Android The Nexus conundrum

[Onemufc]

Foreplay:-

So last year , we had the experience of buying a Nexus device officially in India. The phone (N4) hit decent sales and was accepted fairly well. It had its fair share of cons like the sub-standard camera, fragile back and sub-standard battery backup. The phone however did sell well and for months if was a VFM phone in the 20-25 range.

Coming back to present day scenario :- A friend of mine wanted to buy a new phone for 20k and I suggested him Moto X and initially he said No as it was already shooting his budget. Now, I suggested him S3 (No Notes for him) and he snapped back at me saying that S3 is an older phone compared to N4. Now his point being that the phone which gives you the Android experience is so far behind the pecking order after a year while an older flagship of Samsung is still a better phone.

Now he did eventually got the Moto X since he was not very keen on a Samsung device.

The question that has been bugging me is that The Nexus phones are quite VFM when they are launched but they fade away faster than flagships. So as they say that Nexus 5 is the best VFM device right now, but are Nexus series really VFM when you see how they fall back in technology after a year.

Thoughts?

 

[raksrules]

I think the other big giants like Samsung, HTC etc put all those big features (many a times gimmicky) and most people who are also consumers are influenced by them. For those VFM is what they feel gives best bang for buck.
That is the reason screen resolution, megapixels and such things win again and again.

 

[m-jeri]

True that.

I mean, really..how is a 5s upgrade to 5 or S5 upgrade to S4? Other than price increments. 50K for a phone!!!

 

[blr_p]

The question that has been bugging me is that The Nexus phones are quite VFM when they are launched but they fade away faster than flagships. So as they say that Nexus 5 is the best VFM device right now, but are Nexus series really VFM when you see how they fall back in technology after a year.

Thoughts?

What technology is falling back here ?

in terms of ROMs the n4 has the largest selection out there. S600 + 2GB RAM isn't going to become slow for at least another couple of years. So what do people really mean when they say nexus is VFM. Its a developers phone primarily. Its relatively cheap to repair as well.

5s has 64 bit processor, a year later still nobody will be making use of it in a meaningful way and chances are won't be for some time to come. 64 bit was to address more ram. How much more ram do you need in a phone.

It had its fair share of cons like the sub-standard camera, fragile back and sub-standard battery backup.

The only item i agree with in that list is the last one. N4 would have been better off with a 720p screen.

fragile back can be handled with cases and sub standard camera means one needs to upgrade their photography skills.

 

[eternoMind]

The only item i agree with in that list is the last one. N4 would have been better off with a 720p screen.

It does have an HD screen; not FHD!

 

[blr_p]

yeah, it came out before the one, course we only saw it here 6 months later.

 

[ashrr]

I disagree. I think Nexus devices typically have the longest life, simply because of the third party dev scene.

Hardware improvements are diminishing with every year. Software improvements on the other hand consistently make the experience better.

The Galaxy Nexus was given a brand new life when Google put out 4.3 with TRIM for example.

 

[raksrules]

3rd party is important for probably say 1% of the people who buy phones. Rest don't even know what a custom ROM is or there are even 3rd party devs. All they care about is what features the phone gives them OOB. Like samsung markets smart stay and what not. For them since nexus does not have that feature it is a sh1t phone in front of galaxy ones.

 

[Onemufc]

What technology is falling back here ?

in terms of ROMs the n4 has the largest selection out there. S600 + 2GB RAM isn't going to become slow for at least another couple of years. So what do people really mean when they say nexus is VFM. Its a developers phone primarily. Its relatively cheap to repair as well.

5s has 64 bit processor, a year later still nobody will be making use of it in a meaningful way and chances are won't be for some time to come. 64 bit was to address more ram. How much more ram do you need in a phone.


The only item i agree with in that list is the last one. N4 would have been better off with a 720p screen.

fragile back can be handled with cases and sub standard camera means one needs to upgrade their photography skills.

Nexus 4 had a very average camera. Yes good results can be achieved but I was pointing it out in terms of a normal user.

Now, to the first point, I was talking with respect to the user who has no intention of doing custom roms. He just wants to run the phone and even today S3 looks a better phone for him than the N4 which is kind of sad.


People have started to realize with Nexus 5 that how much the android phones are better if you dont buy Samsung. I hope this continues but a lot of people still buy Grand over Moto X.

 

[blr_p]

Nexus 4 had a very average camera. Yes good results can be achieved but I was pointing it out in terms of a normal user.

Only a samsung will please these normal users.

Now, to the first point, I was talking with respect to the user who has no intention of doing custom roms. He just wants to run the phone and even today S3 looks a better phone for him than the N4 which is kind of sad.

For such a person a nexus phone isn't going to be the best as the VFM part stems from the roms. Full on customisation. Latest OS before anyone else and keep on getting after others gave up. The components won't be as high end as they try to get the cost down. You have top end app performance but without top end components.

We discussed S3 vs SP vs Moto g in another thread and moto g won. S3 sounds like a good deal today but its EOL already. So you will have to use custom roms to go further.

What about moto g, we have a 800+ post thread here, evidently there is tremendous interest in that phone. Why not save his 20k and get something for less. If that's not high end enough then he needs to save up more and look at last years flagships instead of S3. For a little more than S3 you get 2GB RAM. Less app suspends than when you only have 1GB RAM to play with.

People have started to realize with Nexus 5 that how much the android phones are better if you dont buy Samsung. I hope this continues but a lot of people still buy Grand over Moto X.

I guess the only way not to buy samsung is to have owned one first. Grand 2 is a pretty solid midrange phone, very much for those 'normal' users if they can put up with the bigger screen. Moto x's camera does not allow any exposure settings, other than that its a great phone. Moto tried to push the envelope further but it i don't know if this 'normal' user will appreciate it. X always struck me as appealing more to those that are bored with the std issue. Battery is avg for x too.