I’m Done Waiting, Google.

I’ve been using my Nokia Lumia 900 for some time now and whilst it’s a solid handset Windows Phone 7 is starting to feel pretty old hat at this point, especially with the Windows Phone 8 successor out in the Lumia 920. However I had made the decision to go back to Android due to the application ecosystem on there. Don’t get me wrong for most people Windows Phone has pretty much everything you need but for someone like me who revels in doing all sorts of esoteric things with his phone (like replicating iCloud levels of functionality, but better) Android is just the platform for me. With that in mind I had been searching for a handset that would suit me and I, like many others, found it in the Nexus 4.

Spec wise its a pretty comparable phone to everything else out there with the only glaring technical fault being the lack of a proper 4G modem. Still its big screen, highly capable processor and above all stock Android experience with updates that come direct from Google make up for that in spades. The price too is pretty amazing as I paid well over 50% more for my Galaxy S2 back in the day. So it was many months ago that I had resigned myself to wait for the eventual release of the Nexus 4 so I could make the transition back the Android platform and all the goodness that would come along with it.

Unfortunately for me the phone went on sale at some ludicrous time for us Australians so I wasn’t awake for the initial run of them and missed my chance at getting in on the first bunch. I wasn’t particularly worried though as they had a mailing list I could join for when stock would be available again and I figured that after the initial rush it wouldn’t be too hard to get my hands on one of them. However the stock they got sold out so quickly that by the time I checked my email and found they were available again they had sold out, leaving me without the opportunity to purchase one yet again. Thinking that there’s no way that Google would be out of stock for long (they never were for previous Nexus phones) I resigned myself to wait until it became available again, or at least a pre-order system came up.

Despite stories I hear of handsets being available for some times and tales of people being able to order one at various times  I have not once seen a screen that differs from the one shown above. Nearly every day for the past 2 months I’ve been checking the Nexus site in the hopes that they’d become available but not once have I had the chance to purchase one. Now Google and LG have been pointing fingers in both directions as to who is to blame for this but in the end that doesn’t matter because both of them are losing more and more customers the longer these supply issues continue. It doesn’t help when they announce that AT&T will start stocking them this month which has to mean a good portion of inventory was diverted from web sales to go them instead. That doesn’t build any good will for Google in my mind especially when I’ve been wanting to give them my money for well over 2 months now.

And with that in mind I think I’m done waiting for it.

For the price the Nexus 4 looked like a great device but time hasn’t made the specifications look any better, especially considering the bevy of super powerful smartphones that debuted at CES not too long ago. I, along with many other potential Nexus 4 buyers, would have gladly snapped up one of their handsets long ago if it was available to us and the next generation wouldn’t have got much of a look in. However due to the major delays I’m now no longer considering the Nexus 4 viable when I might only be a month or two away from owning something like the ZTE Grand S which boasts better specifications all round and is probably the thinnest handset you’ll find. Sure I’ll lose the completely stock experience and direct updates from Google but after waiting for so long the damage has been done and I need to find myself a better suitor.