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LG's supposed Nexus 4 given full review treatment ahead of official announcement

LG's supposed Nexus 4 given full review treatment ahead of official announcement

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ONLINER LG Nexus 4 Leak
ONLINER LG Nexus 4 Leak

Nearly all mystery surrounding LG's rumored Nexus device has now washed away. Following a fairly complete look at the device's hardware, Belarusian blog Onliner has published what it is calling a "preliminary review" of the prototype smartphone, leaving very little to the imagination.

What first comes to mind when looking at this device is the Galaxy Nexus, which it is supposedly meant to replace. It shares an extremely similar design, with on-screen buttons and a hidden LED notification light on the phone's chin. There are some material changes like chrome buttons and a smooth, patterned back plate, which apparently refused to scratch when struck with a key. What's also new is a micro SIM card tray on the left edge of the phone, which is necessary because the battery is sealed in the prototype LG phone. Other minor changes include a flat screen instead of the curved one on the Galaxy Nexus, and the headphone jack has been moved to the top. There's only 8GB of onboard storage, and there is no microSD card slot.

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Internally, Onliner's prototype unit matches the rumored specifications exactly. Like the Optimus G it is reportedly based off of, the phone is powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor and 2GB of RAM. Additionally, the blog has confirmed that the prototype model's 4.7-inch, 1280 x 720 display is an IPS unit, which would make this the one of the first Nexus phones to use an LCD instead of an AMOLED screen with a PenTile subpixel arrangement.

In terms of performance, the "preliminary review" states that the phone — running Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean — is very buggy. Considering that the device hasn't been announced, it isn't surprising that performance isn't optimized yet. By the same token, the disappointing samples from the phone's 8-megapixel sensor and its subpar benchmarks are indicative of this being a prototype, and ultimately we can't judge based on the results obtained by Onliner.

Is this one of many new Nexus phones?

It is surprising to see so much of this rumored phone before its announcement, but there are still plenty of questions. It's not clear if this is the next Nexus phone, or whether it is one of many (as rumors have suggested). We're sure those who are left underwhelmed by this prototype familiarity will hope the latter is the case. French newspaper Le Figaro has reported that the "LG Nexus 4" will be announced on October 29th, and we'll be waiting until then to draw any conclusions.

Thanks, hynden!