Top Android Phone Battle: Galaxy Note II vs. Nexus 4

Two phones currently give you the best of the Android world: Galaxy Note II and Nexus 4. Both come with Jelly Bean out of the box, have superb display and powerful internals, and have appealing aesthetics. But yet each of these phones has their own flavor, which may satisfy one and discourage another. Our intent is to help you decide which flavor suits you best and avoid regrets later on. Galaxy Note II or Nexus 4? Let’s find out.

Video

Looks

Galaxy Note II

Nexus 4

Hardware

It’s quad-core vs. quad-core between these two phones. The Note II is powered by Samsung’s own Exynos 4412 processor while the Nexus 4 runs on Qualcomm’s APQ8064 Snapdragon. A slightly higher clock speed gives the Note II a small advantage in speed although if you watched the video, that speed difference is hardly noticeable. The Note II scores higher than the Nexus 4 in Quadrant, AnTuTu, Vellamo, and SunSpider benchmarks.

The Galaxy Note II has the bigger display but that didn’t mean it has the better screen. The 4.7″ Nexus 4 has a higher pixel density (318 vs. 267 ppi) thanks to its superb True HD IPS display. The Note II’s screen is the same as the Galaxy Nexus’ Super AMOLED display, which isn’t bad, but definitely not better than the Nexus 4. Both displays are covered with Corning Gorilla Glass for protection.

Both phones have 8 MP cameras on the back but the Note II’s camera app has a couple of features which aren’t present on the Nexus 4′s. Examples are the simultaneous HD and image recording and face and smile detection. The Note II’s front camera is slightly better than on the Nexus 4, 1.9 against 1.3 MP.

Many griped of the absence of LTE radios on the Nexus 4. This means you are stuck with a cap speed of 42 Mbps DL instead of 100 Mbps DL on the Note II. If you are in a big city with LTE coverage, this is really an issue. There’s no news if an LTE version will go out though it would be unlikely because only T-Mobile has this smartphone on their contracts. Another interesting difference is the microUSB ports for these phones; the Note II uses MHL while the Nexus 4 introduces SlimPort. It’s interesting but it’s not that significant — you would need a new adapter for your HDMI TV though.

Software

Both comes with Jelly Bean but there are some minor differences between these two smartphones. The Nexus 4 runs Jelly Bean 4.2 which features Photo Sphere, Miracast support and an improved Google Now. You could rename these features to panorama, wireless display and wiser Siri. Note II runs 4.1 so the features mentioned are yet to be present. Gesture Typing on Nexus 4 is also better as it can now automatically add spaces between words. For more information on Jelly Bean, click here.

Prices

Merchant		Product	Price	Buy Now
		Samsung Galaxy Note II GT-N7100 - factory unlocked- 16GB Gray	Too Low to Display used from: 549.00	Go to Store

Merchant		Product	Price	Buy Now
		Google Nexus 4 Phone 8GB - Unlocked	$352.50 used from: $455.01	Go to Store

Summary of Specs

Conclusion

Which Jelly Bean smartphone is for you? Because the phone’s performance is about the same the display might be the greatest factor to consider. A larger screen would mean a better movie, gaming and web browsing experience. But it would mean you can’t just jam it inside your jeans’ pocket. The Nexus 4 is smaller, cheaper, has the more current version of Jelly Bean but lacks LTE support because of being contract free.

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Photo Credits: Pocketnow

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