In looking through the best android phones, has a great list including from the top:

  1. HTC One. All aluminum body and $600
  2. Samsung Galaxy S4. Beautiful with a great camera, but folks didn’t like the plastic back, the slow user interface and just 9GB of the 16GB are free. If you want a camera focused version, get the Samsung Galaxy Camera (with a 10x zoom no less!) or the Samsung Galaxy NX (for an interchangeable camera)
  3. LG Optimus G Pro. If you want that mega phone at 5.5 inches, but it is hard to get

The honorable mentions:

  1. Sony Xperia ZL (Z for Europe). The highlights are the clean UI and it is water resistant
  2. LG Nexus 4. There are now Google Editions (eg no OEM junk for the Galaxy S4 and the HTC One), but this one is pure Google and the best value you can get. The main weekness is lack of 4G LTE support so it will top out at 42Mbps (:-)
  3. Samsung Galaxy S3. It is the odler model but still relaly good

So the Nexus 4 seems a decent deal and it is November shipment, so no Nexus 5 in sight. The Google Nexus 4 comes up as cheap ($300 without a contract!) and with good reviews.
It’s available direct from Google. This is one product that is $50 more expensive from Amazon and also $50 more from T-mobile.
It is no dollars down if you buy it with a $17 lease-to-buy plan costing you $408 over two years or you can just pay $408 to T-mobile without the contract. Someone said, why don’t you just get a contract. Well, there are three reasons I can think of:

  1. This is for international use (for those of us who want to go overseas and need a dedicated phone)
  2. You don’t want cellular data. This is a common scenario in China where Wifi is common and cellular is expensive in tier 2 cities
  3. You don’t want to worry about losing the thing and ending up with a boat anchor contract.

In terms of accessories:

  1. You need a case and a screen protector. Techradar has some great recommendations. For $40 there is the BoxWave Nero Leather Flip which protects all the way around. For $11.50 the Fleixshield Frost Skin is hard to beat. Monoprice also has Nexus 4

I’m Rich & Co.

Welcome to Tongfamily, our cozy corner of the internet dedicated to all things technology and interesting. Here, we invite you to join us on a journey of tips, tricks, and traps. Let’s get geeky!

Let’s connect