With the Nexus 4, LG finally gets its flagship phone
 The Nexus 4 from LG.
Even though its New York event was pushed off track by Hurricane Sandy, just as expected, Google announced the fourth-generation Nexus smartphone today. An unlocked device, the LG Nexus 4 will arrive in the Google Play online store on November 13 starting at $299 (8GB). Significantly, the Nexus 4 represents a real opportunity for LG to take some clout away from arch rival Samsung, maker of the previous few Nexus devices. One flaw though is the Nexus 4's lack of fast 4G LTE but that likely won't matter to die-hard Android users who crave the swift upgrade path for Google Nexus products.
Google will also sell an unlocked 16GB model for $349, while T-Mobile will offer its own 16GB version for $199 on November 14.  Running 4.2 Jelly Bean, the Nexus 4 uses the latest version of Android.
Design and features
Like the original Nexus One, the LG Nexus 4 delivers the latest version of Google's Android software -- in this case, 4.2 Jelly Bean -- without any manufacturer or carrier skins. Some notable improvements to the operating system include what Google calls the Photo Sphere plus Gesture Typing. Photo Sphere is a feature that lets you stitch multiple images from various directions into a 360-degree super panorama. Gesture Typing, as its name implies, is a text input method that allows users to string letters together by dragging fingers through them on the keyboard similar to Swype.  Gesture Typing lets you string letters together by dragging fingers through them on the keyboard.
The expansive 4.7-inch display has a 1,280x760-pixel resolution and it's all driven by a 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor. LTE is a big miss, and the 8-megapixel camera is not as robust as I'd like, but the handset's sizable 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage show that LG has finally found its flagship phone While the Galaxy Nexus showed plenty of curves, the Nexus 4 is all angles and straight lines. Based on the design of the LG Optimus G, it is the very definition of a slab phone. That's not terrible, but I was hoping for a little more style and perhaps some originality on a Nexus class device, especially from a premier manufacturer such as LG. The display takes up almost the entire front of the device with three touch controls below. The phone's glossy glass back with embedded sparkles does, however, look distinctive
Outlook
The Nexus line has always stood out in Android's immense family and have never failed to win an audience of devoted Android enthusiasts. Starting with the Nexus One and continuing with the Nexus S and the Galaxy Nexus, their biggest draw has always been that they bring the latest flavor of Android without any interference.
As it continues that trend, I've little doubt that the Nexus 4 will prove any different. The design is a little conservative, sparkling back aside, but the bigger concern I have is that the Nexus 4's feature set misses some important points. Unfortunately, that's also been a trend of the Nexus family over the years and it's disappointing that the Nexus 4 couldn't break the mold. Jelly Bean is nice, after all, but Jelly Bean and LTE are even better.
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发表于 2012-10-30 03:42