I got my Google Nexus 4 phone just over 3 weeks ago, and I love it.  It is, without doubt, the best mobile I’ve ever owned,  and I’ve had some really good phones before! If you want to read about how good it is, then just about every review out there will rave about it.  What I want to do here, however, is tell the other side of the story and tell you about everything that’s wrong with it.

The default sounds are different to my previous phone : when it makes that biddilbip noise I don’t know if I’ve got a text, email or tweet.  I customized my last phone to make different noises with different events, but I haven’t got around to doing it with the Nexus 4 yet so every time it makes that noise there’s a few seconds of suspense until I look at it.

The glass back is very shiny : if i need to free up my hands and put the Nexus 4 on my leg it has a tendency to slide off.

No USB OTG : if I plug my camera in to my Xoom tablet I can get the photos off via USB OTG.  I expected the Nexus 4 to do the same, but sadly it doesn’t.  So even though I’ve never had the ability to do this with other phones, I feel like I miss it with this one.

I love my Xoom tablet : my Motorola Xoom 10″ tablet is a wonderful thing.  It would often be the focus of attention both at home while watching tv or when out with friends at the pub. Sadly, since getting the Nexus 4 it doesn’t get quite as much love these days, and may even go a couple of days without being used.

It is slightly too large : the big 4.7″ screen is fantastic, and I wouldn’t want to change that at all.  I have got average size hands, but sometimes I may have to stretch my thumb slightly to type a letter on the opposite side of the keyboard, or my hand may start to ache if holding it between top and bottom for very long periods. A quarter inch shorter and narrower would be perfect, thanks.

The USB socket is upside down : with my last phone I got used to plugging in the charger with the silver label facing upward, but with the Nexus 4 it has to face downwards. Oh Google, how could you have got this so very wrong ?

I have to charge it every night : some days after quite heavy usage and being on for 16 hours, the battery is down to about 30-40% and I know I won’t get a full day of usage out of it the following day.  If the Nexus 4 wasn’t so nice to use or have so many cool features I would probably use it a lot less and might get 2 days out of a charge.  Only once, after a very long day of using 3G, GPS, camera and various apps a lot did I get the battery down to below 5%.

So, as you can see, despite it being a really really nice phone, it is far from perfect. If only Google had got all of the above right I would have no hesitation in recommending this phone to everyone.  But, instead, I would ask you to seriously look at these points and ask yourself if you could really live with a phone with all these flaws.