Hello
Basically I have watched pretty much every video available on youtube for both phones and still can't decide between iPhone 5 16GB or Nexus 4 16GB. Obviously Nexus 4 is cheaper on Google Play store but the thing is that they cost me exact same amount so it comes down to other factors such as screen size, quality, iOS vs jelly bean, etc.
LTE doesn't metter for me since where I live we don't have 4g. I love every bit of Nexus especially new Jelly Bean 4.2.2, Photo Sphere, Google Now and the larger display. On other hand, iPhone has better build quality, better camera, battery life, apps are optimised and overall better quality then those on Android. I kind of don't like that everyone has iPhone while Nexus is something new and unseen. I do have 2012 rMBP as my primary computer so I need my phone to be able to sync with my pc but I guess there is not a big of a difference.
My question to you is which one would you chose and most importantly why?
I would recommend this:
First, consider the basics. First and foremost. Forget the specs. Forget the features posted everywhere. If the base isn't going to make you happy, nothing else will.
Do you like mostly one handed smartphone operation or two? Do you like bigger screen or can you live fine with a 4 inch screen? Do you have a mac and like the iphone and mac integration? Or are you a multi-platform person and do not lock yourself in? Do you like iTunes or hate it or are neutral? Do you take tons of pictures using a cellphone? Are most of your friends/family iphone users who use imessage and photostream or do they use a myriad of devices and use services such as google drive/skydrive/box/dropbox etc? Do you like tighter OS control or do you like a bit of flexibility?
At the very base, both phones will do at least 80-90% of tasks in an identical way. Both of them can use google services fine as google keeps its iOS apps in top shape. Both will do basics like music, communication, reading etc etc.
The iPhone will have LTE and better battery life and some exclusive games/apps, the nexus will have customization and apps like tasker (of which i finally became a big fan, i love automation lol).
Then make a decision yourself.
As for me, i like at least 4.5 inches of screen real estate. I like using flexible cloud services. I also like the Nexus 4s price. I found after years of owning iPhones that on average i take 5-10 pics a month on my phone so the camera isn't a deciding factor. I found that i like LTE though.
I was big on games /apps in the beginning but now i have probably 20-30 appstore apps on my iPhone and only 5-6 get daily or weekly use. I liked how on my nexus 4 (sold last month) i could easily plug it to my PC, transfer a folder of music and photos and be on my way as i am not a sync person. Itunes is sluggish on my 2010 laptop and i also don't like the hoops taken for a simple transfer of my non-itunes music to my device (apple wants $25 a year for that if i use icloud for non-itunes music). Photo album management on iOS is not the way i like as well.
Things i am indifferent to are removable batteries (never carried a spare), SD cards (never used one since i bought a 3GS in march 2010), build quality (metal/plastic is nice, but not a deal maker/breaker for me), OS (i am not loyal to iOS or android, i would even use BB10 as soon as blackberry drops a 4.5 inch second gen BB10 handset, love the gestures, not a fan of WP metro though).
That was the bottom line. The small things i liked on nexus were the notification shade. The ease of customization (i don't customize much, but all i need to do is slap nova launcher, mess with a couple settings, and install a theme and icon set, a couple of UCCW widgets and i am set), the ease with which it works with my PC, the bigger screen, and the holo UI.
The small things i have liked about the iPhone are custom notification and app permission controls, a cohesive (but needing a bit of an overhaul IMO) UI, solid battery life (although my iPhone 4 is still the champ, it worked for 11 hours straight on wifi sometimes during my college streaming sessions lol, that was after 18 months of wear and tear too, the iPhone 5 loses juice faster in my experience, but having an "adult" life now leaves little time to use it straight for hours), some good apps are exclusives, general app quality (a good quality holo app is better though in my eyes, but those are just starting to pop up in playstore) etc. The good camera is a bonus too, if the nexus 4 had a little better cam though i would be okay.
I am switching soon to a nexus 4 because:
a) i found that the new APTicket method has rendered moot any hope of re-jailbreaking/downgrading/re-restoring my iPhone to same iOS version so if my iPhone crashes, i lose my jailbreak for good, and i "need" that jailbreak as i despise iOS's tight controls.
b) Apple will probably introduce a 4.3-4.5 inch iPhone variant in 2015 or 2017 may be if they ever do.
c) I found that for my uses, a $350 nexus 4 gives me more bang for the buck than a $700 iPhone (i buy my phones unlocked as i sometimes travel overseas).
d) Blackberry has yet to release a Z10 successor.
