After reading about the Google employee “leaving” the Nexus 4 in a San Francisco bar (what is it with leaving rumored devices in bars, anyway?) I got curious to see if I could find out any more information about it. Unfortunately, the Google event scheduled to be held on October 29 has been cancelled due to the approaching Hurricane Sandy, which is due to arrive in New York City during that time. However, that doesn’t mean that there was nothing to be found on the device. As always, somebody’s found something that leaks a good bout of information, so assuming these findings are true, I’ve got a pretty good idea of what to expect of this device.
First of all, I can say I’m surprised that Google has decided to let LG make a Nexus phone. Not that there’s anything against LG, but I’ve always known them to be the ones to make lower end Androids and popular messaging phones for a while there. The LG Viper was a pretty sleek looking device with its NOVA display, but it still wasn’t exactly “up there” with the HTC One X or HTC EVO LTE, or the Samsung Galaxy Nexus which were being released around the same time. I’m wondering if Google is letting all of the major manufacturers take a ride on the Nexus train, and if so, it would have made more sense to me if they had let Motorola take a stab at it before LG.
The specs were at first rumored to have a choice between 8 GB or 16 GB, which doesn’t sound all that great considering the Galaxy Nexus just came in 16 GB. With memory becoming more and more of a demanded spec I would expect it to come in 16 GB and 32 GB variants. However, as it turns out, coming straight from LG (on accident) the device will only be released in a 16 GB variant, so it’s a happy medium. As expected, there is presumably no slot for expandable memory on the Nexus 4. The Nexus line never seems to play well with expandable memory, so although I think it would be a nice addition it wasn’t expected.
The specs are said to have a quad-core Qualcomm APQ8064 Snapdragon processor clocking in at 1.5 GHz. This device is also rumored to be one of the first to run Android 4.2, also known as Jelly Bean. These specs definitely look nice on paper, and coming from LG this might be a good break for them. As I mentioned before, the Viper was actually a decent phone, and it had something new to offer. Although I assume the design of the Nexus 4 will be similar to all of the other Nexus devices, I’m wondering if they’re able to pull off something to make it stand out design-wise.
I haven’t been able to find anything on the camera specs or the battery life, but assuming it’s a new device it will hopefully learn from the “Ghost of Smartphones Past” and improve on poor battery life. I assume the camera will at least be 8 MP, but the Galaxy Nexus trumped my assumption of that by proudly boasting a great big… 5 MP camera. I think if Google released two Nexus phones in a row with 5 MP when 8 is pretty much the norm for higher end Androids, heads will be a-shaking. I know mine would be.
Obviously all of this is still, for the most part, speculation with some leaked facts (such as owner’s manuals released on LG’s website) to support them. When the event does happen is when we’ll officially be able to tell exactly what this device has to offer us.
What do you think about a Nexus made by LG? Do these rumored specs look good to you, or were you expecting something a little more extravagant? Let me know your thoughts!
