LG NEXUS 5
PURE STOCK ANDROID
Nexus 6, Nexus 9, Android L. Android’s future is coming up to be a pretty exciting one. Rumours have spread out that these three next gen stuvves are coming this October 2014.
As Google’s next flagship arrive, their Nexus 5’s, current flagship, prices have been going down. With the trend of the Smartphone’s lifespan of only about 6 months, should this 1 year old product even still be in your list if you want an upgrade? Read on and Find out!
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- Design and Build
For the past year or two, Q4 of the year always seem to be the time for Bigger phone, Note 3, Note 2, One Max, etc. Last year, Google launched Nexus 5 with a 5 Inch screen, considerably smaller than its competitors. The front of Nexus 5 sports an all touch interface, no hardware buttons can be found here, as well as the front Camera, earpiece and a sensor with the screen with relatively thin bezel. The sides offer the volume rocker and the power button. The top and bottom houses the 3.5mm jack and speakers, respectively, both with mic. The back has the kind-of protruding camera with the Nexus and LG logo in a plastic covering.
Nexus 5 feels light and comfortable to hold, due to its matte-ish back, it doesn’t feel it will slip when you hold it.
Overall, the Phone feels ok but it does not exude an aura of appeal. I would often get asked, what phone is that? Is that China-phone? Also, Nexus 5 is not widely available in the Philippine Market, it can be bought on Grey Market, but I am still to find a store like Abensons to sell it. #TrueStory
- Display
Nexus 5 sports a 5-inch 1920×1080 Full HD Display. This is the first Nexus Smartphone to come in Full HD and Nexus did it right. Texts look sharp, zooming in and out of webpage is crisp, and watching movies is amazing. With regards to sunlight contrast, it takes a huge hit in direct sunlight. I can’t remember the number of times I had to maximize brightness under the sun just so I can read a text message. I live in a tropical country so, yeah, that is a lot of times. On ok lighting conditions, it has ok viewing angles too. My tip? In a snatcher infested country, thank God I work in Taguig, where most, if not all people, are richer than me, DO NOT WHIP OUT YOUR PHONE in Sunlight/Public.
- Entertainment
Functioning as a daily driver, Nexus 5 is still one of the best out there. Loudspeaker, understandably, suffers due to the poor speaker positioning, but nobody should use a smartphone for loudspeaker anyway. Plug in your headsets, LG Nexus 5 offers clean output, your music and sound stay faithful, no added bass, trebles or low. It has the right amount of loudness but compared to its competitors Note 3, S5, G3, etc. it is not as loud.
Being the Stock Harbinger, you can expect Nexus to slack on something, and I found 2! First one is the undying, never resolved, stock video codec. The codec included is extremely limited, it can play some of your files with the question mark of it playing fine, lagging, muting and worst of all, it transforms your 2GB movie file into Mp3. Nice work, Google! Fortunately, a quick download of MX Player Pro keeps you up to speed.
For Gaming, Nexus 5 does amazingly well! All non-HD Games opens and runs smoothly. Go into higher end games like NOVA 3, Real Steel, Dark Knight, and Captain America, it plays them smoothly, this is an amazing feat. If a 2013 phone can perform and play these games on such a high level, just imagine how well its competitor’s and its own successor will be able to play them!
Web Browsing has seen a continuous improvement from past iterations of Android, and coupled with powerful specs, Web Browsing on Nexus 5 is mighty fine. Video Streaming, is also a joy, as videos load fast and can now play Full 1080p! These two maybe internet dependent, but Nexus 5’s KitKat has certainly helped improving it.
- Camera
Remember when I said Nexus 5 has 2 super flaws? Here is the second one! Nexus 5 has an 8MP rear camera. As with any other phone in its price range, it performs ok, take note, ok not great, but throw in a little darkness, use flash, and results come in as disappointing. As for its front camera, it performs ok too at good lighting condition. Finally, the camera experience is bare, you don’t get any gimmicky stuff here compared to HTC and Samsung. Lesson of the day? Don’t expect super camera performance from stock.
- Software
Nexus 5 is powered by Quad-Core 2.3GHZ Snapdragon 800 Processor with Ardeno 330 GPU with 2GB of Ram. Throw in the stock vanilla android and you have yourself, even up to today, yes today (October 2014), it performs at buttery smoothness, rare to none lags, and a powerful multitasker.
If you love stock, Nexus is obviously the one for you. The straight up no gimik approach with little to no bloatwares help aids its quick performance. Google Now is now shaping up to be a very respectable launcher. Sadly, this is Philippines so you can’t fully maximize its functions unless you are on an unlimited plan. Actually even if you are on UnliData plan, you will either get cut-off with cap or get garbage reception amidst telecommunication companies’ insistence that they have 5G or 100% 3G reception.
Being a SmartPhone, Nexus 5 has shown that it can be Smart. Can it be a phone? Of course yes! Call quality, both as a receiver and a transmitter is ok, clear but sometimes, I can come up as soft. Dialer and Contacts are stock, and Hangouts is slowly shaping up to be the SMS app of choice. GoSMS is debatable as the best.
Another feature which catapults Nexus 5 with the best of today is the amazing number of custom roms and dev support.
Software-wise Nexus 5 offers top-of-the-line performance despite being a year old, and being a Nexus line, you can be sure it can be updated to the next 2 iterations of Android. Android L will definitely available and I have high hopes it will get Android M.
- Battery
There is no doubt Nexus 5 is amazing but I did mention it has 2 super flaws. Well this is a major flaw. Battery life. Before Nexus 5, I was using Galaxy Note 2 as my daily driver, and I also tinker with it and sometimes, it was able to last me 2 days with 4-5 hours screen on time. With the Nexus 5, overnight charging is a must and before the day ends, my battery struggles. I average about 2.5 Hours of screen on time. Sadness.
Executive Summary
CONS:
- Disappointing Camera especially on low-light and flash photography without extra features
- Non-expandable storage
- Crappy out of the box video codec
- Soft Loudspeakers
- Some Bloatwares
- Horrendous Battery Life
- Does not look like a premium device (Applicable on in PH)
- Bad Sunlight Contrast
PROS:
- 5 Inch Full 1920×1080 Display
- Great headset audio output
- Stock Android
- LTE Connectivity
- Gorilla Glass 3
- Tons of Developer Support and Customization available
I feel like I may have strayed from the original point of this article which is to answer if this phone is still a good choice with the upcoming of a successor. For me, Nexus 5 is still one of the best out there and its price drop is definitely something to consider. Branded phone is ALWAYS, ALWAYS better than rebranded phones. At most, I will probably still use it for the next 6 months unless Nexus 6 will be that good. The Nexus line is a line of premium Google device which does its best to give you the BEST value for money for the LONGEST amount of time. Other flagships releases twice a year, but Nexus releases once. This is a nice strategy to give consumers peace of mind and actually have something to look at least in terms of specs when looking to upgrade Z2 to Z3 anyone? Nexus also looks to have almost infinite dev support. Google may have stopped support on earlier Nexus like Galaxy Nexus Prime and below but all of them has gotten KitKat. Even my Nexus One runs KitKat, albeit laggy. Nexus 5, at least for the foreseeable 6 months, imho, will continue to breathe life support with Google, and if Google decides to pull the plug, Devs will be there to support. Just be sure to take note of the major cons before buying, otherwise, for those looking for a cheap bang for the buck, Nexus 5 is a safe and great choice.
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