Should I buy this or the HTC One?

omnius said:

I'm going to admit I'm biased already on several levels:

• I hate waiting for OS updates from carriers/OEM's
• My usual M.O. is not to be an early adopter of any just-released tech
• The N4 specs aren't that far behind the 2013 flagships
• My carrier supports DC HSPA speeds
• No bloatware

But I have a few questions:

Do you think judging by past patterns, that the N4 will continue to get updates well ahead of HTC for the next year from April even though it's been out since November 2012?

Do you think the N4's specs will give it a shelf life as long as the HTC One for at least another year in terms of performance and speed?

How is 4.2.2 on the N4? Did it still remain fast? Is this a fast and lag free phone compared to this year's OEM flagships? I played around with its carrier branded sister the LGOG and it was extremely fast and smooth just running in ICS so I'm hoping the N4 on JB is also, is it?

And just for the record, I'm not concerned about another Nexus hitting the shelf this fall, if that happens I'll just ebay this one and buy the next.

Thanks in advance!

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Just got my N4 and I can attest that it is a totally lag free experience and I've been ripping through it trying to slow it down and I just can't. I never used a previous version of JB on this device but this phone is just fast and responsive at everything I have done with it.

The HTC One has a higher rez screen, great build quality and will benchmark higher, but the responsiveness on the N4 is already practically instantaneous on anything I throw at it.

Carriers will always be slower to update. You will be loaded with bloatware. You will be locked into a contract for two years (unless you buy it outright, which may be feasible for you, dunno). IMO the N4 just makes so much more sense. You will save a ton of money on your plan, you can upgrade or switch phones whenever you want to, you get the latest and greatest that Android has to offer on day 1 and you can customize your experience to your liking without an ounce of bloatware.

As an owner of a Galaxy Nexus (retired), a Nexus 7 and now a Nexus 4, I can say without a doubt that the N4 is the best piece of tech I've ever owned. It is remarkably fast, feels great in terms of build, and is a true Nexus. So it will get updates faster than any phone on the market...period.

I love my new Nexus 4.

As above the N4 is incredibly quick. I like to customize my homescreen etc so I used to use Apex but have moved onto Nova Launcher Prime and I can't believe how quick it is to respond compared to Apex. But the N4 is worth its weight in gold. Apart from the early days of Nokia I've since been an Android fan and with the N4 is the best so far running it.

Simply put the N4 has endless possibilities IMHO and I feel like its only scraped the surface to what it can do (this phone will have key lime pie day one). As for customization take your pick. I personally love my phone with PACman and Franco's kernel ;-)

On another note, if you wanna go for the full effect I suggest enjoying 4.2.2 but on the lower .33 baseband (opposed to .48). Why? It allows the possibility of doing a bit of a "hack" that gives you LTE capability. Of course you would have to have LTE in your area, but if you do...what a treat to witness speeds so fast.

Congratulations, I think you will be very happy with your decision! :thumbup:

I love my N4, and for a ph one being only out since nov of 2012, I think it will still be able to go head to head with other phones coming out just as the GS3 has been for so long, 2gb of ram, 1.5 ghz S4pro, great build. For the price and it being unlocked you can't really beat it.

Now if you have to have a heavily skinned android that has keen features like a Galaxy or HTC phone then i'd go with that.

omnius said:

Do you think judging by past patterns, that the N4 will continue to get updates well ahead of HTC for the next year from April even though it's been out since November 2012?

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Of course. The n4 will continue to get updates basically immediately after their release. HTC or Samsung will take a few months at best. This will always be the case until a few years down the line when google stops updating the n4, but samsung and htc will probably stop updating their phones before google stops their updates.

Do you think the N4's specs will give it a shelf life as long as the HTC One for at least another year in terms of performance and speed?

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The most important thing as far as shelf life is processor. The n4's quad core processor will keep it relevant as far as performance and being compatible with future android versions for at least 3 - 4 years.

How is 4.2.2 on the N4? Did it still remain fast? Is this a fast and lag free phone compared to this year's OEM flagships? I played around with its carrier branded sister the LGOG and it was extremely fast and smooth just running in ICS so I'm hoping the N4 on JB is also, is it?

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I can assure you that the n4 is both "fast" and "lag-free". In comparison, I used to have a galaxy nexus which was fast, but still had some lag, or hiccups here and there. I do not experience this with the nexus 4. It is basically perfectly smooth.

New N4 user here and I can certainly attest to it being very fast.

But then again I'm coming from the LG Optimus 2x, which was one of the slowest dual-core phones ever (albeit it was first to market).