Google Announces Nexus 4 (No LTE!) Smartphone, Nexus 7 and 10 Tablets

Google has announced its latest smartphone and tablet offerings to compete with the iPhone 5, iPad and iPad mini. The Nexus 4 was developed with LG, sports a quad-core processor, 4.7″ display (320 ppi; just under the iPhone 5’s 326 ppi), wireless charging and Jelly Bean, version 4.2 of Android OS.

The Nexus 7 tablet now comes with 16GB/32GB capacities, adds HSPA+ data instead of the latest generation LTE networking found in the iPhone 5, iPad and iPad mini.

The Nexus 10 is built by Samsung and features a 10.055″ display with 2650 x 1600 resolution (300 ppi vs the iPad 3’s 264 ppi), nine hours of video playback and Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. The Nexus 4 and 7 will be available in Canada on November 13th:

  • Nexus 4: 8GB for $299; 16GB for $349; available unlocked and without a contract on 11/13 on the Google Play store in the U.S., U.K., Australia, France, Germany, Spain and Canada. The 16GB version will also be available through T-Mobile for $199, with a 2-year contract (check here for more details).
  • Nexus 7: 16GB for $199 and 32GB for $249; available in the U.S., U.K., Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Canada and Japan, and also through our retail partners Gamestop, Office Depot, Office Max, Staples and Walmart.
  • Nexus 7 with 32GB and mobile data: $299 and unlocked, on sale 11/13 in the Google Play store in the U.S., U.K., Australia, France, Germany, Spain and  Canada.
  • Nexus 10: 16GB for $399; 32GB for $499; available on 11/13 in the Google Play Store in the U.S., U.K., Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Canada and Japan.

The most interesting debate right now is how the latest and greatest Android smartphone, the Nexus 4 from Google, fails to adopt LTE networking. The Verge details and justifies why Google did not implement LTE, with the latter’s Andy Rubin having this to say:

“Tactically, we want to make sure the devices are available for every network on the planet.”

“A lot of the networks that have deployed LTE haven’t scaled completely yet — they’re hybrid networks […] which means the devices need both radios built into them […] When we did the Galaxy Nexus with LTE we had to do just that, and it just wasn’t a great user experience.”

Umm. Wait. What? Isn’t it your job to work out these LTE carrier road blocks? Other Android OEMs have been able to–but the almighty Android deity cannot?

One year ago, when the iPhone 4S debuted without LTE networking (speculation was the omission was due to LTE modem size constraints), ‘fandroids’ celebrated joyously at Apple’s ‘failure’ to implement the faster networking at a time when Android devices had them as a standard (but also with atrocious battery life).

Now, it looks like the tables have turned–I wonder what ‘fandroids’ will say now?

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