[Mariner]

Would that particular LTE version be usable in the UK?

As for Touchwiz, it's pretty easy to install a custom ROM to get rid of that, even on a device as new as the S4. I can't see any great benefit to buying the 'Nexus' Galaxy S4 over a standard model. I'm guessing it is relatively easy to unlock a standard one.

[french toast]

Yes it will be usable in uk.
A couple of reasons,

No messing around rooting and installing roms and kernals that might be unstable.

The promise of instant upgrades directly from google, no waiting round for samsung.

No touchwhizz bloat right out of the box..yes I know thats obvious..but its so good I thought id mention it twice.

Er...its cheaper?

[Mariner]

Well, even if you don't want to install custom ROMs, I'd say it was generally a good idea to root your phone as you can do so much more with a rooted phone. Of course, if you require more security of data for work and aren't too tech-savvy, you're probably best off leaving it unrooted.

I'm not in the market for a new phone at the moment so haven't looked what deals were available but, if the phone were available for around £430 ($649 at current exchange rates), it would be a reasonable enough deal. Best price I can find is £543 (after cashback) but that does include a 12 month Vodafone contract with unlimited calls and texts + 1GB data. I'd guess that this phone won't have any LTE support, however?

That said, the chances of this phone going on sale in the UK at £430 would probably be pretty slim!

[french toast]

Well its from the google store so im not sure, if it were any other device i would say we british would be getting ripped off.
It will defo have full LTE compatability you can bet on that, by mid 2014 the whole of england will be covered according to some EE promotion I saw, so it would be pretty stupid if it didnt.

I must admit as a tech savvy guy I have been very reluctant/suspicious of rooting my gs3 and installing custom roms, some time last year when myself and mize got one I looked at several you tube videos and found lots of them to be unstable, looked like a lot of messing around to me at the time, I dont know perhaps I was a bit hasty in my judgements?

[Mariner]

The issue is that EE (horrible company - I still shudder at how bad the service was when I was on Orange) are using a different frequency for LTE to any of the US networks or, for that matter, the other UK networks when they bring their LTE services online.

Will the 'Nexus' S4 support all the necessary LTE frequencies and bands for the UK? I have to admit I'm not very well educated about LTE as it is just too preposterously expensive in the UK at the moment. That, and the fact that I would never use Orange/EE again unless I absolutely had to.

[french toast]

Well I'm on orange now and it's ok for me, I'm not sure about lte frequencies supported, but it uses a top of the line qualcomm baseband, they pretty much offer up all the frequency bands you would find in most countries I would presume, as galaxy s4 supports lte I would think that is supported in the UK, so providing it's unchanged hardware then it looks a sure bet.