News - Google underestimated Nexus 4 popularity by a factor of ten

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LG blames Google for the stock problems.

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Read more.

Been trying to get one since it came out. When I have spare readies its out of stock and when I'm broke... Go figure :D

Even when it is 'in stock' I would be careful, my order has been pending since 6th December and I have no idea when £289 will suddenly be removed from my account.

Samsung were competing with themselves with the Nexus devices, why buy a Nexus when their flagship handset was usually better? However, this time the price is very good for the spec

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Originally Posted by Scarlet Infidel

Even when it is 'in stock' I would be careful, my order has been pending since 6th December and I have no idea when £289 will suddenly be removed from my account.

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Probably soon, I snuck in an order at the start of Dec and it arrived on the 31st. Worth the wait, bloody good bit of tech and at £279 it's more than a steal. £239 for the 8GB is also amazing value if you're not a big storage user.

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Originally Posted by 3dcandy

Samsung were competing with themselves with the Nexus devices, why buy a Nexus when their flagship handset was usually better? However, this time the price is very good for the spec

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Lower SIM-free unlocked cost (on Amazon the G-Nex was <£300 a few months ago when the SGS3 was >£400), lack of bloat is nice considering they all have 1GB RAM, slightly smaller size (Mrs kingpotnoodle thinks her G-Nex is hard to hold so she'd not like an S3)...

You would of thought they'd all of learnt from the hp touchpad and even the nexus 7, if something is perceived to be cheap / bargain even if it's flawed it'll sell like hot cakes.
If there is going to be a stock shortage people buy them for a quick profit! Nex 10's have been selling at over £500 on ebay.

I guess the nex 7 got the ball rolling for the nexus brand as the 4 & 10 have pretty much been out of stock since launch. Every time it's in stock they're all sold out again in hours. For a while they kept on taking orders but they even had to suspend that.
Plenty for sale on ebay though at almost twice the price from google ...

I ordered mine on the 9th Dec and they took the money yesterday, being delivered tomorrow. Very bloody excited!

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Originally Posted by 3dcandy

Samsung were competing with themselves with the Nexus devices, why buy a Nexus when their flagship handset was usually better? However, this time the price is very good for the spec

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Actually that's what I was thinking too - although the attractions of getting the OS direct from Google are self-evident. I seriously looked at the then-current Nexus at the time the S3 came out and decided that I liked the higher spec of the S3 more than the software advantages of the Nexus. That, plus that the Nexus is non-upgradeable storage (and battery?)

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Originally Posted by keithwalton

You would of thought they'd all of learnt from the hp touchpad and even the nexus 7, if something is perceived to be cheap / bargain even if it's flawed it'll sell like hot cakes.

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Very true, and is it just me or is there some finger pointing going on here. Google saying it's LG not making enough, and LG counterclaiming that Google told them to make too few. Probably equally at fault in this case, although LG's always struck me as a little "half-hearted" in their phones - more of a case of "Samsung do it, so we should too" rather than any real desire.

Being a bargain though doesn't make something bad though - we've got three TouchPad's in the house (one on WebOS, two on Android) and all three are going strong and cost less (in total!) than a single comparable iPad. :D

I missed delivery of mine today. ARGH! To be fair its almost exactly 6 weeks after I ordered and it said 5-6 weeks at that time, so I can hardly complain. If only TNT would give a better delivery window than 9:00-18:00 :(

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Originally Posted by Champman99

I missed delivery of mine today. ARGH! To be fair its almost exactly 6 weeks after I ordered and it said 5-6 weeks at that time, so I can hardly complain. If only TNT would give a better delivery window than 9:00-18:00 :(

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Where were you! I'd forgo my shat-shave-shower until it arrived!

Had mine delivered around the 22nd or something close before christmas, awesome bit of tech and I am glad I bought it as the difference between my Optimus 2x is HUGE! Comparing it to my mates S3 it blows it away, it is just in general snappy no perceivable lag (unless you call loading an app 'lag' which is entirely dependent on that app!) only con so far is the less than average battery life, stock experience left me with less than a day useage and less than 2 hours onscreen! Moving over to a custom ROM and kernel has greatly improved this but it still needs to go alot further :(. Also the screen need calibrating, still trying to get mine looking good but it pales incomparison to my O2x which was an IPS screen, the colours are just washed out, just requires a bit of effort then it will be flawless :).

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Originally Posted by Hicks12

Had mine delivered around the 22nd or something close before christmas, awesome bit of tech and I am glad I bought it as the difference between my Optimus 2x is HUGE! Comparing it to my mates S3 it blows it away, it is just in general snappy no perceivable lag (unless you call loading an app 'lag' which is entirely dependent on that app!) only con so far is the less than average battery life, stock experience left me with less than a day useage and less than 2 hours onscreen! Moving over to a custom ROM and kernel has greatly improved this but it still needs to go alot further :(. Also the screen need calibrating, still trying to get mine looking good but it pales incomparison to my O2x which was an IPS screen, the colours are just washed out, just requires a bit of effort then it will be flawless :).

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Hey Hicks, you and I have very had very similar experiences again! Got mine on the 19th or there abouts, took me about 2 hours before I decided it was time to root and install a new rom. Tried Modaco, CM10.1 and have settled on AOKP for now using Nova Launcher. Finding it very fast, not laggy at all and loving it considering the cost of the device, however like you I'm pretty disappointed with the screen colours compared to my SGN and O2X. I've tried calibrating it and so far not had much success, vibrant colours appear to be a no no with this screen. However I am suprised that you found the SG3 laggy as generally I've not encountered it especially when running pure android on it.

Sorry if my post implied that the S3 was really laggy, it was just compared to my mates JB S3 it was noticeably faster :P, snappier is definitely the word!.

And yeah for the price I cannot fault it, in the end I have got this device for £280 (shipping refunded) and I sold my O2x for £90 meaning only £190 upgrade :D, add to that the price of a sim only (when my current one ends) is £8 a month I am looking at a very cheap £16 contract compared to my current £17 which in itself was a bargain :).

What kernel have you been using? Faux kernel has gamma controls for the display which drastically effects its performance, unfortunately I didnt think much of the kernel and he hasnt dropped that out for everyone else to use afaik :(. My kernel of choice atm is Matr1x it certainly seems the best with regard to battery life and standard performance.

Im glad you're enjoying your device as much as me, certainly is a great buy and I have a funny feeling we will be upgrading at a similar time again haha.

My S3 has got a tiny bit slower since the upgrade to Jellybean. but plenty fast enough for me...non replaceable battery and no extra storage are deal breakers though in my book!

@ Hicks - AOKP (mr1_build 2) uses a Faux kernal as standard and to be honest in this rom I'm finding it perfectly acceptable, battery performance wise. However it doesn't have colour calibration controls in it as standard, or at least not that I've found yet.

Previously with MCR I tried Faux (mainly because of gamma controls) and Franco kernal, which was excellent. There was also an app I used for Gamma control but for the life of me I cant remember what it was called but found it via a thread on xda which had a chart of users gamma settings.

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Originally Posted by 3dcandy

My S3 has got a tiny bit slower since the upgrade to Jellybean. but plenty fast enough for me...non replaceable battery and no extra storage are deal breakers though in my book!

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Did you get the recent ELLA firmware upgrade - that seems to have fixed whatever was screwing up the app switching, although mine still seems to take a second or two to go to "full power" performance from power save mode.

Oh, and if any of your iPhone owning friends/colleagues etc are giving you grief over having a "mere" S3, so 'em the new Gallery app. The speed which it can do the spiral and "star wars titles" presentation of images is a good slagging-stopper. ;)

(Not that there's anything wrong with an iPhone before anyone accuses me of being an S3 fan boy).

Must say Jim I flashed Matr1x 6.0 kernel (new release) and hes added the gamma controls, loving life as I had visited that spreadsheet on xda with everyones settings and I can safely say that my screen now looks really nice, more vibrant than my Dell u2311h and this LG 23" IPS panel which is extremely acceptable to me :).
Settings were:
LG Presets
R: 255
G: 255
B: 255
Gamma amp 0
R: 29
G: 29
B: 29
Gamma amp 1
R:0
G:0
B:0

Cannot believe the difference, obviously all displays are different but this to me seems bang on the money :D.

I know the con people mention is the non removable battery and storage, for me I cant see the issue as I never removed my battery from my O2x unless it broke (this Nexus seems so much better!) and the N4 has additional hardware resets built in, if I wanted a second battery I would just carry around my external battery pack :). Storage I never filled up my O2x which had 8GB onboard and an 8GB microsd, plenty for me :).

Cant fault it now, batterylife is actually improving :).

Have a 32gig microSD card in my SGS 3 with over 16 gig of music on it. Went to a mates the other day and used the phone as a big USB stick and he copied over a dvd for me to take with me...

@Hicks - I'll check out that kernal and see if it's compatable with my rom. If so I'll have another play with the gamma settings.

*Edit* Ok Matr1x kernal installed and working but can't find gamma controls, any pointers mate??

*Edit2* Nevermind installed the previously purchased FauxClock app and that gives me back gamma controls.

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Originally Posted by 3dcandy

Have a 32gig microSD card in my SGS 3 with over 16 gig of music on it. Went to a mates the other day and used the phone as a big USB stick and he copied over a dvd for me to take with me...

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On the other end of the spectrum I'm in a city with great 3G coverage so I have no music stored bar what Google Music caches, and if I want a movie I stream it from my home PC (or more likely my server in France which I use for L4D matches, minecraft, etc.) The only time this becomes an issue is on the train where 3G is unreliable, but they have plugs and I have a laptop so no problem. I'm just saying that there are loads of different use-cases and for anyone with a good unlimited data plan and reliable coverage then microSD cards and huge amounts of internal storage might not make sense.

I understand that, I make no judgement but for me 16 gigs internal isn't enough! Also removeable battery is for when I go camping and can be away from a power source for longer than perhaps others. Just before my next trip I'll get another battery from fleabay (which blind person did their redesign by the way?) and I'll be sorted

Oh yes of course if you use alot of storage then fair game, my friend carries most of his music collection with him (60GB of mp3s!) and so didnt bother with it, I just think its an extremely personal requirement :). And with regards to batteries yes that is one normal situation however I would much prefer something like this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...=1&s=computers
First item on a quck search, more practical for me as you dont need to remove it from the phone to charge it, just charge straight from there and it works for multiple devices :).

Thats just my opinion though, clearly that is why the N4 didnt suite you and fair game as no phone satisfies everyones needs :D

Let me know how you get on Jim, hopefully you get it looking good aswell :). Also how much have you undervolted your cpu? I have -150mV across all frequencies and 288mhz is -162.5mV.

my only problem with that is it's £18 discounted from £50 and a battery is £4 inc. delivery. I have toyed with buying something similar before, just not quite took the plunge.

I am always sceptical of reported battery ratings when buying cheap batteries :P, but to put it in perspective the 5600mAh battery is £18 and its 2.6 times larger which brings the price down to around £7 which isnt much more than your battery which cant be charged independently. Oh and that was just an example I know there are cheaper ones around :).

Obviously what ever floats your boat and it seems you're in a good routine/setup :), I would just rather dump this thing in my bag and simply connect it to the phone if I want to charge it.

Hick12 - any indication of how much more battery life you get with your setup vs stock?

I flashed my old ZTE Blade and Acer Liquid Metal but it was always a pain and I'm happy with stock android and 'fast enough' in general. Only thing lacking is battery life on my N4 so I was curious....

As an aside, I don't think it's as physically pretty as the S3 and in many way I thought the back hump and curved screen on the Nexus S (and poss GNex) helped make them prettier, individual and nicer to hold. The N4 is just a flat slab (too much like an iphone in that sense). But the value is inarguable.

For the money it represents good value but then Google are selling it at practically cost price.

Having had both devices I think s3 is the overall better package and just has those little touches that make it nicer to use.

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Originally Posted by Noli

Hick12 - any indication of how much more battery life you get with your setup vs stock?

I flashed my old ZTE Blade and Acer Liquid Metal but it was always a pain and I'm happy with stock android and 'fast enough' in general. Only thing lacking is battery life on my N4 so I was curious....

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Easily get a day out of mine. Custom ROM (AOKP + Matr1x) & kernel.

Very cheap for the specs!

On an iPhone contract so may switch after it's up!