Google and LG are bringing the next Nexus smartphone to market on November 13th. The LG Nexus 4 will be available unlocked for $299 and up in the US. It will also be available in the UK, Canada, Australia, and parts of Europe on the same day.
Google will offer an 8GB model for $299 from the Play Store, while a 16GB version will run $349. US customers can also get a 16GB model from T-Mobile for $199 with a new 2-year contract.
The LG Nexus 4 features a 4.7 inch, 1280 x 768 pixel UPS display, a 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, and HSPA+. There’s no 4G LTE support…a t least not at this point. You do get WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and NFC.
The Nexus 4 also features HDMI output and supports wireless charging capabilities with an optional charging station.
There’s an 8MP rear camera and 1.3MP front-facing camera. The phone has a 2100mAH battery and Google says you should get 15.3 hours of talk time of 390 hours of standby time.
Like other recent Nexus devices, there’s no microSD card slot for extra storage. Having spent the last few months with a 16GB HTC One X, I imagine an 8GB phone of this type would feel pretty cramped. But $349 is a pretty great price for a 16GB model.
And just like the new Samsung Nexus 10, the LG Nexus 4 will ship with Google Android 4.2 Jelly Bean software.
For the most part the specs are exactly what we were expecting… but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Glass back, no LTE, no SD, non-removable battery. 4 as in iPhone 4?
Typo “…fro the Play Store…”
Great article!
This is a good device for a good (unsubsidized) price, but the lack of µSD is a deal breaker for me. Too bad.
And what about removable batteries in phones (soon in all laptops)?
Yeah… they disappeared. Progress again.
Not only it makes it more difficult when your phone crashes or freezes but their lifespan decrease a lot too.
That’s good news for OEMs but a lot less for us.
Also, with these kind of prices for that kind of harware, people should realize that when they (we) buy phones we get ripped off by enormous margins.
When you buy them without contract you pay about $600 for that same hardware.
And if you take it with contract, you pay even much more over the length of it.
High end/smartphones are a great business for OEMs (ask Samsung and Apple) and telecom operators (ask, well, pretty much all of them).
And don’t tell me it’s because Google doesn’t make any money on it.
It MAY be true but LG/Samsung and Asus (when they produce Nexus devices) certainly do. They won’t work for Google for free.
$299 and $349 ARE off contract.
Exactly. You might be paying more initially for the phone, but you’re not tied into any specific contract.
I know. I said it was a good price.
Maybe I didn’t make myself clear but that’s why I say that we usually pay $600 for that same hardware. Hence the ripoff.
And LG still makes money on this N4. Like Asus do on the N7
https://www.engadget.com/2012/10/30/asustek-q3-net-profits-up-43-percent/
I’d say this would be my next phone, but no microSD? I don’t know what I’d do about the 30GB of music and games I’ve got on my current phone. Other than that, though, it’s got just about everything I could want.
You’ll put it in the cloud and stream it. Google will happily sell you that space.