Google Nexus 4 Actually Has an LTE Chip | Hacker News Reader

Google Nexus 4 Actually Has an LTE Chip

ifixit.com

78 pointscrenk14 comments

Plausible reasons have already been suggested somewhere else[1], in summary chipset makers are creating dual purpose chips with dies that support LTE, but have fuses burnt and a cheaper price tag to restrict their usage. Even if you could reverse the fuses, there is still a lack of hardware and calibration for it to be possible in the nexus 4.

[1] http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/13cods/nexus_4_t...

Also, much of the Nexus 4's design is reused from the Optimus G which has LTE.

it has an LTE baseband chip but no amplifiers for the LTE frequency bands, no matching antenna and no LTE royalties paid.

and the 486SX had a math co-processor.

Not like the couldn't release a model with twice the storage at the same price along with another model with LTE working. Maybe later, maybe not.

Perhaps they will sell a slightly more expensive model in a market where LTE support doesn't require the cooperation of the mobile operators, which is well ... most places outside Northern America.

From what I hear the battery life of the Nexus 4 leaves a lot to be desired, and LTE would only make that worse

It really depends on the review unit it seems. The Verge [1] seems to have had a good one and gave the battery 9 out of 10 possible points while saying this:

"Battery life was also top notch. I'm used to getting just about a day of use on my Galaxy Nexus (that's taking it off of the charger around 8AM or 9AM, and putting it back on around 2AM). Some days it doesn't quite make it that long, depending on my workload. The Nexus 4 fared much better. At the time of this writing, I've had it off of its charger for 10 hours and 30 minutes and it's still got 45 percent battery life. Yesterday before I plugged it in, I'd had it off the charger for 16 hours, with 18 percent of its juice left. To say it's holding up for full work days would be an understatement; even with heavy use, this battery more than pulls its weight."

[1] http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/2/3589280/google-nexus-4-rev...

Can anyone else comment on this? As mkuhn points out, reviews are very mixed.

Battery life would be the deal breaker for me.

I'm sure the reviews depend on cell signal strength at the reviewer's location. If you work inside a farady cage, the phone will melt itself trying to contact the tower. If you live on top of a cell tower, the thing will stay in standby for decades before the battery dies. Since most people are somewhere in between those two states, battery life gets mixed reviews.

But battery life never gets mixed reviews - apart from for this phone. What's the reason?

I guess a lot of first hand reports will clarify this soon.

well at least now you can say your phone has LTE...

I hate verizon but I can't leave. I have a $10 unlimited data that can't be beat anywhere else :/ I love the Nexus 4 design too bad I'm getting my Droid DNA in a couple of days

Don't get your hopes up. I doubt it will be getting LTE functionality in the future. They would've said so otherwise.

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