New LG Nexus 4 units are shipping with built in bumper tabs
The LG Nexus 4 is a pretty well made device from the design standpoint, and certainly looks the part of a high end smartphone, but the one major problem I have with the device is the glass back cover. It certainly looks great, and gives the phone a high quality in-hand feel, but it is both superfluous and unnecessarily fragile. While it may look good, broken or scratched glass really doesn’t, and it is never good to feel like you can’t put your smartphone down on a table without risking scratches and other damage.
Fortunately, Google and LG have taken some action on this problem, and slightly modified the design of new Nexus 4s to include at least a bit of protection for the glass back cover. Whereas with the early Nexus 4 units the device sits directly on the glass and can easily slide and scratch, new units have four tiny nubs placed to raise the device slightly and prevent scratches. It won’t do much against drops and more serious damage, but it will allow new owners to set the Nexus 4 down on flat surfaces without fear.
It may seem like a minor addition, but the only reason I am currently using the Poetic Slimline Bumper for the Nexus 4 is that without it I don’t feel comfortable putting the Nexus 4 down on almost any surface. Although this won’t make the glass any more durable, the change actually should make the Nexus 4 quite a bit more practical to use.
In addition to the added nubs, the cutout for the new Nexus 4’s camera is ever so slightly larger than the previous version. Although it probably won’t change much of anything, I would still be interested to get my hands on an “enhanced” Nexus 4 for a photo comparison.
These hardware changes are fairly minor, but it isn’t every day that a manufacturer makes even such small changes to a device already in production. It is nice to know that Google has realized how fragile the Nexus 4’s glass back really is, and is trying to do something about it, even if they really can’t do very much.
[Android Central]
