While the Nexus 4 is generally considered a very good phone, Google took a lot of heat at launch for the fact they didn't offer LTE. That marred an otherwise interesting attempt to bypass carriers by offering a less expensive, unsubsidized phone directly to consumers (aka the way Europeans have been doing it for years). At the time, Google stated that the decision was a tactical one aimed at conserving battery life and preserving a "quality user experience":

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Android head Andy Rubin calls the lack of LTE a "tactical issue," and cites cost and battery life as major concerns with devices that have to support multiple radios. "A lot of the networks that have deployed LTE haven't scaled completely yet — they're hybrid networks [...] which means the devices need both radios built into them," he said. "When we did the Galaxy Nexus with LTE we had to do just that, and it just wasn't a great user experience."

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