Google (LG) Nexus 4

By | 08/01/2015

I bought the Google Nexus 4 to replace my HTC Desire (the original one). I look after my tech gadgets, so it was still in working order to give to my mum. My uncle also wanted the Nexus 4 when I showed him comparisons and given we bought it knowing the Nexus 5 was going to be on its way; we got a really good deal.

Anyway, overall, it’s a VERY good phone. As stock software the phone worked perfectly out of box. After a few upgrades and trying out different ROMs, I chose CyanogenMod 11 (CM11). After the upgrade to 4.4.2 which I believe was CM11 M2, everything was fine. However any upgrades past that, I started to experience random dropouts with my car bluetooth (Lexus IS250 2007). I wasted days of trying different possible solutions including upgrading, downgrading, different basebands, different ROMs including factory images. I gave up and went back to CM11 M2.

Android 5.0 came out and I tried it. It was fantastic until I tried to use my work email (Exchange 2003) on it. It failed to sync. Then Gmail came up with an update and this worked perfectly up until I was out of wifi zones for more than an hour and my phone got extremely hot and I chewed up so much data it went over my cap (yes, it cost me money on top of my cap). Android 5.0.1 came out not long after and I couldn’t wait for the OTA update, so I formatted and reloaded again. I then rooted it as this became a habit rather than a need.

So far, so good. I’ve been running it for several weeks now and I can’t complain. There are a few things I miss about the CM ROMs such as auto unlock on correct PIN for the lock screen and further customisations with the keyboard/autocorrect, notification bar; but I am sure I’ll either get used to not having them (pretty much have already), or I’ll venture back to CM ROMs when I know there’s a stable 5.0.1 release ready.

I like to tinker, but also like to keep things up to date for security and stability reasons. Being in IT, this becomes a habit. Sometimes a not so good one when I rush for new updates when I already have a device that’s working well and an update makes it worse. Updates are needed though; looking at all these security vulnerabilities out there, it’s scary to think how many people are left vulnerable by out of date software.

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