A Nexus with power, potential, and the right price
The good: The Google Nexus 5 is the first Nexus introduced with LTE (finally), has a sleek and solid build and an excellent price, and makes crystal-clear calls. Integration of Google Now is deep and wide.
The bad: The Nexus 5's screen is dimmer than its competitors' and its camera struggles under auto settings. While an important OS update, Android 4.4 KitKat is more conceptual than feature-rich.
The bottom line: Strong performance, high-end specs, and an ultra-affordable price make the Google Nexus 5 not just the best unlocked phone on the market, but the best Nexus phone by far.
Finally, we have an Android handset that deserves the Nexus name. The Nexus 5 is fast, gorgeous, and stocked with features (including LTE) and it is the device for showing the true power of the Google universe and the Android operating system. And, at $349 (16GB) or $399 (32GB) at the Play Store -- about $250 less than other top-tier flagship smartphones -- it's a great deal whether you're on a budget or not (and whether you're an Android fan or not).
Yes, with a Snapdragon 800 processor and a 1080p touch screen, there's a lot to like about the Nexus 5 even if you never get past the main menu. But it's really the Android 4.4 KitKat operating system that we're here to see. Though not long on flashy new features, KitKat brings an ever deeper integration with Google's expanding array of services and a promise to end the age-old scourge of Android fragmentation.
Still, at that price, sometimes it makes it difficult to judge the Nexus -- is it a top-tier phone for cheap, or a midrange device that's bizarrely souped up with great innards? Do its variable camera and relatively dim screen get a pass because it's a $400 handset after all, or should I be expecting better from a Google flagship? And it is a flagship, much more so than the Nexus 4 and even the Galaxy Nexus were, but pinning it down further is difficult.
However you want to consider it, one thing's for certain: the phone's specs are indeed high-end, and its reliable performance further bolsters its appeal, despite its flaws. For what it's worth, the Nexus 5 is the best unlocked phone on the market.
Carrier and availability
Before I get started, I want to mention that you can get the Nexus 5 from carriers, in addition to the Play Store. Sprint and T-Mobile will carry it, with the former selling it for $49.99 on contract. The device will work on AT&T's network as well, but unfortunately, Verizon users will be left out of the Nexus party.
Design: Still a looker
Let's get physical
Once again, Google's latest Nexus retains a familiar minimalistic aesthetic. However, with its straighter edges and sharper curves, it looks more stately and austere than its predecessor. For instance, instead of the display sloping downward at its sides (as if melting right off) like before, it cuts off sharply at the edges.
Once again, Google's latest Nexus retains a familiar minimalistic aesthetic. However, with its straighter edges and sharper curves, it looks more stately and austere than its predecessor. For instance, instead of the display sloping downward at its sides (as if melting right off) like before, it cuts off sharply at the edges.
The device measures 5.43 inches tall and 2.72 inches wide. It's thinner and lighter than the prior model, at 0.34 inches thick and 4.59 ounces. Comfortable to hold, the Nexus 5 feels sturdy and dense in the hand. When it's facing up from a table, its curved back makes it easier to grab off the surface, like the HTC One.
| Google Nexus 5 | Samsung Galaxy S4 | HTC One | Apple iPhone 5S | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Length in inches | 5.43 | 5.37 | 5.41 | 4.87 |
| Width in inches | 2.72 | 2.75 | 2.69 | 2.31 |
| Depth in inches | 0.34 | 0.31 | 0.37 | 0.3 |
| Weight in ounces | 4.59 | 4.59 | 5.04 | 3.95 |
On the left is a narrow volume rocker and up top is a 3.5mm headphone jack. The right edge houses a sleep/power button and the SIM card slot. The physical control keys are made out of ceramic, and unlike the previous model, they don't have soft, rounded edges. As small as they are, they feel sharp when you press them. This isn't a huge issue, but it was one of the first things I noticed. At the bottom edge, you'll find a Micro-USB port flanked by two audio speakers.
Similarly to the Nexus 7 tablet, the handset displays a simple vertically lined Nexus logo, and a subtle LG logo on the back. Subdued and restrained, the Nexus 5 has done away with the lustrous, tile-patterned back that we saw previously, and replaced it with a matte material.
The change is no head-turner, and the black version acquires a surprising amount of fingerprints. But I'm still partial to this back side from a practical standpoint. As stylish as the Nexus 4 was, its rear glass panel was too fragile; in fact, two of our own review units cracked quite easily.
Black, white, and matte all over.
Lean, mean screen machine?
Sporting the biggest screen yet in relation to past Nexuses, the phone has a 4.95-inch Corning Gorilla Glass 3 display. Keeping up with its competitors like the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One, the Nexus 5's touch screen has a 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution and 445ppi.
Sporting the biggest screen yet in relation to past Nexuses, the phone has a 4.95-inch Corning Gorilla Glass 3 display. Keeping up with its competitors like the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One, the Nexus 5's touch screen has a 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution and 445ppi.
| Google Nexus 5 | Samsung Galaxy S4 | HTC One | Apple iPhone 5S | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screen size | 4.95-inch full HD IPS | 5-inch Super AMOLED | 4.7-inch LCD | 4-inch Retina Display |
| Resolution | 1,920x1,080 pixels | 1,920x1,080 pixels | 1,920x1,080 pixels | 1,136x640 pixels |
| Pixels per inch | 445ppi | 441ppi | 468ppi | 326 ppi |
On paper, those numbers should (and don't get me wrong, they do) make the screen look great. But when you start comparing the Nexus 5 side by side with other flagships, things do get interesting.
In a room with all the lights turned off, I lined up the device alongside the Galaxy GS4, HTC One, and Apple iPhone 5S. With their displays on maximum brightness, I viewed the same swatch of white on each of their screens. Despite its small size, the iPhone 5S was the purest and brightest, with the One coming in at a close second. The Nexus 5, however, looked a little hazier in comparison. Meanwhile, the white swatch on the GS4 appeared strikingly blue, as is expected with AMOLED screens.
On the other hand, the GS4 won by miles in the black swatch test. Its screen had the deepest and darkest shade (or "none more black," as Nigel Tufnel would say), followed by the iPhone and Nexus, which both looked paler. The One lost this round, with an almost subtly purple shade of black.
The device sports 4.95 inches of LCD glory, but how does it stack up against the competition?
As for overall color quality in images and video, that depends on your preference. You may like the vibrant saturation and high contrast of the GS4's hues, but if you're a stickler for accuracy, the One and the iPhone are top-notch. The Nexus also displayed colors that were true to life, but not as vividly as the others. In addition, when studying the handsets from different vantage points, I noticed that the Nexus' display looked as if it had a gray glaze on top of it, which made it appear paler than the others.
I must reiterate, however, that for general use, the phone's screen is still excellent. Its drawbacks are only apparent when you have other flagship devices on hand to compare it with. The average consumer most likely won't have that luxury, and so won't see all these nuances of the Nexus 5's screen.
If you consider the everyday experience, the display is still great; it's sensitive, and typing with SwiftKey was accurate and ultraresponsive to the touch. Along with app icons and text, HD videos were smooth and crisp, and default KitKat wallpapers looked razor-sharp.
Hardware and key components: Souped up with high-end specs
The handset is powered by a quad-core 2.26GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor (the same blazingly fast CPU seen in the LG G2 and Samsung Galaxy Note 3), and a 450MHz Adreno 330 GPU. With these specs, the Nexus 5 is a powerhouse, especially when you consider that both the Galaxy GS4 and HTC One are speed demons themselves, and run on Snapdragon 600 processors.
Included are a 2,300mAh battery, 2GB of RAM, and support for 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz and 5GHz) dual-band Wi-Fi. It also has Bluetooth 4.0 LE, NFC, and built-in wireless charging. It doesn't have a microSD card slot to expand the memory.
Software features: Break me off a piece of that KitKat
Of course, a Nexus just wouldn't be a Nexus without it running the latest edition of Android. With high hopes of limiting fragmentation and increasing the number of devices compatible with Android 4.4 KitKat, Google slimmed down the OS to a 512MB memory profile. To put that in perspective, that's 16 percent less memory than the previous version of the OS, Jelly Bean.
The update isn't an overhaul by any means, but there are notable changes. Below I highlight three interesting ones for consumers, though Google threw in goodies for developers too, like screen recording and a wireless-printing framework.
The Nexus 5's 8MP camera now has optical image stabilization and HDR+ shooting.
Other than that, not much has changed. With both cameras, users will get auto and touch focus, a 3.9x digital zoom, geotagging, an exposure meter, a timer, five white balances, and four scene modes. The rear-facing camera also has flash and can carry out both panoramic and photosphere shooting.
Picture and video quality
The camera operates swiftly; it took no time at all to adjust for focus, or to ready itself for another shot after I clicked the shutter. As expected, HDR+ photos take longer to process, but you don't have to wait around very much.
The camera operates swiftly; it took no time at all to adjust for focus, or to ready itself for another shot after I clicked the shutter. As expected, HDR+ photos take longer to process, but you don't have to wait around very much.
OIS also worked well. I took a few shots while walking down the sidewalk. I tried to keep my hand as steady as possible while still in motion, and the majority of photos I captured were in focus, though there were one or two that came out blurry. I felt that LG G2's OIS was more consistent and was able to handle more movement than the Nexus 5's.
Photo quality was great, but it didn't particularly blow me away. For the most part, objects were sharp and in focus, and had well-defined edges. Objects taken up close also showed a lot of detail. Colors did tend to look washed out, but HDR+ shooting really improved how well the hues popped out. For more photos taken on the Nexus 5, check out the photos and slideshow below. Be sure to click on the photos to see them at their full resolution.
In this HDR+ photo, high and low exposure allow both the sun in the sky and the shadows in the grass to be visible.
This shot of a piece of lace taken up close with indoor lighting is detailed, but its edges are blurry.
In our standard studio shot, the white background is accurate, and the objects look sharp.
Video quality was also satisfactory, but again, footage wasn't overly impressive. Recording in 1080p HD yielded crisp footage, and the camera quickly adjusted to changes in lighting. However, there was a not-so-subtle "pulsating" effect when the lens refocused itself, which was distracting. Nearby audio also picked up well, with background noises leveled appropriately.
Editing options in Gallery
The Gallery app, where a bulk of the 5's native editing options are located, received some tweaks too. In addition to the nine Instagram-esque filters already included, you can now make your own "filter" by creating and saving your favorite presets. Filters are also now applied with a neat "washing over" effect across the photo.
The Gallery app, where a bulk of the 5's native editing options are located, received some tweaks too. In addition to the nine Instagram-esque filters already included, you can now make your own "filter" by creating and saving your favorite presets. Filters are also now applied with a neat "washing over" effect across the photo.
A few frames have been deleted, and now they have labels like Scratchy and Easel instead of being numbered (I wish I could have been in on that meeting). There are three new editing effects: posterize, negative, and graduated, which lets you adjust brightness, saturation, and contrast levels with a movable leveler.
The gallery now lets you customize your own preset filters (left) and a graduated editing tool has been added (right).
Performance: Reliable and fast
Call quality
I tested the Nexus 5 in our San Francisco offices using an AT&T SIM card and call quality was impressive. Voices didn't just sound adequately loud (though that was a plus too), but were also clear, with a wide range of depth. It sounded as if I were listening in from a landline, and while I could hear a miniscule amount of static, it was rare.
I tested the Nexus 5 in our San Francisco offices using an AT&T SIM card and call quality was impressive. Voices didn't just sound adequately loud (though that was a plus too), but were also clear, with a wide range of depth. It sounded as if I were listening in from a landline, and while I could hear a miniscule amount of static, it was rare.
My calling partner also commented that I sounded crisp too, and it was some of the best audio quality he's heard from a phone running on AT&T's cell network. When I moved outdoors, call quality remained consistently strong. Calls didn't drop, I didn't hear any extraneous buzzing or noise, and audio didn't cut in and out. Listening in on speaker yielded the same high results, with the dual speakers at the bottom giving voices a wider, fuller sound.
Now with LTE
One of the biggest issues I had with the Nexus 4 was the fact that it didn't have LTE capabilities. Now before anyone gets his or her feathers ruffled up again, hear me out (and don't worry, this ends well). Not having LTE isn't a big deal if you're from outside the US, but here, the network is more widespread and robust. When it comes to highly anticipated, top-tier devices like the Nexus at least, LTE is a standard feature, and the lack of it was a letdown.
One of the biggest issues I had with the Nexus 4 was the fact that it didn't have LTE capabilities. Now before anyone gets his or her feathers ruffled up again, hear me out (and don't worry, this ends well). Not having LTE isn't a big deal if you're from outside the US, but here, the network is more widespread and robust. When it comes to highly anticipated, top-tier devices like the Nexus at least, LTE is a standard feature, and the lack of it was a letdown.
That's why it's great to see the Nexus 5 with LTE, albeit overdue. While individual data performance depends on several changing and independent variables, I used AT&T's 4G LTE network in San Francisco. Connection was generally strong and consistent. On average, The New York Times', and ESPN's mobile site loaded in 4 seconds. Their full desktop sites loaded in 6, 10, and 5 seconds respectively. I tested Ookla's Speedtest.net app at different times of day. It showed an average 21.29Mbps down and 12.29Mbps up. The 37.61MB game Temple Run 2 downloaded and installed in an impressive 23 seconds.
| Google Nexus 5 | Performance testing |
|---|---|
| Average 4G LTE download speed | 21.29Mbps |
| Average 4G LTE upload speed | 12.29Mbps |
| App download (Temple Run 2) | 37.61MB in 23 seconds |
| mobile site load | 4 seconds |
| desktop site load | 6 seconds |
| Restart time | 24 seconds |
| Camera boot time | 2.41 seconds |
Processing power
Underneath this device's hood is a 2.6GHz Snapdragon 800 processor. The handset carried out basic but necessary tasks easily -- unlocking the screen, calling up the keyboard, and returning to the home pages were all executed with ease. On average, it took the handset 24 seconds to shut down and power up, and 2.41 seconds for the camera to launch.
Underneath this device's hood is a 2.6GHz Snapdragon 800 processor. The handset carried out basic but necessary tasks easily -- unlocking the screen, calling up the keyboard, and returning to the home pages were all executed with ease. On average, it took the handset 24 seconds to shut down and power up, and 2.41 seconds for the camera to launch.
Even for not-so-basic tasks, like playing the graphics-intensive game Riptide GP 2, frame rates were high and smooth, and the splash-back animation of the water looked brisk and clear. When I ran the 3DMark bench test, the phone scored 17,966. In comparison the GS4 scored 10,511, the HTC One scored 10,246, and the iPhone 5S scored 13,948.
Battery life
With Wi-Fi turned off and LTE activated, the Nexus 5's 2,300mAh nonremovable battery has a reported talk time of up to 17 hours. When both are activated, Google says, the device lasts 300 hours on standby. Internet tests reportedly yielded 8.5 hours on Wi-Fi and 7 hours on LTE.
With Wi-Fi turned off and LTE activated, the Nexus 5's 2,300mAh nonremovable battery has a reported talk time of up to 17 hours. When both are activated, Google says, the device lasts 300 hours on standby. Internet tests reportedly yielded 8.5 hours on Wi-Fi and 7 hours on LTE.
While our handset is still undergoing battery testing, preliminary observations show that with brightness levels cranked all the way up, the phone streamed an HD video on LTE for approximately 20 minutes and lost 13 percent of its battery life.
A 2,300mAh nonremovable battery inside keeps the phone chugging along.
To give you an idea of how long the Nexus 5 would need to last in order for it to keep up with its competitors, it and the HTC One have the same size battery, with the latter lasting about 9.5 hours of continuous video playback. The GS4 has a slightly more powerful (and removable!) 2,600mAh battery that lasted 10.5 hours on average. Be sure to check back with this review soon when we've updated it with our official scores.
According to FCC radiation measurements, the device has an in-ear SAR level of 0.96W/kg.
Conclusion: Not just for enthusiasts
For all the brouhaha that surrounds the Google Nexus 5, know that the device isn't perfect. Its crisp 1080p display isn't as bright as those of other high-end handsets on the market, its 8-megapixel camera can capture lackluster photos and videos, and as it turns out, KitKat doesn't bring a lot of tangible feature sweets.
But if we take a step back, we realize that to even compare this $400 phone to those that cost upward of $650 unlocked (like the Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One, and Apple iPhone 5S) speaks volumes about the Nexus 5's massive appeal and affordability. Performance is solid and it has the big-boy specs that everyone expects.
That includes a Snapdragon 800 processor that runs smoothly, a 4.95-inch screen that looks sharp, and data capabilities that connect to LTE. Oh, right, and it makes calls -- really clear calls. What's more, the end-of-fragmenting promise that KitKat brings is intoxicating and long overdue.
With all this in in its box, it's easy to see why the brouhaha isn't limited to Android diehards anymore. Instead, the Nexus 5 extends the allure of the Nexus brand to anyone simply looking for an excellent yet inexpensive handset.
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