Kind of a long story. I'll try and keep it short. The short version starts with me in the market for a smartphone. It didn't take long to realize that T-Mobile would be my carrier. Verizon is too pricy, AT&T isn't much better, and Sprint, well, they're Sprint. So T-Mobile it is. Now all I need is a phone.
A phone. Shouldn't be too hard, should it? Well, turns out, as much as I like T-Mobile's plans (comparatively speaking), their phone selection sucks. Sure they have the Galaxy S3 and the Note 2, but for those of us who don't want to walk around with a ceiling tile plastered to our face, and still want enough processing power for our phone to be useful, there aren't a lot of options.
Enter the Nexus 4. Indisputably the best value in the smartphone market. Quad-core processor, 2 GB RAM, and the purest Android experience mankind has ever known. But what's this? No SD slot? No removable battery? No LTE compatibility? (all rooting hacks aside) Huh. Maybe I should look elsewhere.
So I did. Phonearena.com has become my best friend, and together, we scoured the smartphone universe looking for the one phone that would be right for me, and one phone kept rising to the top: the Sony Xperia ZL. Not a bad phone by any means. SD slot, Band 4 LTE, 1920x1080 display; still no removable battery or dedicated Android buttons, and it's still the size of a ceiling tile, but hey, at least it has the resolution to back it up! But is it a better option than the Nexus 4? Spec-wise, I'd say yes; price-wise, I'd say no. Ordinarily, I'd say that the specs outweigh the price, but there's one other consideration that needs to be taken into account. Hype.
Like most things in life, choosing a cell phone is little more than a popularity contest, and right now, it seems like there are only three phones getting the buzz. The Nexus 4, the HTC One, and the Samsung S4. Not the Xperia ZL. Why does this matter? Well, there are a number of reasons. One is support. The more common the phone, the more likely you'll be able find a solution to any problems you may have. Next is development. Want official updates? Want to root your phone? Good luck getting OS updates or finding ROMs if your phone is only used by three other people in the world. And last but not least, accessories. If you want options, then you'd better get the phone that's getting all the hype.
Take all that into account, and suddenly the Nexus 4 looks a lot better. It's clearly the better value, and in terms of popularity, it's clearly the better phone. So why can't I let go of the SD slot? Why can't I embrace The Cloud? Why can't I just learn to love the Nexus 4? Honestly, I can't say (at least, not without making this post significantly longer than it already is). What I can say is that the Nexus 4 makes it damned difficult to justify the cost of the ZL, and the ZL makes it damned difficult to settle for the specs of the Nexus 4. I should just get the Nexus 4 and be done with it, but knowing that and doing that are two very different things.
FWIW, I wouldn't be in this predicament if the LG Spectrum 2 supported AWS.
Post-Script:
I wrote it, I may as well post it. Originally, I was going to post this in the T-Mobile forum. It was supposed to be a post making the case for the Nexus 4, but when I got to the end, I realized I was still conflicted. I was (and am) hesitant to post this, since I'm not really asking any questions, or bringing up any new topics that haven't already been discussed to death, but still, it was helpful to me to write it, and maybe it will be helpful to someone to read it. Here's hoping! :beer:
A phone. Shouldn't be too hard, should it? Well, turns out, as much as I like T-Mobile's plans (comparatively speaking), their phone selection sucks. Sure they have the Galaxy S3 and the Note 2, but for those of us who don't want to walk around with a ceiling tile plastered to our face, and still want enough processing power for our phone to be useful, there aren't a lot of options.
Enter the Nexus 4. Indisputably the best value in the smartphone market. Quad-core processor, 2 GB RAM, and the purest Android experience mankind has ever known. But what's this? No SD slot? No removable battery? No LTE compatibility? (all rooting hacks aside) Huh. Maybe I should look elsewhere.
So I did. Phonearena.com has become my best friend, and together, we scoured the smartphone universe looking for the one phone that would be right for me, and one phone kept rising to the top: the Sony Xperia ZL. Not a bad phone by any means. SD slot, Band 4 LTE, 1920x1080 display; still no removable battery or dedicated Android buttons, and it's still the size of a ceiling tile, but hey, at least it has the resolution to back it up! But is it a better option than the Nexus 4? Spec-wise, I'd say yes; price-wise, I'd say no. Ordinarily, I'd say that the specs outweigh the price, but there's one other consideration that needs to be taken into account. Hype.
Like most things in life, choosing a cell phone is little more than a popularity contest, and right now, it seems like there are only three phones getting the buzz. The Nexus 4, the HTC One, and the Samsung S4. Not the Xperia ZL. Why does this matter? Well, there are a number of reasons. One is support. The more common the phone, the more likely you'll be able find a solution to any problems you may have. Next is development. Want official updates? Want to root your phone? Good luck getting OS updates or finding ROMs if your phone is only used by three other people in the world. And last but not least, accessories. If you want options, then you'd better get the phone that's getting all the hype.
Take all that into account, and suddenly the Nexus 4 looks a lot better. It's clearly the better value, and in terms of popularity, it's clearly the better phone. So why can't I let go of the SD slot? Why can't I embrace The Cloud? Why can't I just learn to love the Nexus 4? Honestly, I can't say (at least, not without making this post significantly longer than it already is). What I can say is that the Nexus 4 makes it damned difficult to justify the cost of the ZL, and the ZL makes it damned difficult to settle for the specs of the Nexus 4. I should just get the Nexus 4 and be done with it, but knowing that and doing that are two very different things.
FWIW, I wouldn't be in this predicament if the LG Spectrum 2 supported AWS.
Post-Script:
I wrote it, I may as well post it. Originally, I was going to post this in the T-Mobile forum. It was supposed to be a post making the case for the Nexus 4, but when I got to the end, I realized I was still conflicted. I was (and am) hesitant to post this, since I'm not really asking any questions, or bringing up any new topics that haven't already been discussed to death, but still, it was helpful to me to write it, and maybe it will be helpful to someone to read it. Here's hoping! :beer: