The official Nexus 5 thread.

[WelshBloke]

That is the difference. You call it "overblown" but it's actually realistic.

I'm curious how I can calibrate the screen on a phone. Is there anyway to do it without rooting? Rooting is something I have no desire to do.

I much prefer AMOLED on a phone, but DLeRium is right the colours on an AMOLED screen are exaggerated (for lack of a better term). For me this works well. I'm looking at a 5 inch screen (or smaller) I want the colour to be exaggerated.

I'm not looking to be making a PDF for publication, I'm looking at stuff purely for consumption then and there. I frankly couldn't care less if its "accurate" as long as it looks good.

 

[WelshBloke]

BTW, Windows keeps telling me that my N5 is a USB 3.0 device and can perform faster. What is the deal?

The SOC is USB 3 compliant, unfortunately the socket isn't.

 

[lopri]

Hmm.. interesting. So other N5 owners experience the same?

 

[WelshBloke]

Hmm.. interesting. So other N5 owners experience the same?

I should have put an [/speculation] at the end of my post but looking at whats going on that seems the obvious conclusion.

 

[paperwastage]

Hmm.. interesting. So other N5 owners experience the same?

mine does that too

some people speculate faulty USB 3.0 drivers on your computer

but since the nexus 5 doesn't have pin-outs for USB 3.0 microUSB, you can't do anything

 

[kevinsbane]

I don't know what those "professionals" think the word "accurate" means or what they are comparing it to but it sure isn't comparing to what is realistic and what we would see with our own eyes in nature.

It is, however, the standard for the web. That is to say, the red you get on a calibrated screen is the same red that you get when you print it on a calibrated printer.

Is 100% sRGB red as red can get in real life? Nope. But it's as red as the designer intended the red to be. To get any redder than 100% sRGB red will be to stray away from what a (good) designer designed for. Until a colour space larger than sRGB becomes standard, sRGB content must be shown on an sRGB screen to be accurate. You may like the over exaggerated reds of AMOLED but it doesn't change the fact that the displayed red is inaccurate.

 

[thedosbox]

I don't know what those "professionals" think the word "accurate" means or what they are comparing it to but it sure isn't comparing to what is realistic and what we would see with our own eyes in nature.

Gotta love the snide "quotes" when what you really you mean is you don't understand. As kevinsbane notes, it's all about ensuring consistent colour reproduction.

 

[Ariae]

I much prefer AMOLED on a phone, but DLeRium is right the colours on an AMOLED screen are exaggerated (for lack of a better term). For me this works well. I'm looking at a 5 inch screen (or smaller) I want the colour to be exaggerated.

I'm not looking to be making a PDF for publication, I'm looking at stuff purely for consumption then and there. I frankly couldn't care less if its "accurate" as long as it looks good.

+1

I think the N5 has the best IPS screen I've seen so far on an Android phone. You have to look really hard to see the differences between the N5 and S4 under normal lighting.

 

[paperwastage]

+1

I think the N5 has the best IPS screen I've seen so far on an Android phone. You have to look really hard to see the differences between the N5 and S4 under normal lighting.

it's still not the best

my oppo find 5 looks better

if you turn up the brightness on the nexus 5, put it on the desk. then look at it at a 45 degree angle instead of straight down, then rotate the device clockwise on the table. when you move between the diagonals of the screen, you'll notice some washing out of the display.... not super obvious though, I can live with it

 

[zerogear]

it's still not the best

my oppo find 5 looks better

if you turn up the brightness on the nexus 5, put it on the desk. then look at it at a 45 degree angle instead of straight down, then rotate the device clockwise on the table. when you move between the diagonals of the screen, you'll notice some washing out of the display.... not super obvious though, I can live with it

HTC One looks _way_ better. But Nexus 5 still looks nice

 

[Dari]

^

If you calibrate an IPS screen the red is actually quite punchy. I have a calibrated N4 next to my N5 and all the colors are deeper. It's not saturation though, it's just the whole tone of the screen is changed. Saturation is where you get overblown saturation like AMOLED screens. My N4 screen is Gamma 2.2 across the board. It's beautiful. The iPhone has deep colors too. The N5 just feels washed out. However it's not as badly washed out as the N4 stock screen.

What do you use to calibrate your screens?

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

What do you use to calibrate your screens?

Kernel tuning app to mess with the gamma and RGB sliders. Then there's "Display Tester" on Android that lets you check the results.

HTC One looks _way_ better. But Nexus 5 still looks nice

Agreed. There's a lot of screens that look a LOT nicer than the Nexus 5. Quite honestly, a nice 720p screen > poorly calibrated 1080p screen. I'd take my N4 calibrated over my N5 uncalibrated. this is the same thing I said when the N4 first came out. People were so amazed at the screen, but mainly for the 720p most likely. The washed out colors were just abysmal to me. Anyway, good thing the N5 >>>> N4 in terms of calibration, but Google still has a ways to go before getting something as well calibrated as the HTC One or iPhone 5s

 

[Ariae]

hmm I don't remember the HTC One being that nice :| My mind may be playing tricks on me due to it having a smaller screen lol

I'll try to get my hands on a One for comparison.

 

[jimv1983]

hmm I don't remember the HTC One being that nice :| My mind may be playing tricks on me due to it having a smaller screen lol

I'll try to get my hands on a One for comparison.

I think the Nexus 5 gets brighter than the HTC One. I didn't have a chance to do a side by side so I could be mistaken.

 

[obidamnkenobi]

Any word on when we'll see the AT review of the Nexus 5? I want to compare the battery life (especially vs the Moto X) before I make a decision..

BTW: If you buy the moto X on contract (AT&T) do you have to pay extra for tethering? I don't with my GNex from the Play store.. So that would be another point for the N5..

 

[lopri]

I spent the weekend tweaking my N5, and the battery life has gone up considerably. The tweaks involve disabling and blocking some stock apps via firewall so it's not for everyone, but the result so far is promising. (idle state is almost flat on the graph)

 

[Sid59]

anyone else enable ART? It makes the phone so much faster. I hope the Anandtech does a section on ART vs Dalvik

 

[lopri]

anyone else enable ART? It makes the phone so much faster. I hope the Anandtech does a section on ART vs Dalvik

I've read about it but wasn't sure what's going to happen to the phone. The phone is plenty fast as it is, but ART makes it even faster than that? Is there any side effect you observe? Is the process reversable?

 

[zerogear]

anyone else enable ART? It makes the phone so much faster. I hope the Anandtech does a section on ART vs Dalvik

Just go to the developer settings and enable it. Just don't be one of those douche and post reviews on Apps that crash with ART enabled and say that you will give 5 stars if the dev supports ART.

Also:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/1qbko3/art_broken_apps/

List of broken apps w/ ART.

Akimbo Player
Battleheart
Call of Duty: Strike Force
Cover Lockscreen
Dark Avengers
Disa
Doubletwist
draStic
First Citizens Mobile Banking
Groove IP
Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth
Kingdom Rush
Kingdom Rush Frontiers
NBC Live sports extra
NFL Sunday Tickets
Pandora
Plants vs. Zombies
Puzzle & Dragons
Quickpic
Rdio
Re-Volt Classic
Scaresoul
Songza
Sparkasse+
Spirit HD
Timely
Titanium Backup
WhatsApp
Wordament
Yelp

 

[Sid59]

I've read about it but wasn't sure what's going to happen to the phone. The phone is plenty fast as it is, but ART makes it even faster than that? Is there any side effect you observe? Is the process reversable?

enable developer options. About Phone > Build > top 7 times .
Developer options > Select runtime > change to ART
Phone will reboot and optimize apps. more apps = longer optimize time.

ART does make most apps a lot faster, especially GAPPS. No side effects, i hear some popular apps aren't optimize and load a lot slower - whatsapp is one of them. I don't use it, so it doesn't matter to me. There's a reddit.com/r/android for broken ART apps.

You can revert back - haven't tried going back.

 

[kevinsbane]

Any idea what effect ART has had on your battery life?

 

[imported_Erukian]

I'm having a really hard time finding any audio measurements of the DAC used in the nexus 5/LG G2. I know it's 24bit/192khz capable but my gut tells me my iPad sounds better from doing listening tests. I'm not biased in any way except wanting the Nexus 5 to sound as good as the iPad, but it sounds veiled to me, like some the detail is missing with my Shure SE 425's.

 

[obidamnkenobi]

Any idea what effect ART has had on your battery life?

I just read on Android Police:

I've been having major standby battery life issues on my Nexus 5 since Thursday (update: pretty sure that was caused by switching to the ART compiler, I switched back to dalvik and all seems normal again)

http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/1...oid-police-authors-takes-on-the-latest-nexus/

No idea if that's confirmed though

 

[lopri]

I'm having a really hard time finding any audio measurements of the DAC used in the nexus 5/LG G2. I know it's 24bit/192khz capable but my gut tells me my iPad sounds better from doing listening tests. I'm not biased in any way except wanting the Nexus 5 to sound as good as the iPad, but it sounds veiled to me, like some the detail is missing with my Shure SE 425's.

You don't have to go that far (to your gut) to tell the quality of the N5's speaker sound. It's worse than iAnything.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Yeah, Nexus 5 isn't even remotely close to the quality of the iPad (not sure why we are comparing phone vs tablet though) or even iPhone.

One of the reviewers said it sounds the same as the Nexus 4 and is only improved by it's location, which to me sounds spot on. It's not really that good, but it's good enough I suppose.