I disagree with (1)... that will probably be average hardware for 2014 (for high end devices because lets face it, all high end devices have roughly the same specs).

You make a lot of assumptions with (2) as well. Given Canonical has 0 experience in putting out HW I wouldn't assume a top notch product since details like build quality and materials are important.

(3) would be a negative for me... you would get the slowest, least power efficient, and most app-baron experience.

I agree it's a no brainer though... PASS! $830 is way too much for me to beta test their product for them.

You think 4 gigs of ram, sapphire display and 128gb ssd are going to be the norm in 2014? Not very likely. That would be just about double the Samsung S4 right now. I don't think it is very likely for 2014. 2015, maybe though.

And I don't think Canonical is going to build the phone but work with someone to do it.

> (3) would be a negative for me... you would get the slowest, least power efficient, and most app-baron experience.

Do you have any data to back that up?

And don't forget that Android had very few apps when first launched. Very few. At least an Ubuntu phone will be able to run all the standard Ubuntu apps, and in converged mode, you'll get all the desktop apps as well, which is awesome.

The S4 has a 1080p screen (better than the edge) a Quad (comparable to the edge) and with SD cards, can be expanded to 128gb of storage on the cheap.

Not to mention the app selection for Android is unbeatable. Sure it didn't have many apps in the early days, but because it was one of the first to market, it will retain this lead. Look at HP's touchpad, BB10, and Windows Phone - they've had years to catch up and have failed.

The edge is a niche device and has it's place, but I'd say should be avoided by the average user.

For $305 the Nexus 4 is the no-brainer.

I have excellent vision, and I can't see the pixels on the 720p Nexus 4, nevermind the S4. I'm so sick of people in this thread claiming the S4 pentile 1080p S4 is better than a 720p display. When you double the resolution, you quadruple the number of pixels that must be rendered. This means that given the same CPU, your 1080p phone is going to be 50% slower in games and draw more battery power.

Give me longer battery life and better gaming performance over a meaningless spec. sheet number.

I tried to use android by buying a galaxy note before ICS and OpenGL rendering - it was awful. The same internals as the S2 with three times the pixels! I should have waited for the S3 for my experiment.

The Nexua 4 is a no brainer? The lack of MicroSD expansion says otherwise.

The battery is also mediocre, at least with stock Android.

it has 16 GB of memory max and no sd card (in comparison I'm not too upset with my 64gb phone not having an sd slot)

You don't need data to know that the initial product will be the least optimized (in terms of speed/power) and fewest apps. I was speaking mostly in the domain of Ubuntu phones, since the experience will likely improve as they develop the product more, however I would be very surprised if Canonical manages to be faster and more efficient than either iOS or high end android devices at launch.

I'm not saying they there isn't potential, I just don't have as much faith in Canonical as you seem to.

If the hardware is open I expect you would be able to put the Firefox mobile OS on there as well.

Maybe you will be able to dual-boot with Firefox mobile OS as well.

all this is just words on paper right now- a competent marketing team can make any product sound amazing/indispensible. tack on the standard kickstarter/indiegogo delays, and this feels like as far from a no brainer as can be.

i don't see how you could trust any company, let alone a company making their first phone, with $600/$830 before seeing and playing with the software OR the hardware.