Review: Google Nexus 4

Get Ahead reader Rohit Kadam reviews Google Nexus 4. A BE from Pune University, he is currently working with Symantec Corporation in Pune.

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Box and build

As soon as you unpack it, you can see that it is a very slim phone -- only 9.1 mm in width, but since it has the Corning Gorilla Glass 2 on the front and back, it can sometimes feel a little slippery. There is no headset in the box, so music lovers might feel a little let down. There is just a USB cable, used for data transfers and charging, and a SIM ejection tool, which is nothing more than a stylized pin with a handle.

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It being glass on both the sides, it can leave a lot of fingerprints on either side, and it can be a task to keep cleaning that out all the time. There's a 3.5mm jack at the top. There is a volume rocker on the top left side, the power button on the right hand top and a micro USB port at the bottom of the phone.

It's just 139 gms, and it feels light to hold, and fits nicely in the palm of the hand, although you will need to stretch your thumb a little bit to reach all the corners of the phone.

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The phone is completely sealed, and the back does not open out. So, if you have any issues, you will have to take it to the service center, even if it is something as trivial as changing the battery.

Also, there is no MicroSD slot, so what you get, is what you have to be happy with. It comes in with either a 8GB or 16GB internal memory, but that should ideally be enough, if you aren't someone who likes to carry their 100GB movie collection, or their 40GB music collection around with them.

It isn't 4G enabled, so if you are someone planning to switch to a 4G network sometime in the not so near future, or take it to a location that already has 4G enabled, you are best off not considering this phone at all.

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Display

The Nexus 4 has a 4.7-inch screen, with a True HD IPS Plus capacitive touchscreen and supports 16M colors. It has a 768 x 1280 pixels resolution, which roughly works out to about 318 ppi pixel density.

The pictures can be quite sharp and crisp, and the video quality is amazing. The touchscreen is simply superb, and responds flawlessly to any kind of swipes, slides and pinches.

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Technical specifications

This is where the Google Nexus 4 takes it to a whole new level. The price to technical specifications ratio, is just out of this world, and getting the Nexus 4 for this price is just simply awesome.

It houses a quad-core Qualcomm APQ8064 Snapdragon processor, which clocks in at 1.5 GHz, and has 2GB of RAM to go along with it. Anything that is fast, is not too fast for the Nexus 4. It multitasks very well, and handles 2 to 3 processes running simultaneously very well.

It houses a non-removable Li-Po 2100 mAh battery, and unless I am doing something terribly wrong with it, the battery life is not exactly something to smile about. It drains out very fast, and has to be charged very frequently, sometimes twice in one day!!

I have been switching off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on the phone recently when not in use, and still have to see if that helps in any way.

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Camera

The Nexus 4 has an 8 MP 3264 x 2448 pixels, auto-focus camera with LED flash in the rear, and a 1.3 MP camera in the front.

It has a new feature in the form of Photo-Sphere, where one can capture 360 degree photos of your surroundings.

It supports geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection and the panorama modes.

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Conclusion

All in all, this is a good phone, for the price Google is offering it at. It's sleek, smart-looking, and has a good GUI, which is completely customisable. And, this being a Google phone, all the updates will be first pushed out to this phone, and then the rest of the lot will have access to the updates.

Pros: Fast, slim, Google phone, good smartphone feel, competitive pricing

Cons: Non-removable battery, battery life, no support for MicroSD

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