The official Nexus 5 thread.

[swilli89]

Just got my Nexus 5 yesterday. I was in a loud bar last night. I received a call from my uncle, and normally I wouldn't answer because my old Optimus G's earpiece speaker was not very loud. To my surprise, I could hear my uncle's voice super easily even with live music not too far from me. I am very happy with that aspect of the phone.

 

[lopri]

Stand-by power consumption does look better (i.e. lower) than the Nexus 4's. Still not liking Google Services/searches that seem to run all the time, even though there is nothing to search and I did not request any service. I will keep investigating.

Witn the N5 and Kitkat, legibility of the stock settings and options improved dramatically. I can read from farther away. A good job there. I like the camera and it is more than good enough for myself but I suspect that it will not satisfy aficionados.

The speaker is currently my biggest concern along with the battery which I cannot yet render a verdict on. I am experiencing muffled sound at low volume and its occurrence is not completely predictable. Sometimes it seems positional thing and sometimes not. Although on a second thought, I rarely use a phone's speaker for prolonged period of time and maybe I should give this a pass.

Call quality seems good enough for me. Better than the N4's, for certain.

 

[lopri]

Oh, and an interesting observation. With LTE chosen as default;

AT&T SIM

T-Mobile SIM

Both SIMs are LTE capable.

 

[Sheep]

Anyone had a chance to test out the headphone jack for music playback yet? I've read conflicting things about it ranging from "it's okay" to "it sucks horribly". My point of comparison is the Galaxy Nexus which I personally find passable, but nothing special particularly when hooked up to anything resembling a decent sound system.

 

[jimv1983]

OK I'm tired of being up so this is as far as I'm going with this experiment. No charging time at all today (where normally it would be on and off a Qi pad all day). This is my first full day of use after a full overnight charge.

Viper GTS

What was your brightness set to during this time?

 

[Ksyder]

Anyone had a chance to test out the headphone jack for music playback yet? I've read conflicting things about it ranging from "it's okay" to "it sucks horribly". My point of comparison is the Galaxy Nexus which I personally find passable, but nothing special particularly when hooked up to anything resembling a decent sound system.

I just tried it using a pair of Technics dj headphones. I think they sounded good. Went slightly louder than what I could tolerate. Good bass, sounded clear and not distorted at highest volume.

 

[Ksyder]

Also it's really annoying how easily you can block the speaker with your hand when holding the phone in landscape mode. The "speakers" are definitely "meh". One thing I will miss about the Nexus 4 is at least with the speaker on the back you can't easily block it. Looks like HTC will be the only ones to do any good speakers. But I don't really feel like carrying an aluminum phone around in my pocket so not gonna go that route.

 

[Ariae]

I traded my S4 GPe w/ my co-worker's new N5 yesterday just to see if I liked the N5 better. Didn't see any difference in performance. The screen on the N5 was noticeably brighter than the S4 on max brightness but the colors seemed slightly washed out compared to the AMOLED (I prefer the over saturation on AMOLED). N5 obviously felt more solid but I wasn't sure if I liked the slight increase in thickness and weight.

When I had the GNex/N4, I thought the soft buttons was the best thing in the world for an Android phone. With that being said, I've come to realize that I actually prefer hard buttons on the S4 for some reason. It just feels more "right".. Can't really explain Just a personal preference I guess.

N5 is a very solid phone for the price. I would probably buy it over the GPe right now if I needed a phone. I thought I'd feel more guilty for dropping ~$700 for the GPe after holding the N5. Surprisingly, I don't feel like I got ripped off w/ the GPe in any way.

 

[jimv1983]

I traded my S4 GPe w/ my co-worker's new N5 yesterday just to see if I liked the N5 better. Didn't see any difference in performance. The screen on the N5 was noticeably brighter than the S4 on max brightness but the colors seemed slightly washed out compared to the AMOLED (I prefer the over saturation on AMOLED). N5 obviously felt more solid but I wasn't sure if I liked the slight increase in thickness and weight.

When I had the GNex/N4, I thought the soft buttons was the best thing in the world for an Android phone. With that being said, I've come to realize that I actually prefer hard buttons on the S4 for some reason. It just feels more "right".. Can't really explain Just a personal preference I guess.

N5 is a very solid phone for the price. I would probably buy it over the GPe right now if I needed a phone. I thought I'd feel more guilty for dropping ~$700 for the GPe after holding the N5. Surprisingly, I don't feel like I got ripped off w/ the GPe in any way.

You spent $700 on a phone and you DON'T feel ripped off? At that price I would totally feel like I was ripped off. Especially for Samsung's cheap and flimsy materials and lousy build quality.

 

[jpeyton]

You spent $700 on a phone and you DON'T feel ripped off? At that price I would totally feel like I was ripped off. Especially for Samsung's cheap and flimsy materials and lousy build quality.

Any GS4 can be converted to the GPe with a simple flash. I bought a used one for $400 and it's running stock 4.3 right now.

 

[Ariae]

You spent $700 on a phone and you DON'T feel ripped off? At that price I would totally feel like I was ripped off. Especially for Samsung's cheap and flimsy materials and lousy build quality.

Last time I checked, flagship phones go for $600-$700 when released. Quite frankly, $700 isn't going to break me either. I can think of a lot of other things I can go waste my money on.

Spare me on the "flimsy" materials and the build quality bullshit. The phone works great and hasn't fallen apart on me :wub:

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

On wifi or cellular data mostly? If on cellular, it's ok and probably good enough for most people. If on wifi that's not good. WFH yesterday and my Note 3 with mostly wifi had 4.25 hours of on screen at the end of the day with 50% charge left.

Exactly. On Wifi that's not that impressive, considering el Goog promises 7 hours of LTE browsing. Let's see how Anand tests that because the iPhone has hit their 8 hour claim pretty easily.

And like I said, it's Wifi. You could get pretty good wifi battery results on the Nexus 4, but on 3G, it just totally drains like a monster (5%/hour easily)

 

[cbrunny]

Off topic... Remember when it took four AA batteries to power a Gameboy for 6 hours? We are so spoiled....

 

[Zivic]

Last time I checked, flagship phones go for $600-$700 when released. Quite frankly, $700 isn't going to break me either. I can think of a lot of other things I can go waste my money on.

Spare me on the "flimsy" materials and the build quality bullshit. The phone works great and hasn't fallen apart on me :wub:

don't let jimv fool you, the nexus 5 feels just as "cheap" in the hand as an S4 does. The only thing it has going for it is the soft touch back. the rest of the phone is full of lips and sharp edges that make the phone feel unrefined; maybe even unfinished.

 

[bearxor]

don't let jimv fool you, the nexus 5 feels just as "cheap" in the hand as an S4 does. The only thing it has going for it is the soft touch back. the rest of the phone is full of lips and sharp edges that make the phone feel unrefined; maybe even unfinished.

I can't say I disagree...

I think the S4 might even feel better in the hand than the N5.

 

[Viper GTS]

That was auto brightness and on wifi 80% of the day. Wifi, BT, GPS, etc turned on and the usual new phone re-install all the apps you need + show all the other tech obsessed people the new toy.

Viper GTS

 

[OS]

I've never had an S4 but I do agree the N5 doesn't have a nice feel. In this regard it's actually a step backwards from the N4, which had a nice (if fragile) glass back and chamfered front glass. This is not to say the assembly quality is bad and I figure it's a tradeoff for how thin and light the N5 is.

 

[zerogear]

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Our-Nexus-5-battery-life-test-is-ready_id49127

PhoneArena battery test. Dunno how accurate though

 

[blairharrington]

One thing that really bugged me about the G Pro when I had it briefly was the max volume of the device with headphones inserted. It was roughly 80% at max compared to what I get from my S4 and old iPhone 5. Does the N5 have this issue too? Also sad to read how bad the speaker is in this thread and in official reviews.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

don't let jimv fool you, the nexus 5 feels just as "cheap" in the hand as an S4 does. The only thing it has going for it is the soft touch back. the rest of the phone is full of lips and sharp edges that make the phone feel unrefined; maybe even unfinished.

the soft back actually looks 10x worse than a fingerprint smudge on a glossy back. It just gets all shiny when you get your greasy hands on it which is just terrible A glossy back might feel cheap, but this just looks cheap and dirty.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Using the N5 for a conference call on speaker phone right now, the speaker is much louder than the N4.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Using the N5 for a conference call on speaker phone right now, the speaker is much louder than the N4.

Have you used the N4 for conference calls? I notice if I walk around the house with the N4 in my hand dong stuff, my gf will complain she can't hear half of what I'm saying. I can do the same with my iPhone 5 very easily, and she tends to call me on my work phone more now.

I wonder if this is an issue with the N5, or if it was just my N4. IIRC I took off the case for my N4 and she was still complaining. I learned to either use a headset to talk to her or just hold the phone to my ear.

 

[lopri]

Battery performed excellently in stand-by so far. I know I've said it already but this is getting to the point of being "impressive." Granted I did not install many apps yet but I am losing only a percent or two overnight.

 

[lopri]

Battery lasted 2 days with light usage after the 2nd charge, thanks to the excellent sleep performance.

 

[lopri]

Initial impression in day 3:

Great performance - You can feel the speed improvement over the Nexus 4.
Gorgeous screen - Even next to the Note 3's AMOLED screen, it can hold its own with vibrant colors.
Ergonomics - As good as it can get for this size of screen. Very comfy.

Battery - good (stand-by) and mediocre (under use)

Speaker - Not so great. Mine is showing erratic behavior in lower volume.
Build quality - Could have been better. While it does not feel cheap, I do not like the power/volume buttons rattling. The back cover could be tighter.