[Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] partylikeaninjastar:
I read it and here's my take on the Nexus 4.

I may not be as technical as most people on XDA, but I try to read up as much as I can. I think what makes MOST (not all) Android users different from MOST (not all) iPhone users is that we actually take the time to research a product before be buy it. They buy their products because it says "Apple" on the box. We have countless different devices to choose from. We HAVE to do the research before we buy. This isn't just about buying a Nexus, this is about buying a new Android phone and having to choose between what's currently on the market.

For me, I'm over my current phone (T-Mobile G2x) and want to get a new one, but I'm still on contract. I don't make enough money to drop $600+ on a new phone. Hell, even if I did make enough money, I wouldn't be comfortable dropping that much money on a phone. Buying a phone from Google means I can buy a nice phone at an affordable price without forcing me to extend a contract that I never wanted to be on in the first place (I originally only switched from Virgin Mobile to T-Mobile because I wanted a better phone at a decent price and signing a contract used to be the only way to do that). My original plan was actually to buy the Galaxy Nexus to hold me over until my upgrade was available and then, from there, decide if I wanted to stick with Android or try out Windows Phone 8.

Then the Nexus 4 was announced and for the same exact price as the Galaxy Nexus. It's a better phone, at a better price.

Like I said, I may not be as technical as the rest of you, but what I see is a phone that is equivalent to each heavy hitter currently on the market (Galaxy SIII, One X, iPhone 5, the various upcoming offerings from Windows Phone 8). The only difference is that this phone is half the price of all of those. That's what I see when I look at the Nexus 4. I see an affordable upgrade for my current phone that is cheaper to every other comparable phone on the market and that's why I'm going to buy it (after consumer reviews of course, but it's almost certain that I will be ordering this phone before the month is over).

Now, the thing I do not understand is why people with the above mentioned phones would seriously consider this. Yes, it's a Nexus. Yes, it will get updates faster. But why should that all matter? All of us here on XDA are probably running rooted phones and we've all probably flashed multiple ROMs. My G2x is currently running Jellybean 4.1. It may not be 4.2, but I'm sure a clever dev will make it happen at some point. If not my phone, all of the above mentioned phones (minus the iPhone and Windows Phone 8 obviously) will get it at some point. Our vanilla Android experience isn't going to be vanilla for too long out of the box.

Maybe it's because I'm not made of money, but I wouldn't be able to justify dropping another $350 if I already had a $600+ phone. I don't buy into brands (part of the reason why I refuse to use Apple products). I'm happy to be a future owner of a Nexus phone, but I'm not buying it because it's Nexus (although that is nice). I'm buying it because it's cheap and, to my untrained eyes, more or less equal to the best phones on the market.