The Nexus 4’s Photo Sphere feature shows a 360-degree image, in which you can pan around to see up and down as well as side to side. Blue dots guide the photo taker.
And the Nexus 4 is missing two important features: The ability to use LTE, the most consistently speedy 4G network in the U.S.; and a memory capacity greater than 16 gigabytes, the amount most smartphones start with. The new phone also lacks a memory-expansion slot. The phone’s most touted new capability, the ability to capture 360-degree pictures, worked poorly in my tests.
Otherwise, I found the latest Nexus to be a solid, reliable, phone and a good value. On Nov. 13, Google will begin selling it starting at $299 for an unlocked version — one that has no carrier plan or contract — with a puny 8GB of internal storage. A 16 gigabyte unlocked version will cost $349. You’ll have to add the cost of a contract or prepaid plan from T-Mobile, AT&T or carriers that use the same network technology to those prices (the phone won’t work on Verizon or Sprint). T-Mobile will be offering the 16GB version for $199 with a two-year contract. To grasp how inexpensive the Nexus 4 is, consider that Samsung’s popular Galaxy SIII is about $550 unlocked, $199 with a two-year contract.
The Nexus 4, built for Google by LG of Korea, has a large 4.7-inch screen with high resolution, higher than Apple’s 4-inch Retina display on the iPhone 5, though with slightly fewer pixels per inch because it’s spread over a larger display. The new Nexus is 20 percent thicker than the iPhone 5 and 24 percent heavier. But its curved rear edges made it feel comfortable in my hand.
It’s made of plastic, but is clad in relatively sturdy Gorilla Glass 2 on both front and back. There’s a 1.3-megapixel camera on the front and an 8-megapixel camera on the back. These cameras took sharp, vivid pictures and videos and you can apply filters to snapshots.
While I didn’t do a formal battery test, the Nexus 4 lasted a full workday in mixed use, including Web surfing, lots of app use, email, texting, viewing of short videos, occasional music playback and voice calling.
A new feature in the Nexus 4 allows you to charge the battery, which is sealed inside, without plugging in an adapter, by merely placing it on a charging pad plugged into the wall. These pads, which Google doesn’t sell, must comply with an industry standard called Qi. I had mixed results trying this. I tested it on two Qi pads and only one worked with the Nexus 4.
Instead of LTE, the Nexus 4 relies on a 4G standard called HSPA
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