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Some people will be unhappy because it doesn't have LTE, or a removable battery or a micro-SD expansion slot. However, there are probably other phones which do

Some people will be unhappy because it doesn't have LTE, or a removable battery or a micro-SD expansion slot. However, there are probably other phones which do have the right mix of features and form factor. That's the nice thing about Android, consumers have a lot of choice.

phase_9 14y ago
True, but I find the lack of Micro-SD Card Slot to be particularly galling, especially as it's becoming an increasingly popular trend with Android handset manufacturers looking to add a hefty markup between otherwise identical models. Just ends up hurting us consumers who want to carry their music collections around with them :(
yardie 14y ago
As long as your choice is Android :). The smartphone market in general has a lot of choice and robust competition. And the last year has taught me to worry less and just get on with it. I just bought the Nexus 7 to complement my 4S and iPad. I might just get the Nexus 4 once I get my hands on it. And the Nokia 920 looks appealing. But only one of these can be my daily driver, which is something the product reviews neglect, unfortunately.
acedanger 14y ago
At first, I thought the exclusion of LTE was a major downfall of the phone. After I read about HSPA+ (I'd never heard of it prior to the LG Nexus 4 announcement), I didn't really consider it to be that big of a deal. (Note that I'm a Sprint customer and have no clue what LTE speed is like). Being that inexpensive, and off-contract, is a major bonus in my mind. I have until 2014 until my Sprint contract is up. If I was able to end my contract with Sprint right now, I would. My ETF is around $175 IIRC. I don't like that there isn't a removable battery though. That's my largest issue with the phone.
- bmelton 14y ago
  LTE speed is great, but HSPA+ is pretty damn good too. The big kicker against HSPA+ is that it's not as pervasive as LTE (or perhaps T-Mobile just isn't as pervasive as Verizon), so while I've gotten really fast speed (+- 60Mbps) on HSPA+, it's usually much more pedestrian. That said, I'm seldom downloading large files to my phone, and even 1 or 2 Mbps burst is usually fine for the way I use my phone.
Geee 14y ago
It has DC-HSDPA which is more widely supported and fast: 42 Mbit/s max, although latencies wouldn't be on LTE levels.
will_work4tears 14y ago
Yep, non removable battery seals the deal for me. It's the primary reason I didn't get an IPhone.
espeed 14y ago
Not having an SD Card should help shore up some security issues from attackers being able to pop and replace your card to get and put items on your phone. The current bootloaders are not secure when unlocked and rooted -- there is no password protection -- so with a removable SD Card anyone can boot into your bootloader and put code on your phone, even if you have USB Debugging deactivated. Removing the SD Card is one step towards solving this. The next step to hardening the phone would be to provide a security check to access the bootloader. One of the reasons given as to why this hasn't happened is because the keyboard interface isn't loaded in the bootloader so you can't enter a password. However, you can navigate up and down via volume keys so you could have sequence-based passwords like Konami codes in video games.

phase_9 14y ago

True, but I find the lack of Micro-SD Card Slot to be particularly galling, especially as it's becoming an increasingly popular trend with Android handset manufacturers looking to add a hefty markup between otherwise identical models. Just ends up hurting us consumers who want to carry their music collections around with them :(

yardie 14y ago

As long as your choice is Android :). The smartphone market in general has a lot of choice and robust competition. And the last year has taught me to worry less and just get on with it. I just bought the Nexus 7 to complement my 4S and iPad. I might just get the Nexus 4 once I get my hands on it. And the Nokia 920 looks appealing. But only one of these can be my daily driver, which is something the product reviews neglect, unfortunately.

acedanger 14y ago

At first, I thought the exclusion of LTE was a major downfall of the phone. After I read about HSPA+ (I'd never heard of it prior to the LG Nexus 4 announcement), I didn't really consider it to be that big of a deal. (Note that I'm a Sprint customer and have no clue what LTE speed is like). Being that inexpensive, and off-contract, is a major bonus in my mind. I have until 2014 until my Sprint contract is up. If I was able to end my contract with Sprint right now, I would. My ETF is around $175 IIRC. I don't like that there isn't a removable battery though. That's my largest issue with the phone.

bmelton 14y ago
LTE speed is great, but HSPA+ is pretty damn good too. The big kicker against HSPA+ is that it's not as pervasive as LTE (or perhaps T-Mobile just isn't as pervasive as Verizon), so while I've gotten really fast speed (+- 60Mbps) on HSPA+, it's usually much more pedestrian. That said, I'm seldom downloading large files to my phone, and even 1 or 2 Mbps burst is usually fine for the way I use my phone.

Geee 14y ago

It has DC-HSDPA which is more widely supported and fast: 42 Mbit/s max, although latencies wouldn't be on LTE levels.

will_work4tears 14y ago

Yep, non removable battery seals the deal for me. It's the primary reason I didn't get an IPhone.

espeed 14y ago

Not having an SD Card should help shore up some security issues from attackers being able to pop and replace your card to get and put items on your phone. The current bootloaders are not secure when unlocked and rooted -- there is no password protection -- so with a removable SD Card anyone can boot into your bootloader and put code on your phone, even if you have USB Debugging deactivated. Removing the SD Card is one step towards solving this. The next step to hardening the phone would be to provide a security check to access the bootloader. One of the reasons given as to why this hasn't happened is because the keyboard interface isn't loaded in the bootloader so you can't enter a password. However, you can navigate up and down via volume keys so you could have sequence-based passwords like Konami codes in video games.