Moved Blogs

Check out more of my blogs with the Cordless Core - the core for all things cordless. I've been writing there along with a few other writers and that's where I'll continue to blog.

PSA: lost your android phone?

Just today I got news that my brother lost his phone. This link (from the subreddit AndroidQuestions's sidebar) is a great resource, and I'll just leave it here.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/jbk0f/phone_lost_stolen_or_missing_calm_down_read_this/

Nexus 4 review

The Nexus 4 was essentially sold out for the first two and a half months, but I finally got my paws on one.

The design of the Nexus 4 borrows from a lot of different devices, but it all comes together quite nicely. You've got a glass back similar to older iPhones (although with a really cool glistening effect), the rounded top and bottom from the Galaxy Nexus, a hint of Optimus G, and the slight curve off the edge of the glass seen on the One X. Nothing looks out of place, and it's all sleek when seen together.

Google and LG made the phone feel good, although it doesn't feel great. That being said, it feels much nicer than any other $350 phone out there (the glass back really helps it feel sturdy). The back has been known to scratch easily, and is very slippery. I ordered a skin from DBrand.com that arrived the day after my Nexus 4 did, and it seems to be strong enough to protect it from scratches. A bonus with the skin is that I can leave it on tables knowing it won't slide off (which has unfortunately happened to others).

You've probably heard it everywhere else online, but the operating system is buttery smooth. Obviously - Jelly Bean is Project Butter for heavens sake. The only lag I've seen is from time to time when scrolling quickly through the widgets (in the app drawer) for the first time - and even then it was only for a millisecond. After the first time (say, scrolling back though) it's back to butter.

Some people aren't fond of the new 4.2 look - Google has oddly bolded some numbers while leaving others untouched at least with their clock app and digital clock widgets. The hour is bold, while the minute digits aren't. There might be a reason for it, bit I think its mostly just esthetics. There is also some red in the color scheme in the clock... Weird considering everything is greyscale and light blue everywhere. Is the big G teasing us with what Key Lime Pie will look like? I sure hope so, because I like this look.

Every app I use work great on the Nexus 4, and are all super smooth. I'd hope so - the quad core S4 PRO professor and 2GB of RAM better not take a break ever when the screen is on. Need for Speed, ShadowGun Deadzone, Dead Trigger and every other mobile game I play looked terrific (well...ShadowGun Deadzone wasn't perfectly smooth but I'll blame that on my internet. Mobile online multiplayer games tend to do that). Load times were quick, multitasking remained snappy even when lots of apps were open...if any of you think benchmarks are really useful, forget what you know. Compared to other quad core phones, the Nexus 4 doesn't benchmark very well, but it feels just as fast (if not faster) than any other phone period.

In the typical day, the battery lasted long enough. Some days I had 50% juice left when I put it back on the charger(extremely light use), other times I had to find my charger early. It really depended on the day-to-day usage. Just to give you some examples, one day I has the screen on for 3 hours and 45 minutes (including 2 streaming Netflix episodes that took 40 minutes each), 1 hour of screen-off audio, and light usage besides that. In 12 hours, it discharged to 15%. That's not bad at all, all things considered. It was tough getting to 4 hours of screen on time though, which is understandable considering the 4.7" HD display (that looks great by the way, even if the colors are a bit warm) and the 2100mAh battery.

Another day of battery stats: off the charger for 13 hours, mediaserver taking 20% of the battery (3h30m Keep Awake), Screen took 18% (3h screen on time), and netflix at 13% (1h CPU foreground) were the top 3 battery hogs. Wifi on all day, screen on minimum brightness, data on for a total of around 1/2 hour. Not too bad.

I ordered a case the day after I ordered the N4, and it still hasn't come in yet (good old eBay). I'm paranoid about dropping it mostly because of the glass back, even if it has a skin on it. It's such a nice phone, and I don't want to have to go back to using any other device (thanks for letting me use your old BlackBerry Curve Brad, but you can have it back now)

Pros: sharp, bright, crisp screen, fast processor, smooth interface, PhotoSphere, latest version of android

Cons: no expandable storage, no LTE, camera quality, battery life (usage dependent)

Overall, the Nexus 4 is an amazing phone. I'm going to give it a solid 9/10. It could have easily been 10/10, but the storage is small for some users, LTE would have been nice, and the camera could have been better.