It doesn't look like anyone has posted the full review yet, so here you go.
Anandtech Review
Turns out the issue with performance was actually due to new drivers, which allow for the full suite of benchmarks to be run. As a result, the CPU gets throttled after all that torture testing.
The new benchmarks, done without running the full suite, are posted in the review.
OMG. The battery life IS atrocious. Lol.
Yeah the battery really is bad. Its the most concerning issue right now for me as I debate whether or not to pull the trigger on this. My biggest concern is the cellular talk time and the wifi hotspot time. Those things can't really be blamed on the cpu thermal throttling issues as neither are CPU intensive tasks. Would a software update really even have the potential to fix those particular benchmarks?
EDIT: Unless the radio drivers are just really poor? That might explain the bad benchmarks on web browsing too since data would be in use the entire time for those benchmarks as well. Maybe then there is hope for a software improvement to battery life? I really hate buying things based on what they might be able to do in the future vs what I know they can do now
TheSopranos16 said:
Yeah the battery really is bad. Its the most concerning issue right now for me as I debate whether or not to pull the trigger on this. My biggest concern is the cellular talk time and the wifi hotspot time. Those things can't really be blamed on the cpu thermal throttling issues as neither are CPU intensive tasks. Would a software update really even have the potential to fix those particular benchmarks?
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Click to collapse
Not if you want to fry your internals. Lol.
I'm guessing that the heat cannot dissipate effectively because of the screen on the front which is emanating heat, and the damn wireless inductive charging pad which is, in my mind, like a blanket. And I'm not even sure how effective glass is at displacing heat when couple with plastic.
But actually, cellular talk does release heat. Have you not noticed your phone getting hot when talking for extended periods of time? I believe the radio chip gets hot, maybe not necessarily the CPU. Regardless of where the heat is coming from, however, the sensors may still pick up on it. *shrugs*.
I'd advise you to wait 3 ~ 4 weeks if you can. Don't waste your time being the early adopter and wasting time dealing with early-release issues.
PoisonWolf said:
I'd advise you to wait 3 ~ 4 weeks if you can. Don't waste your time being the early adopter and wasting time dealing with early-release issues.
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Well, every bad for a good we say where I'm from.
Looks like a whole bunch of us are gonna wait for exactly that.
On the review, keep in mind that we're not sure what version of the software all those test units use. Probably an unfinished version..
It hasn't really come together for me...
- No 32GB or Micro SD
- Poor battery life still, the update hasn't fixed it
- Poor benchmark results
I wanted to buy cause I thought it would be a bargain powerhouse but in the end it is obvious why the thing is so cheap. I'll just wait for my upgrade in April and get the GS4 if that is any good but until then my GS2 is doing just fine.
Seems fine.. compared to the Galaxy Nexus, which I regularly get 2 days at at time out of, the battery rates about the same, so no worries for me.
well, iv been "forced" to wait now, i was trying to order earlier today in the UK, but maybe it was a good thing i didnt get it yet
Well the "battery" test involves using chrome so...chrome sucks lot of power
not realy a good battery test imho
hippieschuh said:
Well the "battery" test involves using chrome so...chrome sucks lot of power
not realy a good battery test imho
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Agreed. Chrome really isn't ready for prime time in my experience. Even on my Nexus 7, I use dolphin and its much smoother and faster than Chrome.
So even if we throw out the browser tests because of Chrome, why the low talk times compared to other phones with smaller batteries?
My take away is:
Software - Great
Design - Great
Performance - Good, could get better with kernels
Camera - Par
Battery Life - Par
More realistic than the sky high expectations set by everyone for a $350 off-contract phone.
Venekor said:
It hasn't really come together for me...
- No 32GB or Micro SD
- Poor battery life still, the update hasn't fixed it
- Poor benchmark results
I wanted to buy cause I thought it would be a bargain powerhouse but in the end it is obvious why the thing is so cheap. I'll just wait for my upgrade in April and get the GS4 if that is any good but until then my GS2 is doing just fine.
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Click to collapse
I'm sorry but benchmarks mean sweet FA. My GNex is faster in actual usage than my One X although the One X is 3 times faster in Quadrant. Battery life is completely subject to usage - I don't believe their graphs as my One X is pitiful compared to my Nexus. Whereas me Nexus would be at 80%+ at this time of day my One X is currently sitting at 62% as I type with the same minimal work day usage
Really wanted this phone, but there are a number of areas that mean quite a lot to me to be honest, it hasn't really delivered:-
1. Battery life - no getting away from it, its poor. Marginally better than the GNex but no so much you would notice, despite a bigger battery.
2. Camera quality - Yes again, its better (not difficult), but somehow, it just isn't as good as it could be. Slightly slow shutter speed, average quality.
3. Audio quality - We haven't yet seen the full score with that, but again, the consensus seems to be "average"
4. Storage capacity - even less than the GNex (8/16 vs 16/32). We don't all have access to 4G internet and no limits to store all of our files in the cloud.
Now, yes I appreciate this is really nit-picking but I'm not really unhappy with the performance of my GNex, and it will still get the update. It is not slow, or choppy, and as such, with the values of the GNex how they stand, I'm reluctant to fork out £150 to upgrade to a phone, which no doubt is an upgrade, but not one you'll notice very easily.
As it stands, I'm thinking that vanilla android alone is not enough to make it a worthwhile swap over something like an HTC One X+, despite the price difference. OK the N4 has a faster CPU and more RAM, but I'm not much of games player, but it has a better screen, camera, sound quality and more storage. Or a Galaxy Note which is just as fast, much better battery life, bigger screen, expandable, better camera etc.
I can see why this phone is cheaper than the competition TBH. I am a big fan of Vanilla Android, but there can be no denying it plays second fiddle on *most* specs (all but RAM, CPU and , possibly screen).
BUT, I'll probably still get one, LOL.
EddyOS said:
I'm sorry but benchmarks mean sweet FA. My GNex is faster in actual usage than my One X although the One X is 3 times faster in Quadrant. Battery life is completely subject to usage - I don't believe their graphs as my One X is pitiful compared to my Nexus. Whereas me Nexus would be at 80%+ at this time of day my One X is currently sitting at 62% as I type with the same minimal work day usage
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Yeh one thing that puzzles me is they have the LTE One X topping the charts for most of the battery tests alongside the iPhone. However, wasn't the One X knocked for only having a 1800 mAH battery and poor battery life? Or was that only for the Tegra One X?
Thoughtful said:
Yeh one thing that puzzles me is they have the LTE One X topping the charts for most of the battery tests alongside the iPhone. However, wasn't the One X knocked for only having a 1800 mAH battery and poor battery life? Or was that only for the Tegra One X?
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Tegra
Thoughtful said:
Yeh one thing that puzzles me is they have the LTE One X topping the charts for most of the battery tests alongside the iPhone. However, wasn't the One X knocked for only having a 1800 mAH battery and poor battery life? Or was that only for the Tegra One X?
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I should really qualify my last statement with I'm currently running the JB test build from HTC (as I'm a member of Elevate) so it's not on the final build but even on ICS it was poor compared to my Nexus. I can't see me having any issues with the N4 as I don't game/listen to music on my phone - it's purely a communication tool so email/FB/Twitter/SMSs/calls is the order of the day for me
Benchmarking wise the Nexus 4 is a joke. People were talking about this miraculous ota that will make it better but nothing happened. The camera isn't among the best and battery life sucks. Jeez, iPhone 5 with LTE is way better than the 3G Nexus 4. We can hate on Apple as much as we want but sometimes they get the job done way better than android makers/vendors.
I wanted this phone so bad but now I can wait to see what happens.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
The sad part is tests rarely reflect reality, people get poor battery life on the iPhone 5 despite the controlled tests suggesting it should have excellent battery life, moral of the story is YMMV, its not as cut and dry as raw data correlating to reproducible performance. The benchmarks aren't great so there is one criteria left and that is how it performs in real world usage cause I'm not going to benchmarking like a maniac as it serves no benefit, as I actually want to use my phone. I'd say it passes that criteria well from numerous reviews. Camera quality (video) is reportedly improved though have to wait for Anandtech to update the review and upload new videos. I'll be getting mine in December wanna wait for some cases and then pull the trigger on the purchase
crazyalaa said:
Benchmarking wise the Nexus 4 is a joke. People were talking about this miraculous ota that will make it better but nothing happened. The camera isn't among the best and battery life sucks. Jeez, iPhone 5 with LTE is way better than the 3G Nexus 4. We can hate on Apple as much as we want but sometimes they get the job done way better than android makers/vendors.
I wanted this phone so bad but now I can wait to see what happens.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
Benchmarking wise benchmarking doesn't have to do with anything. Jesus.....
I'm assuming all these reports of poor battery life include Google Now being enabled. I know its a key feature on JB(4.1/4.2) but I use it on CM10 now and its a HUGE battery drainer. When i turn it off, my battery life is markedly better. I'm assuming if you turn it off with the N4 you'll see better battery life.
Hi Nexus 4 users,
Its been a week some people received and started using nexus 4.can you all post the performance so far in terms of below.
Multitasking
Average battery life
Ui experience
Any flaws detected
Overall performance
It will be helpful for other users.
Sent from my Nexus S using xda app-developers app
I am averaging about a day and a half battery life based on pretty frequent usage (novelty hasn't worn off yet) which includes phone calls, internet use, light gaming and YouTube vids and such.
UI experience is great. I have it set up the same as my Nexus 7 and everything is responsive and just happens instantly.
Regarding the other points, performance has been flawless here. No matter what I'm running or how many things I'm running I haven't noticed any slowdown or stutter
It is proving to be an absolute beast of a phone and noticeably quicker than my Nexus 7.
My Nexus 4 Experience:
This phone is quick. I thought the Nexus 7 was blazing, but compare the performance of the 7 to the N4, there is no competition. I haven't seen the N4 slow down at all, and I've been trying to find the most taxing 3d games I can. So multitasking is a non-issue. It just works. Perfectly.
Battery life is impressive (for me), for the past week I have taken my phone off charge at 7:30am and I can make it home from school at around 4pm with 50% battery with light/moderate usage. Moderate usage being sending around 30 texts, light web surfing, taking a handful of photos. If I sit down with it for longer than say 10 minutes playing a 3D game/maps or something demanding like that, then it can chug juice like no tomorrow. If I desperately need the battery to go on for as long as possible, aeroplane mode basically reduces power consumption to 0.
Signal strength massively impacts battery life, I live in a rural area with poor signal (yellow/red on the battery graph) and my battery drains quicker unless I find a 'green' signal strength place. If you live in an urban environment, expect battery life to be better.
I love the stock android UI. It's so fast. I've set it up to be identical to my N7, which is really nice.
I do have the top speaker hissing noise, but in all honesty I forget about it in a call after a while. It's an annoyance, but for £250 I'm willing to put up with it.
It does get hot if you're doing something intensive with it, but that's probably due to glass being a better heat conductor. It's a non issue from what I can see, unless you have very sensitive hands.
My only regret it that it makes my N7 look like a tortoise compared to the blistering speeds of the N4.
My experience
Multitasking
The phone is a beast when multi-tasking and glides thru most of the functions I throw at it. My device however heats up especially when playing music. I noticed this when I'm at the gym or when the phone is plugged in car's auxiliary jack. When it heats up is when I notice hiccups and slow downs. I'm not sure if they are related, but I've come to the conclusion that they might be because it only suffers in performance when the phone is hot. And it's not warm it gets not. I can feel the heat with a silicon case and thru my denim. Will look into possibly exchanging if it persists.
Battery life
Battery life to me is equal to if only just a tad better compared to the Gnex. I am hoping that future ROMs from developers will improve it's battery life.
Ui experience
Jellybean is a pleasure to use. I also find it to be graphically appealing especially when personalized to your liking. Love Jellybeans animations and transitions. I'd describe it as sophisticated.
I'm not sure how to feel about the quick settings, as I find it requires more steps for you to actually do what you want to do. Clicking on data for example should just turn off data rather than take me to the data settings.
Any flaws detected
I have the shaking or rattling noise in my unit, but is not enough for me to worry about it. Besides the unusual heat, I have yellow stains on the bottom portion of my screen. I've read that it's the glue and should cure or settle or dry after a few days of use. If it doesn't go away, the heat and yellow stains is enough reason to exchange the device.
Overall performance
I am happy and completely satisfied with the purchase and the upgrade. Even the signal/data is better. And this unit is definitely louder than the GNEX. I just need a case or something. Any recommendations?
There are numerous first impressions, reviews, battery, speed test, video performance threads. Please just read those.
Thanks
Closed
can anyone who had used this model and the standard int model tell me if there is much difference in the day to day and poweruser performance of both models.
I have the I9300 and somene wants to trade his 19305 for my second phone, the iphone 4s, although if there isn't much difference (I'm not bothered about lte) if prefer to make a similar trade for a nexus (or perhaps a Lumia).
any info would be welcome cheers
I have owned both and don't really notice a performance difference. LTE is amazing and really fast, so that's a network performance gain i guess. there is twice the RAM which is nice for multitasking, but you don't get any actual performance gains from it
ah that's good then... Turns out the phone was still a. I9300 even though it was from "Orange and EE" :s lol I'm glad I checked up.
4g must be blazing, I'm sure I'll love it on my next generation of phone. I can still live on 3g so I won't upgrade until I'm getting a huge jump
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omniwolf said:
I have owned both and don't really notice a performance difference. LTE is amazing and really fast, so that's a network performance gain i guess. there is twice the RAM which is nice for multitasking, but you don't get any actual performance gains from it
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How would you compare battery life between the two?
if you disable 4G, then it's comparable. With CPU and GPU undervolting i get about 40 hours 100% -> 1%, and almost 4h30m screen on time. that's with wifi on all the time (and probably connected 70% of the time), a bunch of push and pull accounts, no games
i didnt notice too much of a difference.i did notice a note worthy one in multitasking and what not. for instance when im at home in the evening updating roms and apks , customization of themes or what ever it held up quite well with little to none hiccups at peak levels.
Basically, I own a GS3 right now and was thinking of upgrading to an Xperia Z. I realize that a GS4 or HTC One would be more of a proper upgrade but those are out of reach for me financially here.
I mostly use my phone for video playback(movies and such), browsing and the camera. I also use it to a lesser extent for music or gaming(angry birds type of stuff). So the screen and camera upgrade fit in the bill pretty well. I'm sure the extra 1GB of ram wouldn't hurt either. In the end the phone is also drop dead gorgeous and the waterproof/dustproof thing sounds very attractive as well.
However, after doing some research the Xperia Z seems to have a poor battery life when it comes to video playback and camera. Especially compared to the GS3 the differences seem so huge that it just doesn't make any sense. So I've started to wonder whether this upgrade would actually be worth it.
I don't mind charging my phone daily but the estimated 5h40m video playback and camera battery usage seem pretty poor. I was wondering whether any improvements have been made in this department since the initial tests carried out by GSMArena? I can already get about 6-7h in terms of video playback and less than 5h of browsing on my GS3. Would the Z be able to at least match that now or even do slightly better in terms of browsing? Will the upcoming 4.2 upgrade hopefully extend the battery life a bit as well? So, help me out here! :laugh:
No need 4u to upgrade. For those purposes that you do...just stick with the S3 :thumbup:
Sent from my C6603
nubnux said:
Basically, I own a GS3 right now and was thinking of upgrading to an Xperia Z. I realize that a GS4 or HTC One would be more of a proper upgrade but those are out of reach for me financially here.
I mostly use my phone for video playback(movies and such), browsing and the camera. I also use it to a lesser extent for music or gaming(angry birds type of stuff). So the screen and camera upgrade fit in the bill pretty well. I'm sure the extra 1GB of ram wouldn't hurt either. In the end the phone is also drop dead gorgeous and the waterproof/dustproof thing sounds very attractive as well.
However, after doing some research the Xperia Z seems to have a poor battery life when it comes to video playback and camera. Especially compared to the GS3 the differences seem so huge that it just doesn't make any sense. So I've started to wonder whether this upgrade would actually be worth it.
I don't mind charging my phone daily but the estimated 5h40m video playback and camera battery usage seem pretty poor. I was wondering whether any improvements have been made in this department since the initial tests carried out by GSMArena? I can already get about 6-7h in terms of video playback and less than 5h of browsing on my GS3. Would the Z be able to at least match that now or even do slightly better in terms of browsing? Will the upcoming 4.2 upgrade hopefully extend the battery life a bit as well? So, help me out here! :laugh:
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Click to collapse
With your phone usage, i don't think you need to change XZ from SGS3. Just that SGS3 is not a 4G phone the browsing speed may be lower but the battery usage is more. SGS3 also allow you to change battery so it can be useful.. Just that i dont like Samsung "cheap plastic" feel thats why i choose XZ.
Thanks for the answers!
But what I was wondering about the most was whether there have been improvements regarding the battery life ever since those tests were carried out. I have been told that there have been firmware upgrades that have improved the battery usage when it comes to multimedia and such. Is there any truth to this or does the battery still drain in 5 hours when it comes to video playback/camera usage etc.?
i am pretty much in the same boat as you...i also had a GS3 & i couldnt upgrade because of financial reasons as well....i got the xperia z after selling of the galaxy & yes...its a pretty darn good update for me...the screen, when you view it dead on, especially with the new update that fixes contrast issues, is EPIC! the performance is miles ahead of the s3, so is the camera. I also watch movies on my phone but i music & gaming are equally important to me. The latest upgrades do improve battery life slightly & you can help it along as well using stamina mode but i am afraid its still not that great... i can make the phone go a day maybe before hitting 15% by playing heavy games like real racing 3 & listening to music & watching some episodes of initial d
I have seen bits of scattered information from post.
Does all the phone basics work as they should? Better? Worse? Does any mods get broken such as Wanam?
No xposed. No if ands or buts. Everything works great
BAD ASS NOTE 4
Pros: Everything is better!
Cons: battery life and no xposed
Sent from my SM-N910T using XDA Free mobile app
Battery life has been great for me. Much better than KitKat.
Sent from my SM-N910T using XDA Free mobile app
agree no xposed really sucks, but battery life has been a lot better for me.
Unfortunately battery life is bad for me. I lost 2 hours screen time using same apps and setting.
For those that keeps on insisting that the battery life is worst on lollipop keep in mind that you recently received the update so a ton of behind the scenes stuff is still going on.
Once it settles in it should be better.
I've been running it for a few days and it's not that much better. Music drains faster. I use Google play all access for my music. Also when its stuck enabling WiFi calling it chews through battery. GPS battery is better but gps only works when it feels like it. Noticed it does better if I leave GPS on high accuracy. It will work till it drops from LTE to 4g. Battery is usually a full day from 5am till 11pm 4-5 hours of screen on time. Today it decided to shut off on me twice. First time it wouldn't start up. Second was a random reboot looking at things to remember website.