Review: Nexus 4 vs iPhone 5

Two months ago, Google released its new high-end flagship smartphone – Nexus 4. A few days ago, we made a comparison between the new Nexus 7 and iPad mini, where Nexus 7 offered better specs for a more affordable price. You probably noticed how determined Google is to go for Apple’s throat. Lets see how Nexus 7’s smaller brother stacks up against the iPhone 5 and whether it makes a better deal or not.

 

 

Technical Specifications 

Nexus 4 is quite larger than the iPhone 5 in width, height and thickness and it also weights more. When holding these devices in hands, the iPhone really feels thinner and a lot lighter as well. Moreover, iPhone 5’s aspect ratio makes it easier to use with one hand. As you know, Apple has increased the size of the iPhone 5 only in height, so you can still reach the top-left corner.

	Dimensions	Thickness	Weight
Apple iPhone 5	124x49mm	7.6mm	112 grams
Google Nexus 4	134x69mm	9.1mm	139 grams

 

Google Nexus 4 features a quad-core Qualcomm S4 Snapdragon processor that runs 1.5GHz, whereas iPhone 5 has an Apple A6 dual-core processor with 1.3GHz. Nexus 4 packs 2GB of RAM, which is double the amount iPhone 5 has. On paper, Nexus 4’s specs look better, but you can see that how close they are in benchmark scores:

 

Design and Build-quality

Apple is known for its flawless build-quality. Moreover, iPhone 5 features a unibody display and aluminum build, that looks incredible nice and feels very tough and solid in the hand. On the other hand, Nexus 4 doesn’t look so premium-like, but it does feel great in the hand too. We think its build-quality is better than on any other Android device. Also, its rubber-finish side bezel adds some nice grip.

 

Displays

Both Nexus 4 and iPhone 5 use IPS screens. Nexus 4 has a much bigger display – 4.7inch and a 1280×768 resolution whilst iPhone 5 offers a 4-inch Retina screen with a resolution of 1136×640 pixel. Both devices share a pretty much the same pixel-per-inch ratio: 318ppi on Nexus 4 and 326ppi on iPhone 5. The eye can’t notice that much of a difference between the two screens, however, specialists affirm that iPhone 5 has been calibrated more and therefore brings better images.

 

Cameras

Speaking of numbers, both devices feature a 8-megapixel main camera and Nexus 4 has a slightly higher-resolution front camera: 1.3-megapixel versus 1.2-megapixel on the iPhone 5. Despite the fact that Nexus 4 wins on paper, in real-life things stand quite differently.

	Main Camera	Video Capture	Front-facing Camera	Video Capture
Apple iPhone 5	8 megapixel	1080p HD 30 fps	1.2 megapixel	720p HD 30 fps
Google Nexus 4	8 megapixel	1080p HD 30 fps	1.3 megapixel	480p SD 30 fps

 

*Nexus 4

*iPhone 5

You can notice how much sharper the snapshots of iPhone 5 look. Generally saying, it really takes better photos than the Nexus 4. In addition to that, the last one seems to snap and record darker images in low-light conditions. iPhone 5 is clearly a winner in this department.

 

Battery life

Google Nexus 4 appears to have a much larger battery. We’re talking about 2100mAh over 1440mAh, however, the tests have proven exactly the opposite. Apple’s iPhone 5 seems to last up to 4 hours longer in web-browsing (say what?!):

 

Verdict

Is Google Nexus 4 an iPhone-killer? Definitely not. But for its price it’s a very good competitor, offering similar specs and performance. Below you can compare the prices of these two smartphones in their available storages.

	8GB	16GB	32GB
Apple iPhone 5	–	$199 (2-year contract)	$299 (2-year contract)
Google Nexus 4	$299 $199 (unlocked)	$349 $249 (unlocked)	–

Google Nexus 4 is currently on-sale! You get $100 off. If you’re on budget – go for Nexus 4 as the best budget Android-smartphone yet. However, if you don’t mind spending a little bit more money on a premium, easy to use device – iPhone 5 perfectly suits you. Neither of these two will disappoint you.

Let me know which of these two rivals you like the most in the comment section below.