Google Nexus 4 vs Apple iPhone 5
In this holiday season, there were two smartphones that took the center of the marketing race among customers. One smartphone is Samsung Galaxy S III which was released sometime back and hence had a competitive advantage over the other smartphones. Samsung also launched a huge marketing campaign with featured taglines that ensured the attention on their product. The other eye catcher was obviously Apple iPhone 5 which was announced only a month back. It was again one of the most anticipated Apple products among consumers thanks to the loyal customer base Apple has. Although it doesn’t seem much changed at the face, Apple fans took the brave initiative to buy and use it. They might have thought that this was the major competition they would have. Unfortunately they are wrong because with the introduction of Google Nexus 4 manufactured by LG for Google, LG and Google have pushed their boundaries and presented a high end smartphone at a cheap budget price. This is definitely going to be a top attraction in this holiday season even though it was introduced only recently. We have already compared it with Samsung Galaxy S III and now let’s take it for a ride with Apple iPhone 5 and observe where it stands.
Google Nexus 4 Review
According to Google’s new naming convention, LG Google Nexus 4 comes with a display that falls in the 4 inch range. To be precise, it’s 4.7 inch True HD IPS Plus Capacitive touchscreen display featuring a resolution of 1280 x 768 pixels at a pixel density of 318ppi. It looks almost the same as its predecessor Samsung Galaxy Nexus while Nexus 4 has introduced a black frame surrounding the display. The back plate of Nexus 4 seems to be made of toughened glass which has an attractive pattern hidden below its surface. Unlike its predecessor, Nexus 4 has a flat display panel although it does compromise around the frame in order to facilitate the prominent gestures used in Android.
As we have mentioned, Google claims that LG Google Nexus 4 has the best processor in the smartphone market. First off, we know better not to contradict Google, and second off, given the specifications of the smartphone, that is something we can’t deny. LG Google Nexus 4 is powered by 1.5GHz Krait Quad Core processor on top of Qualcomm APQ8064 Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset along with Adreno 320 GPU and 2GB of RAM. This is undoubtedly the best configuration that we can find in a smartphone nowadays and benchmarking tests will confirm Google’s claims. There are two storage versions ranging from 8GB to 16GB while providing no support for expansion using microSD cards. This might be a turn off for some high end customers who are used to keep a lot of media content in their smartphones, but hey, 16GB is a fair amount to be used.
Nexus 4 will only feature 3G HSDPA connectivity. Google has not issued any official statement about a follow-up with 4G LTE connectivity right now although that may well happen in the future. Right now, Google knows that most of the 4G LTE networks are in their infancy and hence they concentrate on keeping the smartphone compact and hence offer it at a reduced price range. The Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n connectivity ensures continuous communication even if 3G connectivity is not available. Nexus 4 also has Near Field Connectivity which is an interesting addition to have. Another attractive feature in Nexus 4 is the ability to use inductive charging. In Layman’s terms, LG Nexus 4 will be able to use wireless charging ability given you buy the supplementary Google’s wireless charging orb.
The operating system used is Android OS v4.2 which is still called Jelly Bean. However, there seem to have many new features that have been added to v4.2 so you will crave for the update. What’s more, as usual, Nexus 4 comes in Vanilla Android OS which is great news for ardent Android fans. The camera is at 8MP which has become the norm among the smartphones in this range. However, some new features including Photo Sphere which is a 360 degree panorama are included with the new operating system. The front facing camera is 1.3MP and you can use it for video conferencing. The rear camera has LED flash and enables you to capture 1080p HD videos at a frame rate of 30 frames per second. LG Google Nexus 4 comes with a juicy battery of 2100 mAh which is going to last a full day at the most astringent conditions. The 8GB version is to be priced at £239 and the 16GB version will be priced at £279 to be released from 13th November. Right now, the availability is restricted to Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Canada, UK and USA but Google promises that it would be ubiquitous by the end of November.
Apple iPhone 5 Review
Apple iPhone 5 that was announced on 12th September comes as the successor for prestigious Apple iPhone 4S. The phone was launched on the 21st of September to the stores, and already getting some pretty good impressions by those who have put their hands on the device.. Apple claims iPhone 5 to be the thinnest smartphone in the market scoring a thickness of 7.6mm which is really cool. It scores dimensions of 123.8 x 58.5mm and 112g of weight which makes it lighter than most of the smartphones out there in the world. Apple has kept the width at the same pace while making it taller in order to let the customers hang on to the familiar width when they hold the handset in their palms. It is made entirely from glass and Aluminum which is a great news for artistic consumers. No one would doubt the premium nature of this handset for Apple has tirelessly engineered even the smallest parts. The two tone back plate feels genuinely metallic and is pleasing to hold on to the handset. We particularly loved the Black & Slate model although Apple offers a White & Silver model, as well.
iPhone 5 uses an Apple A6 chipset along with Apple iOS 6 as the operating system. It will be powered by a 1GHz Dual Core processor that Apple has come up with for iPhone 5. This processor is said to have Apple’s own SoC using ARM v7 based instruction set. The cores are based on Cortex A7 architecture which was previously rumored to be of A15 architecture. It is to be noted that this is not the Vanilla Cortex A7, but rather an in-house modified version of Apple’s Cortex A7 probably fabricated by Samsung. Apple iPhone 5 being a LTE smartphone, we are bound to expect some deviation from the normal battery life. However, Apple has addressed that problem with the custom made Cortex A7 cores. As you can see, they haven’t increased the clock frequency at all, but instead, they have been successful in increasing the number of instructions executed per clock. Also, it was noticeable in the GeekBench benchmarks that the memory bandwidth has been significantly improved, as well. So all in all, now we have reason to believe that Tim Cook wasn’t exaggerating when he claimed that iPhone 5 is twice as faster as iPhone 4S. The internal storage would come in three variations of 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB with no option to expand storage using microSD card.
Apple iPhone 5 has 4 inch LED backlit IPS TFT capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 1136 x 640 pixels at a pixel density of 326ppi. It is said to have 44% better color saturation with full sRGB rendering enabled. The usual Corning gorilla glass coating is available making the display scratch resistant. Apple CEO Tim Cook claims that this is the most advanced display panel in the world. Apple also claimed that the GPU performance is as twice better compared to iPhone 4S. There may be several other possibilities for them to achieve this, but we have reason to believe that the GPU is PowerVR SGX 543MP3 with a slightly overclocked frequency compared to that of iPhone 4S. Apple has apparently moved the headphone port all the down to the bottom of the smartphone. If you have invested in iReady accessories, you may well have to buy a conversion unit because Apple has introduced a new port for this iPhone.
The handset comes with 4G LTE connectivity as well as CDMA connectivity in different versions. The implications of this are subtle. Once you commit to a network provider and a specific version of Apple iPhone 5, there’s no going back. You can’t buy an AT&T model and then transfer the iPhone 5 to Verizon or Sprint’s network without buying another iPhone 5. So you will have to think rather carefully on what you want before committing to a handset. Apple boasts of an ultrafast Wi-Fi connectivity as well offering Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n dual band Wi-Fi Plus cellular adapter. Unfortunately, Apple iPhone 5 doesn’t feature NFC connectivity nor does it support wireless charging. The camera is the regular culprit of 8MP with autofocus and LED flash that can capture 1080p HD videos @ 30 frames per second. It also has a front camera to make video calls. It is worthwhile to note that Apple iPhone 5 only supports nano SIM card. The new operating system seems to provide better capabilities than the old one as usual.
A Brief Comparison Between Google Nexus 4 and Apple iPhone 5
• Google Nexus 4 is powered by 1.5GHz Krait Quad Core processor on top of Qualcomm APQ8064 Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset along with Adreno 320 GPU and 2GB of RAM while Apple iPhone 5 is powered by 1GHz Dual Core processor that is based on Cortex A7 architecture on top of Apple A6 chipset.
• Google Nexus 4 runs on Android OS v4.2 Jelly Bean while iPhone 5 runs on iOS 6.
• Google Nexus 4 has 4.7 inch True HD IPS Plus Capacitive touchscreen display featuring a resolution of 1280 x 768 pixels at a pixel density of 318ppi while iPhone 5 has 4 inch LED backlit IPS TFT capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 1136 x 640 pixels at a pixel density of 326ppi.
• Google Nexus 4 has 8MP camera that can capture 1080p HD videos at 30 fps and has advanced features like Photo Sphere and 360 panorama while iPhone 5 also sports 8MP camera that offers simultaneous 1080p HD video recording at 30 fps and image recording with panorama.
• Google Nexus 4 only offers 3G HSDPA connectivity while iPhone 5 offers 4G LTE connectivity as well as 3G HSDPA connectivity.
• Google Nexus 4 is bigger yet thicker and heftier (133.9 x 68.7 mm / 9.1 mm / 139g) than iPhone 5 is smaller, thinner and significantly lighter (123.8 x 58.6mm / 7.6mm / 112g).
• Google Nexus 4 has 2100 mAh battery that can last a full day while Apple promises up to 8 hours talk-time, though it is much lower with 4G connectivity.
Conclusion
If you take a good glance at Google Nexus 4, you can safely conclude that the raw performance is going to outrun that of Apple iPhone 5 by a good margin. It is true that Apple has manufactured the processor in-house and increased the instructions executed per clock cycle, but that is highly unlikely to beat the superior power of a Quad Core processor which Google claims as the fastest processor in the block. Another factor is the 200% increase in RAM compared to iPhone 5 which hangs at 2GB in LG Nexus 4. These two integrated together will make this smartphone unbeatable in benchmark tests. The only thing I would miss in Nexus 4 is the 4G LTE connectivity which is available in iPhone 5. Please note that I’m not speaking to the Apple fans nor am I speaking to the Android fans. They have already made up their mind on what to buy. I’m putting forth my opinion for those of you who are looking to buy a high end phone and are wondering where your options lie. Although at $299, Nexus 4 can be considered as a budget smartphone, it doesn’t lack anything that a modern smartphone should have. Apple iPhone is more than twice that price which will give you a strong incentive to consider buying Google Nexus 4 even if you are an ardent Apple fan.