it with my typical use (half-hour conversations with dozens of SMS-messages, regular mail scanning within a day, an hour surfing the Internet and social networks, hour car navigation a few photos + handling and injection into Instagram, while most of the time smartphone goes online on Wi-Fi) easily enough from early morning till 9.10 pm. By this time is about 8-12% charge. If you activate this automatic brightness, the battery life will grow interest on 15-20.
The phone has wireless charging technology, even in the U.S. sold a cool accessory for her in the form of a third cut-off angle of the ball, which Nexus attached with magnets. In Russia, the official delivery of the charger until it was.
Buy, conclusions
Price Nexus 4 with official warranty (16 GB model) until it rests at 20 000. This, of course, is not $ 400, for which such a device is available in the U.S.. At the same time, the market is already saturated with “gray” price offer (in Moscow) of 16 thousand and above, this price tag is much more appropriate. In terms of price the major competitors, “Google phone” – Samsung Galaxy S III and HTC One X. In general, it sets the same level, but the Nexus 4 highlights yet most efficient processor, unusual body material (glass), as well as “pure” Android and the guarantee of a quick upgrade to Android 5.0, when the Operating System will be released. At the same time, on the side of the Galaxy S III of internal memory expandable through cards microSD. If the data on your phone you have many, TouchWiz interface and AMOLED-display with PenTile eyes do not hurt, and the plastic does not seem cheap, probably the Samsung device would be best.
If I was in the next month to buy Android-smartphone, and money for Galaxy S IV, Xperia Z or HTC One missed (yes, honestly, even missed a – 14 or even 10 rubles are not redundant), I would take it Nexus 4. And would have, I think, almost nothing inferior (in terms of “pure” Android and operational updates – and superior to) the user experience.
So, to sum up:
Pros:
Great design and build
“Clean” and the latest Android
Good camera
Guaranteed quick update to Android 5.0
Cons:
limited amount of internal memory
glass back panel is less reliable than polycarbonate or metal
Devices with official warranty too expensive
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