I'm a stickler when it comes to the screen, and I found the N5 screen to be dim unless brightness was at 100%.
The way that is worded seems strange. It's not bright unless you turn it up to 100%? Shouldn't lower brightness suppose to be dimmer? Or do you mean even at 100% it's not bright enough? It has 480 nits, that's pretty bright. But yes, there are brighter phones.
I'm currently using a HTC EVO 4G LTE which has an absolutely gorgeous screen. Viewing angles were ok, but wash out a bit, unlike my EVO.
Hmm... I haven't noticed any issues with viewing angles. It's IPS so has great viewing angles and mine seem great. At the moment I just have the Nexus 4 and iPhone 5S to compare with and seems on par with both of them.
I've definitely heard complaints about colors. Usually either reds are too washed out or other people saying greens and yellows are too strong, I guess that's the same thing. And I definitely complained a lot about the Nexus 7 2012's poorly calibrated screen. However my particular Nexus 5 doesn't seem to have this problem. I'm kinda surprised because I do hear people complain about the lack of reds quite a bit, so I believe it's an issue. But when I use Display Tester or
www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/ and compare this with my new Nexus 7 2013 (much better calibrated than the previous) or my iPhone 5S or my Nexus 4, the Nexus 5 colors look really good.
The one area my Nexus 5 display seems off is the whites. They seem too warm. I don't really notice it when looking at the phone by itself. But when it's next to my Nexus 4 or iPhone 5S, I definitely see a noticeable difference in the whites.
I also found the onscreen buttons especially irritating. The bar eats up a good portion of my screen. Maybe you get used to it over time but it may be a deal breaker for me unless there's a way to make the bar translucent.
I'm not a fan of the onscreen buttons. However Android 4.4 has given me hope this will improve. Apps will have the option of implementing immersive mode that hides the navigation buttons and menu bar giving you a complete full screen experience. And you just have to swipe up or down to bring the buttons back. Seems like other manufactures have probably had something like this for a while. I like how it works on the Kindle OS for example.
Unfortunately this is a feature that has been placed into third party app developer hands to implement. And god knows how well that has worked in the past. So who knows if or when we'll see apps that need full screen space like games, reading apps, and browsers take advantage of it. Jesus, even Google isn't using it in Chrome yet and they created the thing. Seems like Chrome should be the showcasing app for immersive mode. Google disappoints me sometimes.