Google Nexus 5 – Review

As the name suggests Google nexus 5 is the 5th phone of nexus series and google priced this phone very reasonably with high specs. This phone is manufactured by LG for google, it can be easily seen at the bottom of the back cover of the device.

Nexus 5 gets its speed from snapdragon 800 processor chip and 2GB ram makes it even more astonishing. A 5 inch 1080p display give a nice experience while watching videos and a 8 MP camera shoots with 1080p gives a nice video shots to capture.

Nexus 5 comes loaded with latest Android 4.4 kitkat which enhances the performance. Nexus being a google product always gets the new OS first. This phone starts with a price range of $349 for a 16GB model, what make’s this phone interesting is that this price does not come at a stake of a contract and with this configuration this SIM unlocked phone is the most reasonable price phone in market at present.

Specs

• Brand: Google
• Manufacturer: LG
• Height: 5.43 inches (137.9 mm)
• Width: 2.72 inches (69.2 mm)
• Depth: 0.34 inches (8.6 mm)
• Weight: 130g (4.59oz)
• Processor: Qualcomm MSM8974 Snapdragon 800
• Processor speed: Quad-core 2.3 GHz
• Display: 4.95 inches with 445 ppi
• Display type: True HD IPS+, with Capacitive touch
• Storage: 16GB,32GB
• RAM: 2GB
• Bluetooth: V4.0 with A2DP
• Wireless Lan: WIFI 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
• Camera primary: 8MP, 1080p @30fps, LED flash, autofocus
• Camera secondary: 1.3MP
• Camera features: Geo-tagging, face detection, touch focus
• GPU: Adreno 330
• GPS: A-gps support, GLONASS
• Sensors: Gyro, proximity, accelerometer, compass, barometer
• OS: Andriod 4.4 (Kitkat)
• Battery: 2300 mAH

Outlook

Outlook of the phone is quite impressive even though nexus 5 have a plastic body, this helped a lot in making the device lighter in weight. Nexus 5 is engraved on the back of the phone with LG logo at the bottom. Placement of camera is done towards a side with LED flash at the bottom of camera. Camera has a circular module around it which makes the device a little unbalanced when placed on flat surface.

Speaker and microphone is placed at the bottom of the phone which has the micro usb charging point at the center. Volume buttons are situated at the side of the phone where as power button and micro sim card slot is situated.

Front of the nexus 5 is clean with a HD IPS+ display with a resolution of  1920 x 1080 with a pixel density of 445ppi which gives a decent performance. Nexus 5 wont let you detect flaws in their display except contrast as we have seen display like retina and super AMOLED. But we think one can’t complaint so much as google has priced this device under $350.

In Nexus 5 we can’t help but notice that there is circular ear piece in the front of the device and circular module surrounding the camera. It looks a little different to see these kind of circular designs but it’s up to individual preference some likes it some don’t.

Speed

Nexus 5 is powered by snapdragon 800 processor which is clocked at 2.3gHZ gives a rocking processing speed. A 2GB RAM just adds to the performance of the phone. Nexus 5 got a great speed under this price range of $350. Nexus got the whole new android 4.4 kitkat which has got some performance upgrades with new features added in the OS. Nexus 5 LTE 4G technology give fast speed on internet and data processing with 2.3gHZ  and 2GB ram this phone gives a lovely performance.

Operating System

Nexus 5 has Android 4.4 kitkat . You will notice that there not much has changed from jelly bean now there is  a Google now slide when you swipe left to the home screen. Google now can also be accessed by long pressing the home button, in kitkat Google now has become even more responsive. But kitkat stops taking commands when the device is inactive with display screen off.

This makes the feature not very useful if you don’t want to move your fingers to make the screen active in order to make google now to take commands. It would have been lot easier if Google made an effort to give us as option to make this feature customizable, as we want Google now to take commands even when devices is locked or the screen is not active.

In nexus Android comes with Google’s basic layout, companies like Samsung, HTC adds their own custom interface according to their needs. Nexus 5 comes with the most basic UI of Kitkat but this doesn’t mean that this makes it any less than than these custom UI of other big shots.

Messaging

Again there is a feature which can bring mixed reactions, google tried to do a little mixing of hangout and messaging service in this new version. Now there is no messaging app right in front infact it is attached with hangout, when we opened the hangout we saw threaded messages lying right in front.

If you want to message some one then you have to select the contact and chose whether you want to message from hangout or the cellular messaging system. All of this joining got our head spinning we think it’ll take some time to get use to this feature. But if you dont want hangout joined with messaging then there are alot of third party apps in the play store at your disposal to get the work done.

Camera

Nexus 5 took a giant step in improving the camera quality from Nexus 4. When we tried to test the camera Nexus 5 took some of the nice shots, camera of nexus 5 is 8 Mega pixel with auto focus. Unlike nexus 4 this time camera took shots with most of the details, we must admit that we didn’t expected such photos from nexus 5. If you compare this with iphone 5s or with galaxy s4 then it won’t catch up, but we have to keep in mind that this quality comes from a camera of a phone which costs less than $350.

The interface of camera app has not changed a lot since android jelly bean we still need to long press on the camera screen for options to show up an then we have a semi circular settings panel which has options as flash auto,on or off, exposure, HDR+, using primary or secondary camera and a few more options are there but we think that google should have worked on making this app more user friendly by making options easily accessible.

HDR+  gives some really impressive pictures, it actually gets the work done allotted to HRD functionality. what HDR does is that it takes multiple pictures and takes best among them to deliver the most effective picture. Nexus 5 gives incredible results with HDR we think that this is on of the finest HDR pictures we’ve seen. You must keep in mind that HDR takes more time to process and same photos then normal shooting, it can take upto 4 seconds depending upon the conditions.

Photo sphere is another function added by google lets you generate your surroundings as per your own choice, we found it interesting to play with. photo sphere lets you capture 360 degree panoramic view of the scene you can do left to right as well as up down to give a whole idea about your surroundings you can also share it on Google+ directly.

We cant help but notice that camera app sometimes fails to touch focus when we tap on the screen and sometimes it takes lot of time to focus, it was annoying when we tried to take some shots of kids and some dogs. Some times there is a very less time difference between a good and a bad shot

Low Light Images is the biggest plus point this phone camera have in fact nexus 5  camera is picking market just because of taking beautiful images in low light. Camera of Nexus 5 takes lot better low light images compered to its competitors the reason behind it is that this phone has a more specific exposure levels and ISO which lets enough light to transfer through the lens. Even the ISO levels is sharp enough to makes the images to come out more vibrant.

Once in a while we find our self in a situation where we have to take shots in low light this is where this phone can do wonders, this phone also comes with optical image stabilization. This phone has an impressive photo quality in this price range.

Battery Life

Nexus 5 has enormous 2300 mAh battery which sounds nice to have. This phone gave us mixed results some days were good but some were not so great. Overall this phone gave us a backup of 6 to 12 hours with daily usage of calling , texting, browsing and using social networking such as facebook tweeter whatsapp etc.

Google did not gave a power saver option in this phone which seems important as this phone has unreliable battery life. Even though Android 4.4 has been optimized for power saving but we sure did missed that battery saver option which adjusts brightness and data according to battery. we still have option of third party apps to get the work done but we sure missed the feature from google end.

Price

16 GB –    $349    –    £299

32GB –     $399   –    £339

Verdict

This is a phone of many pros and cons :

Pros:

• Nexus 5 has a great display with clear HD display which has a 445 ppi pixel density.
• Latest Android 4.4 Kitkat makes this phone a delight
• Snapdragon 800 with 2.3 GHz makes this phone fast and reliable
• There is no contract on this phone so no operator restrictions and other stuff.
• Phone is value for money for the price tag it holds.

Cons:

• Battery is one of the biggest down side to this phone its uneven battery performance always kept us worried about the battery status.
• Camera is another thing which holds this device back though this phone has some nice camera features which some what compensates.

Overall the phone is a good buy with low price and high end features and speed which no other phone has right now in its range. Uneven battery life and camera can be little disappointing sometimes where as phone has lot of positive side to it.