The official Nexus 5 thread.

[jimv1983]

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:

I currently have a GS II (my Nexus 5 comes tomorrow or Monday). The build quality is very poor. The back cover isn't flush with the rest of the phone. The micro USB port on the bottom is very loose to the point that the USB cord almost falls out if it is moved to much. The materials suck. The back cover is flimsy. The back cover and edges show excessive wear. I've even replaced the back cover. TWICE! Slightly twisting the phone results in many creaks and clicks like it doesn't fit together tightly. The S3 and S4 don't seem any better. I've never had or seen a phone with such bad build quality and materials like Samsung has.

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

That seems pretty good. The history details don't show any WiFi stats. Is that all on mobile data? Screen brightness? My Nexus 5 will be here tomorrow or Friday and based on your results I think I'll be pretty happy with battery life.

I'm hoping for like 4-5 hours screen on time over like 16 hours all on mobile data with brightness at about 50%. That would get me through my heaviest days of usage.

 

[lopri]

Yes, Wi-Fi is off. Ran on 3G/LTE only just to see.

Phone gets warm during active use.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I currently have a GS II (my Nexus 5 comes tomorrow or Monday). The build quality is very poor. The back cover isn't flush with the rest of the phone. The micro USB port on the bottom is very loose to the point that the USB cord almost falls out if it is moved to much. The materials suck. The back cover is flimsy. The back cover and edges show excessive wear. I've even replaced the back cover. TWICE! Slightly twisting the phone results in many creaks and clicks like it doesn't fit together tightly. The S3 and S4 don't seem any better. I've never had or seen a phone with such bad build quality and materials like Samsung has.

I beg to differ. I have an S2 and I LOVE the design. The square shape is brilliant and the phone feels solid to me. I have scratched up the sides like any plastic phone gets over time, but it's still great to hold. I broke the back frame after unscrewing the phone many times, but even then it's just a crack on the volume button side. It's a tiny seam. I bought a replacement frame but haven't even installed it.

The phone feels quite solid and if anything my N4 actually creaks more than my S2. Could the S2 be better? Yeah, but I think the S3 is actually worse. The S4 makes a comeback with the metal band which helps it feel more solid. And plus now with devices getting so thin, they're really packing it in to make sure it's a dense fit. The N4 wasn't as tightly packed I think and therefore you could squeeze it a bit and mine creaks.

Edit: Also I don't believe micro USB ports are that durable anyway. My N4 gets a bit loose too while the N5 is ridiculously tight. They're a cheap low level component anyway, so I highly doubt there's much differentiation between a high quality and low quality one. A lot of it depends on your cable too.

 

[Ariae]

D, that metal band is plastic

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

D, that metal band is plastic

LOL.. its still a nice feel I think even if it's plastic... just kinda like the Spigen Neo Hybrid cases with the plastic band feel pretty premium as long as they're tight.

 

[Ariae]

I agree. I'm not going to sit here and nitpick over materials as long as the phone does what its suppose to do. I'd rather have repairability/function over fashion. You're buying a phone not a house lol

 

[jimv1983]

I beg to differ. I have an S2 and I LOVE the design. The square shape is brilliant and the phone feels solid to me. I have scratched up the sides like any plastic phone gets over time, but it's still great to hold. I broke the back frame after unscrewing the phone many times, but even then it's just a crack on the volume button side. It's a tiny seam. I bought a replacement frame but haven't even installed it.

The phone feels quite solid and if anything my N4 actually creaks more than my S2. Could the S2 be better? Yeah, but I think the S3 is actually worse. The S4 makes a comeback with the metal band which helps it feel more solid. And plus now with devices getting so thin, they're really packing it in to make sure it's a dense fit. The N4 wasn't as tightly packed I think and therefore you could squeeze it a bit and mine creaks.

Edit: Also I don't believe micro USB ports are that durable anyway. My N4 gets a bit loose too while the N5 is ridiculously tight. They're a cheap low level component anyway, so I highly doubt there's much differentiation between a high quality and low quality one. A lot of it depends on your cable too.

Then I guess you had a much better experience than I did. After my experience with the build quality, materials, software, horrible battery life(currently at 49% with 5.5 hours off charger and 45 minutes screen on time) and Samsung's insistence on keeping hardware buttons I'll probably never buy another Samsung phone ever again. I HATE my GS II!!!! Samsung should stick to what they do best....TVs.

 

[Ariae]

Then I guess you had a much better experience than I did. After my experience with the build quality, materials, software, horrible battery life(currently at 49% with 5.5 hours off charger and 45 minutes screen on time) and Samsung's insistence on keeping hardware buttons I'll probably never buy another Samsung phone ever again. I HATE my GS II!!!! Samsung should stick to what they do best....TVs.

Didn't every Android phone that same generation have those issues you just listed? I once hated hard buttons too but that's purely subjective.

 

[Chiropteran]

My N5 has 1 dead pixel. Contemplating returning or replacing it.

 

[Crow550]

My N5 has 1 dead pixel. Contemplating returning or replacing it.

Try running one of those red,blue,green flashing stuck pixel tests. If it goes away it wasn't a dead but stuck pixel.

Worth a shot.

 

[jimv1983]

My N5 has 1 dead pixel. Contemplating returning or replacing it.

That sucks but it does happen. I don't even think I would notice it. The fact that you can even see it at all makes me think it is actually a cluster of dead pixels. At 444ppi a single pixel is about the diameter of a human hair.

 

[swilli89]

My own battery results. Second day of ownership. Pleasantly surprised.
About an hour of music listening, hour of voice calls, couple of hours of web browsing, less than an hour of youtube, and about hour espn fantasy football app :biggrin:

For you eagle eyed guys you will notice a SLIGHT bump in charging about halfway through the cycle. That was me connecting to my computer for about 2 minutes to load a couple of albums onto the phone. It probably gained about 3% during this and I consider it negligible.

 

[lopri]

I forgot to mention - the curved glass edges are gone. It felt natural and ergonomic on the Nexus 4 but it often interfered with one-handed operation due to my palm registering touches. The Nexus 5 now follows the Samsung's style so that the edges around the glass are ever so slightly raised. With Kitkat's enlarged icons, touch is somewhat freer and more accurate in one-handed usage scenarios. Sliding from sides may not feel as smooth as on curved glass, though in practice it did not get in the way.

 

[jimv1983]

My own battery results. Second day of ownership. Pleasantly surprised.
About an hour of music listening, hour of voice calls, couple of hours of web browsing, less than an hour of youtube, and about hour espn fantasy football app :biggrin:

For you eagle eyed guys you will notice a SLIGHT bump in charging about halfway through the cycle. That was me connecting to my computer for about 2 minutes to load a couple of albums onto the phone. It probably gained about 3% during this and I consider it negligible.

Brightness setting? On LTE during the non-wifi time? Google Now on/off? Location services on/off?

Based on your numbers(and answers to my questions) I don't think I'll have any trouble getting my goal of about 15 hours off charger and 4 hours screen on time. Getting mine tomorrow or Monday.

 

[ponyo]

I was worried after looking at ViperGTS initial battery report but these later figures look bit more promising. The standby drain looks to be greatly improved which is contributing to the increased battery life. I might be convinced to order the 32gb to test for myself.

 

[antef]

So when flying through the setup screens I accidentally went past the Google Services screen without reading the bottom half, and then couldn't go back. I think it might've been the "Keep me up to date with news and offers" checkbox but I'm not sure. Can anyone confirm if that is all I missed on that screen? It's the bottom half of the right-most screen in this image: http://www.geeksquad.co.uk/media/1383311603-large.png

 

[Ariae]

Took a quick screen comparison shot of N5 (left) vs GS4 (right) on max brightness. Shot w/ another GS4 lol

Will post more angles when I get home tonight.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Took a quick screen comparison shot of N5 (left) vs GS4 (right) on max brightness. Shot w/ another GS4 lol

Gimme a sec to resize

It's also interesting to see how much space the nav bar takes up And this is why I'm still in favor of hardware buttons.

Brightness setting? On LTE during the non-wifi time? Google Now on/off? Location services on/off?

Based on your numbers(and answers to my questions) I don't think I'll have any trouble getting my goal of about 15 hours off charger and 4 hours screen on time. Getting mine tomorrow or Monday.

Sounds a bit tough because this phone starts draining if I use it. I'm at 89% right now over 7.5 hours of use. Google Location services are on, wifi scanning is off. I have only 10 minutes of screen on time. I do believe that the location services causes additional drain. I see about 7 min of nlpcollectorwakelock. My only other comparison point was Tuesday at work where my phone drained 9% over 6 hours, but with no nlpcollectorwakelock because I turned google location reporting off. I would have to continue to monitor to see.

 

[lopri]

I'm hoping for like 4-5 hours screen on time over like 16 hours all on mobile data with brightness at about 50%. That would get me through my heaviest days of usage.

Auto brightness setting is quite a bit brighter than the Nexus 4's. And if you do not mind disabling things, root is going to be easier on the Nexus devices as always. I had a great success with my Nexus 4 by disabling various Google services. Actually I think this phone can be slightly underclocked and/or can use a lower auto-brightness setting. Nexus 4's screen looks so bad next to the 5. Heh.

But I don't know how confident I can be under heavy usage without opportunistic charging. The battery icon in the notification area doesn't help - Google should give an option to see percentages.

 

[swilli89]

Brightness setting? On LTE during the non-wifi time? Google Now on/off? Location services on/off?

Based on your numbers(and answers to my questions) I don't think I'll have any trouble getting my goal of about 15 hours off charger and 4 hours screen on time. Getting mine tomorrow or Monday.

Screen was at 50% the entire time. I don't use auto. Yes, on LTE during non0wifi. Google now OFF. Location services set to battery saver (new kit kat feature)

 

[swilli89]

Took a quick screen comparison shot of N5 (left) vs GS4 (right) on max brightness. Shot w/ another GS4 lol

Will post more angles when I get home tonight.

Haha i saw your screen shot and was like "ooh i need to head over to the verge and read about the new star wars" lol

 

[jimv1983]

I just bough a Nexus 5(gets here tomorrow or Monday) and your picture just makes me remember why I'm going to miss the AMOLED screen of my Galaxy S II. The refresh button and browser tab indicator, red on the Marvel logo and black boxes to the right of the Marvel logo all look MUCH better on the S4. I really wish the Nexus 5 would have had an AMOLED. Colors, blacks, contrast and battery life are all better on AMOLED.

To all of the people that say LCD has "more accurate" colors just look at that side by side comparison. It's a perfect example of how AMOLED has better colors that are true and not washed out.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Screen was at 50% the entire time. I don't use auto. Yes, on LTE during non0wifi. Google now OFF. Location services set to battery saver (new kit kat feature)

This just disables GPS, no? I've always found that disabing GPS to be trivial in terms of battery savings. I saw 2 little mini blips of GPS, and Google Location Services used 26 seconds of GPS.

If Android and the installed apps are implemented properly, no app should be invoking GPS in the background anyway. Therefore, unless you're using Yelp, Foursquare, Maps, etc. for long periods of time throughout the day, you shouldn't worry about GPS. Plus, when you're using Maps, I'm going to guess that you probably want GPS anyway.

That's just what I feel about GPS though. Oddly enough my Nexus 10 invokes GPS for no reason even with Wifi disabled during the day. It ran for 5 minutes or so over a 2 day period, which could be concerning.

 

[RaistlinZ]

AMOLED colors aren't true, they are oversaturated.

 

[kevinsbane]

I just bough a Nexus 5(gets here tomorrow or Monday) and your picture just makes me remember why I'm going to miss the AMOLED screen of my Galaxy S II. The refresh button and browser tab indicator, red on the Marvel logo and black boxes to the right of the Marvel logo all look MUCH better on the S4. I really wish the Nexus 5 would have had an AMOLED. Colors, blacks, contrast and battery life are all better on AMOLED.

To all of the people that say LCD has "more accurate" colors just look at that side by side comparison. It's a perfect example of how AMOLED has better colors that are true and not washed out.

In the same way that wide gamut monitors like a Dell U3011 has highly saturated colours that are also inaccurate, so too, most current amoled screens are highly saturated and widely inaccurate.