Google Nexus 5 Review

Back in November I posted a quick comparison between the HTC One and the Google Nexus 5. That was based on my regular use of the HTC One (my everyday phone at the time) and the information I could glean from the Internet. Then, the week before Christmas I told you that I had ordered a new Google Nexus 5 and that I intended to let you all know how I got on with it. So, here it is, my update on how I have found the Google Nexus 5 after using it for a week.

Look and Feel

There is something very familiar about this phone – at least if you have owned previous Google Nexus phones. In particular, it has the look of the Samsung Nexus S from the front. It’s due to the way the glass screen sits within a raised border. It’s far more subtle on the Nexus 5 though and you can hardly feel the ‘lip’ like you could on the Nexus S.

There have been four previous Nexus handsets – the Google Nexus One (made by HTC and basically the same phone as their original Desire); the Nexus S (made by Samsung); the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (also made by Samsung); the Nexus 4 (made by LG); and now the Nexus 5 (also made by LG). Only the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus have strayed from Google’s numeric nomenclature which is a demonstration of Samsung’s desire to maintain their own brand image and I always found it surprising that Google would allow that. So, whilst there is that similarity the phone is also very different. It’s very thin for a start and does not have any bulges on the back like the older Samsung-made Nexii. It is totally plastic but feels very solid indeed. In terms of its physical size it is indistinguishable from the HTC One but feels thinner due to the lack of any bulges. The glass panel extends right up to the edges on all sides but does not wrap around the edges as the screen of the HTC One does.

The display’s large size is a joy and is noticeably wider than the HTC One’s when viewed. It stretches closer to the sides and is taller and longer but only when the software removes the navigation buttons from the display. It is difficult to imagine it could be made any larger without increasing the size of the case.

A green notification LED on the Google Nexus 5

The upper and lower bezels are very small indeed – the top one containing the usual earpiece and front-facing camera cut-outs and the (just about visible) sensors hidden behind the glass. The bottom bezel does not need to contain any buttons because this phone follows Google’s on-screen button style guide. It does, though, contain the multi-colour notification LED centrally in the space and is only visible when it is lit. This LED is a refreshing change from the very basic and tiny LED on the HTC One (and especially so over many other Android phones that have no LED at all) and is something else that harks back to previous Nexus devices that contained an RGB, addressable (at least by means of add-on software) multi-colour notification light. It is, thankfully, very bright, and visible from across a room. I can’t see any settings to change the colours of notifications out of the box but I can confirm that ‘Light Flow lite‘, available from the play store, works well. For instance, I have a blue flashing LED for gmails, yellow for hangouts, green for text messages and red for battery-charging etc. You can, using the aforementioned add-on app, change the flash rate as well.

Camera

I have read many poor reports about the camera on the Google Nexus 5 and can’t confirm or deny those early reports because Google supplied an OTA update (to Android version 4.4.1 and since then 4.4.2 also) that is reported to have greatly improved the camera. My phone updated itself to 4.4.2 as soon as I turned it on so I can only report on the camera using this, most recent version of Android. I can say that it seems to be a very capable camera. It is 8MP which is far from the cutting edge and, I would say, quite average in terms of the number of pixels. One of the previous complaints was about the delay between pressing the shutter button and the photograph actually being obtained. I don’t find this any worse than other smartphones I have used and is only really noticeable in low light. In good lighting conditions the photos obtained are vivid and detailed and I am very happy with them. I have also read that users complained of focusing issues and there is, sometimes, still an issue but this hasn’t really posed a problem. There is a kind of cross-hair that appears when the camera is trying to focus and turns green or red dependent on the outcome of the focusing attempt. This is sometimes wrong and the screen shows an out of focus image even though the cross hair turned green. I must stress though this has only happened a couple of times. Videos are sharp and clear and very detailed with no focusing issues at all.

I found the camera menu system a little confusing at first and it took some time to get used to. There is a semi-circle of options that appears on screen when the menu icon is pressed and, at first, I found I was annoyingly skitting about through the various options by mistake. You will soon get used to this menu system though and if you have come from a Nexus 4 it will all be quite familiar to you.

Hardware Buttons

There are only two physical buttons on this phone – the power button on the right side and the volume button on the left side. All other buttons are on-screen, software buttons. The two buttons that are in existence are quite sharp-edged. I have read that they are made of a ceramic material and this seems to be right. Others have complained that they rattle but this is not the case on this white 32GB model. I do find they are too easy to press by accident but this isn’t a massive issue. At least they are nice and easy to feel without having to look where they are as you need to do with the HTC One.

The power button menu (seen when the power button is long-pressed) show options of “Power off”, “Aeroplane mode”, normal volume, vibrate, and silent.

The on-screen buttons are well positioned and often disappear completely (controlled by software) when they are not needed and thus give the app full use of the entire display.

Performance

The phone displays absolutely no signs of any lag whatsoever when swiping, zooming or starting apps. This is just as you would expect with a quad core 2.3GHz processor. I don’t pay attention to benchmark scores but I’m sure, if you were to look them up, you will find them very impressive indeed. Google and LG have not skimped on processor power on this Nexus device. I don’t play games on my phone so I cannot comment on gaming ability.

Battery

After doing some tweaking I can report that this phone has the best battery life of any smartphone I have ever had but I must stress that I have only achieved this longevity after some considerable fiddling and other owners are not seeing the same battery life as me.

I certainly did have a very big issue with endurance for the first couple of days and I was shocked at how fast the battery discharged to the extent that I had thoughts of abandoning the phone! It would not last even seven hours without a re-charge – obviously a very unsatisfactory state of affairs. When setting up the phone from new I allowed the apps from my previous phone to auto-install (always a hit and miss affair since some apps appear and some don’t). The battery issues I was experiencing might simply have been due to misbehaving apps or ones that have problems with Android 4.4.2 Kitkat. Also, others have reported the battery settling in over a few discharge cycles (not something I have experienced with previous phones but I can’t really rule out that theory). Some have reported Facebook to be a battery hog on Kitkat so I removed that and I did the same with the Google+ app.

Probably the biggest benefit was achieved through flashing a custom kernel. This is not something that most owners will want to do as it requires unlocking the phone’s bootloader and flashing a custom recovery image. This is a scary and in-depth enterprise that will quite likely void your warranty. The Nexus phones have always been developer friendly though and this is something that has been encouraged by Google since the beginning. Lately however, they have hidden away the developer options in the menu system so that you need to know what you’re doing to find them.

If you want any help with this aspect of Android ownership contact me for advice.

Anyway, I don’t really advise that you flash a custom kernel but I am just letting you know what is possible should you wish to explore this avenue.

If you still want to have 70% of your battery left at bed time this is the only way to go! And, yes, I do mean that!

Google Now

Google Now has been integrated deeper into the operating system. It now occupies the leftmost homescreen so it requires you to re-adjust the way you work with your homescreens. It can also now be activated by talking to your phone by saying “OK Google.”. This is not like LG’s other flagship model, the G2, since the screen has to be on for it to work i.e. it will not turn on your phone from sleeping. Not only that but it has to be on a homescreen or the Google Now screen. Still, given the right circumstances, it does allow mainly handsfree searching and operation of the phone just by talking to it. As an example, if you set your screen to never switch off when charging, you can have a full handsfree experience from a docking station.

Dialler

This is a major improvement over previous Nexus phones. I can’t speak for the Nexus 4, because that’s the only Nexus phone I haven’t owned, but this is the first one where you can search your contacts from the dialler. I always thought that rather bizarre (considering Google’s search expertise) and had to install a third party dialler on previous Nexus phones.

Better than that though, the Kitkat dialler goes one further. After all this time of Google providing a really poor dialler they have now gone and produced the best dialler in the business. Imagine you’re on the way to a restaurant and you’re running late so you need to call them. Prior to Kitkat you would need to Google the name of the restaurant, search for their contact page, copy their phone number into your dialler before pressing the call button. With Kitkat you just open the dialler and type in the name of the restaurant. A list will appear that, hopefully, will contain the one you want. You click the name and, hey presto, you’re ringing them!

Even better, supposing the restaurant were tired of waiting for you and decided to ring you. Your phone will do the usual look-up of your contacts list based on the caller ID. If it doesn’t find the number in your address book it will do an Internet search, find the number and display the restaurant’s name on your screen! These are the touches that are really making a difference in our lives and should be a function of all mobiles.

Conclusions

If you haven’t already guessed from the tone of this review I think the Google Nexus 5 is the best smartphone on the planet and PC Pro Magazine (whose opinion I greatly respect) happen yo agree with me.

This is the first 4G Nexus handset; the first with Android 4.4 Kitkat; it has the best dialler on any mobile phone; it’s one of the thinnest handsets on the market; it’s got one of the fastest processors of any current handset; and it’s also the cheapest premium quality handset you can buy (£299 for the 16GB model and £339 for the 32GB model).

You decide for yourself and tell me if you disagree!