Bluce Ree
Tech Admin / Council Member
I gave my wife a Nexus 4 for Christmas. I managed to find one in spite of Google being constantly out of stock.
Beautiful device. The device is ergonomically similar to the iPhone with its flat edge in spite of being about the same size as my Galaxy S3. The back is plated with Gorilla glass for a smooth, sharp look and comes equipped with a quad-core Snapdragon S4 processor. Responsive and smooth as butter. Nexus products are generally not bloated with carrier-branded crap, which makes for a more pure, streamlined Android experience.
There are some down sides to a stock Nexus 4. The battery sucks, generally not lasting the day, and it heats up too quickly. Within ten minutes of talking or playing with apps, the phone becomes uncomfortably hot. Another annoyance is Google's decision to lock the ringtone and notifications volumes together.
So, after a few days of use, I decided to fix it. I rooted the phone and installed a custom ROM called "Xylon 4.2", based on the Nexus 4 stock source code. The ROM added a whole whack of features, including splitting the ringtone and notifications volumes. Battery life increased a bit but the heat problem was still there.
To solve the heating issue, I started exploring various Android kernels. I ended up with one called "Matr1x", which I installed over the Xyon 4.2's default kernel.
Result? Success! No more heating issues and exponentially better the battery life!
To summarize, the Nexus 4 is a fantastic, flawless phone once rooted and flashed with:
- Xylon 4.2 custom ROM
- Matr1x kernel.
You end up with a fast, responsive experience that NEVER heats up and has amazing battery life.
My question, then, is how did the Nexus 4 with a ROM/Kernel having such poor battery life and heating issues ever make it past Google's QC?
Beautiful device. The device is ergonomically similar to the iPhone with its flat edge in spite of being about the same size as my Galaxy S3. The back is plated with Gorilla glass for a smooth, sharp look and comes equipped with a quad-core Snapdragon S4 processor. Responsive and smooth as butter. Nexus products are generally not bloated with carrier-branded crap, which makes for a more pure, streamlined Android experience.
There are some down sides to a stock Nexus 4. The battery sucks, generally not lasting the day, and it heats up too quickly. Within ten minutes of talking or playing with apps, the phone becomes uncomfortably hot. Another annoyance is Google's decision to lock the ringtone and notifications volumes together.
So, after a few days of use, I decided to fix it. I rooted the phone and installed a custom ROM called "Xylon 4.2", based on the Nexus 4 stock source code. The ROM added a whole whack of features, including splitting the ringtone and notifications volumes. Battery life increased a bit but the heat problem was still there.
To solve the heating issue, I started exploring various Android kernels. I ended up with one called "Matr1x", which I installed over the Xyon 4.2's default kernel.
Result? Success! No more heating issues and exponentially better the battery life!
To summarize, the Nexus 4 is a fantastic, flawless phone once rooted and flashed with:
- Xylon 4.2 custom ROM
- Matr1x kernel.
You end up with a fast, responsive experience that NEVER heats up and has amazing battery life.
My question, then, is how did the Nexus 4 with a ROM/Kernel having such poor battery life and heating issues ever make it past Google's QC?