The official Nexus 5 thread.

[kevinsbane]

anyone have any real life comments on nexus 4 vs nexus 5 battery life? I am thinking about upgrading my nexus 4 and my main issue with it was the battery life... does it feel significantly better on the 5?

Standby is fine. The only problems I've had with battery life on my N4 has been when I've been playing Ingress. Ingress play time has increased by about 50% at least, sometimes closer to 75%. Ingress uses 3d rendering, GPS, constant screen on time, constant data connection, and frequent server pings. So the N5 is much more efficient when in use. Idle drain is generally good.

 

[SpacemanSpiffVT]

anyone else?

 

[vshah]

no issues getting through a day for me. I keep location history and location services on,a s well as google now. usually get ~20 hours with 2-3 hours of screen on time.

 

[Sid59]

anyone else?

my typical usage:
at work = tmobile 4G (NON-LTE), so it's not N4 4G vs N5 lte
instagram, facebook, feedly, hangouts (text and IM), chrome
wifi off
location services on
google now

Screen on time
N4 - 2-2.5 hours
N5 - 4

 

[Ravynmagi]

For me battery life from my Nexus 4 to Nexus 5 seems the same. I can't say I've noticed any improvement.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Screen on time
N4 - 2-2.5 hours
N5 - 4

Wow. I think there is something wrong with your Nexus 4.

 

[Sid59]

Wow. I think there is something wrong with your Nexus 4.

Likely but everyone was all over the board on the reddit about "screen on times". Franco kernels or not, wifi vs mobile data.

I know at home, wifi, i edged out 4.5 hours SoT on the N4.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Wow. I think there is something wrong with your Nexus 4.

I don't think that's too far if you're on 3G and also surfing the web.

For me battery life from my Nexus 4 to Nexus 5 seems the same. I can't say I've noticed any improvement.

At a minimum my Nexus 4 drains like 2% per hour, and that's with a lot of stuff turned off. I'm at 1.1% drain per hour since this morning idle on my Nexus 5. Granted it's mostly sleeping, but it's actually sleeping. The Nexus 4 had msm_hsic wakelock issues where the modem would cause unnecessarily long wakelocks that was a huge battery drainer.

As for active use I tend to think Project Butter and the touch boost options are still a huge drainer. There was discussion last week on Reddit where someone hypothesized that the screen drain isn't actually that bad because these phones do well for video tests, but when you actually surf the web with a browser? Battery life goes kaput.

Edit: I'm talking about 3G. The Nexus 4 idles much better on WiFi, compared to 3G, and while this is true for most devices, it's more noticeable on the N4.

 

[shortylickens]

just saw the new Nexus at office depot. Didnt like it.
Bezels were too huge, especially at the top and bottom.

 

[Red Storm]

just saw the new Nexus at office depot. Didnt like it.
Bezels were too huge, especially at the top and bottom.

For the Nexus 5, 72% of the front is display. That's actually very good compared to most other phones, only a handful like the Note 3, G2, and S4 are better (S4 is actually pretty much tied). The Nexus 4 is 66.8% for comparison.

 

[dawheat]

just saw the new Nexus at office depot. Didnt like it.
Bezels were too huge, especially at the top and bottom.

Hmm I know they're larger than the G2 which is quite good, but from my brief handling of the phone I didn't recall it being particularly large.

 

[gmaster456]

Likely but everyone was all over the board on the reddit about "screen on times". Franco kernels or not, wifi vs mobile data.

I know at home, wifi, i edged out 4.5 hours SoT on the N4.

2.5 hours is about what I got on my N4 with Gnow off and 3G and wifi on. 3 if I was really lucky

 

[jimv1983]

For the Nexus 5, 72% of the front is display. That's actually very good compared to most other phones, only a handful like the Note 3, G2, and S4 are better (S4 is actually pretty much tied). The Nexus 4 is 66.8% for comparison.

The top and bottom bezels on the Nexus 5 are still pretty big. The top and bottom bezel together add over an inch to the length of the phone.

 

[sweenish]

The wife and I are switching carriers and picking up two of these bad boys. Her white one is arriving today, and I'm waiting for the red to come back into stock. Both 32 GB, we're getting off Verizon and onto T-Mobile.

 

[shortylickens]

Yeah i meant the top bottom bezels.

 

[SpacemanSpiffVT]

thats what i hated about with my n4, if you surf at all on 3G. the battery just drops incredibly fast.... same on the n5?

 

[Red Storm]

The top and bottom bezels on the Nexus 5 are still pretty big. The top and bottom bezel together add over an inch to the length of the phone.

Again referring back to my post, if you think the N5 bezels are big then you think all other phone bezels are really big. It's one of the best phones in terms of screen to bezel ratio, the others being the Note 3 and the LG G2 which is the best.

 

[WelshBloke]

For the Nexus 5, 72% of the front is display. That's actually very good compared to most other phones, only a handful like the Note 3, G2, and S4 are better (S4 is actually pretty much tied). The Nexus 4 is 66.8% for comparison.

Nexus has onscreen buttons whereas the S4 and note have them on the bezel.

 

[Red Storm]

Nexus has onscreen buttons whereas the S4 and note have them on the bezel.

And? I'm talking about physical screen to bezel ratio. There are pros and cons to both setups, but only the cons of software buttons can actually be fixed. You can hide them, move them to the sides, etc. Hardware buttons make the bottom bezel prone to accidental back/menu taps, and in landscape you end up having only one bezel you can comfortably hold while using the device.

 

[WelshBloke]

And? I'm talking about physical screen to bezel ratio.

But there's no reason for the Nexus to have a bezel that big, the others do.

 

[JimmyH]

Day 1 buyer of nexus 5 here coming from iphone 4 using Straight Talk. Positives first, nexus 5 on ST is fast LTE. It's got the snappy. Screen is really nice, great to upload videos without having use handbrake to decode for iphone.

Here's the negatives compared to my aging iphone 4. Vibrate is weak, I'll catch vibrate 95% on iphone, nexus I miss about third the time. Headphone volume is super weak on nexus. I have to use my Sennheiser cans cranked sometimes to hear a video that would play on my cheap earbuds similar volume at 50% on ipad / iphone. Matter of fact the volume makes it damn near useless to use at gym even w/ my best earbuds. Battery life is not good, its a lil less than my current iphone 4 after 4 years of hard life. Onto last negative which makes me regret this purchase. Its the "Glass Joe" of durability. Nexus on passenger seat car, hit brakes it hits padded leather glovebox, falls less than 1 foot to thick carpeted floorboard. Thought nothing of it and never had a phone break from such a weak contact. Screen done and out $180 to send back LG in Ft. Worth. First broken mobile device I have had in 30 years+ of ownership going back to Walkmans and ghetto blasters. Every phone I have ever owned (old brick ones, flips, razr, blackberries, iphone etc.) would have taken that fall no problem.

Nexus should be back shortly and have Spigen neo hybrid case and caselogy case arriving. Honestly have no faith in the phone even with cases coming and if Glass Joe acts up again its gonna take a few .45s for fun outside.

 

[jimv1983]

Again referring back to my post, if you think the N5 bezels are big then you think all other phone bezels are really big. It's one of the best phones in terms of screen to bezel ratio, the others being the Note 3 and the LG G2 which is the best.

I do think others are really big. The fact that the Nexus 5 has "small" bezels compared to most other phones is pretty sad. I do like my Nexus 5 but I miss the days of having a comfortably pocketable phone that I can easily and comfortably use with one hand. The worst part is that it is very doable while still having a 5" screen. A phone 4.8" x 2.65" would be perfect and could still have that 5" screen.

 

[jimv1983]

Nexus has onscreen buttons whereas the S4 and note have them on the bezel.

That is one of the reasons I like the Nexus 5 way better than the Galaxy S4. The better material, build quality, software and battery life on the Nexus 5 are better too.

 

[blairharrington]

Does LG just suck at speakers and headphone volume? It was an issue with my OGP. I read the G2 has crap speakers, and the N5 has both terrible speakers and now I'm learning crap headphone volume too?

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

That is one of the reasons I like the Nexus 5 way better than the Galaxy S4. The better material, build quality, software and battery life on the Nexus 5 are better too.

S4 does better in some battery tests... I don't think it's easily that conclusive.