The Nexus 4 is the Achilles of Android phones. It’s incredibly powerful, ready to do battle, but it has one tiny weakness that could bring the whole thing down: the lack of 4G connectivity. iFixIt discovered that the device might actually support the high-speed network after finding 4G hardware in its teardown. LG, however, wants to dash your hopes by confirming that you will never be able to use 4G on the Nexus 4. Like, ever.
That’s right. No firmware update is coming, no software fix is in development. Your Nexus 4 will always be saddled to a 3G network so long as it shall live.
Why is this so? Doesn’t the presence of 4G hardware mean that all Google and LG need to do is tell the phone to enable 4G? Not necessarily.
LG told TechRadar last week that the device actually lacks essential hardware to support 4G networking.
In order to provide the best possible specification for Nexus 4, LG utilised the same powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset as can be found in its 4G LTE product, namely LG Optimus G. This powerful chipset is only available with a combined processor and modem and cannot be implemented separately.
The modem contains 4G LTE capabilities but is only effective when combined with other essential hardware parts such as a signal amplifier and filter in order for it to work. It therefore cannot be upgraded to 4G LTE capability through software.
The chip that iFixIt found was just a dud piece of leftover hardware that couldn’t be removed without swapping out the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4+ chip that forms the beating heart of both the Nexus 4 and its father, the LG Optimus G. [TechRadar]