Google Nexus 5 Review: A Fast, Affordable Phone With LTE For All

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guvnaguy

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Oct 27, 2012
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Nice review. I think the whole $600-700 price for an off-contract phone is pretty much theft anyway, when the phones cost <$300 to make. Kudos, Google.
 

MoulaZX

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The Nexus 5 is extremely susceptible to thermal throttling which this article seems to gloss over or entirely miss.

Yes PVS scores do indicate something. They indicate the efficiency of a chip at a given frequency. The lower PVS numbers will heat up faster, and thus be at the optimal 2.23Ghz frequency less often, thus giving the perceived impression of being significantly slower.

I have a Nexus 5 myself, same PVS scoring (1). Running Antutu in my hand, and I'll score 22,000 - 23,000. However, out of curiosity, I rest the phone on an AC vent for 15 minutes, started the Antutu benchmark while leaving it there, and managed to score 29,500. All results easily and consistently repeatable. And my phone has never been unlocked/flashed. 100% Factory ROM, 4.4.2.

The issue purely heavy thermal throttling under heavy sustained loads.

In day to day operations though, it is absolutely flawless, and felt ever so slightly snappier then my previous HTC One (M7). Still incredibly happy with this device, and the only one I have never felt the need to unlock and flash silly. My only gripe was Camera issues, but the 4.4.2 update resolved those problems.
 

beetlejuicegr

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Jan 10, 2011
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So a friend bought Nexus 5 and i bought his nexus 4 for me. Really happy with it even if its a last year's mobile. Economy crisis in Greece just won't give me space to buy Nexus 5 :p. Nexus phones are always on the the top list in quality and especially on price/quality mark. It is just that the way google sells them in Europe that is incompatible with the mentality of mobile buyers here. I bet my right thumb :p that if they had few actual shops inside shopping centers in Europe that they would sell like crazy. Now that i think about it, they know it, they just let other mobile companies for this, for android dominance perhaps? Just like what IBM did with PC and DoS? All were awed to see my Nexus One just when it was released few years ago, which i still have and still works fine, i doubt if an iphone or any 600+ $/euro mobile can survive that long right?
 

beetlejuicegr

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Oh and to add, this heating throttling might be annoying if it is used on a warm country like Greece i guess? Can the article elaborate on that? (room temperatures vs performance)
 

clownbaby

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I finally pulled the trigger on a Nexus 5 and am upgrading my trusty old GNex. The unpolluted android system is by far the most underrated aspect of the Nexus devices. Paired with a crazy enthusiastic development community, Google offers a device experience that can't be had for any price by other manufacturers. To all of this, top end quick hardware is just icing on the cake. I would take a Nexus device with half the performance of an Iphone or Galaxy 4 just for the software environment.
 

the1kingbob

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Great article. One thing I would like to see is comparing the ~$350 N5 to other phones of equal price from apple and android. Like to see what a GS3 and a iP4S can do against it.
 

chazzmatt

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The Nexus 4 was NOT the first "bleeding edge" Nexus smartphone. So, was the Galaxy Nexus (aka gen 3 Nexus), made by Samsung for Google. Released at end of 2011, had 4.65" 720p HD display, dual core 1.2GHz CPU, 1GB RAM -- and NFC. The Verizon models had LTE. It was one of the first Androids with HD display and had many of the attributes of the Galaxy SIII, released by Samsung a few months later. Yes, those were VERY much cutting edge specs at the time.
 

RooD

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I love my nexus 5, much nicer than my galaxy nexus. I like it more than my wife's S4 and the money I save from being off contract will pay for the phone in the 2 years I'll keep it.
 

Zachasaurs

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Mar 11, 2013
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wow smartphone companies are bathing in money this is the price of a budget gaming pc why would you pay this for a phone? you could but 3 good tablets instead or a pc or laptop
 

Zachasaurs

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wow smartphone companies are bathing in money this is the price of a budget gaming pc why would you pay this for a phone? you could but 3 good tablets instead or a pc or laptop
 

koolkei

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Jul 24, 2013
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cloud based storage is all good and fine..... ON MOST OF THE 1ST WORLD NATION...but when they brought it on to the third world nation, our internet just sucks. 1mbps DL and 0.15 mbps UL (that's bit not byte). what are you gonna accomplice or store with that speed here? not to mention the price and the limited bandwidth. a micro sd card is WAY faster and WAY cheaper in the long run here.although i understand why they are doing this, it's just not really gonna work in places where the internet infrastructures are still way behind. btw, where i live, we still struggle to get 3G speed. yet korea is already 4G LTE, and so close to 5G, so they got minimum every day average 3G LTE at least right? and i believe 3G for america and england
 

chazzmatt

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Well, Moto X is mid-tier specs, not top tier like the Androids with Snapdragon 800 and 1080p. Why should they mention phones like the Moto X?
 

unsivilaudio

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They mentioned the Nexus 4, which is right alongside spec-wise with the Moto X; also its probably to the 2 most compared phones out right now.
 

chazzmatt

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Yet, the Nexus 4 is now mid-tier, but it was the predecessor to the Nexus 5. It's not a "current" phone offered by Google. Moto X is a different class of phone. It's not a bad phone, a lot of people like it -- but comparing specs you see it's not top tier.
 

chazzmatt

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Yet, the Nexus 4 is now mid-tier, but it was the predecessor to the Nexus 5. It's not a "current" phone offered by Google. Moto X is a different class of phone. It's not a bad phone, a lot of people like it -- but comparing specs you see it's not top tier.
 

Traum

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May 8, 2012
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I don't have a Nexus 5 myself, but have done quite a bit of regular consumer research on the phone as I was considering upgrading to it from my Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Overall, the general impression that I got was, when the phone works, it is absolutely nothing short of amazing. However, the key point lies in the words "when the phone works".It seems to me that much like a lot of other LG products, quality control and build quality is a little less than perfect. There are a lot of complaints of flimsy, loose buttons, phones that randomly reboots, battery drain issues, etc. Some of them seems to originate from the Android OS itself (factory ROM or not). Others seem more like they are hardware issues.Overall, it seems to me that as good as the phone is on paper, the number of complaints over the Nexus 5 is generally higher than Nexus 4, and is significantly worse than the Galaxy Nexus. I'm beyond the point where I am actively chasing after the latest and greatest toys, and thus I continue to be hesitant to upgrade from my perfectly reliable GNex even though it is a little old.
 

bluekoala

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"cloud based storage is all good and fine..... ON MOST OF THE 1ST WORLD NATION...but when they brought it on to the third world nation, our internet just sucks. 1mbps DL and 0.15 mbps UL (that's bit not byte). what are you gonna accomplice or store with that speed here? not to mention the price and the limited bandwidth. a micro sd card is WAY faster and WAY cheaper in the long run here.although i understand why they are doing this, it's just not really gonna work in places where the internet infrastructures are still way behind. btw, where i live, we still struggle to get 3G speed. yet korea is already 4G LTE, and so close to 5G, so they got minimum every day average 3G LTE at least right? and i believe 3G for america and england"This on all those 3 1/2" floppies you can fit on 16GB or even 32GB
 
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