I'm assuming the white Nexus 4 is the same Nexus 4 we've seen before (I know you didn't get a chance to check any details about it, so I know you don't know). The most disappointing thing from I/O for me was the lack of any details about Android 4.3. I am glad to hear from the one fireside chat that they plan to continue working on getting rid of jank in the UI.
The Nexus-experience SGS4 sounds nice, but I would have loved to see both a Nexus-experience SGS4 and HTC One. Now that would be a tough decision to make.
I wonder if they'll have a manufacturing tweak to fix the throttling, it's a *very* easy fix and a lot of phones use this method as stock so it seems safe enough. People have been putting 0.5mm copper shims and thermal grease between the SoC and metal frame, which acts as a heatsink and mostly fixes things.
I agree. The lack of Android 4.3 or even 4.2.3 was very disappointing. The Nexus 4 has a slew of bluetooth bugs that are still not fixed and Google is taking forever to address them.
Why would Google need to release a "numbered" update for it to matter? All the goodies they announced at the I/O are still great, regardless of your ROM saying 4.2.2 or 4.3 I just don't understand it.
Wait...did you completely fail to read my comment? A "numbered" update matters because I'm waiting for fixes to at least 3 different broken bluetooth functions. If Google wants to surprise us with a bugfix without updating the version number, I'd be happy with that, too. But they haven't done it with the Nexus 4 so I'm not holding my breath.
Cinnabuns, it's Google Distortion field. They ignore all of the bugs in the current version because new shiny things are dangled in front of them.
They do the same thing with Google Earth; 7.0 Did not fix many of the issues in 6.2, introduced new ones, AND they made horrid changes to the UX that no one is happy about. Yet Google basically said 'meh' because the feature makes it look flashier, even if it's less useful for the paying users who need it the old way for production.
As for your bluetooth, I feel your pain. have you tried any of the custom kernels out there? I was having all sorts of stupid Bluetooth issues with my Nexus 7 until I switched to a Motley kernel. Before It would take 5-10 times to connect to certain devices. Now I'd say ~95+ percent of the time it connects on the first go.
Crap like this is why I am giving the Lumia 521 a shot; At 150 with no contract it's fairly obvious that it's a desperate grab by Microsoft and Nokia, hopefully they're just the right amount of desperate to make the thing halfway decent...
Brian, does this mean that this device will work with European Lte bands? I really want this device here in italy (imported obviously) but maybe the best way is to buy un unlocked i9505 here and flash an xda port...
The band table is confusing. Surely that's not *all* the radio frequencies M919 works on? The official specs list GSM 900, and surely GSM and UMTS on 2100 have to work as well...
Perhaps it's just the bands that would be active in the US?
Correct, that isn't the canonical complete listing of bands the device supports, but what was tested and approved as far as the US service markets are concerned. There's no doubt Band 1 and quad band GSM.
Yeah, I'd prefer a Nexus version of the HTC One, but since there is no such stock option the Nexus S4 seems better. HTC's just losing monies there, I figure.
Google probably did this because Samsung doesn't sell Its phones to anyone but telcos in the US and they don't service unlocked phones in the US that were imported from countries where Samsung sold them. I'm one of the people who wanted an unlocked Samsung Galaxy Note with the exynos processor. Samsung only sold it outside the US, but Amazon sold me an imported one. They assured me in writing that it was warranted for two years. It crashed and Amazon wouldn't stand by the warranty and Samsung wouldn't service it since it wasn't sold by them in the US. Now people are able to get the S4 from Google and get it serviced by Google and won't be left out in the cold by Samsung and importers who don't stand by the products they sell. There are many reasons not to buy phones from the telcos, locking being only one of them, bloatware, different processors, shorter battery life and telco bloatware being others.
I want to remind everyone that not even all Samsung manufactured Galaxy Nexus (Nexus 3) models were created equally. Updates were not bleeding edge for several variants. There was a way developed around this in time, but for the average user, you could get stuck with a phone that was still waiting weeks/months to get the latest update, as they were controlled by Samsung instead of Google.
You're referring to toro and toroplus, the Verizon and Sprint variants. Those were basically not Nexus after it became obvious they were subject to operator approval for pushing updates to.
He's not referring to that, he's referring to the Yakuja (I think) and other type of Galaxy Nexus. The firmware updates came from different sources so you could reflash one to the other type. http://forums.androidcentral.com/google-samsung-ga...
It doesn't matter. It will be available only in the US for now so there will be only one version which will receive OTA updates directly from Google. Even for Yakjujp users, they could've installed a vanilla Yakju ROM and receive OTA updates from Google.
One of my big problems with getting the SGS4 was when a few big names behind CyanogenMod came out and said they weren't going to support it due to Samsung's lack of support of the development community (or something like that). This sounds like it changes that, as they don't need Samsung to support the hardware, they have Google for that.
So my question becomes how close is this T-Mobile handset compared to the Verizon one? In my part of the country, Verizon is by far the best carrier. If I get a subsidized carrier locked version, and someone cracks the boot loader to allow third party firmware, how useful will this open Nexus Experience Device be to third party software efforts to the cracked Verizon handset?
Very easy actually... In fact its probably a much better deal to get the S4 on contract, flash a custom recovery and then flash the stock Nexus firmware when Google releases it. Most likely it will not even require modification. If it does someone on XDA will do it and make the ROM available for download.
As far as "cracking the bootloader" on the S4 is concerned it's already good to go...just head over to XDA they have all the instructions there.
Probably the best part of this announcement is not the Handset itself but that now all S4 users will be able to get a very easy to flash stock Google android experience with little to no modification. This essentially makes every S4 a "Nexus" phone.
Spending 700+ for a smartphone for me is outrageous especially considering I can get a very comparable Nexus 4 for half that.
a lot of people asked about a HTC One with nexus experience. I would like to see that also, as it would surely help HTC survive - having already owned 2 phones from HTC on the early smartphone race I know they are really creative folks. And they should not get smashed by samsung like they are being right now. that's bad for market and for us in the future.
anyway, I guess this is not gonna happen. for me personally it doesn't matter, as the One is not even sold in my country, and I believe that the software HTC has put in the One outweights the stock android interface. but now i'm not sure HTC will survive much longer...
HTC not joining the program (even if they could) is a smart move. $649 the One v. $649 the S4..
People will get to see what the geeks will be buying. And for the HTC, Google Play provides them witheven footing since those who buy there end to be better-informed.
"Nexus Experience" S4 sounds nice. I installed SuperNexus on my S3 and it totally transformed the phone. So much smoother, more streamlined and IMO more user-friendly than Touchwiz. In fact when my mom was getting a smartphone, I made sure she got the Galaxy Nexus, and she always comments how simple and easy it is to use.
I don't think anyone wants TouchWiz, Sense, etc. It confuses beginners, and enthusiasts just want to get rid of the bloatware to improve performance and battery life.
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ExodusC - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
I'm assuming the white Nexus 4 is the same Nexus 4 we've seen before (I know you didn't get a chance to check any details about it, so I know you don't know). The most disappointing thing from I/O for me was the lack of any details about Android 4.3. I am glad to hear from the one fireside chat that they plan to continue working on getting rid of jank in the UI.The Nexus-experience SGS4 sounds nice, but I would have loved to see both a Nexus-experience SGS4 and HTC One. Now that would be a tough decision to make.
Brian Klug - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
Supposedly the white Nexus 4 is the same thing as the black Nexus 4 internally, same SoC and cellular band support (no official LTE, etc).I'd also like to see a Nexus experience HTC One. :)
-Brian
tipoo - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
I wonder if they'll have a manufacturing tweak to fix the throttling, it's a *very* easy fix and a lot of phones use this method as stock so it seems safe enough. People have been putting 0.5mm copper shims and thermal grease between the SoC and metal frame, which acts as a heatsink and mostly fixes things.darwinosx - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
HTC has already said it isn't going to happen.ZeDestructor - Saturday, May 18, 2013 - link
You got a source on that?Cinnabuns - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
I agree. The lack of Android 4.3 or even 4.2.3 was very disappointing. The Nexus 4 has a slew of bluetooth bugs that are still not fixed and Google is taking forever to address them.ArmedandDangerous - Saturday, May 18, 2013 - link
Why would Google need to release a "numbered" update for it to matter? All the goodies they announced at the I/O are still great, regardless of your ROM saying 4.2.2 or 4.3 I just don't understand it.Cinnabuns - Monday, May 20, 2013 - link
Wait...did you completely fail to read my comment? A "numbered" update matters because I'm waiting for fixes to at least 3 different broken bluetooth functions. If Google wants to surprise us with a bugfix without updating the version number, I'd be happy with that, too. But they haven't done it with the Nexus 4 so I'm not holding my breath.TO11MTM - Saturday, May 25, 2013 - link
Cinnabuns, it's Google Distortion field. They ignore all of the bugs in the current version because new shiny things are dangled in front of them.They do the same thing with Google Earth; 7.0 Did not fix many of the issues in 6.2, introduced new ones, AND they made horrid changes to the UX that no one is happy about. Yet Google basically said 'meh' because the feature makes it look flashier, even if it's less useful for the paying users who need it the old way for production.
As for your bluetooth, I feel your pain. have you tried any of the custom kernels out there? I was having all sorts of stupid Bluetooth issues with my Nexus 7 until I switched to a Motley kernel. Before It would take 5-10 times to connect to certain devices. Now I'd say ~95+ percent of the time it connects on the first go.
Crap like this is why I am giving the Lumia 521 a shot; At 150 with no contract it's fairly obvious that it's a desperate grab by Microsoft and Nokia, hopefully they're just the right amount of desperate to make the thing halfway decent...
macs - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
Brian, does this mean that this device will work with European Lte bands? I really want this device here in italy (imported obviously) but maybe the best way is to buy un unlocked i9505 here and flash an xda port...s44 - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
The band table is confusing. Surely that's not *all* the radio frequencies M919 works on? The official specs list GSM 900, and surely GSM and UMTS on 2100 have to work as well...Perhaps it's just the bands that would be active in the US?
xdrol - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
It is a shot from an FCC document. I'd be surprised if they did testing for bands that is not available in the USA.Brian Klug - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
Correct, that isn't the canonical complete listing of bands the device supports, but what was tested and approved as far as the US service markets are concerned. There's no doubt Band 1 and quad band GSM.-Brian
Affectionate-Bed-980 - Tuesday, May 21, 2013 - link
what about LTE bands? Should we be expecting the same compatibility the AT&T/T-Mobile S4s currently offer? IMT and IMT-E? No DCS...bleh0 - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
Since HTC isn't providing the stock experience I and many others want I might as well pick up the "Nexus" S4.Jambe - Saturday, May 18, 2013 - link
Yeah, I'd prefer a Nexus version of the HTC One, but since there is no such stock option the Nexus S4 seems better. HTC's just losing monies there, I figure.Nehemoth - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
Any chance that HTC One get the Google treatment?, would love to get an HTC One (CDMA) with Android Stock.darwinosx - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
HTC announced its not going to happen.darwinosx - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
Which is dumb of them.eaanders22 - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
Google probably did this because Samsung doesn't sell Its phones to anyone but telcos in the US and they don't service unlocked phones in the US that were imported from countries where Samsung sold them. I'm one of the people who wanted an unlocked Samsung Galaxy Note with the exynos processor. Samsung only sold it outside the US, but Amazon sold me an imported one. They assured me in writing that it was warranted for two years. It crashed and Amazon wouldn't stand by the warranty and Samsung wouldn't service it since it wasn't sold by them in the US. Now people are able to get the S4 from Google and get it serviced by Google and won't be left out in the cold by Samsung and importers who don't stand by the products they sell. There are many reasons not to buy phones from the telcos, locking being only one of them, bloatware, different processors, shorter battery life and telco bloatware being others.darwinosx - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
The price is what you'd pay for any other SGS4 unlocked without a subsidy, $649Every non-subsidized S 4 I've seen, including direct from Samsung, is $749.
Deusfaux - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
I want to remind everyone that not even all Samsung manufactured Galaxy Nexus (Nexus 3) models were created equally. Updates were not bleeding edge for several variants. There was a way developed around this in time, but for the average user, you could get stuck with a phone that was still waiting weeks/months to get the latest update, as they were controlled by Samsung instead of Google.Brian Klug - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
You're referring to toro and toroplus, the Verizon and Sprint variants. Those were basically not Nexus after it became obvious they were subject to operator approval for pushing updates to.-Brian
eallan - Saturday, May 18, 2013 - link
He's not referring to that, he's referring to the Yakuja (I think) and other type of Galaxy Nexus. The firmware updates came from different sources so you could reflash one to the other type. http://forums.androidcentral.com/google-samsung-ga...Doh! - Saturday, May 18, 2013 - link
It doesn't matter. It will be available only in the US for now so there will be only one version which will receive OTA updates directly from Google. Even for Yakjujp users, they could've installed a vanilla Yakju ROM and receive OTA updates from Google.plastic101 - Friday, May 17, 2013 - link
What about TMo WiFi calling?icrf - Saturday, May 18, 2013 - link
One of my big problems with getting the SGS4 was when a few big names behind CyanogenMod came out and said they weren't going to support it due to Samsung's lack of support of the development community (or something like that). This sounds like it changes that, as they don't need Samsung to support the hardware, they have Google for that.So my question becomes how close is this T-Mobile handset compared to the Verizon one? In my part of the country, Verizon is by far the best carrier. If I get a subsidized carrier locked version, and someone cracks the boot loader to allow third party firmware, how useful will this open Nexus Experience Device be to third party software efforts to the cracked Verizon handset?
novastar78 - Saturday, May 18, 2013 - link
Very easy actually... In fact its probably a much better deal to get the S4 on contract, flash a custom recovery and then flash the stock Nexus firmware when Google releases it. Most likely it will not even require modification. If it does someone on XDA will do it and make the ROM available for download.As far as "cracking the bootloader" on the S4 is concerned it's already good to go...just head over to XDA they have all the instructions there.
novastar78 - Saturday, May 18, 2013 - link
Probably the best part of this announcement is not the Handset itself but that now all S4 users will be able to get a very easy to flash stock Google android experience with little to no modification. This essentially makes every S4 a "Nexus" phone.Spending 700+ for a smartphone for me is outrageous especially considering I can get a very comparable Nexus 4 for half that.
fahadfreid - Saturday, May 18, 2013 - link
I wanted to ask if you'll be doing the review of the Exynos version anytime soon?marc1000 - Saturday, May 18, 2013 - link
a lot of people asked about a HTC One with nexus experience. I would like to see that also, as it would surely help HTC survive - having already owned 2 phones from HTC on the early smartphone race I know they are really creative folks. And they should not get smashed by samsung like they are being right now. that's bad for market and for us in the future.anyway, I guess this is not gonna happen. for me personally it doesn't matter, as the One is not even sold in my country, and I believe that the software HTC has put in the One outweights the stock android interface. but now i'm not sure HTC will survive much longer...
PC Perv - Saturday, May 18, 2013 - link
HTC not joining the program (even if they could) is a smart move. $649 the One v. $649 the S4..People will get to see what the geeks will be buying. And for the HTC, Google Play provides them witheven footing since those who buy there end to be better-informed.
Doesn't take a genius to predict the outcomes..
JimmiG - Friday, May 31, 2013 - link
"Nexus Experience" S4 sounds nice. I installed SuperNexus on my S3 and it totally transformed the phone. So much smoother, more streamlined and IMO more user-friendly than Touchwiz. In fact when my mom was getting a smartphone, I made sure she got the Galaxy Nexus, and she always comments how simple and easy it is to use.I don't think anyone wants TouchWiz, Sense, etc. It confuses beginners, and enthusiasts just want to get rid of the bloatware to improve performance and battery life.