Dr. Strangephone (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Nexus 4)

[FillInThe_____]

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:

 

[El Presidente]

Glad you got that off your chest?

You won't be disappointed with the Nexus 4 if that's what you decide to go with. I was in a similar quandary, I had the cash for the Experia Z, I really, really wanted it but I also liked the look of the N4 and the fact it would be a totally pure android experience.

I wasn't so bothered about the lack of LTE, not many cities over here have it yet and it's unlikely my city will get it for a while anyway. The lack of SD Card was concerning, but if you're smart, I reckon it's manageable.

In the end it came down to price.

The new Experia Z's do look lovely, but I'm more than happy with my choice and I imagine I will be for some time (I'm sure most Nexus 4 owners will say exactly the same thing).

 

[ocnbrze]

the other thing you might want to try is to go into a shop and play with a few of the phones you are interested in. there is nothing like hands on experience. for me the s3 and note 2 are great phones. i can get over the size of them, but the plasticky feel does not sit well with me. i would not have found that out unless i held them in my hands.

plus with hands on you can check out which manufacturer's skin you like better. with samsung you get touchwiz, with htc you get htc sense, and so forth.

 

[kwalla]

I've gone through a similar process.. and, while I don't have the Nexus 4 yet, I will as soon as my contract with Verizon ends. I really wanted a phone that had these things:

wireless charging
NFC chip
charging port on the bottom
Timely updates
Not a massive 5" phone... I carry mine in my pocket and well... size, in this case matters.. and bigger ain't better.

I was shocked to see how few phones fit that simple list.

The N4 is probably a tad too big.. but it's got everything else. I've heard rumors of a mini Galaxy S4 and that sounds most interesting, except for the rumors part.

I don't consume a lot of media like movies or videos on my phone.. I text. I surf the net some, I call people. I play a few basic games (i.e. not graphically intensive. I only have about 3GB of stuff on my current phone, so the Nexus limits don't phase me. I'm fine tying in Dropbox or whatever else for cloud access to things.

In a lot of ways, the N4 is probably way too much phone for me, but I'm thinking it's more a phone that will last many, many years given how I use it. My current phone is a Droid Incredible 2 and... it's starting to freeze on simple tasks or I'd just keep using it.

In the ends, I'm looking at the Nexus 4 to be "good enough" for several years and have a monthly plan that's as cheap as possible.

 

[Davdi]

Like kwalla, my contract ends soon,then it'll be (probably) an N4 and (definitely) a monthly rolling SIM-only plan.

 

[zuben el genub]

I've got the Nexus 4 16g purchased from Google on TMO. TMO has accepted all the crazy phones I've used since I tend to buy my own. The Symbian C6 threw them, though.

I buy my own. Then I don't have any qualms about rooting and getting rid of TMO's extras. The Nexus 4 from Google was a good value. I like mine. It's rooted and I'm checking out ROMs before I install one. I needed a phone that would deal with large DB in a timely manner and not choke.

 

[FillInThe_____]

In the end, it's come down to price. As I said, there aren't really any T-Mobile compatible smartphones on the market that I'm genuinely excited about. If I got the ZL, I'd have to hold on to it for at least two years to justify the cost. With something less expensive, I'll have a bit more flexibility in switching to another phone sometime down the line.

I did get into the store, and I got my hands on a lot of different models. My last phone was an HTC, and I really liked the HTCSense interface. I loved the classic clock/weather widget, and I loved the weather-based backgrounds. I played around with the S3. I didn't like the screen, and I thought it was too thin. I tried out the Galaxy S Relay, HTC One S, One VX, One X+, LG Optimus G, Optimus L9, Spectrum 2, Sony Xperia TL, Motorolla Atrix HD, Droid RAZR Maxx HD, and the Pantech Discover. I really did not like the RAZR's overlay. I'd probably root it with a custom ROM before I left the store.

I noticed a lot of interesting things. One is that 480x800 is way too small. 540x960 is my bare minimum, and 720x1280 is very nice. 4.3"~4.7" is about the right screen size, and perhaps most interesting of all, the "size" of a phone is determined almost exclusively by its width. Anything under ~2.6" feels too small, and anything over ~2.7" feels too big. Doesn't matter how long it is, or how thick it is, if it's in that range, or close to it, then it feels about right.

I've given up on the ZL, but I'm taking another look at the LG Spectrum 2. Of the phones I tried, it was by far my favorite. From a practical perspective, it's actually fairly comparable to the N4. Sure it's dual-core instead of quad, has 1GB RAM instead of two, and comes with ICS instead of Jelly Bean, but damn it, it has a microSD slot, a removable battery, and dedicated capacitive buttons. Not to mention it's only $200 more expensive. I don't know if supports HSPA+, and even if it did, I don't know if it would get HSPA+ 42 (I read somewhere that HSPA+ 21 would be in the PCS band and 42 would be in AWS. I don't know if that's true.) Despite the compatibility issues, the more I think about it, the more I think this might be the phone for me.

 

[lightsleeper23]

Sure it's dual-core instead of quad, has 1GB RAM instead of two, and comes with ICS instead of Jelly Bean, but damn it, it has a microSD slot, a removable battery, and dedicated capacitive buttons.

Ditto on everything you said on the L9, and its only $200 period if you get the prepaid version from best buy or whatever...which is the exact same phone just without the fancy box.

I've never played with a spectrum 2 maybe it feels more high end I don't know, I'm just strictly talking about the points you mentioned. And the L9 is hspa+ 21. Not 42, but still fast.

 

[FillInThe_____]

The L9 is actually where this particular journey began. Back before the "Un-Carrier" switch, I was hanging out in the store, and I saw the L9 for $80 w/ contract. I came back later to get set up, and realized that the salesman and I had a miscommunication. He had showed me the Value plans, and neglected to differentiate them from the Classic plans. So what I thought was an $80 phone, would actually be $300 (it would have been $200 if I went prepaid. Go figure.) Well, if I'm paying full price for a phone, I may as well pay full price for a good phone. That's where the N4 came in, and that's where the SD slot debate began.

There are actually several key differences between the L9 and the Spectrum 2. The L9 is 540x960 vs 720x1280, 1GHz vs 1.5, 4 GB internal storage vs 16, and has Bluetooth v3 vs v4. It also only has a 5MP camera vs 8, and a 0.3 MP front camera vs 1.3, but that's not as big a deal. More interesting is that it doesn't have a light sensor, so it can't automatically adjust the brightness of the screen (a feature which I like), but most interesting of all is that according to both PhoneArena and GSMArena, it only supports UMTS(/HSPA+?) on AWS. So if you're ever roaming, or if you want to unlock it or use it internationally, you'll be restricted to EDGE. If I'm reading this right. I'm still pretty new to all these acronyms.

 

[FillInThe_____]

I finally made a decision. I found a (theoretically) NIB Spectrum 2 for $275 on e-bay. Price was not the great equalizer, but it did help. Ultimately, the N4's HSPA+ (and to a lesser extent, Jelly Bean + future updates) was not enough to make up for the missing SD slot and on-screen OS buttons. There is, of course, the usual risk associated with e-bay, so I won't get too complacent until I have the Spectrum in-hand, but I think this will be a good phone to tide me over for now. I'll probably keep an eye on the ZL's price (which, of course, I don't expect to come down anytime soon. If ever.), and also stay in touch with LTE devices, but at least I've overcome my device paralysis. For now, at least.

EDIT: Got my device and my SIM and everything seems to be going okay. Here's hoping T-Mobile starts rolling out some LTE phones, and here's hoping for the comeback of the microSD!