Design
The Nexus 5 looks very similar to its predecessor, the Nexus 4. As the Nexus 4 was based on the LG Optimus G, the Nexus 5 is based on the LG G2. The two phones are pretty much the same size, despite the larger screen on the Nexus 5 – that’s down to the thinner bezels used on the new model. The Nexus 5 is also thinner and lighter than the Nexus 4, and should give the same surprisingly light feel as the iPhone 5.
The phone’s rear panel comes in black or white, and is made of a soft-touch plastic that feels grippy in the hand – a far cry for the overly slippery Nexus 4! The other notable features on the back are a horizontal Nexus logo and an oversized rear camera slot.
The Nexus 5 isn’t as beautiful as some other phones on the market, but it looks nice enough and highly practical.
Hardware
The Nexus 5 is a powerful phone, with a list of specifications that rival the best Android phones this year. It starts with a 1080p screen at just under 5″ along the diagonal. Inside, there’s a powerful Snapdragon 800 processor running at 2.26 GHz, backed with 2 GB of RAM and the aforementioned 16 or 32 GB of internal storage.
The Nexus 5 has a different camera to the LG G2 that it’s based on, opting to go with a lower megapixel count (8 vs 13) and adding optical image stabilisation – something that should make for better photos in low light.
The Nexus 5 is, as far as I know, the first Nexus phone sold in the UK to support LTE (a noticeable omission in the Nexus 4). As well as LTE, the phone also comes with dual-band WiFi, compatible with the fastest wireless networks (802.11ac). NFC and Bluetooth 4.0 are also on board, allowing easy compatibility with the growing number of fitness accessories and smartwatches.
The new phone also supports wireless charging of its 2300 mAh battery. While Google is sure to have prepared battery life improvements in the new OS – particularly when you’re using the aforementioned Bluetooth accessories – this seems to be the potential weak point of the Nexus 5, given that the battery isn’t replaceable. A good portable Nexus 5 charger could be the way forward here!
Finally, the Nexus 5 has a bunch of sensors – including some new ones for counting steps without affecting battery life – which should be made use of in more applications as developers produce them.
Software
The Nexus 5 is the reference platform for Android 4.4 KitKat. The OS upgrade is fairly moderate (as you’d guess from the fact it’s a point release, i.e. 4.4 rather than 5.0), but still includes enough cool stuff to make me excited.
The biggest change you’ll notice is that the notification bar at the top and soft buttons at the bottom are now translucent, allowing them to show content or fade away in full-screen applications. A new lighter weight of the Roboto font is in use on the phone, and typography has generally been improved.
Finally, the new launcher includes Google Now via a swipe to the left, somewhat similar to the search area in older versions of iOS. You can also just activate Google voice search by saying “OK Google”, just like you can do on the Motorola Moto X.
Search is also quite a bit smarter – for example, you can search within applications, so you could search for Apple Pie and get a recipe for it from one of your installed apps. The Dialer also now has search capabilities, like the Yellow Pages – you can search for pizza, and get a list of nearby pizza places and call them directly.
Google Hangouts has also been changed – it now works with both text messages and Google chat, keeping all of your chatting in one place. You can also more cleanly set a default text messaging application in Android 4.4, if you don’t like to use Hangouts.
Pricing and availability
The Nexus 5 is available now from the Google Play Store. As of this writing (November 1st), the black version in 16 and 32 GB varieties will ship by the 8th of November, while the white version is still in stock and will ship in the next 1-2 business days. Just to reiterate, the 16 GB version is £299, while the 32 GB version is £339 – not a bad premium for the extra space!
While the Nexus 5 is a little bit more expensive than the Nexus 4, it’s still about half the sim-free cost of a typical high-end Android phone like the Galaxy Note 3, Xperia Z1 or LG G2. That makes it ideal for customers on sim-free mobile networks like giffgaff, as the phone is cheap enough that you needn’t be locked into an expensive contract for two years.
Conclusion
So there we have it – the Google Nexus 5! We’ll be looking at some of the accessories already for the phone in our next article; until then have a look at our Nexus 5 accessories page! Thanks for checking out the article and have a good weekend!