December 13, 2013
The Nexus 5 is the latest flagship from Google. Manufactured by LG, this "pure Android Experience" smartphone is all about high-end specs, excellent performance, an amazing screen, a brand new Android OS at a cheap price tag.
The Physical Factor
The first thing that strikes you about the Nexus 5 when
you lay your eyes on it, is how well designed it is. The screen size is 4.95
inches - but the phone has been designed in such a way that it never feels too
big to hold in one hand. Indeed, other smartphones of the same screen size
feels somewhat clumsy when you hold them in your hand, but not the Nexus 5 - it
simply feels fantastic and you hand even grow tired with prolonged use. The
Nexus 5 is beautiful without being extravagant, in fact the design approach is
to keep the phone minimalistic yet look aesthetic to the user's eyes. With its
straighter edges and sharper curves it looks better than its competitors.
The volume rocker is situated on the left, the power/lock
button and the SIM card slot is situated on the right side. The 3.5mm headphone
jack is situated on the top and the Micro-USB port is placed at the bottom
edge, flanked by two audio speakers. In all respects, the design is simply
fantastic, however we do have one complain: the speaker placement could have
been better - indeed the speaker placement almost feels like an after-thought.
The sound gets blocked when you are holding the device in your hands and the
audio quality while not too poor isn't too great either. Music buffs won’t be
pleased!!
The screen on the Nexus 5 is simply gorgeous! The Nexus 5
sports a 4.95-inch Corning Gorilla Glass 3 Display, with 1920x1080 pixel
resolution and 445 pixels per inch (ppi) density, which makes the Nexus 5
screen look absolutely great, both on paper as well as in use. The Nexus 5 has
got one of the best screens available on any device in the market - infact the
Nexus 5 scores only behind the HTC One in pixel density (which is 468 ppi) and
that too, only because the HTC One has got a smaller screen (4.7 inches) -
which makes the Nexus 5 stand far ahead of competitors like Galaxy S4 and the
iPhone 5s.
Now, while there have been mixed reports about the Nexus 5's screen
performance in day-to-day use, I personally found that there really isn't
anything to complain about: the colors are all sharp and well-defined and the
contrast is near perfect. The reports about the clors on the Nexus 5 looking a
bit washed out is simply not true - the Nexus 5 balances the screen colors well
and instead of the graphics being too sharp it is actualy quite well equalized
which makes the screen a delight for the eyes.
Under the Hood
The Nexus 5 is powered with the latest quad-core 2.26GHz
Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, and a 450 MHz Adrenno 330 core GPU graphics
processor. With this kind of specs, it is an absolute powerhouse and that is
evident while using the many features that come built-in with the device. Also,
apps and games donot stutter or lag in the least measure - a problem that has
historically been a major worry with graphics intensive games and movies,
especially on hi-res screens.
There is also a 2300 mAh battery, 2 GB RAM, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac dual band Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz and 5GHz) Bluetooth 4.0 LE, NFC and built-in wireless charging but like other Nexus phones before, it doesn't have a micro-SD slot.
There is also a 2300 mAh battery, 2 GB RAM, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac dual band Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz and 5GHz) Bluetooth 4.0 LE, NFC and built-in wireless charging but like other Nexus phones before, it doesn't have a micro-SD slot.
The Nexus 5 also features LTE, major improvement over the
previous Nexus devices that didn’t incorporate LTE features.
The All New KitKat – Too Yummy!!
This new Nexus flagship is all about the new Android
KitKat OS – the next generation of mobile operating systems. It incorporates
features that are more evolutionary rather than revolutionary – be it the all
new Dialer or the SMS/Hangout integrated app or the “Google Now” feature that
has literally become a talking point, most of these features are improvements
over their predecessors.
The “Google Now” feature, for instance, has been around
since JellyBean but in the KitKat it got a huge makeover – now the Google Now
feature is more capable – from making basic web searches to calling or sending
an SMS – everything can be done with voice commands (except unlocking the
device).
The Dialer feature is the best example of what the
manufacturers mean by deeper integration with Google Services. The dialer in
the Nexus 5 is capable of searching any number not only from your contacts but
from around the web - if a number is registered the dialer will automatically
search and display it for all calls regardless whether it is on your contact
list or not.
Camera and Video
The 8-megapixel rear camera is capable of taking as good,
if not better pictures as its rivals. There is a momentary lag between the
clicking the shutter button and the picture being taken – but that’s more of a
software problem rather than hardware problem, which Google can easily fix with
an update.
The camera features optical image stabilization and is
also good at low-light shots. Google has introduced a HDR+ mode that takes a
burst of pictures and some of the best results from the Nexus 5 camera were
taken using this feature.
Video quality is also good, if not mind-blowing. The
front facing camera is 1.3 megapixels which can also make decent video calls.
Verdict
The Nexus 5 would have been a winner in any price
category with the kind of features that it sports, but the fact that it is
priced at an extremely low price tag of $350 (without contract) makes it an
absolute winner. Generally this price range is reserved for mid-range devices
at best and entry-range devices at worst, and it is here that Nexus 5 delivers
its ace in the hole – prospective buyers will be hard pressed to choose another
device when the Nexus 5 comes with such a huge array of features which makes
totally comparable if not better than other high-end devices with price tags of
more than $600. Nexus 5 is truly a device that deserves the Nexus name tag.
Buy Now
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