Google’s big Android event – which was supposed to be held today – was cancelled, all thanks to Hurricane Sandy. But that didn’t stop the Big G from holding back from their announcements, and today, they have officially unveiled the fourth device in the Nexus smartphone lineup: the LG Nexus 4.
Quite frankly, and over a period of a couple of months, the LG Nexus 4 has been leaked several times; in spy shots / photos and recently in a hands-on video. But today, Google has officially taken the wraps off the rumored device and turned it into a surreal reality.
Features
Manufactured by LG, the Nexus 4 is a beast in terms of performance. Google’s new flagship device is powered by the mighty Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor, ticking at a clock speed of 1.5GHz. Google claims that the Snapdragon S4 Pro is the fastest mobile processor out there in the market, a bold claim which can only be given the seal of approval once the first benchmarks of the device hits the web.
The internals of the Nexus 4 are packed to the rafters; coming in with 2GB of RAM as standard, a 2,100 mAh battery (10 hours talk-time), NFC for transferring files or making payments, Bluetooth, and your usual Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n support.
The Nexus 4 comes with a 4.7-inch IPS LCD display with a screen resolution of 1280×768, which equates to 320 ppi. The screen might be a downer for geeks who have fallen in love with the Galaxy Nexus’ Super AMOLED HD display, but keep in mind that an IPS display panel is much more sharper and doesn’t have that grainy look to it, unlike AMOLED. And also, the display has a 16:10 ratio instead of 16:9, which makes the makes the display of the Nexus 4 wider, and not taller compared to the Galaxy Nexus.
The camera has been improved over the Galaxy Nexus, the Nexus 4 comes with an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. Low-light performance has been given a significant boost over previous generation Nexus devices, hence you can be rest assured that the device will take more than satisfactory photos even in low-light conditions. But that’s not all, the Nexus 4 is the first device ever which allows us to take 360° panoramas! That’s right, instead of having a chunky wide photo, you can move your device in a spherical angle to create a beautiful, never-before-seen panoramic effect.
The design aesthetics of the Nexus 4 are somewhat similar to the Galaxy Nexus, and yes, it has a curved display, but not like the one which we’ve seen before. The screen is curved at the edges which is aimed to keep swiping gestures as comfortable as possible.
The Nexus 4 will come in two different storage capacities; 8GB and 16GB with no support for further memory expansion. The device also features support for HSPA+, and lacks LTE (ouch!), but obviously, HSPA+ is carrier dependent.
To top off the feature-set of the Nexus 4, the device comes with wireless charging. Though it’s not the first device we’ve seen with wireless charging capabilities, but it’s the first Nexus smartphone, and we welcome the addition.
Powered by the latest version of Android, which is 4.2 Jelly Bean, it brings in a lot of bug fixes, features and improvements over Android 4.1.x. We’ll be covering Android 4.2 in detail in a separate post, so stay tuned for that! All the usual Google apps and services are a part of the Nexus 4 and Android 4.2, no big surprises here.
Pricing & Availability
The Nexus 4 will be available on November 13th, the 8GB model will retail for $299 on contract and the 16GB model for $349. There are no details on which carriers it will be available on at first.
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