You can't win em all. While Samsung's new LG-branded Nexus 4 smartphone is taking home rave reviews, the device appears to have same "purple haze" issue that plagued the camera on Apple's iPhone 5 earlier this year.

According to a photo posted on Google Plus by a Nexus 4 user, the camera of the Nexus 4 has a purple-tinted haze in images taken with strong light in the backdrop.

"This is an issue which needs looking into. Apple or LG cannot disregard this to be a normal issue, given the kind of standards set by manufacturers these days," said tech site The Droid Guy.

The site continued: "Looking at the issue, it doesn't seem like something which could be fixed with a software update. The Sony BSI sensors on the Nexus 4 and the iPhone 5 seem to be the culprits and this is an issue without a resolution now."

As you might remember, Apple owned up to problem in a rare moment of transparency after users began complaining.

"Most small cameras, including those in every generation of iPhone, may exhibit some form of flare at the edge of the frame when capturing an image with out-of-scene light sources," said Apple in a statement on its website.

Consumer Reports -- whose opinions on products are taken quite seriously by many -- agreed wholeheartedly. The iPhone 5's camera is "no more prone to purple hazing ... than its predecessor, or several Android phones," said Consumer Reports.

"This can happen when a light source is positioned at an angle (usually just outside the field of view) so that it causes a reflection off the surfaces inside the camera module and onto the camera sensor. Moving the camera slightly to change the position at which the bright light is entering the lens, or shielding the lens with your hand, should minimize or eliminate the effect," the company added.

"We carried out our tests in response to reports, including those from PCMag.com and DPReview.com, that the iPhone 5 had a tendency to display a distracting purple color over parts of certain shots and videos. In our tests, the phone's camera did indeed display such a haze when we shot into a bright light source in our labs," said Consumer Reports.

"But it didn't do so in any more pronounced a fashion than did the iPhone 4S or two Android-based smart phones, the Samsung Galaxy S III and Motorola Droid Razr Maxx, when we tested those under the same conditions. In the course of our tests, the haze was sometimes purple, but sometimes another color or even a rainbow."

While the seemingly inexplicable purple haze may have confounded users, in reality it's actually a fairly common camera, and smartphone camera issue. Unless you're buying top-tier camera lens, almost everyone can experience this "problem."

"All camera lenses, even those made for expensive SLRs, can yield lens flare, which is produced by scattered reflections inside the lens from a bright light source. How much flare appears in an image depends on how you orient the lens," says Consumer Reports.

"Some expensive advanced cameras, and even many point-and-shoots, have special lens coatings that can limit or eliminate such flare, and possibly associated colored haze. So can attaching a shading hood around the lens's edge. But smart phones' cameras are designed differently, so it's typically more difficult for manufacturers to minimize flare in them."

Around the time iPhone users reported the issues, Consumer Reports offered possible solutions to the purple haze issue.

"It's also pretty easy to minimize by using your hand to shield your phone's lens from the sunlight. You can avoid it altogether by reframing your photo or video whenever a bright light source appears in or near the frame," says Consumer Reports.

You can also try out a variety of lens add-ons, some of which purport to reduce lens-flare.

LG Nexus 4

Just minutes after going on sale in the U.S., the new Nexus 4 smartphone from Google and LG was already sold out. Visitors to the Google Play store are greeted with a "coming soon" notice for both the 8 GB and 16 GB of the device. It's unclear how many units Google was able to produce by launch time; the company has not commented.

Google releases only one Nexus-branded handset per year. It is meant to serve as the developer device for its Android smartphone platform. The device went on sale first in Australia, where it sold out in mere hours. Later, the Nexus 4 hit the Play Store in the U.K., where it also sold out in about an hour.

The LG Nexus 4 smartphone features a quad-core processor, "which means its super fast," says Google. The phone's display is a "crisp" 4.7-inches (320 ppi) "that's perfect for looking at photos and watching YouTube." The phone offers wireless charging, so, you just have to set the phone down on a power mat to recharge the Nexus 4's battery.

"While Nexus 4 is incredibly powerful under the hood, it also features the latest version of Jelly Bean, Android 4.2-the simplest and smartest version of Android yet," the company said in its statement.

"Starting with the camera, we've reinvented the photo experience with Photo Sphere, which lets you capture images that are literally larger than life. Snap shots up, down and in every direction to create stunning 360-degree immersive experiences that you can share on Google+ with friends and family-or you can add your Photo Sphere to Google Maps for the world to see."

"Android 4.2 brings other great goodies like Gesture Typing, which lets you glide your finger over the letters you want to type on the keyboard-it makes typing fast, fun and a whole lot simpler. Android 4.2 also adds support for wireless display so you can wirelessly watch movies, YouTube videos and play games right on your Miracast-compatible HDTV."

Price/models

8GB for $299; 16GB for $349; available unlocked and without a contract on Nov. 13 on the Google Play store in the U.S., U.K., Australia, France, Germany, Spain and Canada. The 16GB version will also be available through T-Mobile for $199, with a 2-year contract.