Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Nexus 4 in my hands: Go to hell you arrogant, overcharging online dealers!

About 3 and a half days after unwrapping its packet, I can safely believe that the courier packet that I opened on the 16th of March was indeed for real. After a 3 - month long, useless wait for the device to be launched in India and after seeing one deadline after the other go by on saholic.com, the thing my convinced me about LG's reluctance to officially launch LG E960 to India was the fact that it launched Optimus G here for over 30k, which was an obvious indication that they're not going to shoot themselves in the foot by launching a similar spec phone for two-thirds the price.



The real hunt started in the first week of March and a friend in the US obliged by ordering it for me in the Play Store there. The next problem was to get it shipped to India, as Google doesn't ship its products out of the country. I started with an intensive search for it and at last, I stumbled upon the way that the online dealers like firangibhai and those on ebay are using to sell the same product at a premium. I couldn't believe that even after paying a double digit percentage of the phone's cost for shipping, I easily saved a considerable amount for the 16GB version. It's not a bad business idea, I tell you, but that is a thought for some other day. If you look at the entire thing rationally, it would suggest my craziness levels, as after all, I've just paid for a phone and got it. But then, getting it imported from thousands of miles away, expecting it to reach me with no damage at all and risking a substantial five figure amount was a first for me and I'm glad that it came off well. It gives me the guts to try out even more Google products in the future, if India continues to be ignored by them.

The most expensive handset bought by me till date has not disappointed me at all since its arrival. There is lots of technical stuff written about it on the internet so I won't get into that. However, what would make you take notice is the speed with which it operates. Add to it the seemingly unending 2GB RAM that allows you to add as many apps as you want, and you have just about the perfect phone. You'll never know what a "pure android experience" means unless you try it out. I got a first hand account of the software upgrades when I connected the phone to my home's wi-fi network. It shipped with Jelly Bean 4.1 and as soon as it got connected to the internet, it prompted for an upgrade to 4.2.2 and it finished up in no time at all. Compare it to the other Android manufacturers, with whom you have to wait for them to release the upgrades which typically runs into months. Samsung has even been notorious enough not to release an upgrade at all for Indian devices.

The battery did worry me a bit but once you turn on the power saver mode and switch off those needless, battery consuming screensavers(Google wants to call it Daydream) it would be sufficient to last one full day of office, which is what smartphones do these days. All in all, a much better choice than that cheap looking, plasticky Samsung Galaxy S3 or Grand. I HOPE the next Nexus devices(expected to be announced in May) comes to India at an equivalent price and put the overpriced iDevices in place.