Your wish list for the LG Nexus Bullhead (N5 2015)?

[ChronoReverse]

Looks plain to me. It's not like the current generation of iPhones look anything more than plain either. It's a sort of convergent evolution working here.

In terms of looks, despite how much I dislike it otherwise, the Edge phones _look_ nice

 

[stlc8tr]

If I had good signal with t mobile or could get wifi calling on a moto g I'd buy one but I'm stuck with verizon and getting a moto x style

Verizon is opening up their network so you can use any compatible unlocked phone and I bet that the new N5 will work on their network.

 

[hans007]

unless its drastically cheaper, as a personal phone i can't see why i'd get it. Ii have a s6 edge, gflex 2 and a nexus 5 and note 3 for "testing" and access to a G3 and G4 at work. i have no idea why you'd choose this over any of the current flagships unless you really like flashing roms and stock looking android (and the moto x will have stock looking android anyway). i mean a G4 is $420 on ebay now and the moto x is going to be $400 so its not particularly cheap either or stylish and by the looks of the renders they didn't put a ton of work into that (i mean if you go caseless the back glass on the s6, or the leather on a g4, or the wood / leather options on a moto x are going to just feel better for real use)

For dev purposes for people who want to work on the fingerprint API and being able to flash latest its worth it to get your job to buy one. but honestly google does a pretty shitty job at things like optimizing battery life for normal consumer use, or making the camera actually work extra fast / perfect so why bother. especially now that the other choices are pretty competitive cost wise (when the nexus 5 came out it was massively cheaper than other flagships, so it made sense there)

if it had something particularly notable then sure. since google made 2 sizes anyway and its not really a consumer phone that they make money on , they should have just made the huawei the same as it is and made the LG like a 4.7" device. at least get some real differentiation if you aren't shooting for the mainstream market. i think that would be my wishlist actually, that google actually try to do something different instead of just make an unstylish, gimped version of a G4 and let you unlock the bootloader with it. (which motorola actually also lets you do if you get pure edition so thats not even that big a deal)

 

[ChronoReverse]

Updates alone makes all you said there rhetoric and the new Nexus 5 worth considering.

 

[hans007]

Updates alone makes all you said there rhetoric and the new Nexus 5 worth considering.

i think realistically anyone who really cares about updates is probably someone who buys a new phone every year anyway so they are kind of covered there.

as it is, the updates are not very big anymore. or maybe i just dont' think things like permissions on demand, or fingerprint scanners are that big a deal. it just isnt like the days when ICS was coming out and drastically different than gingerbread etc. lhas anything really ground breaking happened since about jelly bean? if you had a jelly bean phone right now instead of a lollipop one would it really be all that different? from an API standpoint theres really nothing post jelly bean that is "oh my world changing" for 99% of apps (wearables and fingerprint etc, but honestly i dont think the vast majority of consumers care)

 

[Bman123]

People always want something new. I'm trying to get off this shit 5.0 update and away from samsung.
Once I get the moto x pure I'll have no reason to upgrade that phone until the battery dies in it because you are right, there's no progress being made in updates

 

[kaerflog]

^^^^^ This right here.
Why do the average people even care about updates anymore ??
People are being forced to update more than they are looking forward to updating.

 

[Cakefish]

I'm looking forward to upgrading to Marshmallow because of three things: better battery life, better RAM management and (hopefully) better animation performance on my Snapdragon 615.

 

[ChronoReverse]

i think realistically anyone who really cares about updates is probably someone who buys a new phone every year anyway so they are kind of covered there.

That's BS and it's proven every time there's a security breach for either iOS or Android and everyone gets all smug depending on whether it's something that could be patched via Play Store (in which case Android users get smug because it's faster than a system update) or could only be patched via OS update (in which case iOS users get smug because they get an update way faster).

 

[poofyhairguy]

Why do the average people even care about updates anymore ??

Because if you don't get updates you get stuck on releases like Lollipop for the life of the phone.

Heck I am 100% in disagreement. Lollipop showed me that in the Android space there is NO feature that compares to fast updates. I would take fast updates before a new SoC, before a better camera, before a bigger battery. I want off the Lollipop ship as soon as I can get off, which means a Nexus.

 

[soccerballtux]

I'm looking forward to upgrading to Marshmallow because of three things: better battery life, better RAM management and (hopefully) better animation performance on my Snapdragon 615.

I've been meaning to look into this (the RAM management issue). Something's wrong with minfree

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Because if you don't get updates you get stuck on releases like Lollipop for the life of the phone.

Heck I am 100% in disagreement. Lollipop showed me that in the Android space there is NO feature that compares to fast updates. I would take fast updates before a new SoC, before a better camera, before a bigger battery. I want off the Lollipop ship as soon as I can get off, which means a Nexus.

Well that's because Lollipop sucked so bad.

While updates are cool, unless the updates are giving us that much more, fast updates don't necessarily mean that much to me. And quite honestly when TouchWiz is used to dress up the OS, you can't really tell between 4.4 and 5.0 (for the average consumer) anyway.

 

[sweenish]

People not updating or not able to update is why app developers never update their apps.

I'm very surprised that we're all of a sudden on the who cares about updates train.

For security fixes alone, prompt updates should be a necessity. For any operating system.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I'm very surprised that we're all of a sudden on the who cares about updates train.

I am not. It is a fact of life in Android that the update model is basically broken outside of a few phones. Either you deny the value of updates, or you lose a lot of the choice that defines Android.

 

[hans007]

People not updating or not able to update is why app developers never update their apps.

I'm very surprised that we're all of a sudden on the who cares about updates train.

For security fixes alone, prompt updates should be a necessity. For any operating system.

i'm the guy who wrote that first post. and i'm actually also a developer.

i would say the 4 sort of big things the required updates...

bluetooth low energy, wearables , auto and permissions in 5.0 , fingerprint sensor / android pay in 6. none of these is going to prevent a lot of apps from being updated at all.

if anything for me lollipop was a pain in the ass since it broke a lot of digital rights management.

i'll throw in ART runtime there for speed but it doesn't really change what your app looks like at all.

i think my point was, that i dont really think its that big a deal to get an update the day it comes out, because its just doesnt matter that much unless its a security update so given thats basically the main selling point of the nexus i just dont see how its so great.

also you can definitely get a security update without the latest OS. if anything 5.0 was such a piece of crap and broke so much stuff (drm on some phones, subtitles in media player, kind of f'd up. memory etc) that maybe google should not update the kernel so often.

nexus 5 rumors today say its 5.2 1080p, and 2700 mah now. kind of more disappointing and it comes in 16GB. if the 16GB with no SD card is say a $350 model (and i could see this given why would LG undercut themselves against the G4.... this isn't the nexus 4 days when LG made crap phones and they were trying to proove themselves) that kind of sucks memory wise

 

[RossMAN]

nexus 5 rumors today say its 5.2 1080p, and 2700 mah now. kind of more disappointing and it comes in 16GB. if the 16GB with no SD card is say a $350 model (and i could see this given why would LG undercut themselves against the G4.... this isn't the nexus 4 days when LG made crap phones and they were trying to proove themselves) that kind of sucks memory wise

I hope it really is 1080p but would like to see bigger battery and 64GB option.

 

[sweenish]

i'm the guy who wrote that first post. and i'm actually also a developer.

i would say the 4 sort of big things the required updates...

bluetooth low energy, wearables , auto and permissions in 5.0 , fingerprint sensor / android pay in 6. none of these is going to prevent a lot of apps from being updated at all.

if anything for me lollipop was a pain in the ass since it broke a lot of digital rights management.

i'll throw in ART runtime there for speed but it doesn't really change what your app looks like at all.

i think my point was, that i dont really think its that big a deal to get an update the day it comes out, because its just doesnt matter that much unless its a security update so given thats basically the main selling point of the nexus i just dont see how its so great.

also you can definitely get a security update without the latest OS. if anything 5.0 was such a piece of crap and broke so much stuff (drm on some phones, subtitles in media player, kind of f'd up. memory etc) that maybe google should not update the kernel so often.

nexus 5 rumors today say its 5.2 1080p, and 2700 mah now. kind of more disappointing and it comes in 16GB. if the 16GB with no SD card is say a $350 model (and i could see this given why would LG undercut themselves against the G4.... this isn't the nexus 4 days when LG made crap phones and they were trying to proove themselves) that kind of sucks memory wise

And that attitude is why iOS apps are still consistently better. I'll tell you this much from my perspective. When a dev can't be bothered to even update the app's visual style after a big shift like Material Design, I look elsewhere.

I very nearly replaced Nova and Solid Explorer because they took a while before even dropping a beta.

I still care about Android updates, and you don't have to. You'll just never get my money or support. And yes, I actually buy apps.

 

[shabby]

And that attitude is why iOS apps are still consistently better. I'll tell you this much from my perspective. When a dev can't be bothered to even update the app's visual style after a big shift like Material Design, I look elsewhere.

I very nearly replaced Nova and Solid Explorer because they took a while before even dropping a beta.

I still care about Android updates, and you don't have to. You'll just never get my money or support. And yes, I actually buy apps.

Material design doesn't work for everything, it makes email/messaging and a file manager look identical. Show me a titanium backup alternative in material design that has identical features?

 

[thilanliyan]

Well that's because Lollipop sucked so bad.

Depends on the device I think...Lollipop on my HTC M7 and Tab S 8.4 made things better for the most part. Only thing I find annoying in Lollipop are the lock screen notifications.

 

[sweenish]

Material design doesn't work for everything, it makes email/messaging and a file manager look identical. Show me a titanium backup alternative in material design that has identical features?

Show me how you could possibly get something like an email, messenger, or file explorer confused with each other. I can certainly tell you that I've never opened Messenger and confused it for Gmail. Or opened Solid Explorer and wondered where my converations were.

Updating to Material Design for a cohesive experience across apps is a desirable thing. What was your point, there? I'm guessing you enjoy using a Lollipop looking Gmail, a JB-KK messenger, and an ICS file explorer? Feels like a unified experience?

And naturally, you pick the one app whose UI has been updated once (and a paltry UI refresh that was), receives constant complaints about said UI, but still gets use due to the quality of the service rendered.

You're right, TiBu and Helium are not MD. But TiBu's interface isn't fantastic. It's downright atrocious. People deal with it because it can't be beat for what it does. This doesn't mean it's lack of MD is a valid counterargument. I can guarantee that if someone could match TiBu on features and bring a modern UI, everyone would flock to it. However, while their UI has never been caught-up, they have constantly updated to incorporate new features only available to newer OS's as well. Win some, lose some in their case.

I used appearance as an easy retort. If you want to take everything I say as an absolute and only at face value and use one-off counter-arguments like they're end-all-be-all, that's fine, I guess. You won't get anywhere.

Solid Explorer has shown that it's feasible to take a very feature-rich app and make MD work. The devs of TiBu honestly just need to hire a designer.

 

[shabby]

Show me how you could possibly get something like an email, messenger, or file explorer confused with each other. I can certainly tell you that I've never opened Messenger and confused it for Gmail. Or opened Solid Explorer and wondered where my converations were.

Updating to Material Design for a cohesive experience across apps is a desirable thing. What was your point, there? I'm guessing you enjoy using a Lollipop looking Gmail, a JB-KK messenger, and an ICS file explorer? Feels like a unified experience?

I never said i got those apps confused with each other i just said they look similar, 3 apps that do 3 totally different things normally shouldn't look similar. Its like photoshop and and a browser looking identical, what purpose does that serve?

And since when is a unified experience better? Have you tried the new solid explorer? Have you noticed that you lose the action box when you press and hold a file and wanna copy it to the 2nd window? Something that took 2 presses now takes 4... no thanks.

 

[hans007]

And that attitude is why iOS apps are still consistently better. I'll tell you this much from my perspective. When a dev can't be bothered to even update the app's visual style after a big shift like Material Design, I look elsewhere.

I very nearly replaced Nova and Solid Explorer because they took a while before even dropping a beta.

I still care about Android updates, and you don't have to. You'll just never get my money or support. And yes, I actually buy apps.

material design isn't really a feature of lollipop other than they rolled out the guidelines when 5.0 came out. you can make a material design looking app for 4.0 if you want with the support libraries, so it really isnt a "i have to have the latest OS version to have it" thing. theres probably a few theme things that don't look the same if you only use support , but really why do you think youtube on a 4.1 JB phone looks more or less the same as on 5.1. its not the OS.


like i'm only speaking for myself. but in america especially, theres less ROI for android apps since its a cheaper demographic. so its harder to justify getting more dev resources for, which are already hard to find because its a slightly more difficult platform. not to mention the vast majority of consumers don't even care if your design is material (really geeks and uh designers and not even most designers care) or just sticks with what they are ALREADY USED TO design wise, and that is why material design isn't exactly priority #1 at most companies. and on top of that, a lot of companies don't want to update just because "google said so". do you think facebook or twitter care that google wants their app looking material? or would they prefer it looks like the iphone app or both of them look similar so that people who use both platforms or switch don't have to learn a new UI?

 

[hans007]

I hope it really is 1080p but would like to see bigger battery and 64GB option.

yeah personally i was hoping for 1080p with the original rumored 3200mah battery.

i have a G Flex2 also and honestly LG could have just unlocked the bootloader on it and put a finger print scanner on it and called it a day. AND it'd still have a SD card slot.

 

[sweenish]

material design isn't really a feature of lollipop other than they rolled out the guidelines when 5.0 came out. you can make a material design looking app for 4.0 if you want with the support libraries, so it really isnt a "i have to have the latest OS version to have it" thing. theres probably a few theme things that don't look the same if you only use support , but really why do you think youtube on a 4.1 JB phone looks more or less the same as on 5.1. its not the OS.


like i'm only speaking for myself. but in america especially, theres less ROI for android apps since its a cheaper demographic. so its harder to justify getting more dev resources for, which are already hard to find because its a slightly more difficult platform. not to mention the vast majority of consumers don't even care if your design is material (really geeks and uh designers and not even most designers care) or just sticks with what they are ALREADY USED TO design wise, and that is why material design isn't exactly priority #1 at most companies. and on top of that, a lot of companies don't want to update just because "google said so". do you think facebook or twitter care that google wants their app looking material? or would they prefer it looks like the iphone app or both of them look similar so that people who use both platforms or switch don't have to learn a new UI?

YouTube is the least Material of Google's offerings of late. Great example.

Again, design was my easy retort. Thanks for only taking it at face value.

All of your justifying just supports my point. Android devs don't care, and that's why iOS is still able to claim better apps.

It's nice that you've given up on Android updates, but I haven't. I still feel that they're a necessary feature in any phone I buy. I will also continue to support devs that take advantage of those features when they should.

 

[sweenish]

I never said i got those apps confused with each other i just said they look similar, 3 apps that do 3 totally different things normally shouldn't look similar. Its like photoshop and and a browser looking identical, what purpose does that serve?

And since when is a unified experience better? Have you tried the new solid explorer? Have you noticed that you lose the action box when you press and hold a file and wanna copy it to the 2nd window? Something that took 2 presses now takes 4... no thanks.

I use Solid Explorer 2.0. It just updated with the bottom action bar, and you could always drag and drop. Can't help it if your inefficient method got more inefficient.

A unified experience is always better than a disjointed one. Explain how it's not. Your best example is a photo manipulation app that apparently looks and behaves like a web browser. Show me that example. Am I going to open Photoshop Express and get confused when I can't get to my web site?

Apps following a design language is not the same as the stupid examples you keep using.

And why shouldn't they look similar? Seriously, why? You admitted yourself that you don't get them confused. They do their jobs, and they look they fit in. What's so horrible about that?