LG admits reason behind dropping 4G in Nexus 4
Because it's secretly another phone … The redundant 4G chip in the Nexus 4 caused confusion, but now LG has told TechRadar why it's there. — The presence of the LTE connectivity hardware in the Nexus 4 caused some to believe that it could be next-gen speed-enabled in the future.
Context & Ripple Effects
The Nexus 4's dormant LTE silicon stopped being a mystery the moment its lineage was clear: Onliner's October 2012 leak had already confirmed the device is a remodeled version of LG's Optimus G, the Seoul-announced flagship that shipped with LTE on board. AnandTech pinned the orphaned radio to Band 4 (AWS), and Engadget's video of the handset running Canadian LTE through a simple carrier menu code turned speculation into demonstration.
LG's admission to TechRadar closes the loop on a question that has trailed the Nexus program since Google's original Nexus 4G spec leak promised LTE more than a year earlier — and lands in a market where '4G' branding was already contested territory, as AT&T's marketing of HSPA+ as 4G showed back in 2011.
First-order effects
- Buyers on Band 4 carriers now know their Nexus 4 hardware can reach LTE speeds, but only through an unsupported menu-code hack that Engadget demonstrated on video — with no warranty or carrier backing if it misbehaves.
- LG's explanation reframes the missing 4G as a byproduct of reusing the Optimus G platform rather than a deliberate spec cut, shifting blame from Google's pricing decision to shared-component economics.
Second-order effects
- US carriers lose their clearest talking point against the Nexus 4's unsubsidized $299/$349 pricing — no LTE — since the capability demonstrably exists in the silicon, pressuring Google to guarantee LTE in the next Nexus rather than inherit whatever radio its manufacturing partner's flagship happens to carry.
- The menu-code workaround hands enthusiast communities and small regional carriers on Band 4 a de facto premium feature Google never priced in, complicating the clean 'no LTE, low price' story for retail channels.
Third-order effects
- If Google keeps building Nexuses from partners' existing flagships, radio configuration becomes a software and certification decision layered onto shared hardware — meaning every future Nexus launch will be judged partly on what its donor platform left switched off.
- The episode sharpens the split between carrier-subsidized LTE handsets and off-contract reference devices, a fault line that will shape how the Nexus line positions itself against carrier-exclusive flagships.
The trend: Flagship smartphone platforms are increasingly reused across carrier and off-contract derivatives, turning radios and other components into switchable software decisions whose leftovers surface publicly at every launch.