your thoughts on nexus 4 and nexus 10?

[andrew2192]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeHC3qjt1Ws

[kitamesume]

expensive.

[kurandoinu]

...Really? They're pretty cheap as far as smart phones/tablets go.

The Nexus 4 is retailing here for the 8gb model at less than my shop sells the Galaxy S2 for.

And as for the Nexus 10, I've been waiting for it so I could decide which to go for, but I think I'm gonna stick with buying a 7 instead, but with the 32gb storage

[kitamesume]

well, considering i'd have to pay for shipping fees and custom taxes... yeah its pretty expensive.
edit: and the "no SD slot" is a deal breaker, with the 8GB at least, 16GB should be work-able.

[Slysoft]

I'm not buying a nexus 10 because I have no use for a tablet that large. I do have a nexus 7 since I live partly on a ship and it's super convenient for reading books etc. I am also buying a nexus 4 and I am really impressed at the price. With those hardware specs I was expecting to pay 600 dollars minimum since the Razer Maxx HD has lower specs and costs about that much.

It doesn't have LTE but I use T mobile so it doesn't effect me.

[kurandoinu]

We don't really have a 4g network at all in the UK so that doesn't matter here :3

[Slysoft]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66-4uMQqerA

old video but shows a good look at the phone, android 4.2 and the samsung tablet.

[Xtras]

8 GB without SD is tough only if you store music or video on your phone. I think Google kinda wants people just to use Google Music streaming for that though.

LTE is probably going to be the bullet in this thing catching on, especially since AT&T is LTE also now. You're effectively cut down in carrier choice to T-Mobile & AT&T 3.5G

Nexus 10's specs are incredible. I'd say if you are considering a tablet in that price range, this would be the one to get.

[Slysoft]

There's no doubt that LTE is a thing, but HSPA+ in real life applications is just as good as LTE. The main reason for google going away from LTE is that they want direct control over their phones, and right now LTE does not give them that. Every carrier with LTE in the US does their network differently, so they'd have to build multiple versions of the phone for each carrier and google simply doesn't want to do that. Not to mention, LTE is not present in much of the world outside the US so it simply doesn't make sense to raise the price of the phone to support LTE when users make up a very small percent of the worldwide market. (Not to mention, sprint is pretty much crap which leaves you with T mobile as the only carrier worth choosing with unlimited data. Honestly I don't see the point in verizon and ATT building up this high speed network when you can blow through their data caps in a few days.)

[Natheria]

Google doesn't want another Verizon galaxy nexus debacle like last time around, which is one of the reasons why they are shying away from LTE. One of the big selling points of nexus devices and why they are so popular is that they are pure android with immediate OS updates and easy rooting. Verizon didn't give us that, so it just hurts their image. They want to focus on selling the actual phones instead of making deals with carriers which is why you see the unlocked price for the nexus 4 so ridiculously low (only $100 more is crazy). That kind of freedom and fast updates are better appreciated by the enthusiasts anyway who are more likely to buy the phone outright anyway. I'm almost tempted to sell my GNexus for one. If it had SD slot expansion I'd do it in a heartbeat (it still boggles my mind why they won't give us an SD card slot. Come on Google! Add another millimeter and fit one in!!)

[Slysoft]

The reason they didn't go with LTE is because LTE isn't standardized. Android is about being an open platform, which at the moment LTE is not. Every carrier in the US with LTE does it differently. They'd have to make a new phone for each carrier with LTE and that simply doesn't make sense. I don't even understand what the big deal about LTE is. Most of the world doesn't have it, and this is an international phone. And even in the US, LTE is mostly only in major cities wheras HSPA+ is widespread and gets similar speeds (in fact, T-Mobile's 42mbps HSPA+ network was faster than verizon's LTE in at least 11 cities).

They don't use SD card slots because they are slow as hell and probably because they want to push the cloud (since it makes them money, although I don't think they will tell you that officially). But my current phone only has 8gb and I'm only using about half of that so I don't care at all. I don't see why people need to have 5000 songs on their phone at the same time.

Also, not using an SD card means they don't need to run a mixture of ext and FAT, freeing them from the licensing fees for using FAT filesystem, which further realizes their vision of android which is one of openness.

[Xtras]

I'd wager the real issue isn't simply LTE, rather LTE is a quick way to sum it up. It is the limited choice of antennas with respect to the US market. The phone simply isn't available to Sprint and Verizon users. T-Mobile users have nothing to complain about, since they didn't have LTE to being with. AT&T users however are sitting there looking at their friends with a Galaxy S3 and thinking, wait wasn't my phone newer?

I figure Google left things out because they aren't REALLY essential to what they are aiming for. That said, it looks like they are tragic flaws on paper, even if the user experience wasn't compromised. If I weren't chained to Verizon, I'd consider getting a Nexus 4. The Nexus 10, however, is definitely on my radar.

[Slysoft]

I guess they are tragic flaws to those unlucky people stuck with those few carriers who decide to play a different game than everyone else. Hopefully one day verizon and sprint will join the rest of the world and use the international standard for mobile phones.