[HTC Desire S] lowveld:
My N4 review and thoughts

Ok guys,

I've spent 6 days with the N4 by now, heavily using it really. In order to get a real feel of the device/experience, I tried as much as possible to use it even on situations I would normally jump to a tablet/laptop. I've ran both stock, AOKP and CM builds, just to see what's out there and what I could expect. So, here's my poor attempt at a review.

Fair warning: my comparison will almost always be the DS, and it will come out loosing (badly). This is not because the DS is "bad", it's just that the N4 is stupid good. But the DS is a great device on it's own right, actually has some advantages, and I will not sell it. Never.

Hardware:

I find the build quality to be very good. There is no flex, no poor finishing, no nothing. The only weak point is a chrome ring around the phone that is plastic. I wouldn't be surprised to see some discoloration over there with time.

The twin Gorilla Glass panes (front and back) give a unique feeling to the device. Also I'm betting there is some kind of extra coating on the front, as your fingers will really slide across it. It's hard to explain, but it's like gliding through ice (minus the cold and water). Of course that this may very well be the weakest point of the device in terms of durability, as I'm guessing it won't handle a fall very well. In this regard, the DS wins hands down. You can use to break nuts without leaving a mark.

The screen was something that left me some doubts on the first day, on two regards: it was big, and the colors looked wash out (both compared to the DS). By washed out, I mean exactly it: imagine a red shirt after being washed 120 times, it's not really that red anymore.

Now, these issues have moved on to be the 2 major selling points to me. I got used to the size, and now handling the DS is extremely uncomfortable. Everything is small and cramped, going to the web means constant zooming and paning, etc. On the N4 the screen is so big and the resolution so good, that most of the pages I can read without zooming. And the colors... are great. Much more comfortable to read, and much more natural. Pictures of people look exactly like people. Skin tones are dead on. I can't really praise it enough.

Performance wise, it's exactly what you would expect. A beast. THE beast. Through anything at it, no problem. You know when you press home on some app on the DS, and when you jump to it again it launches again because it was killed on the background? Forget it. Multitasking on the N4 is like nothing I've ever seen on any phone. For my normal usage, there are no background kills, everything is kept running, switching is pretty much instantaneous. I guess that S4 Pro and the 2Gb ram really work well together. Go figure... :)

Software:

I won't spend too much time here, everyone knows what comes in 4.2.1 AOSP, but, some notes:

- The stock rom is absolutely usable. I've never seen a phone with less need of custom ROMs. I'm sold to AOSP and derivatives (minus HTC people/contact/mail integration, I reaaaaaaaaaly miss those). In my opinion, with the state AOSP is know, Htc, Samsung and whatever, can only screw up the experience if they don't severely tone down the overlays.

- I only felt the need to root it because: a) install add blocker b) use Rom Manager for the backups (yes, I know I can do everything from recovery, but still more handy) c) it's me

Even so, there are some minor niggles on stock:

- The"quick settings" is a poor man excuse to any of the quick settings we have currently on any custom Rom on the DS. Whoever came up with that implementation on Google should be promoted to cleaning toilets.

- The navbar (the software buttons, home, search, ...) is not customizable. Personally I think it takes too much screenspace.

These issues have already been addressed in AOKP, and issue 1 is sort of addressed on CM, issue 2 is still not.

Currently, the best experience (for me) is achieved with AOKP. Bit so you have an idea of how good is stock, from the many options on AOKP, here's what I only use:

- Circle mod battery

- Customize navbar: reduce height, and add a fexed fourth button for menu

- Customize the quick settings I have showing

That's it, that's what I felt needed improvement over stock. It's that good. Of course especially AOKP has lots more configurable stock, and more coming in. CM as a slower "inovation" process, but remember those guys cater to a lot of devices, and are much more pondered on what they merge.

On the long run, I'll probably base a Rom on CM, clone some stuff from AOKP, and add some stuff of my own. Something like Reaper, but with a different target: the device is so fast that currently speed is not an issue (grabbing every ounce of performance from the phone was the intent of reaper). Customization, and battery efficiency will be the deciding factor for N4 Roms, at least for the next year...

But for the moment, I'm really enjoying my "User role". Feels really nice to enjoy someone else's work :) So I'll probably just keep flashing nightlies, ***** a little, and leave Rom development for further on when I'm bored with existing stuff.

Sorry for the long post.

Cheers!