When Google announced that a slew of Nexus devices are in the pipeline this 2012, they weren’t kidding. In the second half of this year alone, the Mountain View, CA giant released Nexus 7, the company’s official iPad killer; and Nexus 10, the bigger brother to the highly successful 7-incher. Last October, they laid the Nexus Q (announced at the Google I/O 2012 keynote) to rest to make way for a new release from the line called Nexus 4.
This new device designed by LG sports the latest version of Android, 4.2 Jelly Bean; but is it worth your money? Here’s a rundown of Nexus 4’s features and specifications.
Design and Hardware
At first glance, you will easily notice that the Nexus 4 bears a close resemblance to LG’s latest hit, the Optimus G. It adopts the clean, sleek front and the crystal backing of the Optimus G. Its 4.7-inch WXGA display is pretty decent, and sports the award-winning Gorilla glass for unparalleled scratch resistance; and despite its big display, the phone is comfortable enough for easy handling. Its 2,100mAh battery promises 390 hours of standby time.
User Interface
As previously mentioned, Google succeeds in creating a device that bears the latest Android version this time around. Upon turning the Nexus 4 on, you will be greeted by the familiar Android interface native to Android 4.0, but you also get the resizable lock screen widgets new to 4.2 and the Daydream feature that pretty much works like a screensaver.
Camera
The Nexus 4 bears an 8-megapixel primary camera that can take both still and moving images clearly depending on the settings that you set to meet your photography needs. It allows you to capture still photos with resolutions of up to 3264 by 2448 pixels while video quality can go as high as 1080p at 30 frames per second. A secondary front-facing camera that takes photos with a 1.3-megapixel quality is also present on the device.
Performance
With a Qualcomm APQ8064 Snapdragon chipset and a 1.5GHz Quad-core Krait processor, the Nexus 4 would surely impress users in terms of performance. It runs on an Adreno 320 graphics processor, which provides unmatched experience when playing HD games and running apps.
Other features
If you’re using the Nexus 4 as a business phone, you’ll benefit a lot from its personal organizer, document editor, and other built-in productivity apps. Additionally, Google Now, the manufacturer’s response to Apple’s Siri, comes with every unit, so you’re bound to get a pretty intelligent virtual assistant in case you decide to get one.
Leaving out the lack of LTE support and a MicroSD slot, Google’s Nexus 4 is reasonably priced at $299 for the 8GB model and $349 for the 16GB model. You can’t deny this phone’s power and potential; but it’s still up to you if you want to shell out this amount for an LG-manufactured and Google-powered smartphone.
